How to become One with the natural world
The wide-angle view helps you to observe wilderness in a connected state
Wildlife is shy, tending to be more active at dusk and at night. Birds are an exception: we see them during the day, but not up close. The wide-angle view helps you get close to wildlife and connect with nature even more deeply than you've experienced before.
Participants learn this wide-angle view at “Wildniswandern”, a wilderness school based in Tübingen, Germany. Lisa Moser, a wilderness educator from the Bavarian Forest, teaches the wide-angle view to us in a course in Waldhessen:
We participants stand with our arms spread out and gently look at any point. The arms form the boundary of our field of vision. Then we widen our gaze, let go of the focus on a particular point and try to perceive the entire environment. Even if it is only indirectly visible in our field of vision and out of focus.
When you engage in the wide angle without strong focus, you become more aware of the part of the environment that is not directly in front of you. So in the exercise, we include more of the trees, the birds, and the space of the sky in our field of vision and perceive the "whole". The details become a great variety.
Make the animal appear unintentionally
Imagine a creature appearing, walking or snorting softly, crossing your path.
Don't look for it, don't force it. It's not that easy, but with practice you will get better at inviting the animal near you without intention.
The moment the animal appears in your wide-angle field of view, you are prepared: Your wide-angle vision perceives every movement, you are one with the surroundings and unintentional. Deer perceive you as a tree when you stand motionless.
As the animal emerges, expand your focus to its habitat - the grass in the foreground, the forest in the middle ground to the horizon, and the space beyond.
Be a human animal, insignificant and one of many beings on this planet. This is how you find your peace, free from stressful thoughts and share this happy moment with the wild animal.
Perception with all senses
Seeing is only one sense of many, use the other senses like hearing and smelling. You may also taste if you discover an edible wild herb along the way. Lose yourself in the natural habitat by staying and notice bird sounds, crawling or rustling of the wind.
I more often let my eyes wander from the foreground to the horizon so that I can experience the whole space. This includes the space I can't see, beyond the horizon, and even the infinite universe.
The unknown awaits you
With my kind of wide-angle view, I am additionally in an open focus, which I learned during my walking meditations. It is a kind of trance, the brain waves slow down and I relax.
The open focus is similar to unintentional awareness. So I focus on the silent living space around me and forget about all "worldly" things like emails, meetings or plans I have to do.
In nature, apparently not much is happening, so it is not so easy to engage in the experience without the thought noise of everyday life. We have to engage a bit with the unknown and take the focus away from what we already know.
What if it doesn't work?
This is not a wildlife watching contest. Don't put pressure on yourself to observe particular wildlife especially close. Rather, the point is to become one with the aliveness that surrounds you in the moment of practice. Notice how you, too, are part of nature and the creatures, and engage with this unknown world.
As soon as you become impatient or intentional (this happened to me more often in the beginning), try to focus again on the perception of the wide space. The technique of the wide-angle view will help you.
5 benefits of the wide-angle view
Deep connection with the natural world
Observe wildlife up close
Stress relief
Quick perception of animals in the whole field of view
Sense of security
When we walk through nature in our "normal state", we are usually thinking about the things we are going to do or the people we are going to meet. Many of us, myself included, are often in escape, fight, or hide mode. A mode that nature has given us to be able to run away or fight in moments of stress.
In that moment the parasympathetic nervous system, the nerve that provides relaxation, reduces its output. When this becomes a permanent condition, we lose the ability to become calm.
But Mother Earth makes sure that we find our harmony again in the green, silent nature. She gives us a space in which we can spread our spiritual wings.
Finding your sweet spot
Where's the best place to watch? That's up to your preferences: You might feel comfortable in a shady forest under trees or in an open area with a view. Over time, find out where your favorite spot is.
The best way to do this is to take a sitting mat with you and sit in your chosen spot for half an hour, preferably an hour or two. Practice wide-angle vision on the way to your spot.
I call this place "sweet spot". It's a magical place that feels right for you and where you want to return to. It's where you get to know your tree, your meadow, and your plants that you slowly become familiar with.
Eventually, this place in nature feels like your own living room. The melodies of the birds make you feel at home.
Don’t smell too good
Imagine you're walking through the forest, enjoying the fresh air, and suddenly someone walks past you smelling of perfume. I don't know about you, but I find this artificial scent so unpleasant that I don't wear perfume or other scents myself when I'm outdoors.
It just doesn't go with the forest air, which basically smells like decaying plant matter. Still, it's a wonderful, spicy scent. Wild animals have better noses than we humans do. Deer, for example, can scent a human more than 300 yards away. If the wind direction is unfavorable, the wild animal will probably flee from you.
To prevent this, it is best to wear unwashed, old clothes that you store on the balcony or in the basement. As soon as you go out to your sweet spot you can put them on.
Don't use deodorant, hairspray or any other body sprays on the day, all of which will make the animals recognize your humanity and send them running for the hills.
Loud functional clothing
Germans are known abroad for their functional clothing: We are all about function and not fashion, following the motto "form follows function". Which makes sense at first, when you're out in the wind and weather.
Unfortunately, functional clothing has the disadvantage that it rustles. In a city you don't notice the loud rubbing of the plastic, but in a quiet forest you do. Therefore, Lisa recommended that we wear wool clothing, such as jackets made of wool felt. They keep you warm and are rainproof to a certain extent.
Even if they get wet in the rain, they still keep you warm. In the warmer months, you can wear several layers of cotton clothing, depending on the temperature.
Quiet on thin soles
During our sneaking exercises in the wilderness course, where we were supposed to move through the forest unnoticed, I was able to step very quietly with barefoot shoes. Their thin soles also create a better stepping sensation.
Hiking shoes, on the other hand, are clunky, so it's a little harder to tread quietly with them. If the barefoot shoes are big enough, you can also wear thick socks in them.
Foreign in the wilderness
Martha Beck, an American author, writes in her book "Finding your way in a wild new world” about wordlessness, a condition that wild animals employ:
"Animals dwell constantly in wordlessness and operate with ease through oneness. They transmit information, peace and healing with a regularity that is almost completely overlooked by modern societies."
In her view, modern humans have forgotten about communication and coexistence with living creatures, which is the reason why humans are destroying nature.
If we are to heal ourselves and the earth, it requires a deep connection to non-human creatures and the living world:
"Your true nature probably demands that you connect with animals in a deeper way than your socialization has ever encouraged or even allowed."
Therefore, you may feel alienated when you begin to practice wide-angle vision. The more we engage in nature experiences, the more normal we will feel.
Mice as wildlife observation
I sit at the edge of the forest between trees and look at a lonely country road, at the roadside an old half-timbered house, in front of it a rusty agricultural implement. Now and then sounds come from the direction of the house, a car briefly interrupts the silence. Only the singing of the titmice, which fly busily back and forth between two trees, remains constant.
The edge of the forest next to me makes me feel safe, the vastness of the meadows liberates me.
A cool wind blows in April. The rustling of two mice crawling into a hole in the ground and reappearing at the speed of light in a hole three meters away.
More on animal communication: Film about animal communicator Anna Breytenbach
I breathe calmly, let my thoughts wander.
The common raven caws warmly, while the red kite draws its circles above the patch of forest behind the road. In between, I wonder what the point of the exercise is, but then I let myself go with it again.
Before my eyes I see a dream in which I am walking in a sunny, southern European landscape. Like two slides superimposed on each other, I experience the dream and the present moment simultaneously; it seems surreal around me.
The mouse sits down directly at my shoe and observes me, as if it would greet me.
What do the pros experience?
Lisa told us, while she was doing the exercise with us, how a rabbit came near her and stayed a few meters next to her. She was obviously in a purposeless state.
Another leader at a camp in Tübingen told that she had walked behind the buzzards at Melaten Cemetery in Cologne for a long time and watched them. Never did one dare come near her. Until she sat down and thought about what she had done wrong. Then the buzzard, which she had only observed from afar, flew in her direction and grazed her back with the top of its claws.
What equipment do you need?
Mat to sit or lie on
Binoculars for bird watching
Map for orientation
First aid kit
Animal identification book
This list is not exhaustive, of course, but it is the basis on which you can make your own list: You will probably have a water bottle with you, as well as your cell phone or glasses. If you plan to stay overnight, you'll need more equipment, such as a tarp, a single-walled steel bottle with which to boil the water, and firelighters.
So your equipment will depend on your individual plans. Plan well in advance and check your packed items to make sure you have everything you need.
Now let's sum it up what we’ve learned:
Spread your arms to the point where you still see them in your field of vision
Open your focus and perceive your whole surroundings
Get into a soft-focused, slightly meditative state
Walk to a place in nature where you feel comfortable
Perceive fore and background to the horizon and let go of any thoughts
Imagine wild animals to appear
Become one with nature and be unintentional
Let yourself surprise by what happens in nature and observe in joy
Hare-experience on a normal day
I was neither emphatically purposeless nor in a trance, but simply reading a book at the edge of the forest near my home. When I looked up, I saw a doe mother with her two fawns a few yards away nibbling gleefully on a bush.
They stayed there for a while and I pretended to read on. In reality, I was watching them in the corner of my eye. That's when I realized that they sensed my watching, they were not comfortable with it. So they walked, albeit slowly, back together into the forest.
On the way home, I saw a hare sitting on a deer crossing. He looked in my direction and looked as if he wanted to greet me and know who was interested in him. There was a deer right behind him, running away. Later on the trail, I encountered another deer.
Unintentional in that case meant just reading a book.
Will you try out the wide-angle view? If so, what are your experiences?
Let me know in a comment, I’d like to hear your story!
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