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Nature As Teacher and Healer
by James A. Swan
Villard-Random House, 1992Nippon Kyobun-Sha, Inc., 1995 [Japanese edition]
iUniverse.com, 2001 [revised edition] $23.95 321 pages ISBN 0-679-73879-7
Learning to love nature opens us to beauty and wonder, and it also can be a healing experience, leading to self awareness and spiritual insight. This book presents a practical psychology of nature kinship and offers many suggestions about how to kindle an ecological conscience that will add wisdom and health to your life and insight into ecological living. Reprinted in Countryside and Longevity magazines.
"One of the Best Environmental Books of the Last Five Years" the Sustainable Futures Society (1993)
"Most appropriate for a world desperately in need to reconnect with a source that is all." Dr. Noel Browne, Director Emeritus, United Nations Environment Programme
""His concepts are unique, fascinating to consider, and worth exploring whether you actively commune with nature only during your annual vacation, or make it an elemental part of your everyday life. (Reading it) you may find that you perceive nature in an entirely different way. " University of Michigan Alumnus
"A great literary work on what makes the human animal tick, and how we desperately need to refocus on our relationship with nature before it is too late." Ted Nugent, rock star
"Jim Swan's book makes the apprentice of spirit aware of the precious alchemy contained within the heart of nature." Lynn Andrews, best-selling author
"A creative synthesis of the wisdom of native peoples, concepts of environmental psychology, and the activism of the environmental movement." Dr. Robert Sommer, UC Davis
"...filled with colorful anecdotes, lively glimpses of healers and leaders of the field, wise counsel and a rich store of valuable and accurate information. One's interest is kept at a high pitch and one's enjoyment to the full. It is written from the heart." Dr. John Weir Perry, psychiatrist and author
"Swan blends myth, magic, ancient and contemporary wisdom in his guide to improving mental and physical well-being." Outdoor Writers of America
"...inspirational.. Swan shares the gradual unfolding of his own mystical connection to the natural world (and then) provides techniques for cultivating this kind of deep kinship with nature...Swan's book is a much needed reminder of the blessings to be found outside." Anne Cushman, Yoga Journal
"Until I read NATURE AS TEACHER AND HEALER, I hadn't realized to what extent nature was just a momentary experience between indoors and the car. NATURE AS TEACHER AND HEALER explains the problem, and provides a 'spiritual first-aid kit' for people like me who have lost contact with the planet we live on." Susan Ingram, READING FOR PLEASURE