An educating and counseling with
nature, ecologic-psychology, distance learning degree program
at Greenwich University is accredited by the Parliament of the
Commonwealth of Australia.
December, 1998, Friday Harbor, Washington.
Dr. Michael J. Cohen, Chair of the Applied Ecopsychology/Integrated
Ecology Department at Greenwich Univerisity today announced that
the Parliament of Australia , as part of the University's accreditation,
has decreed academic accreditation to his distance learning degree
program in Applied Ecoposychology and Integrated Ecology located
on the San Juan Islands in Washington State. Greenwich University
is a noted pioneer in home study education
Cohen's department teaches students
how to use a Natural Systems Thinking Process it has researched.
He shows that many of our unresolvable personal, social and environmental
problems resist change because they are actually psychologically
bonded addictions. We irrationally crave our destructive ways
as replacements for our society's excessive separation from the
nurturance and sensory fulfillment ordinarily obtained in nature.
The Natural Systems Thinking Process
helps people resolve problems by teaching them how to psychologically
make conscious sensory contacts with natural areas. Its benefits
have been validated by published studies and by journal entries,
exemplified by those appearing below.
World wide email reports from participants
involved in the Process demonstrate that repeatable, teachable,
learning results with respect to living in balance and peace
with self, society and the environment. Many people believe that
this represents the most important news since Earth Day 1970.
Dr. Cohen says that the abnormal stress
produced by our estrangement from nature underlies most of our
greed and disorders. It is not found in nature or nature connected
people(s). In conjunction with Project NatureConnect at the Institute
of Global Education, he invites interested members of the public
to use and teach the Natural Systems Thinking Process and enjoy
its transformative results. The Institute is a non-profit organization
that operates as a special NGO consultant to the United Nations
Economic and Social Council.. Cohen offers the following quotes
from student journals as examples of benefits obtained through
the Process:
1. Uncontrolled consumerism/materialism:
"As I continued doing the special forest activity, I found
myself attracted to the songs of the birds and then gradually
to the various stones and nuts and shells in the path. I would
stop in the path, pick up the stone, admire its beauty and then
feel clearly called to return it to its appropriate place. So
often other times I have felt I needed to put it in my pocket
and carry it home. Now, through the activity, I had a real sense
of appreciating each rock, each shell, each leaf in its place
for the time I was there. I felt suddenly freed from the need
to possess something. I had a growing sense of letting things
be and to just be still and glory in the fullness of the moment.
As I allowed myself to connect, appreciate, thank and move on
with so much of what surrounded me, I felt a letting go into
being present. In this transformation, I began to feel I was
part of the scene more, not my other self that needed to possess.
I learned that I do not need to possess something to have the
joy of it."
2. Personal and Global Peace:
"I was never taught to ask permission to relate to people
or the environment, I just take that for granted, as we all do.
However, this activity required my senses to learn how to ask
an attractive tree covered area for its consent for me to walk
through it. The area continued to feel attractive, but something
changed. It was the first time in my life that I totally felt
safe. It felt like Earth's energies were in charge of my life,
not me. It gave me a wonderful feeling of having more power to
be myself. I felt in balance with nature and the people here
because I could distinctly feel their energies consenting to
support me. I never experienced nature and people that way before.
It was like a powerful law that protected not only my life, but
all of life. I felt very secure and nurtured as I walked under
those trees and spoke to people. I learned that when I seek permission
from the environment and people I psychologically gain energy
and unity, I belong."
3. Destructive stress:
"This morning I was battling the remnants of some depression
I had been feeling about my family and life "stuff".
I was doing the attraction activity, looking around enjoying
the day, the breeze, the sun, the beautiful trees and the sounds
of birds chirping. In a flash of good feeling, I realized that
these feelings are what is so good about living on earth at this
time. It was enough, if for no other reason, to be here, to experience
the beauty of this planet. This was a major breakthrough for
me, because I battle the reason for being here quite a bit in
my recovery work. This happened before noon, and it is now 6
pm, and I still feel great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wanted
to share this because I am so happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
4. Healing:
An activity helped me become aware of my attraction to
the crescent moon as it hung over two hills near my home. Soon,
its mellow glow, framed by peaks and trees, embraced me in a
wordless, ancient primordial scene. Timeless power, peace and
unity swept me up. I just wanted to stay in that state of awe,
I felt in balance with all of reality. I was simply "BEING."
No tension, no pressing goal, just truly belonging to the global
community. This natural energy captured my stress laden pulse
and seduced it to the rhythms of Earth. The sleeping disorder
I have battled all my adult life dissolved in this power. For
the first time in decades, I gently fell asleep after dark and
arose shortly after dawn. I celebrated the breakthrough and I
thanked nature. I thanked the activity, too, for it lets me reconnect
whenever I choose."
Additional validations of the Process
are available at http://www.ecopsych.com/millecopstrand.html
and http://www.ecopsych.com/survey.html
Dr. Mark Brody, a psychologist with
the Philadelphia Public School System says "The experiences
expressed in the above paragraphs may even be some of the most
important since Earth Day 4 1/2 billion years ago. They are at
least important for anyone in our possession-addicted, excessively
destructive culture to contemplate. It is significant that nature
reconnecting activities help us make such breakthroughs."
Pulitzer-Prize winning sociobiologist
Dr. Edward O. Wilson, of Harvard, affirms that people have an
inherent biological need to be in contact with nature. He says
Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive,
and even spiritual satisfaction.
Cohen invites the public to enjoy and
teach the Natural Systems Thinking Process, free of charge on
the internet, at http://www.ecopsych.com/
. He says that best way to learn the
basics of the Process is through an interactive, online internet
Orientation Course located at http://www.rockisland.com/~process/5grglobal.html.
Cohen notes that through the Process the internet gives people
opportunities to learn balanced ways of thinking that are steeped
in Earth's ability to help them reason. "This seems more
responsible that waiting for the distant possibility that the
invested, nature estranged institutions that teach us to be as
destructive as we are, will change." he said. "We must
change them."
Cohen says, "In learning
how to think with nature is the salvation of our sanity and Earth.
Excessively living indoors, our mentality stressfully disconnects
from nature's balanced sensory rewards. In replacement, we crave
and psychologically bond to destructive gratifications. Genuinely
reconnecting our thinking with nature replaces our destructive
bonds with constructive passions and responsible relationships" Cohen may be contacted at:
Institute of Global Education,
Project NatureConnnect
P. O. Box 1605,
Friday Harbor, WA 98250
1-360-378-6313
http://www.ecopsych.com
nature@pacificrim.net
Institute of Global
Education
In Association with the United Nations Department
of Public Information
Degrees, Courses and Training Programs
Post Office Box 1605,
Friday Harbor, WA 98250.
(360) 378-6313
nature@interisland.net
International University
of Professional Studies
information@iups.edu
Return to Table of Contents
HOMEPAGE / CONTENTS /
OVERVIEW / RELEASE/
THINKING WITH NATURE
/ M.S.PROGRAM / Ph.D.PROGRAM
/ MENTOR / IUPS
/ APPLICATION & ADMISSION /
FAQ / INSTITUTE
/Project
NatureConnect
.