The Elmwood Group for Human Ecology

I was somewhat dismayed when I was asked to write a brief report on my work as founder/chairman/teacher of the Elmwood Group for Human Ecology, established in 1954 and still functioning. How was I to convey in about 500 words a realistic picture of events in the following 40 years involved in teaching in so complex an area of human experience?

Obviously a historical resume is impractical and a full theoretical exposition impossible. I must, therefore, rely on a few snapshots of theory and practice in an attempt to convey something of the flavour of the work.

I came to see that there was a need to restate the ancient Eastern idiom into Western thought and practice. This led to a decision to teach by workshop method rather than by lecture.

Ecology is an established subsection of Biology which studies the evolution of natural environments and the interactions of the various species of vegetable, animal and human life-forms found in such environments. Human Ecology is a much later development of a specialized study centred upon mankind, working outwards to follow its interactions with the physical environment, and is about how mankind adapts to the constraints of the physical environment and modifies it to meet its goals.

In our group we extend the scope of the term “environment” to include the traditional view that mankind lives in three environments: physical, mental/cultural and spiritual. However, as the physical aspects are already extensively covered and understood, we concentrate on the less well understood aspects, known as mind and spirit. Hence the first three postulates upon which the framework of theory and practice are based are:

1. Infinite Beingness¹ is the sole absolute.
2. The primary attributes of beingness are awareness and causativeness.
3. The primary activity of beingness is the creation and organisation of energies.

I was astonished to discover in later years that the events in the story of Creation in the Bible, Old Testament, book of Genesis, chapters 1 and 2, follow this sequence.

My endeavour was to develop practical methods of enabling ordinary people to experience directly the reality of these postulates through learning and applying the techniques I devised in individual and group training workshops. The emphasis has always been on application of the individual’s discoveries to daily life on earth. As a result self-sufficiency is developed by members, making them independent of either myself or the group.

Within the limits set for this report, I can only close with a few examples of the outcome of this training.

In 1962 I was approached by two self-employed teachers of mentally and emotionally disturbed children to help them start their own school for “emotionally disturbed” children, based on the courses they had taken with me on Communication, Learning, Control and Perseverance. This gave rise to a recognised school called “The Link”, to which local authorities still send children who do not respond to other methods.

On one occasion, a housewife member of the group asked me for a book to read when going on holiday. On the spur of the moment I gave her a copy of the Chinese “Tao Te Ching” (circa 500 B.C.), although she had never heard of Taoism, nor any other Oriental philosophy or religion. When she came back after her fortnight with her family, she came round to me and excitedly waved the book at me and cried “This is what we do, isn’t it?”

An architect member of the group, employed in the Local Authority Housing Estate design department, of Camberwell Borough Council, introduced the, then, revolutionary principle of consulting intending tenants of the proposed estate as to their wishes for the provision in the design of facilities they thought essential. These were incorporated, and his article in “The Architect” journal describing his experiences and their outcome in the estate, aroused great interest, and changes of approach, elsewhere, from the usual “take it or leave it” attitudes current then.

In 1990 I demonstrated my meditation method to the assembled Abbot, monks and nuns at the Buddhist Monastery at Chithurst. Asked for reports on their experience with it, one senior monk said, “I have had this kind of experience before, but never so directly nor so simply.” In general it was accepted as a true expression of the spirit of the Buddha’s teachings. Others among those present at the demonstration have told me since that they use it during their daily meditation practices.

The same meditation technique is used in the schools in their morning assemblies. Recently one child in the school, aged 11, was particularly disruptive in class. No one liked teaching where he was present. However his dance and movement teacher, during his weekly lesson, took him through a simplified version of this meditation method. He loved it. Next week he rushed up to his trainer, bursting with pride. “Miss”, he said, “I did it at home all by myself and it worked!” Since, he has ceased to be disruptive. The youngest child practising at home is four years old, with his parents’ guidance, naturally.

Thus I have no new truths to reveal; only a simple method of revealing them.

Notes

1. “Infinite Beingness” may be equated with terms such as “The Ground”, “Tao”, “The Source”, “The Ineffable”, “Logos.” It was selected because it resonates with the familiar term “Human Being.”