Henry David Thoreau: Who Are We? Where Are We?

Posted on May 18, 2015 Leave a Comment

“Down how many roads among he stars must propel himself in search of the final secret? The journey is difficult, immense, at times impossible, yet that will not deter some of us from attempting it.” – Loren Eiseley

At 5,270 ft. elevation, Mt Katahdin (Maine) is not usually considered a challenging hike. Even so, Henry Thoreau had a terrifying encounter with himself.

“I stand in awe of my body, this matter to which I am bound has become so strange to me. I fear not spirits, ghosts, of which I am one, — that my body might, — but I fear bodies, I tremble to meet them. What is this Titan that has possession of me? Talk of mysteries! — Think of our life in nature, — daily to be shown matter, to come in contact with it, — rocks, trees, wind on our cheeks! The solid earth! the actual world! the common sense! Contact! Contact! Who are we? where are we?”

So, we don’t know where we came from, where we are in the universe, or where we are headed, which sounds like a perfect definition of “wilderness.”

Scientists have decided that the Earth belongs to the spiraling Milky Way Galaxy, which contains an estimated 100 billion stars. The galaxy is drifting through mostly “nothing.” The Earth also belongs to a solar system that is drifting through the Milky Way Galaxy. The Earth orbits around the Sun at 67,000 miles per hour; it has a rotational velocity at the equator of 1,040 miles per hour and the rotational velocity at the poles is 1 per day. The size and mass of the Earth determines our atmosphere and the size and distance of the Moon between Earth and Sun affects tides and seasons. All of this means that life on Earth is nothing less than the result of a myriad of miracles against unfathomable odds.

It also means that the entire universe, outside of the Earth’s atmosphere, appears to be incompatible with life as we understand it. This does not mean, however, that there are not “beings,” powers or energy manifestations that could be millions of years ahead of our knowledge and technology. In fact, it is ludicrous for us to think that we are anything more than “Stone Age” creatures in the universal community. Two tragic examples of this are how we treat our environment and how we treat our fellow man.

When our first-born was two years old, we had a nightly ritual. After dinner, her mother bathed, dried, powdered her and put into her “sleeper.” Then she would run to the living room, launch her little body into my arms and with great enthusiasm say, “Show me the stars, Daddy.” We lived in a semi-rural area where urban lights did not reduce the stars’ brilliance. We would stand for a few seconds rapt in awe and adoration. Without exception, her little face would radiate joy as she intuitively absorbed the beauty and mystery of the universe. And then she would giggle and say; “Let’s sing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.”I was very young then, and would later experience many wonders, even natural miracles, however, those nightly encounters with my daughter and the unfathomable cosmos, eventually came to rank among the most sacred events in my life.

Thoreau spoke of “contact” and, if only for a few precious moments, we were in contact with both Creator and creation.

Lowell H. Young
Author: Biodesign Out For A Walk

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Forty Year Circle Of Love

Posted on May 11, 2015 Leave a Comment

Contrary to what “modern” scientists claim, miracles can and do still happen.

Although it was marvelous, it was not a surprise to see Wayne post, “Love that musing,” about Sharka’s last post. In fact, I would also not be surprised if he found her words and photo spine tingling, soul-touching and heartwarming. After all, 40 years ago this spring, Wayne was a sophomore at St. Helena High School and he had just devoured Richard Bach’s powerful little book, “Jonathan Livingston Seagull.” Ironically, Bach’s “New-Age Spirituality” resonated mysteriously with the ancient wisdom of Wayne’s Native American, Choctaw heritage. What became a monumental turning point in his life evolved from the simple acceptance of Bach’s challenge:

“Don’t believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is limitation. Look with your understanding. Find out what you already know and you will see the way to fly.” ― Richard Bach

The hybridization of beliefs led Wayne to enroll in a fledgling, experimental advanced biology class called Biodesign. This eventually led him to a beach in Mendocino Ca. where he underwent a spiritual awakening that can only be described as a modern miracle. The event not only radically changed his life, but mine as well and the evolution of the Biodesign Class.

Understandably, he wanted to share his miracle with others and so he went on to become an ordained priest and dedicated his life to serving the spiritual needs of others. It is not hyperbole to say that his life and work have touched the minds, hearts and souls of many thousands of people around the world, and include planting seeds of love and laughter in India. His latest calling is ministering to people whose lives have been spiritually ravaged by alcohol and substance abuse.

As a biology teacher, trained in “traditional methods and materials of biology,” the word “miracle” was not in my lexicon. Wayne’s spiritual encounter was a “wake-up-call” that perhaps I was missing some of the most important lessons of biology.

“ For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” Mark: 8:36, KJV

Neither one of us knew it at the time, but Wayne’s epiphany was a catalyst for me to add the unprecedented “spiritual dimension” to the Biodesign Class. Actually, this was nothing more than illuminating and emulating the works of John Muir, R.W. Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and countless other inspired Naturalists. Their collective message that man must go into the wilderness and seek being “born again” is the same message that Richard Bach, Black Elk, Rumi, Buddha, Lao Tzu, Moses and Jesus Christ all described as an essential aspect of becoming a harmoniously balanced physical, mental and spiritual human being.

A few years later, I discovered the amazing book, “The Immense Journey,” by Loren Eiseley who wrote:

“The reader who would pursue such a journey with me is warned that the essays in this book have not been brought together as a guide but are offered rather as a somewhat unconventional record of the prowlings of one mind which has sought to explore, to understand, and to enjoy the miracles of this world, both in and out of science.”

Wayne’s story, briefly recorded in “Biodesign Out For A Walk,” is potentially a very scary story. Every reader will draw his/her own conclusions, but some will likely be forced to view Wayne, as one British scientist described C.S. Lewis, as either a liar, lunatic or “Bozo the Clown,” or an honest young man who went through a transcending experience that cannot be described in Earthly terms. Those who are courageous enough to read it may intuitively understand that for such an event to occur, their egos will likely have to be diminished. For many, the bright lights of “civilization” have spiritually blinded them and they will not be capable of:

“overcoming the limitation of believing what their eyes are telling them and discovering how to spiritually fly.”

As far as the evolution of the Biodesign Class, it is impossible to discern the overlapping boundaries between Wayne and Me. Truly, without him, and countless other spiritually curious and courageous students, I would have spent my teaching career thinking that dissecting pigs was the ultimate experience for high school advanced biology students.

Little wonder Wayne commented, “Love the Musing.” (that Sharka posted)

Lowell H. Young
Author: Biodesign Out For A Walk

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Mandarin Dragonets—Heike Crabs—Loren Eiseley

Posted on November 29, 2014 Leave a Comment

If I were still teaching Biodesign, I would have students quietly concentrate on this image for one full minute and have them “write out of their stream of consciousness.” I can assure you, their descriptions would be astounding! Why not try it?

The “Big Bang Theory” and evolution have something in common, both are events with no known cause. According to Galileo, the story of “Adam and Eve” was written as an allegory to “accommodate the mental capacity of the unlearned.” Perhaps it is really a story about the evolution of God and, 3,500 years later, it is becoming more complex and enigmatic. In a devilishly ironic twist, evolution has embarrassingly exposed the limited mental capacity of the so-called biological intelligentsia; experts who lack a spiritual perspective of what Joseph Campbell called, “The soul’s high adventure.”

Whether people know it or not, college journalism 101 and biology 101 classes have very similar goals. Their collective objectives are to answer: Who? What? When? Where? Why? And how?

In his book, Cosmos, Carl Sagan, claimed that Heike crabs evolved when Japanese fishermen selected out crabs that resembled samurai warriors and returned them to the sea. I don’t know if this is true or not, however, many of his assumptions regarding evolution were pure “science fiction.” Crabs are crustaceans that appeared on earth about 145 million years ago. Many of the smaller species, including the Heike crabs, have little food value and are routinely returned to the sea by fishermen. The samurai warriors appeared in Japan about 800 years ago. Fossil evidence of such a recent event is not likely, however, if the Heike crabs evolved before then, Sagan’s theory would be invalid.

MORE importantly, this leads us to the obvious question: What was the controlling force that resulted in the flamboyant Mandarin Dragonets? Lacking any plausible explanation, scientists are forced to claim that the fish are the result of “random” or “chance” mutations or reshuffling of genes in the reproductive process. Most scientists would not bet a penny on the odds of this producing a Dragonet, instead they sheepishly grin and parrot, “given enough time it could happen.” Yes, and given enough time, a sow’s ear may magically morph into a silk purse.

In the introduction to Loren Eiseley’s, “The Star Thrower,” W.H. Auden wrote: “I must now openly state my own bias and say that I do not believe in Chance; I believe in Providence and Miracles. If photosynthesis was invented by chance, I can only say it was a damned lucky chance for us. If, biologically speaking, it is a “statistical impossibility” that I should be walking the earth instead of a million other possible people, I can only think of it as a miracle which I must do my best to deserve…I can not swallow the assertion that “chance” mutations can explain the fact that whenever an ecological niche is free, some species evolves to fit it…”

Auden surely had read Eiseley’s, “The Immense Journey,” where he discussed the evolutionary importance of Periophythalmus ( mudskipper fish). Instead of fish, using super-pectoral fins, making a triumphant march up an ocean beach, Eiseley describes the mudskippers climbing up mangrove trees. In what is truly one of the most profound scientific/theological observations Eiseley wrote:

“Perhaps there also, among rotting fish heads and blue night-burning bog lights, moved the eternal mystery, the careful finger of God. The increase was not much. It was two bubbles, two thin-walled little balloons at the end of the Snout’s brain. The cerebral hemispheres had appeared.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KurTiX4FDuQ

The human cerebral hemispheres are the primary structures that separate them from other animals. They are three times larger than those of the higher apes and include the following functions: logic, reasoning, numerical, language, creative, spatial, perception, executive-motor skills, memory, visual, auditory, and sensory skills.

Nobel laureate/physiology scholar Roger Sperry, was well aware of this when he wrote: “One of the great unresolved paradoxes of science involves consciousness, free will and values, three long-standing thorns in the hide of science. Materialist science couldn’t cope with any of them, even in principle. It’s not just that they’re difficult. They’re in direct conflict with basic models. Science has had to renounce them—to deny their existence or to say that they are beyond the domain of science. For most of us, of course, they are among the most important things in life.”

Indeed: Without our cerebral hemispheres we simply would not be sharing this moment in time and space. Boggling!

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

Bees – Flowers – Human Beings

Posted on October 19, 2014 Leave a Comment

To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,

One clover, and a bee.

And revery.

The revery alone will do,

If bees are few.

– Emily Dickinson

Charles Darwin called the emergence of the angiosperms (flowering plants) an abominable mystery. He also had no clue how or why the human brain evolved. It took naturalist Loren Eiseley (The Immense Journey) to complete the triad by pointing out that the evolution of both the flowering plants and humans would not likely have happened without bees and other insect pollinators. Ergo: Flowering plants, humans and bees have become a macro-symtriotic relationship. Without flowering plants and bees, human life, as we know it, would definitely not be the same.

We have only begun to understand the mystery and wonder of bees. We don’t k now how they fly (200 wing-beats per sec) create complex hexagonal combs, convert nectar into honey, pollen into bee bread and use propolis as a building material. We don’t know what they know, but we do know that they communicate and are socially interactive. Generally, their behavior is considered entirely “instinctive” however, more and more scientists are admitting that, “Instinct is just another word for something we don’t understand.” The Tao of Pooh (Benjamin Hoff)

Every cell in their body needs over 2,000 enzymes, co-enzymes, vitamins and minerals to function. The billions of cells are grouped into tissues, organs and systems that carry out highly complex functions. Although we can partially understand how DNA can create body structures, we have no idea how bees can be pre-programmed to handle the millions of sensory and motor instructions necessary for their survival.

As with all life, the quintessential question is; how did bees, flowering plants and humans evolve? Believers in “scientism” proclaim that all of evolution has been the result of “chance” and “random” activity. Charles Darwin, Alfred Wallace and Loren Eiseley, disagree and suggest that the process must be the product of “intelligent design.” None of them attempted to define a Creator, but all agreed that all of nature is evidence of a mysterious super-human being.

In the introduction to Loren Eiseley’s, The Star Thrower, W.H. Auden wrote:

I do not personally believe there is such a thing as a “random” event. “Unpredictable” is a factual description; “random” contains, without having the honesty to admit it, a philosophical bias typical of persons who have forgotten how to pray.

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

“Religion” and Biodesign

Posted on September 22, 2014 Leave a Comment

Excerpt: BOFAW. “I suggested that believing in God was like catching poison oak; some people do and some don’t and no amount of word-making will likely change that.”

Muir was considered an “uneducated tramp,” by some and an “ignoramus” by Calif. State geologist Josiah Whitney. His vision of saving vast wilderness areas as “parklands” for future visitors was often described as lunacy.

Thoreau was often considered a lazy misfit/ recluse who only survived because of Mrs. Emerson’s cooking.

Emerson’s religious views were often considered radical at the time. He believed that all things are connected to God and, therefore, all things are divine. However, even though he regarded Jesus as a “great man,” he did not regard him as the son of God. Although his lectures on the “transcendent power of nature” were popular, he had large groups of critics who labeled him as an atheist.

Loren Eiseley was harshly castigated by scientists who thought he was too religious and equally castigated by “believers” who thought he was too scientific.

In the beginning of the Biodesign experience, I did not realize that, by using these authors, I would be subject to many of the same criticisms that they were. In the introduction to Biodesign Out For A Walk, Linda Williamson described an aura of mystery surrounding room 103 at St. Helena High School. Although I was aware of it at times, I was also aware of storm clouds that were never far away. Just like my mentor’s critics, I had critics (even enemies) who were convinced that the class was really a philosophy or religion class, offered as Advanced Biology.

Because of the scope and depth of Biodesign, it is nearly impossible to select a signature piece of writing that encapsulates the essence of The Class. However, Michaels’ poem comes as close as possible.

“May you always be inspired …

To stand tall in the sunlight,

to seek out the bright face of Beauty,

To reach for the Dream, the Star,

to see the World through eyes of tenderness,

To love with open-heartedness,

To speak the quiet word of comforting,

to look up the mountain and not be afraid to climb,

To be aware of the needs of others,

to believe in the wonder of life,

the miracle of creation,

the rapture of love,

The beauty of the universe,

The dignity of the human being.”

Michaels

The poem was not only one of the most important goals of the class, it was a beautiful summation of the works of Muir, Thoreau, Emerson and Eiseley. If my critics regard it as“religious” then I humbly stand guilty as charged.

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

Music and Biodesign: Who Turned On the tunes? Part II

Posted on September 11, 2014 Leave a Comment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYqz8bWG8Sw

I usually played one Gregorian chant each year. It was intriguing that normally rowdy students suddenly became quiet or talked in hushed whispers. The simplistic style is similar to music heard, for thousands of years, in churches, temples, mosques, monasteries, kivas, ceremonial chambers, perhaps even caves. Ironically, I did not play it for “religious” reasons, but in hopes that students would transcend 100,000 years (before all religions) to the period when our ancestors began to perceive that they were sacred beings.

We had four, 36”x 12”, Infinity Concert, Surround-Sound Speakers and sometimes I cranked up Johann Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue” (or other signature piece) to about 75 dB which made the walls vibrate. Other students would stop and gawk and wonder what kind of weird biology class was being conducted.

I loved the transformative power that music added to the class and had many favorites. However, there was one pop song that was extraordinary. The artist was Zamfir, and his pan flute rendition of “The Lonely Shepherd,” resonated with every cell in my being. He captured the feeling of loneliness which was a feeling I identified with. Not surprisingly, I was not alone. John Muir, Loren Eiseley and Henry Thoreau all described times of feeling lonely and isolated. It wasn’t so much a bad sad, but a melancholic tinge that Zamfir captured in his spirit-stirring song. It was born out of the realization that Christie was the only person who truly knew what my hopes, dreams and aspirations for Biodesigners were. I understood that many of the ideas that I shared might not take root or grow until years later.

It may seem strange to think of a teacher camping with 30 students as being lonely, however, even as close as we often grew together, still, there was a necessary gap between us. Although I experienced amazing joy and positive feed-back, I also had to deal with rejection, hostility, doubt and occasional recrimination. At times like these my musical friends and mentors stood by to offer me soothing solace.

Excerpt: “The Immense Journey,” by Loren Eiseley.

“As a modern man, I have sat in concert halls and watched huge audiences floating dazedon the voice of a great singer. Alone in the dark box I have heard far off as if ascending out of some black stairwell the guttural whisperings and bestial coughings out of which that voice arose…Ironically enough, science, which can show us the flints and broken skulls of our dead fathers, has yet to explain how we have come so far so fast, nor has it any completely satisfactory answer to the question asked by Wallace long ago (Where did music come from?) Those who would revile us by pointing to an ape at the foot of our family tree grasp little of the awe with which the modern scientist now puzzles over man’s lonely and supreme ascent.”

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