What This Is
Silvaticus Mundus is an experiential and educational project dedicated to the re-wilding and re-naturalizing of human intelligence and organization in modern society. Through individual sessions, workshops and trainings, and online education, I promote and develop the notion -- now extensively validated by our best sciences -- that everything we call "mind," "cognition," and "psychology" is an ecological phenomenon, not something that can be reduced to neurological activity in the brain.
We are ecosystems unto ourselves, and each of our own ecosystems contains elements from the ecosystems of those around us. Thus, systems of relations are the basic substance and function of psychology, cognition, communication, behavior, and everything else that we encounter and embody on a daily basis. For far too long, modern psychology has held an outdated, scientifically invalid view of mind and intelligence. We do not need fixing; we need re-wilding.
Chief among the threats to real (living) intelligence and well-being these days is an excess of inhuman technologies that do little to enhance human cognition and much to undermine it. This "mechanistic degradation" affects all of us, regardless of identity, class, political persuasion, level of schooling, occupation, nationality, age, or cultural preferences.
The three core components of Silvaticus Mundus are described further below. Click the picture of each dimension for more information.
Cognitive Permaculture
Cognitive permaculture is the adaptation and application of permaculture design principles to the multidimensional facets of human cognition understood as an ecological phenomenon.
Neurowild Mind
"Neurowild" is my term for "neurodivergent." This signals an embrace of diverse forms of cognition and mind, rather than pathologizing anything that isn't "normal" -- i.e., domesticated and homogenized.
Soul Care
"Soul" here is defined as something's "eco-niche" -- one's unique functional role/place in the larger community of life. It is not necessarily spiritual or mystical. Rather than transcendence, soulful living is all about immanence: being more thoroughly grounded in the tangible world. Soul care is cultivating ecological cognition.
How it Works - The Method
First, we set up a consultation: a conversation that surveys your current cognitive landscape. Through this dialogue we establish a "lay of the land" of your situation; a general sketch of the key factors, challenges, limits, and opportunities of your current cognitive ecosystem. From this, we discuss what practical steps you can take to rebalance and redistribute resources of your ecology to maximize holistic balance, efficiency, and resilience.
To aid this process, I guide you through a Life Sector Analysis. This is based on the permaculture design strategy of a zone and sector analysis -- a holistic assessment of the various components of a given ecosystem. Which areas of your life are thriving? Which are merely surviving? What's present, what's absent? What needs more attention? Where might there be "weeds" growing in your cognitive ecosystem? This analysis provides a systemic perspective on your situation and helps identify strengths, needs, gaps, and available resources.
