First Lecture in the Nature and Medicine Series by Dr. John Hughes, DO

1. Nature As Medicine: We ARE Nature
First Lecture in the Nature and Medicine Series
Dr.John C. Hughes, D.O.
ACES at Hallum Lake
Aspen, CO
July 18, 2012

2. We ARE Nature
 I. We Are Animals (Mammals)
 II. We are like all Sentient Beings: Conscious and Alive
 III. We are Wild Beings
 IV. We have Natural, Animal Minds
 V. If Nature is Medicine, the Medicine is You

3. We Are Mammals (and Animals)
 Characteristics of Mammals:
 warm-blooded animal
 covered by fur
 give birth to live young (nourished by milk)
 vertebrates
 4 chambered heart, sweat glands, diaphragm,
flexible neck, single jawbone (most)
 developed neocortex
 http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_the_characteristics_of_mammals

4. We Are Mammals:
And Relatives With All
 40% of our DNA with bacteria
 60% of our DNA with insects
 75% of our DNA is identical to reptiles
 90% of the same DNA as mammals
 we share 98% of our DNA with chimps, our closest
relative
 FYI: Humans and banana trees share about 55% of the
same DNA. Go Banana
 http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_DNA_do_humans_share_with_a_banana#ixzz20wa5LEKo

5. We are like all Sentient Beings:
Our Kin
 For Native Americans and other “primitive cultures”,
animals and trees (and other sentient beings) were
called brothers and sisters because that is exactly who
they are
 Many native peoples and tribes identified with the
character of certain animals (often as part of a healthy
and ritualistic life)
 These animals “totems” (In Ojibway word is dodaem
and means "brother/sister kin”)

6. We are like all Sentient Beings:
One Fate
 For these natives, it is a basic understanding that how
animals and trees died so was the fate (and health) of
the 2 leggeds (the humans)
 Even from the Judeo-Christian Bible:
 “Man's fate is like that of the animals; the same fate
awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All
have the same breath; man has no advantage over
the animal.” Ecclesiates 3:19

7. We are like all Sentient Beings:
Conscious and Alive
 As we acknowledge that a spider has this same divine
spark of life as us, we see its place as critical to the
web of being as any other sentient creature.
 It does not mean we don't protect ourselves from the
spider but rather we honor its life as we honor our own
natural lives.
 As we honor the life of the spider, it honors us along
with the rest of the life

8. We are Wild Beings
 What is wild for the “civilized” human?
 Humans should be as anarchists? Nay
 Many humans seek the wildness in their own lives because
of the health benefits
 For example, we now demand unadultered, less
manipulated, non-manufactured food: aka Wild game, wild
salmon, free-range chickens, organic tomatoes, and veggies
 Because that is what/who we are

9. We are Wild Beings
 In its wildness, Nature makes better food than the artificial
flavorings, coloring, fertilizers, pesticides, etc. do
 We seek the wildness because we know it is innately
healthy
 As wild humans (as ontologically human animals), we are
nurtured by that which is wild (both internally and externally)
 Health is involves appropriately “sync” with the wild order of
Nature in a creative, vital way (wildcrafting our herbs,
allowing spontaneity in our lives, etc.)

10. We are Wild Beings: Inside and Out
 Think about the minds of these wild creatures we seek out:
 Independent, yet part of the web of life
 Free to live out a natural destiny in accordance with their
genes and habitat
 Subject to the laws of Nature
 Not caged in (including cages from a religion, career
advancement, parents, philosophy, etc)
 But guided and taught by the elders in accordance with
their instincts, intellect, and intuition

11. We have Natural, Animal Minds
 How do we know what we know and do what we do?
 Instinct: A nonlearned behavior pattern--an expression
of innate biology
 Examples
 Intuition: the ability to acquire knowledge without
inference or the use of reason
 Examples
 Reason: to make sense of things, to establish and verify
facts, and to change or justify practices, institutions, and
beliefs
 http://www.wikipedia.org/

12. We have Natural, Animal Minds
 How do we know what we know and do what we do?
 Inspiration: 1. To affect, guide, or arouse by divine
influence. 2. To fill with enlivening or exalting emotion
 http://www.thefreedictionary.com/inspire

13. We have Natural, Animal Minds:
Beyond Human Rationality
 Since the 17th century, humans have erroneously elevated
rationality as the essence of “human nature”, forgetting the
rest of Natural mind (Our Ivy League colleges and wannabe
lower institutions are a testament to this artificial elevation)
 Knowing what is healthy involves a fully aware and alert
Natural mind, one that does not rely solely upon human
rationality (or some double-blinded, case controlled study)

14. We have Natural, Animal Minds:
Beyond Human Rationality
 Since the 17th century, humans have erroneously elevated
rationality as the essence of “human nature”, forgetting the
rest of Natural mind (Our Ivy League colleges and wannabe
lower institutions are a testament to this artificial elevation)
 Knowing what is healthy involves a fully aware and alert
Natural mind, one that does not rely solely upon human
rationality (or some double-blinded, case controlled study)

15. The Medicine is You:
Nature in Present Form
 As you are a conscious, aware, earthy, poised human
animal, whole-minded, and divine spirit fully mastering the
senses, emotions, desires in accordance with the
ecosystem you inhabit, you are the Medicine.
 You are free-range...connected to the Whole but not bound
to the destiny of a domestic herd or its diseases.

16. The Medicine is You:
Nature in Present Form
 The Medicine is not about getting out into Nature, but rather it
is embracing yourself as Nature
 As a Natural being, you are fully empowered by Nature:
 as a mammal (powerful and wild) with friends everywhere
 as free and yet interdependent upon the web of life
 as whole-minded and fully aware of your world
 as unafraid of Nature
 and able to take risks that increase your fitness

17. The Medicine is You:
Nature in Present Form
 Your life and your health is about getting into Nature, into
your natural state, into your primal self, into your natural
destiny
 Thoreau writes “In wilderness is the preservation of the
world”
 Which may also be translated, “It is the preservation of your
wilderness (your Natural state) that is the preservation of
your life.”