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UNTAMED NEWSLETTER #1 - FEBRUARY 18, 2006
Let me begin by giving a little background information.
I developed Rational-Emotional Integrative Updating (REIU) within my medical practice in Canada from 1987 to 1997. In 1997 I moved to the USA and by 2001 I had written the book, 'Liberating the Caged Human Animal', as well as two books which explain the technique of Unconscious Updating (part of the process of REIU). In 2003 I established my website (www.untamedlife.com) on which I offer 'Liberating the Caged Human Animal' for free and through which interested individuals may buy the other two books as well as some audio material in order to learn how to do Unconscious Updating independently (or with my assistance if they prefer). In late 2004 I began promoting my website by advertising it in Discover magazine. The same year I posted two additional articles on the site ('Liberating the Caged Female Human Animal's Sexuality' (Parts 1 & 2)) and established a means to invite website visitors to be on a free mailing list for the Untamed Newsletter.
Since I started my ads in Discover magazine I have had a steady stream of visitors to my site (presently about one hundred hits per week), have received emails from all over the world (mostly supportive), and at this moment have sixty-seven people on the newsletter mailing list. It has been most interesting to hear from people of all ages and backgrounds and to discover that, although we/they are only a small percentage of the human population, there are people out there who share ideas and aspirations similar to those that I express on my site. This has been enjoyable for me since I have rarely met such people in my day to day life.
Numerous individuals that have contacted me have said that they felt as if there was no-one else out there who shared these thoughts and as a result they felt isolated and often quite depressed and that, furthermore, simply knowing that that they were not all alone in the world with these ideas enhanced their lives. While this may have helped them to some degree and certainly was encouraging for me as well, it also had become increasingly obvious to me that it would be useful to create the opportunity for people who share these perspectives to connect with each other and not just with me. I recently received a couple of emails from people requesting just that opportunity and so I finally decided to do something about it.
In the very near future I will be adding a webforum to my site through which interested parties will be able to discuss issues relevant to the themes of my site. In a separate email I will be sending a description of the proposed contents of this webforum and I am very interested in receiving any suggestions from any of you regarding its structure and components. Obviously, it will be a work in progress and thus will evolve over time. In order for this webforum to be successful it will, of course, require participation and I invite all of you to do so as much as you wish (there is no charge to use it). Once the webforum is up and running please advise me of any problems that you might have with it. In addition to the webforum, you are still most welcome to communicate with me directly using the contact page of my site. I am optimistic that this webforum will help to generate a greater awareness of the ideas that I am presenting and will facilitate the gradual creation of a network of individuals around the world sharing these perspectives.
Part of the webforum will be a book club which will suggest books to be read and then discussed by participants. While this somewhat formal book club will present books on some regularity, the webforum structure will also allow anyone to suggest and begin the discussion of any book that they wish (that has relevance to this site) outside of the formal book club discussion area. Similarly, if anyone wishes to have a particular book offered to the book club please let me know.
I have decided to present three books to the book club to get things started. The first is 'The Politics of Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude' by Etienne de La Boetie, written in the sixteenth century. This book is actually a reasonably brief essay and is available to be read on the internet and can be accessed through the Resources page of my website ( http://www.untamedlife.com/resources/ ). I have chosen this essay because the author brilliantly describes the nature of human domestication and I have personally found that each time I review it my commitment to the agenda of becoming untamed is reinforced. (There is a company called Knowledge Products that has an audiotape series called 'The Giants of Political Thought' one of which is an interesting recording about de La Boetie and this essay. http://www.audioclassics.net/html/pol_files/political.cfm )
The second book that I am presenting was published in 2005, entitled 'The Long Emergency' by James Howard Kunstler. In it the author describes his understanding of a tumultuous future coming our way soon. You can access a brief summary of the book at http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0413-28.htm which was published in Rolling Stone magazine in April of 2005. I would encourage all of you to read this book and imagine that it might generate some discussion.
The third book that I am submitting is 'Our Inner Ape' by Frans de Waal (published in 2005), a primatologist and one of the world's leading experts on bonobos and common chimpanzees. This excellent work looks at the behavior of our two closest cousins, showing their similarities and differences and also gives the reader an opportunity to consider our species' behavior from a primatologist's perspective. This work gives us a chance to consider the stylistic options that these two chimpanzee species present, with the bonobo model being one that I consider to be highly appealing for human apes to move towards.
I would like to mention some other books that I think some of you might find interesting (although I'm not officially putting them on the book club list at this time but you are very welcome to discuss them with me personally or on the webforum nonetheless).
Two of the books are about diet and in particular diets modeled on those eaten by hunter-gatherers. They are 'The Paleo Diet' by Loren Cordain (his website is http://www.thepaleodiet.com/) and 'Neanderthin' by Ray Audette and Troy Gilchrist. These books were brought to my attention by one of the newsletter members and I have found them to be informative and am presently following their general recommendations myself.
There are a couple of books about relatively modern hunter-gatherers that I would recommend. The first is 'Nunaga: Ten Years of Eskimo Life' by Duncan Pryde which discusses Eskimo life in the Canadian north as experienced by a young white man living with Eskimos in the 1950's and 1960's as the Eskimos were making their transition from uncivilized to civilized beings. The whole book is fascinating but what is particularly interesting is the nature of the relationships between men and women and their non-monogamous lifestyle. The other book is 'Nisa: The Life and Words of an !Kung Woman' by Marjorie Shostak. This book has become somewhat of a classic in the modern hunter-gatherer library. It is the autobiography of a !Kung (Bushman) hunter-gatherer woman (edited and commented on by the author) living on the edge of the Kalahari desert. Nisa is a very outspoken woman and the book reviews the different periods of her life. The book is most engaging and again, there is quite a bit of detail about the nature of female-male relationships, sexuality, and the reality of dealing with the incursions of civilization into a hunter-gatherer world.
Then there is 'Chomsky on Anarchism' by Noam Chomsky published in 2005 that contains a number of significant essays on this topic. While I do not agree with all of Chomsky's politics, he does an excellent job of presenting radically different analyses of commonly discussed issues that force one to think.
The last book on my list for now is 'Future Primitive and Other Essays' by John Zerzan. Zerzan is a radical anarcho-primitivist presently living in Oregon who dissects various components of civilized life in the book's series of essays and articles. He even considers the use of language problematic and, as the author of the book's introduction states, 'John Zerzan doesn't just question authority, he settles for nothing less than its demolition.' I came upon Zerzan after I had already written my book and again have found his ideas stimulating and encourage you to explore them.
Finally, in the very near future I will be forwarding a new article that I have written entitled 'Preparing the Caged Human Animal for the Long Hurricane Season Ahead' that will be subsequently posted on my site. It shares certain themes with Kunstler's book mentioned above but, of course, is presented from my particular point of view. It deals with radical changes that we are beginning to experience on this planet and their relevance to those who wish to untame themselves. I welcome your responses to it.
I am hopeful that by making my site dynamic it will further encourage the process of untaming for those motivated to evolve in that direction.
Best regards,
Peter Hercules
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