Philosphy

“He looked upon us as sophisticated children — smart, but not wise.  We knew many things and much that is false.  He knew nature, which is always true.” – Saxon Pope describing Ishi, who was widely acclaimed as the last ‘wild living’ First Nations man in North America, coming in from the wilderness in 1911.

 

Wild Human’s core aim is to make better, healthier, happier humans… by creating the space, time and guidance to practice, refine and enjoy what they intuitively know is good for them; species-specific skills that have defined our species for ten’s of thousands of years, which are quickly being eroded by techno-dependency.

I believe we are becoming maladapted. Our two greatest strengths – our adaptability and our ability to create complex social communities; are becoming out greatest weaknesses.

Evolutionary psychologists almost universally agree that our bodies and minds are still adapted to a hunter-gather lifestyle; our DNA still thinks we are living in the African savannahs. Yet we increasingly challenge our Stone Age brains to become increasingly reliant on technology, spending hours every day glued to smart phones and screens. Stack that on top of an industrialised web of human reliance, where each of us, as an individual, occupies a tiny niche of expertise within the mechanism of society, be it a baker, accountant, IT technician or project manager. Our immediate survival needs (shelter, warmth, food and water) are met every day by trading our time, to earn currency to blindly exchange, in return for these essential daily necessities. Most people cannot meet their own individual basic needs. Is it any wonder many of us feel reliant, fearful, disempowered, anxious, alienated, lonely, depressed and under pressure, just to keep on keeping on…

Are we sacrificing our humanity as we are drawn along in the turbulent wake of technological advancement; combined with the allure of super stimuli and sophisticated individually targeted media seduction, as we swipe our screens to gain the addictive dopamine hit of instant status driven gratification?

Wild Human is for normal humans, not super humans – the courses and retreats are not aimed at ultra runners or fitness freaks with rippling six packs, but are designed for intelligent people who instinctually know that they are capable of more – want to reduce stress, get fitter and feel better – to learn how to tap into that reservoir of wildness and strength that lies dormant within each of us as innately wild humans.

At its core almost every human movement we make has its origins in finding food – walking, running, swimming, climbing, throwing, diving, paddling, skiing, etc. The very fact you are reading this proves that one of your distant ancestors was a superb barefoot runner, an astute tracker and hunter, had the ability to swim and dive for seafood, had mastered the technique to conjure fire with their bare hands, foraged for wild food, could climb skilfully for calorie rich eggs and honey, and had an intimate understanding of the natural world that they were apart of.

You can still do all of these things, they have been hard-wired into your DNA for two hundred thousand years; you have simply forgotten how, but your mind and body will quickly remember. I’m not for a minute suggesting that we should revert to being Palaeolithic hunter-gathers but respect the wisdom of practicing ancestral movement strategies, and with a little practice and determination, begin to unleash your true human potential.

Are you fit for purpose?