SAN JUAN ISLAND, Wash. /CitizenWire/ — Project NatureConnect announces the publication of a trailblazing article by Dr. Michael Cohen in the October 2011 issue of the Journal of Organic Psychology. The article explains how we globally suffer from a profound prejudice against nature (PAN) that disturbs our personal and collective psyche.
The mental imbalances created by PAN produce stress disorders that deteriorate personal, social and environmental well-being. They cause our economic slowdown and unemployment problems because they lead us to use 150 percent more resources each year than our planet produces. The article offers a practical remedy for PAN.
Dr. Cohen, author of ten books on reducing PAN, is the founder and director of online courses and degrees at the Akamai University Institute of Applied Ecopsychology, Portland State University and the Institute of Global Education. He shows that we suffer PAN mental dysfunctions because we seldom keep in mind that our ancestors biologically, culturally and spiritually evolved in the tropics, the so-called Garden of Eden. As our ancestors migrated for food and shelter they encountered stressful, non-tropical situations. This made their tropical-based body, mind and spirit face new challenges for survival, challenges that prejudiced them against nature's "whims." In response, they developed and bonded to techniques that created supportive, artificial solutions. For example, new tools and agriculture rewardingly provided food when its availability in nature waned.
Cohen says "Today, our socialization encourages us to continue our ancestor's PAN thoughts and feelings. As we gain satisfactions from excessive media, shopping and technologies we suffer their adverse side effects. Our exploitive thinking seldom acknowledges that it is extremely disconnected from, and addictively prejudiced against, nature, in and around us. In denial, we alienate ourselves from nature's organic gratifications that include balance, peace and happiness."
"There is hope," says Cohen. "The Natural Attraction Ecology science of 'Educating, Counseling and Healing with Nature' (ECHN) helps us reverse our PAN by enabling us to make conscious sensory contact with the powers of nature's self-correcting ways, backyard or back country. We learn how to responsibly tap our mind into nature's unifying love of life."
ECHN works because it restores our mental integrity. It enables the nature of our psyche to compost our PAN addiction and recycle it into constructive relationships. The exhilarating results speak for themselves."
Read the article at http://www.ecopsych.com/journalPAN.html .
For further information visit http://www.ecopsych.com .
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