Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 1
Anima Mundi
Reason flows from the blending of rational thought and feeling. If the two functions are torn apart, think-
ing deteriorates into schizoid intellectual activity and feeling deteriorates into neurotic life-damaging
passions.
Eric Fromm
Muntjac
Our world is in crisis, and, regrettably, our way of doing science in the West has inadvert-
ently contributed to the many problems we face. I began to realise that something was
seriously amiss with our mode of scientific enquiry when I was 25 years old. I had just
come back to England after three years away as an ecologist and teacher in Venezuela
and Colombia. Feeling my usual urgent need to connect with nature, I had lost no time in
finding a quiet wood, which to my delight, was peppered with the tracks of tiny cloven-
hoofed beings. But whose tracks were these? Fascinated, I had hidden myself in a thicket
overlooking a broad woodland path, waiting for the mysterious creatures to appear. As
the sun settled on the horizon and dusk bathed the wood in a deep purple light, a tiny deer
stepped out of the trees and stood out in the open, a creature so small that it was more like
the duikers I had occasionally spied in the wild bush country of Zimbabwe than any deer
native to the British Isles. The little creature exuded a deep peace and an easy elegance
that totally captivated me, transforming the whole wood. In the presence of this being, a
