Near the end of my training at the Jung Institute in Zurich, I had one of the most powerful and simple dreams I have ever had.  It was a single-image dream of a typical upper Midwestern landscape.  There was a meadow with very green grass, flowers and possibly alfalfa. The topography was gently rolling with trees on the horizon.  Insects flew above the meadow.  It was a beautiful sunny day with puffy white clouds in a blue sky.  What was most remarkable about this simple scene was that it shown with an inner light:  every atom in the dream was alive.  Despite having seen some of the most beautiful scenery in the world—California, the Grand Canyon, the Canadian Rockies, Switzerland--I have never seen anything as beautiful as this simple meadow scene.

            This is an example of what the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung called a numinous dream—a dream with an inner light and a sacred sense.  I contend that no indigenous person has had a more sacred dream of the land.  Every human is capable of experiencing this.  Long ago Jung recognized this archetypal need of a connection to, and love of the land that  E. O. Wilson calls “biophilia”.

            When one has such a dream, the challenge is to let it lead one’s life and direct one’s conscious orientation.  To follow such a dream’s inspiration is to walk a path with heart.  Having grown up in Wisconsin, I knew the state affected me deeply, but I had no sense of just how deeply until this dream.  I began to look at all elements of the Upper Midwest more closely—its soils, topography, flora and fauna, seasons, etc.  To deepen this process and help convey this sense of the land to others, my wife and I set up a week-long summer institute in 1991 called Spirit in the Land, Spirit in Animals, Spirit in People.  The Institute was so well received that we ran a second one in 1992, followed by a reduced version for the University of Wisconsin Extension in 1994.  The talks I gave at the Institutes became the genesis of my book, The Dairy Farmer’s Guide to the Universe: Jung, Hermes, and Ecopsychology.  To convey my sense of an interdisciplinary environmental education program, I am reproducing the contents of three brochures announcing the Institutes.

            I grew up on a small dairy farm in Wisconsin where I spent many hours of my free time wandering the hills and marshes with my dog.  A deep connection was forged between the land and my psyche, much deeper than I realized.  After spending many years away from the Midwest, working on a doctorate at Berkeley in the late 60’s in Insect Pathology (microbial control of insects), then a Masters Degree in Humanistic Psychology from Sonoma State College, California, and finally training to become a Jungian Analyst in Zurich, Switzerland, I was led by a series of powerful dreams to return to the land I have felt so connected to.  I also became involved in sweat lodge, vision quest and Sundance ceremonies of the Lakota Sioux of the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota which added a depth of relationship to the environment I could not have otherwise imagined.

            It is out of this background that I have put together a series of speakers and workshops that will help us embody a unique, multidimensional  experience of our environment.  The didactic, Western scientific content of the program will be presented in such a way as to enhance, not distance ourselves, from “all our relatives”: the four-leggeds, the standing brothers (trees), etc.  The aesthetics of our relationship to nature will be experienced by hearing from artists, writers and poets, who have been deeply influenced by their ties to the land.  In many ways and forms the Native American experience will permeate the program, including a guided tour of Madison’s fascinating Effigy Mounds with their astronomical alignments and hearing tales from a Winnebago Indian about the land and the animals of this area.  There will be a strong emphasis on the intrapsychic dimension of our connection to the environment as revealed by dreams, myths, synchronistic events, and shamanistic techniques to discover our spirit animals.  Madison Mayor Paul Soglin will discuss the hard reality issues he faces in trying to preserve the environment via effective legislative and land-use planning.
 
            The entire program will be framed in a Jungian, symbolic, archetypal perspective, yet the contributions of the varied and talented presenters will offer perspectives and experiences beyond this framework.  New models for education will be explored as this 1st Annual Summer Institute is an aspect of a broader model being developed for the University, entitled Education For The 21st Century.

            We have the perfect environment for this program on the beautiful 135 acres of St. Benedict Center overlooking the shores of Lake Mendota to the East and rolling hillsides of trees and farmland to the West.  Please join us August 19-25, 1991, for this week-long Madison Summer Institute—Spirit in the Land, Spirit in Animals, Spirit in People.

            We hope to build on the success of last years Institute as we continue to develop the themes of an integrative approach to environmental education and an experience that incorporates Jungian depth psychological and Native American perspectives.  The contributions of science to our understanding and appreciation of the world around us will be respected and put in perspective.  The spiritual dimensions of our relationships to the plants, animals and the land will be explored by looking at Christian, Buddhist, Native American and Jungian world views.  It is necessary to examine how our conception of the human psyche affects our relatedness to the surrounding organic and “inorganic” realms.  It is not enough to talk about the environment—we must also experience being fully in the environment.  Music, dance, ritual, poetry and art are integral aspects of the relationship to our bodies, each other and the world—“we are all related”—at many different levels.  Personal experience and knowledge forms the basis for consideration of new models for our educational systems and avenues to pursue in the political arena.  These themes and ideas will take form during a week long program in a beautiful glen near one of the oldest landforms on the continent—the Baraboo Hills.  We will also be privileged this year to tour the land and hear from a daughter of one of the giants of ecology—Aldo Leopold.

            We received a grant to develop a program for satellite teacher inservice education—New Approaches to Environmental Education K-12. It will air nationwide on October 7, 14, and 21, 1992.  Three of the presenters from last year’s Institute, Prof. Francis Hole, writer Ben Logan and Dr. Herb Martin will each present two hour interactive programs via satellite TV…We have applied for ECH credits (32.5 hours) for the 1992 Institute…A one day workshop has also been developed incorporating the three talks I gave at last years Institute.

            The rapid rate of environmental degradation challenges us to learn more about environmental problems and cultivate new ways of relating to nature.  This two-day workshop meets the challenge in a holistic manner, integrating the dimensions of science, art, music, depth psychology, politics, Native American perspectives and storytelling.  Experiencing a variety of perspectives encourages participants to develop an ecological way of using various disciplines and the arts to educate themselves and others.  The focus will be on approaches to teaching and an awareness of educational resources that teachers can draw upon to enrich both their personal lives and their school curricula.

            The workshop is designed for all teachers and community members—not only those in the sciences and environmental education.  It is hoped that this affective dimension of teaching will reach across subject area boundaries.  Participants will explore new ways of perceiving and relating to the environment that provide the foundation for our attempts to save it.  They will learn about the excellent resources of the Environmental Awareness Center on the UW-Madison campus and the UW Arboretum’s training program for teachers and students on Prairie Restoration for Wisconsin Schools.  Each presenter embodies a different mode of environmental awareness and will provide handouts, reading lists and suggestions for classroom activities.

            The Spirit in the Land experience will be augmented by an art exhibit and special video showings in the evening.  The Madison setting will serve as a wonderful locus for “placing” this instruction.  In addition to its beautiful physical setting, Madison was a center of Indian mound building and has the excellent resources of the University of Wisconsin with its rich legacy of leadership in the area of environmental concerns and education.

A two-day workshop for

•    K-12 Classroom Teachers
•    Teachers of Psychology, Art, Science, Music, Drama, Language Arts, and
      Social Studies
•    Curriculum/Learning Coordinators
•    TAG coordinators
•    All People Interested in Environmental Education and Issues


Program:

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Monday, June 20