INTRODUCTION
“We are not separate from nature.”
It’s a mantra that has spread into at least some corners of Western-influenced society. For those concerned about humanity’s future on Planet Earth, this is a good sign. But speaking it is one thing, knowing it is another, and both are not enough. How do we feel this sentence so deeply that the sentence itself seems as obvious as “we are not separate from our legs?” How does feeling this lead to reconnecting so deeply that our thoughts and actions perpetuate the wisdom of nature…because both scientifically and experientially, we understand that those thoughts and actions are made of and fed by that wisdom? This is the proposal of Oika.
Leading thinkers today are pointing to an undertone of destruction embedded deeply in the fabric of powerful, Western-oriented societies. Oika points to - or rather, occupies - another undertone, a cosmic Creative Life-Force that is primal and even more powerful, if we could all manage to reconnect to it.
Getting there takes curiosity, intention, and time, but there is more good news: it’s fun, free, and doesn’t take the kind of time that none of us have enough of. In fact, when partnered with curiosity and intention, “getting there” becomes a filter over all that we do. It has the potential to grow with every trip to the grocery store, commute to work, and minute on hold with whatever bot is “assisting” you today.
This book is not going to tell you how to do it; that is as individualized as we all are. But it does offer a concentrated case study as evidence for how one might allow something as mundane as a mushroom or predictable as the sunrise to be a teacher.
Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest has been the site of internationally renowned ecological research for over sixty years. It is where acid rain was discovered in 1963, the consequential evidence of which would lead to the 1970 Clean Air Act. It is a forest where research leads to evidence, evidence to awareness, and awareness to action. Hydrologists, ornithologists, entomologists, geologists, pedologists, and other “ologists” arrive to glean the information this forest holds, to read the sensors and report back to the world with insights and recommended actions.
In 2021, an ecologist (Dr. Rich Blundell) and an artist (Rita Leduc) brought Oika Research to Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest. Their experiment, Extending Ecology, aims to gain insights on a different kind of information than that of Hubbard Brook’s traditional scientists: information the forest has been nurturing for 13.8 billion years (give or take infinity). The study uses both science and creative engagement to research Oika’s dominant claim: that when people enter into a “whole-brained” relationship with an ecosystem, stores of wisdom within the ecosystem trickle up into their awareness and actions: they learn how to think, act, and flourish with and as the ecological intelligence of the ecosystem.
Like the scientists, the ecologist and artist are researching on behalf of society, using their training to conduct experiments, read the sensors, and report insights back to the world to spread awareness and recommend actions. Unlike the scientists, the ecologist and artist are the sensors, using deep-time natural science and relational, creative practices to collaborate in relationship with the forest.
Similar to a public report of scientific findings, this book lays out evidence for what happens when two people connect to the cosmic undertone - the Creative Life-Force - through “whole-brained” engagement with nature. But – and this is important – just like the acid rain at Hubbard Brook, this evidence for the presence and impact of ecological intelligence is not sequestered to the borders of Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest. This book suggests that, no matter where we are, in order for us all to reconnect to the Creative Life-Force, a great place to start is to genuinely, intimately, simply, connect.
May we all look at our lives and figure out ways to do so, be it with a surprise from a bunch of bananas at Price Chopper, a sparkle from a spiderweb on your car door, or an appreciation of entanglement as you strive to be with and in this world.
