My Nature Quest & John Milton

I've been a couple of weeks ago in a natural reserve area called Vålådalen, in the middle/north of Sweden. It's a sacred place which still belongs to the Sami People (indigenous people from Northern Europe), and it was the scenario and teacher for an amazing 6-days "Nature Quest" with John Milton and Göran Gennvi. John is a shaman, a wise man, a brujo, according to the old indigenous traditions from Mexico, North America and many parts of the world. He is best known as the guru and coach of highly influential business thinkers such as Peter Senge, Joseph Jaworski and Otto Scharmer. The whole chapter "Seeing with the Heart" in their book Presence is dedicated to John's "Sacred Passages".

We all belong to nature and we are all interconnected, but since we (civilized humans) decided to live in cities having individualized lives, we "forgot" our connection - represented by our intuition, presence and mindfulness. Such journeys remind us and helps us to reconnect - basic need for a deeper understanding of sustainability and (perhaps) a key way to find new solutions for our current global problems.

This week was organized by Martin Cadée, Director from the Kaospilot Netherlands, who has been himself last year in the desert of Utah on a Sacred Passage. We were a group of 15 Kaospilots from the schools in Aarhus, Stockholm and Rotterdam, plus a couple of business people.

We camped by a beautiful lake, with view of the snow in the mountains (even in the summer), and the company of a LOT of mosquitoes. We had one day of lectures and conversations with John Milton by the fireplace, inside a little tepee, seated on raindeers' fur, before we head up the mountain. We spent 3 days solo, without any books to read, any journals to write, any MP3s to listen, any mobile or persons to talk to, any watch to check time, and any food to eat (except a special fasting tea made with maple syrup, cayenne pepper and lime juice, on water). The idea was to get rid of all sorts of distractions, and without being able to "DO" anything, allow your self to "BE", by meditations, Tai Chi and Qi Gong practices, and contemplation. At the end of the three days, the return in silence, a slowly and profound sharing of the experiences and a sense of joyfulness.

In the last morning we were together, we also discussed on how to take this practices further, perhaps integrating it into the Kaospilot curriculum, and bringing more young (urban) people on such journeys.

Personally, I felt extremely positive after this experience. Clarity. I had read several books from Carlos Castañeda when I was 17 and by that time never had support from others, or any "masters" around to guide me. It is a sort of spiritual quest, but more than that, it means self-knowledge, awareness raising, and the ability to stay focused and attentive. A warrior's skill. I'm now looking into future opportunities to work and explore more this field, both as projects for my final school year and as for my own personal development.

Netherlands again, this time Rotterdam :)

I returned safe from Brazil, our project ended up to be extraordinary for us and it was an amazing experience. I still need to finalize some details and update our project website. While in Brazil I wrote a short article, that my friend Frauke published (click here). The article was also featured at the Kaos Pilots website.

After the final exams, loads of (crazy) parties and 2 weeks of beach-time in Århus (great weather), I came to Netherlands to support Kaos Pilots Netherlands (go to website kaospilots.nl) to select the Team 1, the first team of students. The school is opening doors in Rotterdam by mid-September. After two amazing days in Dordrecht (I really enjoy being observer and running workshops!), I managed to get some free days in Amsterdam, seeing old friends and enjoying a bit of the town. I even visited Rijksmuseum!! Of course the rain was annoying...

During these days I met with KPNL and an interesting proposal came on the table: to work for them during the summer, to setup the "Landing Zone" for Team 1, which means support in logistics, recruitment, location, curriculum and other thousand things, necessary for the start of classes in 2 months.

Well, I accepted the "summer-job" immediately, and just flew back to Århus to pack my stuff and go back to Rotterdam. I'm here until 20th of August, when my 2nd year starts in Denmark. The payment is less then working in Denmark, but the satisfaction and the challenge is much higher, especially working next to "education entrepreneurs", it gives me a lot of insights and I've learned a lot from this experience so far.

So, if you're near by, just come and visit me! :)