Is Hollywood ReWilding?
Greetings Friends & Welcome to 2012!
This past autumn was a really exciting time for my team and I, with so many of our projects coming to fruition and our message of ReWilding, Spring Water, and Indigenous Nutrition spreading around our community and beyond, faster than we ever imagined.
I want to extend a big thanks to the Longevity Now Conference for all they have done to make this happen. Check out this 12 minute video clip (click on the image below) of the talk I delivered in Costa Mesa last October titled, “Developing Sovereign Health: The Path of Rewilding Ourselves”. If you would like to see the rest of the talk, as well as those presented by the rest of the Longevity Now speakers, it is available here.
"Rewild Yourself: Tips & Tricks for Strengthening Your Epigenetic Health"
I also want to share this quick video clip of my good friend Shailene Woodley’s appearance on the Late Night With Jimmy Fallon Show (check out that clip right here)! She was so kind as to mention my name and the work I have been doing the last several years! Shailene has become a tremendous ally, helping to share the message of ReWilding, Spring Water, and Indigenous Nutrition with the world. Recently, she also appeared on the Ellen Degeneres Show carrying a mason jar of spring water which she promptly shared with Ellen!
Here is a recent interview with her in Black Book Magazine titled “Eating Clay and Super Humans”! She talks about foraging, spring water and her daily clay consumption!
If you don’t know Shailene’s work, check out her latest film, The Descendants, where she co-stars alongside George Clooney. Shailene, from all of us, Thank You for all that you are doing!
Lastly I want to share the link to the newly rebuilt SurThrival website! It’s a great place to stock up on great winter immune system supplements, such as Medicinal Mushroom Extracts and Colostrum. I am so proud of SurThrival as a project, as a company, and as a team! Thanks to all of you who have supported us! We are constantly working to serve you better!
Thats all for now!
Keep on ReWilding Yourself!
~Daniel
Eden Hot Springs! October 6th-10th, 2010
Epic Eden Hot Springs Retreat! October 6th through the 10th, 2010
This is by far the most exciting event of the year for me! There is no other place on Earth that leaves me feeling so connected to the Land and to the Elements!
For many years now I have visited this oasis of the Sonoran desert, and it has been (by far) the most trans-formative location of my life.
Up until now these retreats have been a collaborative effort of my teachers and mentors David Wolfe and Kerri “Dancing Butterfly” . They have facilitated the transformation of the countless people who have attended (myself included!).
This is in fact where my very first YouTube video was recorded, and the place where I began my career.
Now a new generation is taking up the call of stewarding this unique piece of Earth. Joy Light and Rebecca Astara are putting on this year’s event, Epic Eden HotSprings! I will be leading a tour of the Sacred grounds of Eden, visiting along the tour the six geo-thermal hot springs that spot the land. I am honored to share my knowledge and experience of my many years of visiting this land, with all of the retreaters!
This Oasis is beyond description, but let me attempt!
When standing on the hill, the high point of the property, surrounded by the 360 degrees of Arizona Mountains, looking down at the valley, the magick of this place becomes clear. The Sonoran desert is one of the harshest, driest environments on the planet. Yet, this oasis is green and lush, surrounded by inhospitable gravel-strewn desert.
It all begins with a small pool known as “The Source”. This sacred spring spills over and runs into the “Guitar Pool”, which is, as you may have guessed, shaped like a guitar! It is also known as the “Goddess Pool”, because the pool imitates the curvy shape of a Woman’s body. This is my favorite pool for soaking, as it is the quietest and most… sanctified. All around it salt crystals grow right up out of the ground, dusting the area like a fresh snow!
This water runs down past a pool known as the “Emerald Pool” which is much hotter than the guitar pool. This pool is brilliantly green with exotic flora, and feeds down into the most popular pool, “Geronimo”! This pool is named after the Apache Warrior who led the final free indigenous natives in the war against the early US!
And yes, he and his warriors really used this spring for healing and rejuvenation!
It is his, and the Apache spirit that is felt so strongly here!
This pool feeds down into the “Goddess Pool”, a hot spring pool the size of an Olympic swimming pool! Swimming, bathing, or even just floating here is a truly unique and indescribable experience! It is less hot and more like tepid bathwater… I enjoy this pool for exercise and play!
This will be a time of powerful healing and lifelong transformation for all who attend. There will be many amazing work/play shop facilitators, body workers, and many new and old friends… Morning Yoga, Sun Gazing, Spring Water…. It is a chance to immerse yourself in the Temple of the Elemental!
Oh, and did I mention the food? The wonderful Chocolatree Cafe, based out of Sedona, will be preparing the food and overseeing the kitchen! Business partners Jen Warr of Chocolatree Cafe and Kelly Johnson of Sedona Superfoods, in combination come together to provide for us at the retreat this fall. They are a business of high integrity, bringing us the most top notch organic vegetarian cuisine! Each meal they serve up is delicious, nutritious, and uniquely prepared. Their cafe in Sedona is definitely the hot spot of the area and is a must visit while going through that town!
The experience of Eden is always hot, sunny, fiery energy… Burning off the old to make room for the new. The springs are so deeply nourishing, and there is always a view of the stars like few have ever seen. Soaking in these waters in the cold desert night looking deep into space is a gift that few ever give themselves!
Visit here to find out more about the retreat, and here to learn about all of the amazing facilitators for this epic retreat!
For me it is a place where I shed yet another layer of domestication and re-member what it means to be human.
And so my Road takes me West….
You coming?
~ Daniel
Join us ~ October 6th-10th, 2010 for this Epic Experience of a Lifetime!
Rubbing Two Sticks Together… Making Fire By Hand
Fire… The ancients called it an Element, this strange substance that is neither solid, liquid, nor gas.
Over the last several years I have been immursed in the study of the Elements, not those 92 Elements of the Periodic Table, but rather the Elements of Earth, Water, Air, and Fire.
It seems today that if we refer to these forces as the Elements we encourage the criticism of science and the “educated” around us. Strangely, our current perception of the laws of physics seem perfectly in line with this ancient belief. Heres what I mean.
Today in physics we refer to four distinct states of matter, Solid, Liquid, Gaseous, and Plasma, each representing matter at different states of energy. As an object is heated (or absorbs thermal energy) it moves from its solid state into a liquid state. If it can continue to take on energy it will next become a gas. If it can be energized still further it takes up the fourth known state of matter we call plasma, a super heated ionized gas, the stuff the stars and nebulae are composed of.
These four states of energy can be -and were- known as Earth (solid), Water (liquid), Air (gas), and Fire (plasma).
Now the Sun exists in the Plasmatic state, and we also encounter plasma as the arcs of electricity the tear through the sky on thunderous nights… Lightning. It is present in the ionosphere as Aurora Borealis as well. It is the celestial Element, the substance of stars and interstellar space.
For most of our history here on Earth we only experienced this Plasma in its most juvenile form, as Fire… the Proto Plasma.
As a species, Homo sapiens sapiens has been using Fire for a long time. Maybe the whole time.
It is believed in paleontology that Fire was controlled by Neandrathals, our paleolithic cousins, and even (there is some debate) by Homo Habilis, our earlier ancestor.
It seems very likely that we humans have been using Fire as long as we have been humans. So much of Anthropology is dedicated to what it is that makes us human. Is it our ability to reason? Perhaps it is our opposable thumbs (I snicker a bit at this one).
To me it seems obvious – if not apparent – that it is our conscious and deliberate control of Fire.
Today all known humans the world over use fire, to include even those most “primitive” peoples still living tribally as hunter gatherers, tucked away in pockets of uncut forest and jungle. And many unique methods were developed to kindle the sacred flame into existance from the naturally occuring items of our local environment. The image here is of a Bow Drill, one of the most effective and relatively easy ways to coax a flame into being, and has existed for countless thousands of years.
I would like to show you another method, even older and more pure… The Hand Drill. I have been practicing this method for some time now, and have become fairly proficient. Not nearly as proficient though as my good friend Arthur Haines, who has a particularly fascinating command of this nearly forgotten primitive technological force. He makes it look easy here, though I assure you that it requires not just the knowledge of the proper plants for the job, but also a considerable endurance and physical fittness that comes from practicing it again and again.
Today people jokingly call it “rubbing two sticks together” which, after one has been initiated into this wisdom, seems somewhat over-simplified if not even a bit irreverent.
Now you might ask, why take the time and energy to develop this skill when we have so many sources of flame around us all the time? Perhaps as an Emergency Survival Skill? It is often taught as a survival skill though this seems a bit far fetched to me. The materials that are used must be properly selected, processed, dried, and prepared. It is hardly something you whip together when you find yourself in a dire situation. For me it is something more.. a few things actually.
First, I love to deepen my practice of personal sovereignty… Learning to be self-sufficient is a deeply satisfying experience for me (well… for many of us actually). Knowing how to conjure a flame forth from an otherwise cool and very inert biome is a magick that I would feel vulnerable and even alienated without. It is afterall the basic human skill.
Even more, I am moving always towards a lifestyle where I am free from reliance on the purchase industrially produced items that pollute the environment I live in and weaken my relationship to the natural world around me. Now I know that I, like the rest of us, am a part of this massive and almost all-encompassing machine we call civilization. I am writing this – just as you are viewing it – on a machine that will one day pollute our environment. Still, there is something sacred to me about making a flame without a plastic tool that seems revolutionary… Perhpas its just a symbol, but it might be the perfect symbol for the role.
This image was instrumental in shifting my perceptions about the creation of fire. Yes, that is a plastic lighter in the belly of a bird. These are the kinds of atrocities that we are all responsible for. So for me, fire mastery is a keystone skill, and I am working towards it all the time.
If skills like these are exciting to you, and you would like to learn to do this, please stay tuned. Arthur and I will be leading classes on practices like these as well as Wild Food gathering, processing, and medicine making. It is all part of a movement towards a more gratifying, sustainable, and very tangible Neo-Hunter Gatherer Lifestyle.
Thanks for watching, and I hope that this inspires you!
Let me know your thoughts!
~Daniel
