Wilderness Drum > About > Wilderness Drum > Frequently Asked Questions

Nibble by nibble, decision by decision, animal by animal, we have diminished the wildness of our wilderness. This hasn’t just happened; we have done it. Thus diminished, wilderness becomes an area, a special unit of property treated like an historic relic or ruin – a valuable remnant. It becomes a place of vacations (a word related to vacant, empty). Humans are strangers there, foreigners to an experience that once grounded their most sacred beliefs and values. The wilderness as relic leads necessarily to tourism, and tourism in the wilderness becomes the primary mode of experiencing a diminished wild.

—Jack Turner

Wilderness Drum, Inc., has a distinct vision of what wilderness spirituality is all about and how it can affect your life. The sources of that vision are various – animism, pantheism, shamanism, myth, Tibetan and Chinese Buddhism, bioregionalism, ecology, voluntary simplicity, archetypal psychology, Gary Snyder, Edward Abbey, indigenous spiritualities, and Native North and South American traditions. I have tried to explain some of this in a list of Frequently Asked Questions ... well, actually, more like occasionally asked questions, but they are worth an answer nonetheless. You can take a look at the following topics:

What is the wilderness? What’s so special about the wilderness? What is wilderness survival? How does all this relate to survivalism? What are primitive skills? Are wilderness survival and primitive skills the same? Why bother? What is wilderness spirituality? What is animism? What is pantheism? Is wilderness spirituality pagan? What does this have to do with shamanism? What is a vision fast?

We will add to this list from time to time, so check back.

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