‘Are Humans a Natural Disaster’

Reply to a paper by Sydney Ross Singer.

If the way we perceive nature is influenced by both our biological nature and our collective / personal nurture then it would seem reasonable to suggest that; we are part of nature but at the same time able to learn to be apart nature.  

Human ability to present with self destructive behaviour including the destruction of the natural world that humans rely upon would seem to suggest nurture can override nature’s evolutionary survival instincts. 

The unanswered question that many people have at this time is how do we support humans to become aware of and change their self destructive relationship with nature.  May I suggest that one way would be to focus on human nature rather than the presenting collective value base that can result in self destructive behaviour.  We may need to consider any unconscious bias within our collective ‘nurture’, a bias that may also be inherent within the hallowed principles of academic rigour. 

My area of interest has included the relationship between ancient Chinese moving meditation (Tai Chi), internal biological sensations and feelings sometimes referred to as somatic or embodiment practice (Elsa Gindler) and the way we perceive ourselves and our world (C G Jung).  Experiential knowledge supported by student feedback has led me to hypothesis that (1) practising Tai Chi as somatic movement can trigger our parasympathetic nervous system resulting in moments of calmness that also (2) enhance our perspective of our external world – the awe of nature and (3) elicit intuitive thoughts.

It may be worth considering that our collective relationship with nature would benefit from a better balance between both scientific and somatic perspectives.  As TenHouten and Wen (2001, p196) suggest ‘while there are rules for validating scientific theory, there are no rules for their construction’.  A way to circumvent any unconscious bias that results in human destructive behaviour towards nature may be as simply to value a somatic relationship with our biological self.