John Muir’s High Altar

Posted on October 3, 2016 1 Comment

“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Many of the older Scots claim that they can communicate spiritually with deceased family members and friends by a process they call “kything.” If this is so, I am guessing that John Muir recently did the Scottish version of the “dance of joy” in his heavenly habitation (“God And The Angels Be True”).

Muir believed that Yosemite’s Half Dome was a high altar, appropriately situated at the east end of what he regarded as a natural cathedral, seven miles long by one mile wide. Altars are natural or man-made shrines that have been consecrated by the hearts of men for the purpose of religious or spiritual ceremonies or events. Muir expressed deep concern that many have forfeited their God-given gift of spiritual celebrations at these altars. Although regular church attendance in the US may be declining, for those who make the 5,000 ft. climb up to the top of Half Dome, it is not uncommon for them to triumphantly raise their arms.

With this being so, Mark Salvestrin recently committed a personal rite of sanctification by simply raising his hands (and a book) to the heavens. The book was inspired by John Muir and written by over 700 very curious and very courageous high school students. In the letter previously posted he wrote:

“Some of the concepts we learned and the ideas we shared took shape as threads that would be intricately woven into the fabric of my life.”

Following John Muir (and a plethora of mentors) Mark has immersed himself in Nature, evinced by the recent pilgrimage that he and his wife made to the top of Half Dome. Two weeks later, they doubled up with a hike to the top of El Capitan. The views from “El Cap” are as impressive as those from Half Dome and can be reached without experiencing “Disney Land” throngs of people crowding the trails.

My best guess is that Mark chaperoned at least 10 Biodesign trips. He will deny it but, in a splendid irony, the book he is offering to the cosmos would not have been possible without his loving support and guidance.

Furthermore, what he did not mention was that he, and over 700 other students, added threads that were woven into the fabric of the author’s life. Soul building was part of what we were about, along with accepting Muir’s challenge to get as close to the heart of Nature as we could.

The photo of Mark holding up a summary of 24 years of wilderness adventures gave me goose bumps. None of the adventures would likely have happened without a very perceptive girl asking a simple yet profound question. As Muir feared, I could have missed over 30 celebrations at his High Altar and spent my career dissecting fetal pigs.

It is my sincere wish that some of the lessons that Mark and I and hundreds of others experienced on our wilderness excursions, will be shared to lift the spirits and gladden the hearts of readers.

Thanks, Mark.

Lowell H. Young
Author: Biodesign Out For A Walk

[email protected]

Yosemite—Rainbows and God’s Excesses

Posted on October 5, 2015 Leave a Comment

The Excesses of God

Is it not by his high superfluousness we know
Our God? For to equal a need
Is natural, animal, mineral: but to fling
Rainbows over the rain
And beauty above the moon, and secret rainbows
On the domes of deep sea-shells…
- Robinson Jeffers

In his wonderful poem, “Excesses of God,” Robinson Jeffers accuses God of being superfluous: [Lavish, superabundant, over-the-top.] I am upping the ante by suggesting that He can be a flamboyant showoff. I am not challenging God, but if a bolt of lightning strikes me, it will prove my point. How else can we explain what happened at Yosemite Valley on Wednesday, 9-30-15. Yosemite NP was celebrating the 125^th anniversary of becoming a National Park. I am sure that rangers carefully planned the event, however, what they could not plan was the amazing and mysterious appearance of a double rainbow that arched over Yosemite Valley.

Scientists, secular humanists, skeptics and human Eeyores will dismiss the event as a spiritless, “random act” involving weather and light refraction. Really? Science is supposed to be based on facts and predictable results, neither of which applied in this situation. Common sense dictates that there were zero odds that could allow for the event to occur at the perfect time. To prove this, how many non-believers (or believers) would have bet money that the event would happen? The truth is that that the double rainbow was a splendid synchronicity, with no known causation.

John Muir considered Yosemite Valley as a natural cathedral. The millions of transcending experiences that Yosemite has generated bear witness to the wisdom of his contention. These events occur when people temporarily escape human limitations and transcend to higher levels of spiritual awareness. With this being so, imagine what park rangers (and visitors) must have felt, standing amidst Yosemite’s multiple natural iconic wonders, celebrating their 125^th anniversary, when a brilliant double rainbow arched above them. It reminded me of a similar event that occurred in the Biodesign Class of 1980.

In the late 1970s, several successive Biodesign classes experienced beautiful rainbows on their Yosemite trip. It led me to become a little smug. Foolishly, I predicted to the class of ’80 that they would see a rainbow. However, the first two days were uneventful and by the third day a few of the guys began to heckle me about my boastful prediction. By the morning of day 5, our last full day there, I resigned myself that I would have to “eat crow” and apologize for my excessive pridefulness. I decided to wait until our evening class session and accept my well-deserved ribbing.

Excerpt: Biodesign Out For A Walk, chap. 24, Synchronicity and God:

After lunch, this class elected to go out into the nearby meadow and play a game that was a blend of rugby and human destruction-derby. I watched for a few minutes, but when girls began launching their bodies into the scrum, I left. I had much to do, cleaning and storing all of the kitchen equipment in preparation for a morning departure. As I worked, I noticed the increasing cloud cover, but smiled confidently. We were not on the Dome or on the trail so it was of little concern. About 40 minutes later, however, I heard a bloodcurdling yell from the meadow.

Denise screamed, “Mr. Young, come quick!”

I pictured a broken arm or leg or maybe worse. Hurriedly, I dried my hands and raced up the trail toward the meadow. Denise met me halfway, grabbed my arm, and dragged me along. When we reached the meadow, no one was huddling over an injured student; instead, all were standing and staring skyward in total silence. One of the most beautiful rainbows that I had ever seen arched across the sky, with Half Dome perfectly positioned below the arc. I joined the silence and was stunned and embarrassed at the same time. After a few minutes, one of the hecklers edged over and whispered, “OK, how’d you know?”

I shook my head in denial and said, “I didn’t, and I won’t make that mistake again.”

William Wordsworth wrote:

“My heart leaps up when I behold a rainbow in the sky…”

I am certain that many hearts leaped up at Yosemite’s 125^-year anniversary celebration. I am also quite sure that Robinson Jeffers, William Wordsworth and John Muir would agree that the beautiful double rainbow was a miraculous, ephemeral signature of God, claiming responsibility for creating one of the most beautiful valleys on planet Earth. His timing simply could not have been more perfect!

Note:

I don’t know if the current YNP Superintendent saw the double rainbow or what he thought about it. I do know that the entire Class of ’80 stood rapt (and wrapped) in awe and silent wonder. No one spoke. Instead, after a few minutes, the students quietly dispersed into The Valley, perhaps to contemplate what they had just witnessed. People will draw their own conclusions, however, I am convinced that, especially under the circumstances, I had seen a miracle.

Lowell H. Young
Author: Biodesign Out For A Walk

www.facebook.com/biodesignoutforawalk
www.biodesignoutforawalk.com
www.linkedin.com/LowellYoung
www.goodreads.com/BiodesignOutForAWalk

A Most Unusual Biodesign Christmas Card

Posted on December 14, 2014 Leave a Comment

“If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.” - Meister Eckhart

“And even as each one of you stands alone in God’s knowledge, so must each one of you be alone in his knowledge of God and in his understanding of the earth.”- Kahlil Gibran

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2T1csHUgF4

I was not aware of the hymn, “How Great Thou Art,” before a Fb friend recently shared it on my “home page.” I was not prepared for the soul-stirring combination of lyrics, melody and Carrie Underwood’s dazzling talent. However, it wouldn’t have mattered if I had known about it when I was still teaching because the lyrics would not have been appropriate to share in a public school. The Biodesign Facebook page and websites, however, are not constrained by the laws regarding the separation of church and state and we are free to exercise our “illimitable freedom of the human mind.” (Galileo would say, “Good luck with that!”) 😉

The Biodesign Class began as a revolutionary approach to learning advanced biology. Lacking any model to follow, the class was originally called “Bio-X “ (as in Xperimental). Given the current pressures on education, it is not likely another experiment like this will occur.

We experimented with many learning techniques and two interrelated discoveries proved to be immensely important in the evolution of the class. One, thanks to Black Elk, was to conduct all meetings in a circle. Sitting in a circle elevated student responsibility and reduced my role as the “teacher.” It also greatly enhanced communication as everyone could see each other’s face. The other was a technique we called, “minimal philosophy.” Whenever we encountered a new word or phrase that needed clarification, we “minimalized” it. Any student could express his/her one or two-word take on it. Either a student at his/her left or right would follow in turn until the word was back to the beginning. It was a little like the “Telephone Game,” however, the process was overt and the collective definition included feeling-tone, nuance and ethos and was often better than that of Webster or Roget.

“How Great Thou Art” is a poem of gratefulness written by Carl Gustav Boberg (1859–1940) in Sweden in 1885. The melody is a Swedish folk song, which was translated into an English hymn of praise by British missionary Stuart K. Hine. Carrie Underwood has publicly avowed that her mission in life is to share God’s love. For her, performing the song becomes a personal act of praise and adoration.

The hymn, “How Great Thou Art,” provides a perfect segue to using “minimal philosophy” to distill the essence of some of the world’s great people. It was actually a lot of fun to put together.

Socrates: How philosophical Thou art.
Plato: How truthful, beautiful and good Thou art.
St. Francis: How wonderful Thou animals art.
Meister Eckhart: How mystical Thou art.
Galileo and Isaac Newton: How scientific Thou art.
Da Vinci: How mechanical Thou art.
Michelangelo: How artistic Thou art.
Shakespeare: How dramatic Thou art.
Robert Burns: How poetic Thou art.
RW Emerson: How metaphorical Thou art.
Henry Thoreau: How transcendental Thou art.
Walt Whitman: How miraculous Thou art.
Gregor Mendel: How genetic Thou art.
John Muir: How glorious Thou art.
O. Henry: How ironic Thou art.
Black Elk: Thou art a circle with no beginning or end.
Carl Jung: How synchronistic Thou art.
Helen Keller: Thou art greater than man can see or hear.
Loren Eiseley: How mysterious Thou art.
Mother Teresa: How compassionate Thou art.
Charles Schultz: How funny Thou art.
Dr. Martin Luther King: How non-violent Thou art.

All of these people have several things in common. They shared a deep sense of spirituality and saw beyond the physical, mental and material world. Each was a visionary who made a huge contribution to society by eclipsing his/her self-limiting-self-serving ego. Although, I may not be worthy of untying their shoes, it gives me goosebumps when I contemplate how profoundly each one of them enriched my life by the simple expediency of going for a spiritual walk with me.

How Great Thou Art, was voted the United Kingdom’s favorite hymn by BBC’s Songs of Praise and according to many scholars and musicologists, follows only “Amazing Grace” on the list of the world’s all-time favorite hymns.

Lowell H. Young, Author: Biodesign Out For A Walk

Author Lowell Harrison Young Appears On The Authors Show To Discuss “Biodesign Out For A Walk”

Posted on June 6, 2014 Leave a Comment

Young’s book relates how a group of disconnected souls connected and discovered the real meaning of life in a high school class called Biodesign.

[Wilmington, NC June 3, 2014] Author Lowell Harrison Young appeared on The Author Show recently to discuss his latest release, ‘Biodesign Out For A Walk’.

A biology class does not normally serve to provide the meaning of life. But in the case of Lowell Harrison Young’s students, an advanced biology class provided the framework to discover the meaning of life.

Today’s typical high school students are bored. They are disinterested and forced to memorize rote facts that often have no relevance or meaning to their own lives. Technology has forced them to disconnect from Nature and from each other. However, in Young’s Biodesign class, students transcended all of that and went from dissecting fetal pigs to wilderness revelations. They escaped from four drab walls and entered a wilderness classroom under the stars. They went from boredom to mysteries, from profane hallway chatter to discussing the wisdom of Nature’s designs. They went from memorization of minutiae to probing the illimitable freedom of their minds. And finally, they connected with Nature, and with each other, to discover the real meaning of life.

“I wrote Biodesign Out For A Walk in hopes that it will resuscitate readers’s waning sense of wonder, mystery and love of life,” Young stated. “The work is a collection of stories of curious high school biology students who embarked on what Joseph Campbell described as ‘the soul’s high adventure.’ It is a thrilling example of what young minds can do when they are challenged to transcend to higher levels of consciousness, compassion and connectedness.”

‘Biodesign Out For A Walk has received rave reviews and has garnered 16 5-star reviews on Amazon. The book is rated 4.9 out of 5 stars. One reviewer stated, “What Lowell Young has crafted in these pages-and more than that, the experience he created with students for 24 years-is an essential exploration for any reader with an equal passion for tales of authentic education and the natural world. If you find yourself moved to tears, laughter and deeper questions (sometimes in the same chapter) then you’ll have joined the caravan of over 700 of his Biodesign students. No doubt he’s a fitting heir to the work of Muir, Thoreau, Eiseley, and Darwin, and deserves a comfortable place in that good company.”

Lowell Harrison Young is available for media interviews and can be reached using the information below or by email at [email protected].

‘Biodesign Out For A Walk’ is available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. More information is available at Young’s website at http://www.BiodesignOutForAWalk.com.

About Lowell Harrison Young:

Lowell Young and his wife, Christie, have lived in California’s Napa Valley for over 40 years. Mr. Young taught high school biology for nearly 38 years before he retired. He holds a Masters’ Degree in the art of teaching biology.

The class that evolved into Biodesign was a collaborative, creative project where the roles of teacher and student were often reversed. It was well known by the students that although Mr. Young represented the physical nature of the class, Christie’s silent spiritual guidance was often felt in their classroom circles as well as along the many miles of trails they walked. The Biodesign class may be the only one of its kind taught in a public high school in the country.

Contact:

Lowell Harrison Young
http://www.biodesignoutforawalk.com
[email protected]
- See more at: http://www.freepublicitygroup.com/release_lowell_young_mar114.html

Biodesign and Amazing Grace

Posted on March 19, 2014 Leave a Comment

http://faithtap.com/558/amazing-grace-played-on-pan-flute/#t/558/

Excerpt: Biodesign Out For A Walk, Chap. 28, “Amazing Faith.”

We were singing out of our songbooks, and, as was the custom, students were invited to make selections that they deemed appropriate. I was quietly strumming my guitar, waiting for the next song selection when someone suggested, “Amazing

Grace.” Dianna was at my left, and she leaned over and quietly said, “I

hate that song.”

“Amazing Grace” may be the quintessential musical mystery and irony. Love it or despise it, its enigmatic blend of melody and lyrics has made it the most widely known song on planet Earth. It has been translated into over 200 languages, a number that is probably too conservative. However, setting language apart, the melody often has a haunting, beguiling and soothing affect on listeners. Interestingly, the effects can be highly magnified when it is played on an oboe, pan flute or bagpipes. The song is played frequently in churches, at weddings, funerals and military memorial services.

Understandably, a song with such universal power and charisma could not exist without detractors. Agnostics often find it bothersome; Secular humanists and atheists typically reject it more viscerally. The song has been banned, either tacitly or overtly, from public performances in atheist countries and or communities. A growing number of public el/hi, college and universities, in the US have, removed the song from their “politically correct” list of songs that choirs can perform.

However, none of this rhetoric matters a whit to the families and loved ones who are standing in tears next to a casket of a soldier, police officer or fireman who died in the service of his fellow man. As terrible as the pain may be, there is often something deeply comforting when the notes of “Amazing Grace” groan out of a set of bagpipes.

I wept when I watched Doring’s video. Not 0nly because of the beauty and simplicity, but because our children are being taught they are soul-less, random accidents who are not appreciably different from chimpanzees. I don’t recall seeing a chimp fashion a pan flute or play a soul-stirring song. Really sad!