Topic: Tom Brown Jr. (Quotes)

[Jennifer-]

My current wilderness school/retreat studies have brought me in contact with this author.. he is so well versed I thought Id share here in the wilderness area of Soma..

Enjoy~

Quotes from "The Tracker"
The true story of Tom Brown, Jr.


When somebody moves something in your house, you notice it. When somebody moves something in the woods, I notice it.

Your tracks are shaded with nuances that show always how much more you have become than what you were.

Grandfather taught me how to teach myself.

School taught me how to read. Stalking Wolf taught me how to learn.

I do not believe I am in any danger of running out of discoveries.

The place where you lose the trail is not necessarily the place where it ends.

Some callings cannot be ignored.

We could not afford the luxury of being afraid to sound foolish. We burned for answers...

These words are my tracks, this book is my trail; I am at the end of it somewhere, looking for other tracks and the meaning beyond them.

The only language for some things is experience.

I hated the dogs at that moment in a way that I could not understand then, though I have come now to realize that hate is just fear worn inside out, and it was my fear, and not my hatred, that drove me.

Hiding from the storm is the craziest form of self-denial.

There were many times when I did not know where I was in relation to where I started, but I was never lost. If I was lost, I seemed better off than a lot of the people who weren't. I was always at home, wherever I was. Only when I came out of the forest did I find out how easy it was to get lost.

We learned two things from testing our limits: the limits of our power and the limits of our will. We always knew how long before we would have to think in survival terms.

It was a reflex that said, "When you're trapped and there's no other way out - attack!" Like the rabbit who goes berserk between the paws of the fox and escapes because the fox has no response for a rabbit that bites back.

We practiced every technique, but it was not until we learned to blend mentally with the woods that we became as good as invisible.

I had become animal in some important and irreversible ways.

If I had fallen then, I would have died happy with what I had seen. I was crazy to have climbed both places, but the best seats always entailed the greatest risks, and I was always ready to pay the price.

It seemed completely crazy to me. But then, most of what I saw outside the woods seemed insane, so I believed it was true.

I had done what I thought was right. If there were punishments for that, I was ready to take them.

I prayed that he was still alive, because I loved anybody who could go from the dragging feet of despair to skipping less than 50 feet later.

I cried with him, because he was there and alive and if my life ended in the next instant, all the years I had spent learning to track had been justified. I was where I should be. And I was happy and thankful to be there.

[Jennifer-]

Quotes from "The Search"
A continuation of the story of the Tracker.


When I walk through the woods, like an Indian, my walk is a prayer.

Look at the conditions all around us. It is because we have lost touch with our roots.

Our young people have little to believe in. They look around them, and everything is polluted and ditry. There's crime in the streets. There's embezzlement. People are constantly trying to rip each other off. The government is so big it can't be trusted. They're looking for something more.

If you ever get lost, just stick it out long enough, and I guarantee they'll put a skyscraper up right next to you.

When a man steps, the ripple of his steps can be felt across the earth. Everything man touches is affected. If we walk through nature as a prayer, if we respect everything we have left and stop going after money and profit and ripping apart our landscapes, we can stop this destruction and possibly save what we have left. We can do that by being aware of what is really going on. When we have found out, we have to get others involved.

To me, the real wildernes of our country is our inner cities. There's more that can hurt you there than in the woods.

William Owen: "How can you sit for hours and look at one piece of earth?" Tom: "Everything that I see is "real" and alive. The question I ask is how can anyone sit in front of a machine for hours on end, viewing an unreal world, and not get bored?"

What I mean by survival is prospering.

The only way you can experience is to watch.

He [Mike] couldn't let himself go enough to imagine himself with the eagle in flight, searching the earth for food, and therefore he would never understand the eagle.

Is it strange to talk to nature? It is natural to me. (liz: amen!)

Humans want to be on top of the world. Animals just want to be a part of it.

Ricky had reaffirmed my faith in my basic belief that my questions were not going to be answered by me but by nature. My part was not a waste, my ideas not insane, my ways not empty, my reality valid.

There have been times when I have knelt and wept tears of joy and gratitude because I have realized the beauty of the spirit of nature. When I first began to understand the essence of this "spirit", the things of the "wild" ceased being "wild" because I realized that my spirit was one with theirs. Our life force was the same.

Stalking Wolf: Sometimes you must go back in order to discover what happens beyond the end of a trail.

That summer passed quickly because we were always on our bellies crawling. Our parents thought we had given up clealiness. When asked if we crawled around in the mud all day and the answer was "yes", we'd get queer looks.

Man, the greatest predator, has lost his ability to be invisible or silent.

It is during pensive moments...that I feel a deep sense of shame at being a human. Yet, I have learned not to be discouraged by such feelings, but rather to be strengthened in my resolve to change man's nature and bring it back in communion with the earth.

I don't shrug off feelings as silly or unfounded. I trust them.

I was incensed that anyone would think so little of life that they would sacrifice it.

Forget the pain, just follow the track.

I wanted to hide from societal reality and sink into nature's womd and hibernate till man destroyed himself and the animals took over again.

I will try to change this land and her people. I will teach what I have learned and trust that someday we might all be "swingers of birches..."


I knew instinctively that I belonged in the woods, but I didn't know what that meant.

Most of the stimuli I was receiving from the people around me was negative. They thought it was silly, immature, or just plain irresponsible to spend so much time wandering through the woods. I should have a job and contribute to society. I figured that if I ate wild roots that would not be eaten by anyone else and leave more civilized food for some starving soul, that was a contribution.

There are two ways to look at the world-through the eyes of man and through the eyes of the Great Spirit. I have chosen the latter and have made my peace with myself and with my Mother, the Earth.

Some might say I wandered aimlesly, but they do not understand the art of wandering. Some might say I was lost because I have nowhere to go, but they do not understand that, when someone belongs everywhere, he is never lost.

The white man builds a shelter, and it becomes his prison.

I learned that the elements were not my adversaries. They were my brothers.

Summer was giving way to fall. Another season. Another vision.

My possessions were these: a pebble from the bank of a stream that had fed me happily for a week, an acorn from an especially magnificent oak thathad kept me company through a summer storm, a feather of a scarlet tanager, and a snapping turtle's egg. Such was my treasure. And I was happy.

I wanted to observe and experience winter in all its natural fierceness and learn from it. I did not want to be bothered with survival.

I felt as though I was relating to the forest as man should relate. I did not only take. I gave.

...the Indians' ways were correct. They lived life as it ought to be lived. The white man lived a lie.

Come winter. Come dreams.

My daily devotions had become through the months more necessary to me than food. How I long now for those silent mornings beside the lake!

I spoke little during those months and discovered a spiritual balance of body, mind, and spirit. I became like the snow-covered forest about me. Silent. To the Indian, silence is the cornerstone of character.

I must face the storms of life in the same manner [as the trees]. I learned from the hardwood that there was a time when I should stand and not yield, and be pruned by experience. There was also a time to bend and yield to inevitable pressures so that I might spring back to face another day. I was the hardwood; I was the softwood. I was all of creation, and it was all of me.

I worshipped the Great Spirit that was able to create such beauty and fill it with silence.

I was born and reborn through the seasons. I had died a dozen deaths to old values and fears proved false by the truth of nature. I had learned to think with my heart again.

I was awakened from a sleep caused by thousands of years of separation from the earth.

I had become again a child of the land. Now, to become a man. It was time for me to leave the womb and face the world with my ideas.

In me, "the call" was my desire to experience what Stalking Wolf called "at one with the earth". I didn't know what it meant, and yet I wanted it, even needed it.

I was here to learn the great truth my teacher had discovered.

We are so locked into order. Everything must have its place, and we fail to see the natural order of things. Leaves are untidy and must be raked. Their presence on our lawns broadcasts neglect and laziness. Their absence reflects order and control and pride...

Man in his desire to make the earth better for his survival has managed to scar, to deface it to the point where it now threatens him with extinction. Why, he even encloses himself in metal and concrete when he is placed in the earth to rest. "Ashes to ashes," should read "Ashes to concrete."

I felt very close to that hare and was thankful that he could understand me. He sensed that I meant him no harm, and he trusted me. It was something I had experienced with very few people, and I wondered why people had lost this ability that animals have of sensing danger and safety?

The owl and the hare. The hunter and the hunted living so close, and yet there was little fear and no hatred.

I have often been alone, but the only time I have ever felt lonely is in high school.

Man had grown out of the earth. Somehow he had strayed from his beginnings. I longed to return to those beginnings. To understand. To find where I fit. "It's not ghosts I look for!"

Seek the wilderness, for there is peace.

[Jennifer-]

Quotes from "The Vision"
The beginning of Tom's spiritual oddesy into the unknown.


When I think of modern man entering the wilderness, I see a scenario much like an astronaut landing on the moon: Man as an alien, part of his environment but never one with it.

Grandfather taught us to follow our heart when we wandered in the wilderness, to go without time or destination, to abandon the grand goals and just appreciate everything along the way.

Grandfather said, "People and animals that stay on the same path in life will eventually wear themselves into ruts - a complacency to life born of the false security, comfort, and monotony of that path. Soon the ruts become so deep that they can no longer see over the sides. They see neither danger nor beauty, only the path before them, nor do they abandon that path so often traveled, for fear of losing their security and entering the land of the unknown."

Grandfather said, "You must learn to listen in purity so as not to pollute the teachings with your prejudices. You must forget you have a past, forget all you have ever learned, and who you are, then you will be empty and ready to listen purely. After the teaching is finished, then you can judge, but only after it is completely finished. This could take years. We must always remember: every person, every prophecy, and every religion is a teacher, but we must seek out all people and search for teachings, for some are buried deep. Nothing is bad or good, right or wrong; it all depends on how we judge with our prejudice. Listening in purity and empitness judges not, only learns."

Our ancestors' approach to Creation and the Native American consciousness of Earth Mother were extremely different. Where the native peoples viewed the earth with a sense of reverence and respect, the white man viewed the land as something frightening that had to be conquered.

For all the early years I had lived in the forests, we had merely thrown the weapon or set the trap that had been involved in the actual kill. We did not really know death because we were separated from that fateful moment where the animal and death became one. We understood as best we could, but we were still removed, somewhat, from it all. Our connection and the full impact of the hunt's responsibilities were not realized fully until we had experienced the kill firsthand. This would be my passage into manhood.

That day, I realized that all fear was of my own making, all events were of my own choosing, and my path was a series of choices. I knew then that I had to choose to live a spiritual life close to nature and nature's ruler, rather than the empty and dead-end-existence of fleshly society. I needed to choose a pure reality filled with excitement, adventure, and intensity - a life of rapture rather than a life of comfort, security, and boredom like everyone else was choosing. I knew exactly what I wanted and how to get there.

The more I live my Vision, the more I realize that the direst problem today is that people live with no Vision at all. Society provides some superficial experiences similar to the Vision that the masses follow to death, but no man can dictate to another the "right" content of a Vision.

New questions were never asked until the old answers were understood and lived fully.

Grandfather said, "Every day there are miracles for those who are aware through faith and believe. All men can become bridges, if they give up all else to learn."

Grandfather spoke for the first time since leaving the silence of camp, saying, "You must go beyond what the quests have been in the past and find the path to the 'healing force'. You must be pure in thoughts, spirit, and reason, to approach this path. You will never find it if your ego or greed go with ou. You must accept what that path teaches and resolve yourself to follow that path, even at the sacrifice of all things. If you choose to follow that path, you must dedicate yourself to its challenges, its pain, and its self-sacrifice. Once you decide to go, there can be no turning back, for a man who abandons his Vision is living death."

[Jennifer-]

I know.. its long..  but its good!   

Four Prophecies
We're running out of time...


A number of people can predict the future, but few get the timing correct. "Grandfather" was an Apache wise man and scout, named Stalking Wolf, who grew up outside white man's influence. His many predictions not only came true in the manner he predicted, but also when he predicted.

Tom Brown, Jr learned extensively from Grandfather for twenty years, from their first meeting when Tom was seven years old. Stalking Wolf was the real-life grandfather of Tom's best friend at the time. The following excerpt from Tom's book, The Quest, tells of Grandfather's predictions for all of mankind.

Looking back, I can clearly see that Grandfather's prophecies, unlike anything else, had the greatest influence on my life. At the time they had little more effect than to frighten me and cause me to sit up and take notice. It wasn't until after his prophecies began to come true that their haunting impact began to affect me in a very profound way.

More than any other person-prophet, religious leader or psychic-I have ever met, Grandfather's prophecies, on both a major and a minor scale, came true exactly at the time he prophesied and exactly as he prophesied. With that record, I could not help but feel the impact of these prophecies on my life.

Grandfather could foretell the future with tremendous accuracy. Not only could he precisely tell us what would happen in the next moment, day, week or year, but with the same accuracy he could predict the possible futures for ten years and more away. It was not long before I began to keep detailed records of his predictions, along with other notes I kept on survival skills, tracking, awareness and things of the Spirit. I received from Grandfather hundreds of personal, minor predictions, and well over half have since come true. Along with the minor personal prophecies was a list of 103 major predictions, of which, to date, over 65 have become absolutely true, not only in time and place but also in the exact order in which they were predicted to happen.

Grandfather said that there was not future, only possible futures. The 'now' was like the palm of a hand, with each finger being the possible future, and, as always, one of the futures was always the most powerful, the way that the main course of events would surely take us. Thus his predictions were of the possible future, which meant that he always left a choice.

"If a man could make the right choices," he said, "then he could significantly alter the course of the possible future. No man, then, should feel insignificant, for it only takes one man to alter the consciousness of mankind through the Spirit-that-moves-in-all-things. In essence, one thought influences another, then another, until the thought is made manifest throughout all of Creation. It is the same thought, the same force, that causes an entire flock of birds to change course, as the flock then has one mind."

Out of all the personal and major prophecies that Grandfather foretold, there are four that stand out above all the rest. It is these four that mark the destruction of man and life on Earth, as we know it to exist now. Yet Grandfather said that we could still change things, even after the first two prophecies came true, but that there could be no turning back after the third.

Now that we have gone well past the second prophecy, danger and destruction are very apparent, and our only recourse is to work harder to change what has possibly become the inevitable. The urgency that I feel-now, more than ever-is a direct result of the second, impossible prophecy coming true. It is the reason that I teach, sometimes with a certain desperation, and constantly with the sense that we are quickly running out of time.

I should have worked harder and with that same desperation at a much earlier date, but, like the rest of mankind, it took a strong message to get me motivated. I should have known that these things he prophesied would some day come true, because his personal, minor predictions were coming true daily.

He so accurately foretold of Rick's death on a white horse, that I would some day teach, that I would have a son-and that taking him into the Pine Barrens for the first time would forever change my life. He predicted the formation of my school, my books, my family, and even the horrible mistakes I would make as I tried to live within society.

Yet with all of this coming true on a daily basis, I simply would not believe or accept that the major prophecy of man's destruction would come true, and its reality hit me hard. It was then that the urgency made itself known.

I remember so vividly the "night of the four prophecies"-as I have become accustomed to calling that night when Grandfather first made us aware of their possibility. We had been with Grandfather for five years at the time and were accustomed to his prophecies and their accuracy.

Our ability to understand the things of the Spirit world were as sure as our ability to survive and track. Very little of what society calls "the paranormal" shocked us any more, because miracles were part of our everyday existence. Grandfather was a living miracle, and so many of the things that he did on a daily basis, sometimes unconsciously, would be considered miraculous by most. Yet as savvy as we were spiritually, the night of the four prophecies shocked us like nothing we had ever experienced before.

We had been hiking all day without much of a break, making our way to a place where we were going to camp, atop a small hill that I now call Prophecy Hill. It was a typical midsummer hike: hot, humid and dusty, with no water available along our entire travel route. As usual, we still took time to stop frequently or take side trips to explore various areas along our route. The adventure and exploration kept us fresh and eager, making the fatigue, heat and thirst hardly factors.

Many times along the way, Grandfather would stop and teach us-not physical lessons of survival, tracking or awareness, but lessons dealing with the awareness of Spirit. Very often he would discuss the future and, almost as frequently, the past-the distant past.

At one point we stopped along the deer trail we were travelling and followed Grandfather through some heavy brush. The trees and shrubs were far different than those throughout the rest of the Pine Barrens, and I immediately knew this place as an old homestead or town of some sort. Even though the buildings had long since rotted away, the plants and trees still marked the spot where civilisation had once stood. Passing through several very thick areas, we finally entered a grove of very tall, old sycamore trees. From their branches and up their trunks ran huge vines, the kind one might imagine finding in a jungle. In fact, the whole place looked like a jungle-so out of place from the pine, oak and blueberry that is typical in the Pine Barrens. As we sat down, a deeper spiritual sense of awareness came over me, and it was then that I noticed the gravestones.

This was the place of a very old and probably long-forgotten cemetery, possibly belonging to the town that had once been here. The stones were old; some lay flat on the ground and others stood upright, though none was straight. Plants and bushes had overrun many of the stones, and I could barely make out the markings on the stones. The weathering process had worn away many of the names and dates, making them barely readable.

At once we were in awe, humbled and reverent in this place of death; at the same time, we were amazed that Grandfather had found it so easily. To my knowledge, none of us had been there before, nor had Grandfather ever spoken of this graveyard. Yet for some reason he seemed to be drawn to it, knowing that it was there on some unseen spiritual level, at least unseen to us. I suspect now, as I look back, that he knew that it would become a teaching lesson for us.

He walked over to a gravestone that was partially hidden by foxgrape vines and gently pulled them away. After a long moment, he motioned us to come over. We could barely make out the name on the grave or the dates, but at the bottom was carved clearly: "12 years old".

Grandfather then spoke. "Who are these people; who is this boy? What did they work for and what were their hopes, dreams and visions? Did they just work physically or did they work for the things beyond the flesh, for a grander purpose? Certainly they affected the Spirit-that-moves-in-all-things, but did they really work to the best of their ability to make things better for the future of their grandchildren, or did they do nothing other than to perpetuate the myth of society? Were they happy, joyous and filled with spiritual rapture, or did they just lead lives of labour and mediocrity? And did this boy live close to the Earth and the Creator, or did he just give up his youth, his sense of adventure, to toil, as did his parents and their parents before them? This boy was exactly your age, and I suspect he had hopes and dreams much like yours. But this is his legacy, lying in a forgotten grave."

"But, Grandfather," I said, "isn't it enough just to be happy and live your life fully?"

After a long moment of silence, Grandfather answered. "It is not enough that man be just happy in the flesh, but he must also be happy and joyous in spirit. For without spiritual happiness and rapture, life is shallow. Without seeking the things of the Spirit, life is half lived and empty. And by spiritual life I do not mean just setting aside one hour of one day of one week for worship, but to seek the things of the spirit every moment of every day. I ask you, then: What did these people do to seek spiritual enlightenment and rapture? Did they just give in to a life that was little more than work? They were given a choice every day of their lives-as you will be given a choice to seek the rapture of the Spirit or to resign yourselves to a life of meaningless work. The end result is always the same: forgotten graves and forgotten dreams of forgotten people. It is not important that anyone notice or remember, but that you work to touch God and affect in a positive way the consciousness of the Spirit-that-moves-in-all-things, thus bringing the consciousness of man closer to the Creator."

We left the graveyard without a word and headed up to the campsite on the hill. By the time we reached the camp, it had cooled off and the Sun had long since set. As we built shelters and a fire and gathered food, time seemed to fly by unnoticed, as my mind was thoroughly engrossed in thoughts of the lessons in the graveyard. I wondered how much I might be like that nameless dead boy in that forgotten grave. Was I just seeking the flesh and not working hard enough in the things of the Spirit?

It was then that I realised the deeper lessons of what Grandfather was trying to teach me. I realised then that I should live life as if I were to die tomorrow, for that is what happened to that young boy. No one can be assured of another day, but we must live each day fully, in flesh and most of all in Spirit. It isn't important that anyone remember who we were, but that we made a positive change in the consciousness of the Spirit-that-moves-in-all-things, the life force of the Earth, and, in doing so, find spiritual rapture and touch the Creator.

I sat by the fire after the work was done, relaxing, still deep in thought about the boy in the graveyard. Grandfather sat at the far end of the fire, his eyes closed, but I suspected that he was not sleeping. In the firelight, his features appeared more that of a spirit than of flesh. Quietly he leaned forward and answered the many questions I had on my mind. At times, his ability to know what was on my mind was unnerving, sometimes making me angry to think that he could know my thoughts.

"Did you ever watch a flock of sandpipers on the beach, how they ebb and flow with the tides, becoming at times not a gathering of individual animals but one organism, moving as a unit together along the surf? When they burst into flight, their cohesiveness is even more startling and wondrous. At once they all will be flying in a certain direction, and then in an instant the entire flock will turn simultaneously and take a new direction.

"Studied closely, there is no one bird that makes the decision to turn, but it seems to be a Spirit, a collective consciousness, that runs through the flock instantly. When viewed from afar, the flock appears to be one animal, one organism, one consciousness, governed by the collective force and spirit of all the individuals. It is this same consciousness that runs through man, Nature and the Earth-that which we call the 'Spirit-that-moves-in-all-things', or the 'life force'.

"I suspect," he continued, "that it is but one bird that creates the thought that turns the flock, and the one thought becomes immediately manifested in all the others. The individual then transcends self and becomes one with the whole. Thus, at once, the bird moves within the flock and the flock moves within the bird. So, then, do not ask what you can do to affect the life force in a positive way, for the same Spirit that moves within the birds also moves within you. One person, one idea, one thought can turn the flock of society away from the destructive path of modern times. It is not a question as to whether we make a difference, for we all make a difference, each of us in our own way. It is the difference we make that is important."

"So if we live a life that is close to the Spirit, seek the spiritual rapture of oneness, that will affect the outcome of life," I said. My statement was more a question than a declaration.

"It is not enough," Grandfather said, "just to seek the things of the Spirit on a personal level. To do so is selfish, and those who just seek the spiritual realms for themselves are not working to change the Spirit that moves through the consciousness of man. Instead they are running away, hiding from their responsibility and using their wisdom for their own glorification. Spiritual man must then work for a principle, a cause, a Quest far greater than the glorification of self, in order to affect the spirit that can change the course of man's destruction."

I sat for a long time in the quietude of the night, trying desperately to understand what Grandfather had told me. In essence, it was not enough to work for spiritual enlightenment for self, but to work for the spiritual enlightenment of all of mankind. To work only for self, to cloister oneself in the seeking of spiritual rapture, is to run from this responsibility. What Grandfather was saying is that a spiritual person must take the wisdom and philosophy of the Earth and bring it back into modern society.

Grandfather spoke again. "Trying to live a spiritual life in modern society is the most difficult path one can walk. It is a path of pain, of isolation and of shaken faith, but that is the only way that our Vision can become reality. Thus the true Quest in life is to live the philosophy of the Earth within the confines of man. There is no church or temple we need to seek peace, for ours are the temples of the wilderness. There are no spiritual leaders, for our hearts and the Creator are our only leaders. Our numbers are scattered; few speak our language or understand the things that we live. Thus we walk this path alone, for each Vision, each Quest, is unique unto the individual. But we must walk within society or our Vision dies, for a man not living his Vision is living death."

For a long time there was no other conversation. I retired into my own thoughts and doubts. I did not want to live within society, for the wilderness was my home, my love, my life and my spiritual rapture. I could not see why a man could not live his Vision in the purity of wilderness, away from the distractions of society. I could feel no urgency or see any reason why I should take what I have learned back to society.

Grandfather's voice shattered my thoughts. "The Earth is dying. The destruction of man is close, so very close, and we must all work to change that path of destruction. We must pay for the sins of our grandfathers and grandmothers, for we have long been a society that kills its grandchildren to feed its children. There can be no rest, and we cannot run away; far too many in the past have run away. It is very easy to live a spiritual life away from man, but the truth of Vision in spiritual life can only be tested and become a reality when lived near society."

"How do I know that we are so close to that destruction?" I asked.

"I had a Vision," Grandfather said. "It was a Vision of the destruction of man. But man was given four warnings to that destruction, two of which gave man a chance to change his ways and two of which would give the children of the Earth time to escape the Creator's wrath."

"How will I know these warnings, these signs?" I asked.

Grandfather continued. "They will be obvious to you and those who have learned to listen to the Spirit of the Earth; but to those who live within the flesh and know only flesh, there is no knowing or understanding. When these signs, these warnings and prophecies, are made manifest, then you will understand the urgency of what I speak. Then you will understand why people must not just work for their own spiritual rapture but to bring that rapture to the consciousness of modern man."

The Four Signs

Grandfather had been wandering for several years and was well into his forties when the Vision of the four signs was given to him. He had just finished his third Vision Quest at the Eternal Cave when the Vision made itself known. He had been seated at the mouth of the cave, awaiting the rising Sun, when the spirit of the warrior appeared to him. He felt as if he were in a state somewhere between dream and reality, sleep and wakefulness, until the spirit finally spoke and he knew that it was not his imagination. The spirit called Grandfather's name and beckoned him to follow.

As Grandfather stood, he was suddenly transported to another world. Again, he thought that he was dreaming, but his flesh could feel the reality of this place; his senses knew that this was a state of abject reality, but in another time and place.

The spirit warrior spoke to Grandfather. "These are the things yet to come that will mark the destruction of man. These things you may never see, but you must work to stop them and pass these warnings on to your grandchildren. They are the possible futures of what will come if man does not come back to the Earth and begin to obey the laws of Creation and the Creator. There are four signs, four warnings, that only the children of the Earth will understand. Each warning marks the beginning of a possible future, and as each warning becomes reality, so too does the future it marks."

With that, the spirit warrior was gone and Grandfather was left alone in this strange, new world.

The First Sign

The world he was in was like nothing he had ever known. It was a dry place with little vegetation. In the distance he saw a village, yet it was made out of tents and cloth rather than from the materials of the Earth. As he drew closer to the village, the stench of death overwhelmed him and he grew sick. He could hear children crying, the moaning of elders and the sounds of sickness and despair. Piles of bodies lay in open pits awaiting burial, their contorted faces and frail frames telling of death from starvation. The bodies appeared more like skeletons than flesh, and children, adults and elders all looked the same, their once dark-brown complexions now ash-grey. As Grandfather entered the village, the horror of living starvation struck him deeper. Children could barely walk, elders lay dying, and everywhere were the cries of pain and fear. The stench of death and the sense of hopelessness overwhelmed Grandfather, threatening to drive him from the village.

It was then that an elder appeared to Grandfather, at first speaking in a language that he could not understand. Grandfather realised, as the elder spoke, that he was the spirit of a man-a man no longer of flesh, but a man who had once walked a spiritual path, possibly a shaman of this tribe. It was then that he understood what the old one was trying to tell him.

The elder spoke softly. "Welcome to what will be called the 'land of starvation'. The world will one day look upon all of this with horror and will blame the famine on the weather and the Earth. This will be the first warning to the world that man cannot live beyond the laws of Creation, nor can he fight Nature. If the world sees that it is to blame for this famine, this senseless starvation, then a great lesson will be learned. But I am afraid that the world will not blame itself, but that the blame will be placed on Nature. The world will not see that it created this place of death by forcing these people to have larger families. When the natural laws of the land were broken, the people starved, as Nature starves the deer in winter when their numbers are too many for the land to bear."

The old one continued. "These people should have been left alone. They once understood how to live with the Earth, and their wealth was measured in happiness, love and peace. But all of that was taken from them when the world saw theirs as a primitive society. It was then that the world showed them how to farm and live in a less primitive way. It was the world that forced them to live outside the laws of Creation and, as a result, is now forcing them to die."

The old man slowly began to walk away, back to the death and despair. He turned one last time to Grandfather, and said: "This will be the first sign. There will come starvation before and after this starvation, but none will capture the attention of the world with such impact as does this one. The children of the Earth will know the lessons that are held in all of this pain and death, but the world will only see it as drought and famine, blaming Nature instead of itself."

With that, the old one disappeared, and Grandfather found himself back at the mouth of the Eternal Cave.

[Author's note: This is the great African famine that inspired the Bob Geldof "We are the World" Live Aid relief effort.]

Grandfather lay back on the ground, thinking about what he had witnessed. He knew that it had been a Vision of the possible future and that the spirit of the warrior had brought him to it to teach him what could happen. Grandfather knew that people all over the Earth were now starving-but why was this starvation so critical, so much more important than all the rest, even more important than the starvation that was taking place now?

It was then that Grandfather recalled that the tribal elder had said that the entire world would take notice, but that the world would not learn the lessons of what the death and famine were trying to teach. The children would die in vain.

Grandfather looked out across the barren land that surrounded the Eternal Cave to try to re-establish the reality of his 'now'. He said that it was still hard to discern between waking reality and the world of Vision, but he felt that he was back into his time and place.

He told me that the Eternal Cave was always a place to find Visions of the possible and probable futures, and it was not uncommon for the searcher to have a Vision at the mouth of the cave, not just inside.

In a state of physical and emotional exhaustion, Grandfather fell into a deep sleep, but it was in this sleep that the warrior spirit appeared to him again and brought the remainder of the first sign to completion.

In his dream, the spirit spoke to Grandfather. "It is during the years of the famine, the first sign, that man will be plagued by a disease, a disease that will sweep the land and terrorise the masses. The white coats [doctors/scientists] will have no answers for the people, and a great cry will arise across the land. The disease will be born of monkeys, drugs and sex. It will destroy man from inside, making common sickness a killing disease. Mankind will bring this disease upon himself as a result of his life, his worship of sex and drugs, and a life away from Nature. This, too, is a part of the first warning; but, again, man will not heed this warning and he will continue to worship the false gods of sex and the unconscious spirit of drugs." [Author's note: This is presumably a reference to AIDS.]

The spirit continued. "The drugs will produce wars in the cities of man, and the nations will arise against those wars, arise against that killing disease. But the nations will fight in the wrong way, lashing out at the effect rather than the cause. It will never win these wars until the nation, until society, changes its values and stops chasing the gods of sex and drugs. It is then, in the years of the first sign, that man can change the course of the probable future. It is then that he may understand the greater lessons of the famine and the disease. It is then that there can still be hope. But once the second sign of destruction appears, the Earth can no longer be healed on a physical level. Only a spiritual healing can then change the course of the probable futures of mankind."

With that, the warrior spirit let Grandfather fall into a deep and dreamless sleep, allowing him to rest fully before any more Vision was wrought upon him.

The Second Sign

Grandfather awoke at the entrance of the cave once again, the memory of the warrior spirit still vivid in his mind, the spirit's words becoming part of his soul.

When Grandfather looked out across the landscape, all had changed. The landscape appeared drier; there was no vegetation to be seen, and animals lay dying. A great stench of death arose from the land, and the dust was thick and choking, the intense heat oppressive. Looking skyward, the Sun seemed to be larger and more intense; no birds or clouds could be seen, and the air seemed thicker still. It was then that the sky seemed to surge and huge holes began to appear. The holes tore with a resounding, thunderous sound, and the very Earth, rocks and soil shook.

The skin of the sky seemed to be torn open like a series of gaping wounds, and through these wounds seeped a liquid that seemed like the oozing of an infection, a great sea of floating garbage, oil and dead fish. It was through one of these wounds that Grandfather saw the floating bodies of dolphins, accompanied by tremendous upheavals of the Earth and violent storms. As he held fast to the trembling Earth, his eyes fell from the sky, and all about him, all at once, was disaster. Piles of garbage reached to the skies, forests lay cut and dying, coastlines were flooded and storms grew more violent and thunderous. With each passing moment, the Earth shook with greater intensity, threatening to tear apart and swallow Grandfather.

Suddenly the Earth stopped shaking and the sky cleared. Out of the dusty air walked the warrior spirit, who stopped a short distance from Grandfather. As Grandfather looked into the face of the spirit, he could see that there were great tears flowing from his eyes, and each tear fell to the Earth with a searing sound.

The spirit looked at Grandfather for a long moment, then finally spoke. "Holes in the sky."

Grandfather thought for a moment, then, in a questioning, disbelieving manner, said, "Holes in the sky?"

And the spirit answered. "They will become the second sign of the destruction of man. The holes in the sky and all that you have seen could become man's reality. It is here, at the beginning of this second sign, that man can no longer heal the Earth with physical action. It is here that man must heed the warning and work harder to change the future at hand. But man must not only work physically, he must also work spiritually, through prayer, for only through prayer can man now hope to heal the Earth and himself."

There was a long pause as Grandfather thought about the impossibility of holes in the sky. Surely Grandfather knew that there could be a spiritual hole, but a hole that the societies of the Earth could notice would hardly seem likely.

The spirit drew closer and spoke again, almost in a whisper. "These holes are a direct result of man's life, his travel, and of the sins of his grandfathers and grandmothers. These holes, the second sign, will mark the killing of his grandchildren and will become a legacy to man's life away from Nature. It is the time of these holes that will mark a great transition in mankind's thinking. They will then be faced with a choice-a choice to continue following the path of destruction, or a choice to move back to the philosophy of the Earth and a simpler existence. It is here that the decision must be made, or all will be lost."

Without another word, the spirit turned and walked back into the dust.

The Third Sign

Grandfather spent the next four days at the cave entrance, though for those four days nothing spoke to him, not even the Earth. He said that it was a time of great sorrow, of aloneness, and a time to digest all that had taken place.

He knew that these things would not appear in his lifetime, but they had to be passed down to the people of the future with the same urgency and power with which they had been delivered to him. But he did not know how he would explain these unlikely events to anyone. Surely the elders and shamans of the tribes would understand, but not society, and certainly not anyone who was removed from the Earth and Spirit.

He sat for the full four days, unmoving, as if made of stone, and his heart felt heavy with the burden he now carried.

It was at the end of the fourth day that the third Vision came to him. As he gazed out onto the landscape towards the setting Sun, the sky suddenly turned to a liquid and then turned blood-red. As far as his eyes could see, the sky was solid red, with no variation in shadow, texture or light. The whole of Creation seemed to have grown still, as if awaiting some unseen command. Time, place and destiny seemed to be in limbo, stilled by the bleeding sky. He gazed for a long time at the sky, in a state of awe and terror, for the red colour of the sky was like nothing he had ever seen in any sunset or sunrise. The colour was that of man, not of Nature, and it had a vile stench and texture. It seemed to burn the Earth wherever it touched. As sunset drifted to night, the stars shone bright red, the colour never leaving the sky, and everywhere the cries of fear and pain were heard.

Again, the warrior spirit appeared to Grandfather, but this time as a voice from the sky. Like thunder, the voice shook the landscape. "This, then, is the third sign, the night of the bleeding stars. It will become known throughout the world, for the sky in all lands will be red with the blood of the sky, day and night. It is then, with this sign of the third probable future, that there is no longer hope. Life on the Earth as man has lived it will come to an end, and there can be no turning back, physically or spiritually. It is then, if things are not changed during the second sign, that man will surely know the destruction of the Earth is at hand. It is then that the children of the Earth must run to the wild places and hide. For when the sky bleeds fire, there will be no safety in the world of man."

Grandfather sat in shocked horror as the voice continued.

"From this time, when the stars bleed, to the fourth and final sign, will be four seasons of peace [that is, one year]. It is in these four seasons that the children of the Earth must live deep in the wild places and find a new home, close to the Earth and the Creator. It is only the children of the Earth that will survive, and they must live the philosophy of the Earth, never returning to the thinking of man. And survival will not be enough, for the children of the Earth must also live close to the Spirit. So tell them not to hesitate if and when this third sign becomes manifest in the stars, for there are but four seasons to escape."

Grandfather said that the voice and red sky lingered for a week, and then were gone as quickly as they were manifest.

The Fourth Sign

He did not remember how many days he'd spent at the mouth of the cave, nor did it make a difference, for he had received the Vision he had come for.

It was in his final night at the Eternal Cave that the fourth Vision came to Grandfather, this time carried by the voice of a young child.

The child said, "The fourth and final sign will appear through the next ten winters [that is, ten years] following the night that the stars will bleed. During this time, the Earth will heal itself and man will die. For those ten years, the children of the Earth must remain hidden in the wild places, make no permanent camps, and wander to avoid contact with the last remaining forces of man. They must remain hidden, like the ancient scouts, and fight the urge to go back to the destruction of man. Curiosity could kill many."

There was a long silence, until Grandfather spoke to the child spirit, asking, "And what will happen to the worlds of man?"

There was another period of silence until finally the child spoke again. "There will be a great famine throughout the world, like man cannot imagine. Waters will run vile, the poisons of man's sins running strong in the waters of the soils, lakes and rivers. Crops will fail, the animals of man will die, and disease will kill the masses. The grandchildren will feed upon the remains of the dead, and all about will be the cries of pain and anguish. Roving bands of men will hunt and kill other men for food, and water will always be scarce, getting scarcer with each passing year. The land, the water, the sky will all be poisoned, and man will live in the wrath of the Creator. Man will hide at first in the cities, but there he will die. A few will run to the wilderness, but the wilderness will destroy them, for they had long ago been given a choice. Man will be destroyed, his cities in ruin, and it is then that the grandchildren will pay for the sins of their grandfathers and grandmothers."

"Is there then no hope?" Grandfather asked.

The child spoke again. "There is only hope during the time of the first and second signs. Upon the third sign, the night of the bleeding, there is no longer hope, for only the children of the Earth will survive. Man will be given these warnings; if unheeded, there can be no hope, for only the children of the Earth will purge themselves of the cancers of mankind, of mankind's destructive thinking. It will be the children of the Earth who will bring a new hope to the new society, living closer to the Earth and Spirit."

Then all was silent, the landscape cleared and returned to normal, and Grandfather stepped from the Vision. Shaken, he said that he had wandered for the next season, trying to understand all that had been given to him, trying to understand why he had been chosen.

Grandfather had related the story to me in great detail during that night of the four prophecies. I don't think that any event had been left out, and his emotions and thoughts were such that he actually relived it for us. Thus the power of his Vision became part of our spirit, our driving force, and a big part of our fears.

I sat for a long time up on the hill. The fire had gone out, and all had retired to sleep for the night. Creation seemed to be at a standstill, awaiting this darkest part of the night to pass by. I felt alone and vulnerable, as if all of Creation were scrutinising my every thought.

Grandfather had this Vision some time in the 1920s.

[nichi]

Wow, Jen! You found the perfect wise man here!

I've heard of this man, in a very serious setting .... I can't remember where. But he is highly, highly regarded in the same breath that he is kept a precious secret. I wish I could remember from whence I got this impression. (It almost seems like a dream, from long ago.)

But you hit gold, is what I'm saying!

(((((u)))))

[Zamurito]

Great material, Jen.

Interesting, that for a birthday of mine about 15 years ago my sister (Who's name is also Jen, btw,) purchased a couple of Tom Brown Jr.'s books for me.  She told me she was looking for CC's work, but couldn't remember CC's name, and when she skimmed Tom's work it looked similiar.  lol

Interesting omen for myself at the time...but that's another tale of power

I've enjoyed his work, although I only have a couple of his books.

Something to look into for further reading as yet another opportunity

Zam

[Jennifer-]

Wow, Jen! You found the perfect wise man here!

I've heard of this man, in a very serious setting .... I can't remember where. But he is highly, highly regarded in the same breath that he is kept a precious secret. I wish I could remember from whence I got this impression. (It almost seems like a dream, from long ago.)

But you hit gold, is what I'm saying!

(((((u)))))

Glad I could share, Im going to look a bit further into his stuff today.

Interesting.. your dream.. precious indeed! 

Great material, Jen.

Interesting, that for a birthday of mine about 15 years ago my sister (Who's name is also Jen, btw,) purchased a couple of Tom Brown Jr.'s books for me.  She told me she was looking for CC's work, but couldn't remember CC's name, and when she skimmed Tom's work it looked similiar.  lol

Interesting omen for myself at the time...but that's another tale of power

I've enjoyed his work, although I only have a couple of his books.

Something to look into for further reading as yet another opportunity

Zam

Im looking forward to finding his books for a read very soon.. perhaps this winter Ill be able to curl up with Tom for a few months. 

Ive not read alot of his work, but its given me that same.. YES! that CC's books do.

Im always in awe of those that can get such things out in words.. love it.

[Jennifer-]

He also reminds me very much of a man I recently met and have talked some about here from Earthways.. Ray.  Same sort of interest in woodland survival and becoming one with ect.. also the native teachings.  Im finding this morning that Tom has been published in "Mother Earth News" one of my favorite magazines.. and tick tock.. so has Ray.

Ive been observing Ray's method of teaching and life in hopes to one day start the same sort of development here in my woods.. or perhaps jump on board therein somewhere.. one never knows!

During my research period Im also keenly aware of those around me who could help support such an adventure... its coming.



If anyone is interested in poking around a bit deeper into Tom's work, this website I found this morning appears to be full...

http://www.trackertrail.com/tombrown/

[Jennifer-]

  Sick of him yet? hmmmmm? Bare with me.. its good to have such jewels in one place.

Tom's World
 
   
The following is the Preface to the book, The Search, by Tom Brown Jr.
 It is a moving statement of the values that are important to him.

There is a place I know where everything lives in harmony.  Nothing is envied, stolen, or killed.  Instead, everything is shared.  The land is everyone's and no one's.  Life is sacred there.  A dweller in this place thinks highly of human life because he lives so close to the earth.  He understands his part in the scheme of nature and is not lost or searching for himself.

In this place, man sleeps easily, without fear, and rises to greet the day with praises instead of with curses.  He wanders the land at times, but never without purpose.  Sometimes he hunts, fishes, farms, gathers, and sometimes he just sits and watches and listens.

Everything is valued in this place.  The smallest insect is as important as the largest bear.  Each has its purpose and is respected.  The water runs clear in the streams.  The lakes are alive with fish.  The paths are clean and covered only with the tracks of life.  The trees grow uncut, and the vines untrimmed-homes for the thousands of forms of wildlife created to live within their protection.

The birds, the wind, and the rushing water are the only music except the songs that spring spontaneously from man's heart.  The eyes and hands and mouths and bodies are the only form of communication.  In this place a man must face another in order to speak.  There is no falsehood there, no deceit, no envy.  There is only brotherhood and truth.

Pain and death are there because they are part of life.  Only there the pain is natural.  It is not inflicted by man, but by the natural order of life.  It does not debilitate, but teaches.  It does not depress, but frees.  Death there is the natural end and the supernatural beginning.

There is a God in this place, for without the Great Spirit, there could be no harmony.  It is the force which exists both outside creating and within, relating all living forms.  The Great Spirit created this place.  The Great Spirit made it good and enables all its creatures to live full lives there.

This is a place I know, where man is naked and unashamed, naked and neither hot from the sun nor cold from the wind.  There is serenity for man in this place and a oneness with all of creation.  There man neither hates nor envies, for everything is his, and he belongs to everything.  There man feels his part of the whole and is not anxious.

There is a place I know where the seasons change, but mildly . . . with a splendor beyond description.  Where summer rises on the waving lines of heat out of a spring so lush and green and full of excitement that it drips with life.  In this place, summer goes on forever like a meandering river, and all of its life is caught up and caressed in its dry warmth.  Fall sneaks up on you in this place, discerned only by its color and the frost that replaces the dew.  Winter there is white and crisp and sleepy . . . promising beneath its blanket the key to eternity.

There is change in this place I know.  The seasons change, the trees grow tall, and man is born, grows old, and dies with a smile on his lips and peace in his heart.

Where is this place?  Does it really exist?  Yes.  It is within me and can be within you.  It is a state of mind; it is an awareness; it is an appreciation; it is an understanding; it is a commitment to life.  It is the realization that everything I described is all about us every day of our lives, but we miss it.  We are blind to the beauty of a sunset, deaf to the music of the wind, callous to rough bark and soft grass.  We speak of salaries and war instead of singing songs of life.  We taste the bitterness of pollution and miss the sweetness of wild honeysuckle.  We smell bus fumes but never the apple blossoms or clover flower.

We are trapped by our conditioning in a world of steel and plastic, asphalt and concrete.  We are removed from the earth and getting farther and farther from it daily.  We worry, fret, strive, slave, and accumulate.  We see life as a treadmill, a production plant, a honkytonk, a garage.  We see it as early American or neoclassical, or nouveau or modern or ancient.  But we never see it as natural.  Life is manufactured and marketed.  It is, for many of us, something to be bought or sold, and the more we pay the better off we feel we are.

In my world, there is nothing artificial, nothing sterile.  In my world, the closer I can get to the dirt and the mud, the more alive I become.  I neither worry nor fret nor strive nor slave.  Whatever happens happens, and I learn from it.  I accumulate only what I can carry, and I see life as a great banquet at which I'm the honored guest, along with my brothers the deer and the bear and the raccoon and the salamander and the eagle and the fly.  My world has no time except the seasons and the perspectives of youth and old age.  My world is natural, designed by hands that are universal in nature.  It is neither American nor Chinese.  Its differences are high and low, wet and dry, cold and warm, and it makes little difference to me which one I'm in.  In my world, life is a gift to be accepted and returned.  Life is a celebration, it is a learning, it is a gift.  We cannot buy it or sell it, because it is not ours.  It is the Great Spirit's, given to us to enjoy.... That is the word that best explains this place: joy.  That is what I feel in my world.  Joy.  And I sincerely believe that you can feel that same joy in your world because they are the same place, only seen through different eyes.

I once asked my old Apache friend and teacher, Stalking Wolf, why he would not be cold in the winter or hot in the summer.  His answer was, "I am both, but I am not bothered by them."

"Why?" I asked.

He looked for a long time at me, trying to decide, I feel, if I was ready to receive his answer, to accept what he was about tell me.  Then he said, "Because they are real."

I've spent a long time trying to understand those words the only way I know how -- by living them.  By being as real as I can and appreciating all real things in this world.

We are a part of everything real and natural, and therefore they are a part of us.  If we don't fight them, but let them flow through us, they will never bother us, only enrich us.  It is such a simple principle that most of us miss it.  But by missing it, we miss most of what life is all about.  What I am saying is that to be a part of this real world, you need to see things differently ... that's all.  Listen with your feelings, see with your heart.  Read the earth, listen to the wind as it speaks to you.  Gather in its fragrances and touch its differences.  Taste it, and see that it is good.  This earth is a garden, this life a banquet, and it's time we realized that it was given to all life, animal and man, to enjoy.

This passage is Copyright by Tom Brown Jr.

 

[Zamurito]

Sick of him yet? hmmmmm?

You're joking, right?   

This is one of Tom's works that I have, and will definitely re-read it, although, this post contains such intensity, that I could spend quite a bit of time just really 'feeling' it all the way through....

It's interesting.....sometimes words are just words.  Sometimes words can be a tool for exceptional power.  Mmm....maybe it's the one 'saying' the words and how they're used that holds the power, eh? 

I'll just read a bit, just enough that I can handle...and just 'feel' it....then, more.    Heh...I'm weird, I know

z

[Angela]

Heh...I'm weird, I know

z

I'll second that!   

Ang

[Michael]

i've just read through the Four Prophecies.

we have been talking about this recently - myself with julie, and tio.

naturally, since the beginning of the 90's, I have been very aware of the possibility of a complete collapse. Since that time, watching events, I have felt that humanity could either escape the disaster or at least minimise it. This is based on the tremendous creative and energetic capacity of what I term the elite of the world - and I don't mean the famous or the wealthy, but the intelligent and the capable.

The question with my friends with whom I have shared these concerns, revolved more around how would humanity respond once the need became obvious - ie. what mechanisms could be utilised, and thus prepared for now, so that they would be half-way ready once the emergency was realised. One of my friends has joined SIMPOL, the Simultaneous Policy movement, precisely for this reason.

then came the Global Warming. I was aware of this for many years, but it has really only been since the end of the 90's that it's emergency has become apparent to me. Since then, it has dwarfed all the other concerns, which by the way have not gone away. Till the time not long before I initiated the WE'RE STUFFED thread, when I finally gave up hope.

This changes the whole response issue. No longer is it a question of how to assist humanity to organise itself into a global response strategy. No longer is it a question of spiritual healing of humanity - about which I spent a good deal of time in the 80' thinking and dreaming about.

Now it becomes a question of whether we remove ourselves to a safe place to survive in whatever way is possible, or to ride the wave, and use it as a technique, like Gurdjieff did - he used to travel to trouble spots around the world because there he found an intensity which he could harness for his own inner development.

I think grandfather's comment of 10 years is a vast understatement. i don't expect to see the end of this in my life time. I think the Little Ice Age in Europe lasted hundreds of years, during which the sun never appeared - or so a story goes, I'm not sure if they all agree on that, but it definitely was very grim for generations.

If we are to ride the wave, then we need the most intimate guidance of spirit, and a good amount of physical prowess.

The other option, of finding a safe haven, is certainly more appealing. The main issue will be water, then food - but if you have water, food is more assured. I live in Australia, where the smallness of population will be a safety factor. It is now clear that the entire east and south coast of the continent is drying out - life will be unsustainable there, and of course, as everyone should know, the centre is already desert. Only the top (north, and north west) of australia will have rain, but that is also very close to Indonesia - could be big competition up there.

That leaves south - Tasmania and New Zealand. Tasmania looks to have sustainable water, and is full of small valleys, and rugged country - plenty of places to hide away. Unless there is a mini ice age again, as has been serious predictions. The beauty of Tas or NZ, is that it is far away from the northern hemisphere, where there is likely to be much fighting, and possible military fallout pollution.

The perfect answer is to gather together a group of people with plenty of solar power, basic building and cultivation equipment, plus regeneration-able seeds, and set up now. Then go back to the world and wait the moment of 'lets clear out!'.

This would require a significant amount of money, which I certainly don't have. Luckily I already live in the one point on the whole east-south arc, where the rain fall has not been reduced, plus we have the only full dams in that whole arc (being why Coco Cola wants to set up a factory here). We are also a good distance from town and the major cities. So funds lacking for the perfect solution, I expect we could hold out here for a good time.

Anyway, as I said in Creaturehood: fire-lighting flint, good boots, and prepared for death. That's the fall-back position.

[erik]

Well, I used to read all sorts of prophecies and tried to peek into future this way. From the Book of Revelation of essenes to prophecies fo Miguel Ruiz and Buddha. Some of them say the same things,  some say different things.

Somehow I have landed  at the point where it seems most plausible for me that future is determined in an interactive process - we (humans) evolve - we'll be given a chance - we continue as a cancer on Earth (with our mind spreading and keeping destroying and suffocating everything) - we'll be wiped out in a brief moment. Powers way beyond ours will do that in way that we won't even comprehend what just happened.

All these warning signs - storms, melting ice, higher and higher UV indexes are merely warning signs as well as moderate tools for wiping out.

Up to us it is.

[nichi]

Tasmania!

[TIOTIT]

There are many different perceptions or approaches to this topic concerning our
immediate future and it's outcomes...the way I try to access potential outcomes is
through previous patterns and behavious and through historical accounts of how
we behave as a species....
I know the information offered regarding human history is biased and incomplete
and meant to shape our world view to support the dominant regime of the time
(religion has been good at this)
So if you begin with the basic biology of the species and it's major stratagies
for survival what we do is completly predictable(replicate)
what we need to do this is energy derived from our enviroment(food)
somewhere to do all this (shelter>habitat) when the resources to achive these
outcomes is scarse...we fight,compete...and the rest is history... all civilizations
collapse ours will be no different...it's happening now....when your nearing the
end it gets messy(on all levels)..there are always survivors and they will always
be subject to the same basic needs...how we manage them is our biggest lesson..
as a species we're still trying to get it right...It's obvious we're at another one of
those junctures where a number of factors alter the stability and cohesion of our
civilization untill something breaks....somethings gonna get us...then it all starts
again....untill we evolve and recognise our dilema we don't get past this bump in
the road....I know this is overly simplified....for me it's a basic framework to begin
understanding what I'm seeing around me...TIO