“...Scientists, despite their conclusions, are still very far from creating a full-fledged theory of dimensions because, in the study and description of the higher dimensions, they use the tools of the world of the third dimension and the five-sense perception. It is like chasing the horizon - the faster we get closer to it, the faster it moves away from us. Again, this is the law of Nature - in order to break through to higher dimensions, you need, at least, to go beyond the limits of your own perception. It is impossible to pull yourself out of the swamp by your hair. To overcome these obstacles, methods are needed that would seem to a scientist to be completely "unscientific..."
The Laws of Nature, Dimitri Tkhinvaleli
MAIN DIRECTIVE:
Nurturing Nature through Wholistic Education,
Rigorous Science, Creative Arts, and Cultural Depth
RECOMMENDED BOOKS FROM MY ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES CLASSES:
YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin, Viking Press
(solutions to how much is enough
IN ABSENCE OF THE SACRED by Jerry Mander, Sierra Books
(he also wrote the four arguments against tv)
EVOLUTION’S END: Reclaiming the potential of intelligence by Joseph Chilton Pearce
(must if you have kids)
THE POVERTY OF AFFLUENCE by Paul Watchtel, New Society Publishers
(great treatise and reflections on societal and personal greed)
AMUSING OURSELVES TO DEATH by Neil Postman
FLOW, The psychology of optimal experience, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Harper Perenial
(about being happy)
ECOLOGY OF COMMERCE by Paul Hawkins, Harper Business Press 1993
(for the business end of things)
SEA OF CHANGE , A MESSAGE OF THE OCEANS by Sylvia Earle, Putnam Press 1995
(for any ocean lover)
ISHMAEL, by Daniel Quinn, Bantam Turner Books, 1993
(powerful fiction on the leavers and takers, great gift)
THE CELESTINE PROPHECY, by James Redfield, Warner Books
(fiction to think about collective consciousness),
TUESDAYS WITH MOREY, by Mitch Albom
( good book to help you reflect on life)
ANCIENT FUTURES. by Helen Nordberg-Hodge
(an ecologue about westernization of ancient cultures).
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THE FOLLOWING ARE GUIDELINES GIVEN TO MY ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES CLASSES
1. THE LAWS AND PRINCIPLES TO LIVE BY:
Law of conservation of matter: In chemical reactions, atoms are never created, or destroyed, they are only rearranged into different molecules and compounds.
First law of thermodynamics: Energy is neither created nor destroyed, but may be converted from one form to another. Life is a zero sum game!
Second law of thermodynamics: In any energy conversion, you will end up with less usable energy than you start with because of the inevitable loss of heat that occurs. You can not win the game!
Third law of thermodynamics: You can not get out of the game! There is no system where laws 1 &2 do not apply.
First basic principle of ecosystem function: Resources are supplied and wastes are disposed of by recycling all elements .
Second basic principle of ecosystem function: Ecosystems run on solar energy, which is exceedingly abundant, nonpolluting, relatively constant, and everlasting.
Third basic principle of ecosystem function: Large biomasses cannot be supported at the end of long food chains. Increasing population means moving closer on the food chain to the source of production. Remember we are the large biomass, it takes 10 to 20 pounds of edible grain to produce one pound of meat! This places great burdens on the land and the type of agriculture that supports it.
Fourth Principle of ecosystem sustainability: For sustainability, biodiversity is maintained. Species diversity provides ecosystem stability.
Principle of population change: A change in population of a species is the result of a dynamic balance between its biotic potential and the environmental resistance it faces.
Laws of ecology per Barry Commoner: Everything must go somewhere! Everything is connected to everything else. Nature knows best. There is no such thing as a free lunch!
Hawkens Golden Rule of sustainable business: Leave the world better than you found it, take no more than you need, try not to harm life or the environment, make amends if you do.
The Basic Golden Rule: Do onto others as you would have done onto you. The start for good ethical decisions.
Guides for Risk Assessment: In our anthropocentric view of the world, we must reconsider that humans must coexist with the natural world. Not only risk to ourselves is damaging, but also to other creatures as we are all linked together, and their death is our death. Consider the following in your decisions: the number of people and species diversity that can be affected, the geographical extent or area that might be affected, the nature and/or severity of the effects the probability of the events occurring, the immediacy of the threat, indirect effects if the threat occurs, the reversibility or irreversibility of the threat
2. GUIDES FOR ETHICAL DECISION MAKING
A set of tools every person must use in the evaluation process for old and new technologies, it should not be deferred for someone else to figure it out! Do it yourself, for yourself!
I. Making the stakeholders analysis: every decision needs to determine the stakeholders.
II. Identifying ethical principles: evaluating the actual issue, i.e., respect, honesty, integrity, fairness, etc.
III. Outlining the options, every problem has many solutions but sometimes we only see one.
IV. Determining short/long term consequences; it is o.k. at first but then it may get worse.
V. Defining whose decision it is: in many cases non-human Nature/biological organisms have no voice.
VI. Apply the golden rule: Do onto others as you would have done onto you.
BE COMPASSIONATE AND ETHICAL. MAKE THIS ENVIRONMENT CLEAN AND HEALTHY AS NATURE INTENDED. WHEN DEALING WITH MATTER: MINIMIZE WASTE; WHEN DEALING WITH ENERGY: THINK EFFICIENCY. NURTURE NATURE.
3. REMEMBER YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT, BREATHE, DRINK, DIGEST, AND EXCRETE!
Dr. T's rules of thumb for good eating and a healthy vibrant body are:
1, Eat low on the food chain, the higher up you eat, the great the toll on the food puramid.
2. Eat as unprocessed as possible (remember the bit about the potato chips versus the baked potato!). keep the vitamins and life energy in your food by not overcooking, try some raw foods.
3. Eat biodiversely (explore those weird vegetables and strange fruits you find at the market).
4. Buy organically grown foods to avoid bioaccumulation, and keep the Earth and all living things healthy
5. Eat food grown locally to support local farmers and to maximize freshness and to minimize transportation!
Remember Dr. T.’s thoughts on the environmental problem: greed (problem of $$ as the value system), laziness, low self-esteem, and denial. These can all be solved with LOVE! It is not the outward appearance but the inside qualities of a person that counts, this will always outshine any physical traits. Be creative and active for a full exciting life. Sending you wishes of love, health, prosperity, and happiness.
"Man follows the example of the Earth
Earth follows the example of the Heaven
Heaven follows the example of the Tao
Tao follows the example of Nature."
Tao Te Jing, Chapter 25, by Laozi
Mother Nature lounging au naturel...
The 5 Rs of a Good Education: Reading, ‘Riting, ‘Rithmetic, Respect and Responsibility
The 6 Rs of Environmentalism: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rethink, Repair, and Refuse
Photo taken back in the '80s travelling through all the National Parks...
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Chantalique.com
“Nature is the source of all true knowledge.”
Leonardo da Vinci
“Comprehend and Emulate Nature.”
Viktor Schauberger
Chantalique.com
My organic/biodynamic garden is located in South Redondo Beach, which originally the Chowigna Indians stewarded, living off the sea and bartering with their salt flats until 1854 when they were sadly and tragically relocated to missions. I have traced that, in the early 1900s, this land held the Carnation Gardens offering 12 acres of sweet smelling flowers that were almost always in bloom. Interestingly enough, my favorite flower is the Dianthus Caryophyllus. The ‘written" history of the Redondo Beach area begins in 1542 when Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo discovered it and it remained a sleeping native village for more than 200 years. As a part of the 43,000 acre Dominguez Rancho (a Spanish Land Grant of 1784) Redondo Beach was a rich farming and grazing area until the end of the century.
My property is 8550 square feet which is about a fifth of an acre, at an elevation of 200 feet above sea level, and it was mostly all kikuyu grass when purchased in 1990 from a Greek family who had planted a fig, an olive, an orange, two lemon trees and a plum tree. I’ve kept photos of the garden’s transition through the years as its biodiversity increased. Over the years, I have grown over 300 types of fruit trees and equally numerable flowers and vegetable species documented in a spreadsheet. While organic, I now strive to make that extra step to becoming more biodynamic. The garden is a certified wildlife habitat. I’ve gotten into figs, and now have 29 different species of figs started from scions last year. I consider myself a devout organic gardener & practitioner of sustainability.
How did I get into biodynamics… well, I am much more a follower of Goethe’s ideas for many many years rather than Steiner, but recognize how Steiner took Goethe’s pivotal work and put it into four practical branches, namely Anthroposophy, Waldorf, Eurythmy and Biodynamics… To that effect, it was on my bucket list to visit the Goetheanum, so, in 2015 I attended the Anthroposophical Medical conference "The Dignity of the Human Body”. I went back to the Goetheanum in 2016 with a friend I had met there to host our own workshop at the Anthroposophy Medical conference, that year entitled "The Etheric Body as Source of the Developmental Forces”. We presented a workshop entitled "Phenomenology of the Encounter, working with Destiny based on the Goetheanic Observation”… Around the same time, having attended the Ecological Farming Conferences in Asilomar CA off and on for the last thirty plus years to learn as much as I could about organics, it was there that I met Thea Maria Carlson and Harald Hoven, as Thea had started some BDA workshops as part of the Eco-Farm program which I had started to attend… In 2016 I decided to go to the BDA's own conference in Santa Fe and that clinched it, I was 100% on board and now a Life Member! This year, I took Cynthia Hoven's class on Human and Cosmic Evolution Harald Hoven's Study of Agriculture Course and participated in the School of Elemental Beings Book Discussion Group as well as Harald's Biodynamics Practices Series. Last year I took the exceptional BDA Micro-dynamics course taught by Stewart Lundy... and presently in A Season of Biodynamics with Cory Eichman. All extraordinary teachers!
So now I come to a much more deeper significance to all this and how it ties in with my main directive, … developing the Science of the Subjective… I am totally committed to promote scientific inquiry for rigorous exploration of anomalous phenomena, investigations of subtle energies in the experience of consciousness/human potential and to integrate this new knowledge into a more encompassing and whole model of science and rigorously studying unusual and unexplained phenomena on topics which are for various reasons ignored or studied inadequately within mainstream science. I'm committed to promote improved understanding of those factors that unnecessarily limit the scope of scientific inquiry, such as sociological constraints, restrictive world views, hidden theoretical assumptions, and the temptation to convert unusual findings into prevailing dogma. This is why I am pursuing learning as much as I can about biodynamics, etc. since it points to practical application of these nuanced ethereal guidelines put into practicality. In particular, I am extremely interested in the workings of the human body/mind/spirit, and specifically in bioenergetics, qi cultivation, nature practices, spiritual practices, psychic art, etc., as a sort of a "road map" to our inner workings and particular as they relate to experiencing "anomalous" events and how to better understand how we can reach our optimum potentials. For me, Goethe’s work opens the portal to a more subjective approach to scientific methods as he incorporates the artistic and creative as an equally important contribution to our fuller understanding. Though he was pushed aside by the dominant Newtonian objective science, his work remains equally enduring and valid as we move forward in integrating a more holistic understanding of the world around us. Only through this amalgamation of apparently anomalous events, random, yet, synchronous, with those which are the standard “predictable and the repeatable”, can we begin to fully develop our understanding of the inherent nature of the inter-connectivity of knowledge. This objective/subjective duality must be balanced out in order to reap the vastness of extraordinary human experiences, many, totally unrepeatable and exceedingly extraordinary.
And so we roll... the Garden, the Environment, not only provide great Beauty but also great revelations in the cosmic sense of Life.
NURTURING NATURE!
Above May 2020
A 30 year long transformation into rich biodiversity!
Below August 1990