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Dejay Davison

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Are humans forgetting/neglecting an important part of ourselves?

I want to provoke wonder to the world by asking the question of "What if the human race advanced WITH nature, learning from it. Instead of against nature, and overcoming it?" I asked myself the question when the 'Ice Man' (Wim Hof), formed an immunity towards cold, disease and pain through ancient Tummo Meditation techniques. By meditation in 'extreme' cold, working with nature, learning from it. He is starting a school soon and I am eagerly working towards attending. If it goes well, and science is proven wrong, I will question, what other ancient techniques of meditation or practice has the human race forgot? Without global communication these techniques and practices may not have been able to flower throughout the globe, lost in writings or in the minds of the past. I think we must explore our minds and our planet for clues as to understand what else we may be capable of.. by learning from nature. We've existed in the last 3% of Earth's life, and look at the impact and devastation in our path. The modern world is changing so fast that sometimes all we can do fight to keep up. I fear for nature, and the minds of the rapidly growing materialistic world. We mustn't forget our true selves. Just a thought.

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    Feyisayo Anjorin 50+

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    Jul 11 2012: The earth is a habitation for humanity today because nature supports life. We should try as much as possible to ensure that our lives supports nature.
    Yes, we do forget the most important things. Like sustainable and clean energy, and industrial practices that will not destroy that ecosystem.
    We have forgotten ancient practices that strengthens our society; medical and health practices that keeps us fit and healthy.

    If we do not change our value system we are putting our civilisation on its path to destruction.

    • Sophie Meyer

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      Jul 16 2012: I agree heartily with you Feyisayo!,
      I believe the root of our problem is our value system, our priorities. Some of the human race, dare I say quite a few of us, now focus more on materialistic goals and quick fixes than taking the time to learn from and study nature. Now I'm not saying that we haven't learned from nature as other commenters have mentioned our response to diseases is proof of this knowledge. Another reason I think this idea of learning from nature and more about ourselves is not explored more is because is it is time consuming, potentially less exciting than other fields, and ultimately in our current state society may reject the findings. We would have to shift as a society to caring more about our environment and less about personal satisfaction. We would have to have more people truly care about future generations. That kind of shift could possibly get a large group of people to try living more with the environment and less on it so that we would have solid evidence that what the Ice Man did is possible for more than just himself. Now I agree this is on the extreme end, but there must be baby steps we could take to improving our control over ourselves. The human brain is amazing and powerful and I believe there are many things we have yet to discover and/or have forgotten we could do. I hope someday we will show ourselves to be different from other conquering species as we will have learned to live with "inhospitable" nature, evolving and adapting to meet our needs without harming the environment while continuing to learn from and advance beyond nature's limits.
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    Peter Law 50+

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    Jul 11 2012: Hi Dejay.
    I was browsing a while ago & hit on a link for the cure for cancer. We don't have one; right! Well some folks think we have had for the past 100 years or so. Vitamin B17 from Apricot seeds etc., seems to do the trick. Google it, there's lots of information. Now, I know there are lots of bogus claims around, but this one is harmless, & it might just work; I don't know. Maybe I'm getting cynical, but I would nt be in the least surprised if it does, & we've been fed disinformation for years.. It would be interesting to know how many medicines have been worked out in the lab, & how many we're just stumbled upon in nature.

    :-)
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      Stewart Gault 30+

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      Jul 11 2012: Just to inject here Peter. There are lots of things on the market for cancer, never seen one claimed to be a cure though. There's something called sunshine food I think the brands called and basically they send you this concoction of fruit and vegetables with different nutrients in the broth. You said B17 and these probably contain it along with other stuff, most of the stuff is based on the idea that certain vitamins or nutrients either close off a tumor's blood supply or effects it in some other way. These haven't been scientifically proven and rely heavily upon chance of the single few atoms of the nutrients even reaching the tumor as they can probably be used else where in the body. So there may be hints that things like this can be beneficial but most people who "vouch" for these sort of brands were also receiving the normal cancer treatments i.e chemotherapy etc at the same time. So just always be skeptical.
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    Gerald O'brian 50+

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    Jul 11 2012: "if it goes well and science is proven wrong"

    Science has always been about learning from nature, and never has nature been so awesome : consider quatum physics, modern astronomy and mollecular biology.
    Also, mother nature doesn't really care. Species happily conquer and destroy as much as they can afford to.The reason why humans need to "overcome nature" is that this earth is highly inhospitable. Half of your children would be likely to die of some disease, were it not for vaccination.
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      Dejay Davison

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      TEDx Organizer
      Jul 11 2012: The Earth is highly inhospitable, but only to those who think so. I don't doubt for a second that science has been learning from nature, we all have.. as we are part of it, but I believe we spend to much time applying our focus to overcome the inhospitality, rather than learning from it. For example Wim Hof has shown that humans are easily adaptable to 'hazardous elements' of nature, that we have been running from throughout time. He has learnt from this dangerous weather to dramatically enhance his immunity systems, cardiovascular systems and control his thermoregulation. This to me shows signs of an ability to consciously control endocrine glands. I question 2 things. Why is it, that these practices have been around for thousands of years, yet it's only baffling science now? Did we get caught up in our 'abundance of intelligence' and many of us forgot to wonder outside our comfort zone. And, what other ancient techniques have been lost in history? What else can we learn from 'extreme elements' of nature to enhance the physical, mental and spiritual forms of our human experience, rather than running away and trying to create a way around it.
      The illusional wall of impossibility is weakening every year, with every new accomplishment, creation and discovery.
      I am only 17 years old, and am polymathic enough to assimilate that soon, no one will believe in 'impossibility', and therein lies the 'spiritual revolution/awakening' of mankind.

      "In the hopes of reaching the moon men fail to see the flowers that blossom at their feet."
      - Albert Schweitzer
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        Stewart Gault 30+

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        Jul 11 2012: There's a huge difference between one man surviving in a wild environment and then an entire city living in the same place. We've all seen Bear Grylls do his stuff, but humans living in places such as the Sahara desert just isn't going to work. There's limits to nature, we are already pushing the boundaries.
        And be careful on the impossibility thing, it only takes a well refined sentence to make something impossible i.e It is impossible to turn a hydrogen atom into an iron atom without adding protons, neutrons or electrons.
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          Dejay Davison

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          TEDx Organizer
          Jul 11 2012: That is a very superficial understanding in response to my statement though, while I understand there is a huge difference between 'one man surviving in the wild environment and then an entire city living in the same place', I seek to touch upon the lessons from nature. The overlooked and even forgotten possibilities of the human body. If one man has dramatically increased and consciously controlled his Autonomic Nervous System that brings to light a huge spectrum of human possibility. I believe this is a start to searching through nature, history and ourselves to see what we may truly be capable of, and what else we may have control over in relation to 'Psychoneuroimmunology' - the study of the effect of the mind on health and resistance to disease.
          And in my canny defense I wish to state that people have ran through the Sahara 100s of miles with nothing but mare dehydration, just to touch upon the fact that it 'could' work, but humans lack the discipline and esoteric ambition to learn from/worth with nature.
          Also, I understand your 'impossibility' statement, and for the mare point of disagreeing, I will state that nor you, or I could state whether or not in 1,000 years that will be possible. I ask of you to think back 1,000 years.
          Thank you for your input :)
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        Gerald O'brian 50+

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        Jul 12 2012: "we spend to much time applying our focus to overcome the inhospitality, rather than learning from it."

        That's not true. Take diseases : we've learnt what bacteria were, haven't we? And we've learnt about the immune system, and so many things. The thing is ; we need to understand before we can overcome.

        I see your point, though. People should go camping out more often. But when you have kids and a million fucking responsabilites, you might find that stepping out of the comfort zone is a luxury
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