Both the effectiveness of our personal practice – and how much enjoyment we draw from our existence and efforts – depend on how truly awakened, enlivened and embodied we are. In a modern world contributing to distraction, diversion and numbing-out, a course in increased sensory awareness is of great benefit to our learning, work and purpose... and can deepen our experience of life’s pleasures.

Taught by Jesse Wolf Hardin

Suggested Length: 10 to 16 Weeks

Prerequisites: None (You may want to consider taking both the introductory “Journey Begins” and “Presence” first, in preparation for this course)

Of the up to 80 or so years of awareness that we mortal humans are allotted, we spend 7 to 10 hours per day of it asleep getting the rest we need. We can then subtract for the years of early childhood when weren’t yet conscious of our environs as well as the potentially reduced sensibility of extreme old age. Of these precious remaining hours, all too many are spent on “autopilot,” narrowly focused or distracted, “killing time” in shallow conversation or otherwise failing to take note of not only subtle dimensions and realities but the actual details of our every day lives. In such a condition, threats go unnoticed and hence unchecked, important lessons may be lost to us, and the full depths of pleasure are missed out on. All the more reason, then, for us to choose to spend every possible moment wholly awake, bodily and in every other way alert and engaged, taking in the information we need to make choices and act, soaking in the sights and sounds, tastes and textures of the world!

This is one of the longest and most in-depth of our courses. Through the nearly 150 self-explorations and assignments, we seek to:

• Reawaken each of our bodily senses in turn, intensifying our conscious seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, tasting

• Identify, reawaken and learn to trust our primal instincts and undeveloped intuition... necessary for expanding awareness, diagnosing ailments and predicting outcomes

• Healthfully respond to any pressing instincts or intuition we have – such as to do something we haven’t, or to avoid some person, place or situation

• Come to recognize, accept and increasingly understand our feelings, and learn to better determine when and how to respond to them

• Come to better recognize and understand the feelings of others, especially our loved ones and clients, and to sense what they are really experiencing or needing as opposed to what they may be saying

• Determine and then actively minimize those ways, actions, situations and relationships that tend to deaden our awareness or dull our senses

• Determine and the actively maximize any ways, actions, situations and relationships that tend to arouse our awareness and awaken our senses

As a result of these readings, questions and assignments, the Naturalist notices more detail and interconnection... and therefore better understands and benefits. The Village Herbalist or Medicine Woman learn how to read their own bodies and feelings more accurately as well as the energies and conditions of others. The Ranger and Earth-Tender are further appraised of the situation and therefore better able to reap satisfaction. The Mentor is more alert to how to direct her students or offspring, as well as being able to set a more enlivened example. Those studying the Shamanic arts plumb their magical selves and environs before untethering in a search for alternate worlds. And every student reaps the information and rewards that attend the awakened state.

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