August 30, 2025 • 56 mins
Air Date - 28 August 2025
The human animal is in big trouble. An ecological and social storm is upon us, and the stress is growing more intense with each passing day. To succeed, a new culture, ideas, and lifestyles must be created. We must be radically, ferociously, relentlessly creative. My guest this week on Vox Novus, Frank Forencich, says we must Honor the Animal. Frank is a passionate advocate for the human animal and a functional future. He earned his BA at Stanford University in human biology and has more than thirty years of teaching experience in martial arts and health education. A former columnist for Paleo Magazine, Frank is the author of numerous books about health and the human predicament.
His website is https://humananimal.earth/, and he joins me this week to share his path and latest book, Honor the Animal- Experiential Design for Teachers, Coaches, Trainers, Therapists, Parents, and Health Professionals.
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The human animal is in big trouble. An ecological and social storm is upon us, and the stress is growing more intense with each passing day. To succeed, a new culture, ideas, and lifestyles must be created. We must be radically, ferociously, relentlessly creative. My guest this week on Vox Novus, Frank Forencich, says we must Honor the Animal. Frank is a passionate advocate for the human animal and a functional future. He earned his BA at Stanford University in human biology and has more than thirty years of teaching experience in martial arts and health education. A former columnist for Paleo Magazine, Frank is the author of numerous books about health and the human predicament.
His website is https://humananimal.earth/, and he joins me this week to share his path and latest book, Honor the Animal- Experiential Design for Teachers, Coaches, Trainers, Therapists, Parents, and Health Professionals.
#FrankForencich #VoxNovus #VictorFuhrman #Spirituality #Interviews
Visit the Vox Novus Show Page https://omtimes.com/iom/shows/vox-novus/
Connect with Victor Fuhrman at http://victorthevoice.com/
Subscribe to our Newsletter https://omtimes.com/subscribe-omtimes-magazine/
Connect with OMTimes on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Omtimes.Magazine/ and OMTimes Radio https://www.facebook.com/ConsciousRadiowebtv.OMTimes/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/OmTimes/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/omtimes/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Vox Novus, the New Voice, Vox Novus, the new Dimension.
Vox Novus thought and movement leaders who will share from
their experience and offer tools to help us navigate our
rapidly changing world. My name is Victor Furman. Welcome to
(00:29):
Vox Novus, the New Voice. The human animal is in
big trouble. An ecological and social storm is upon us,
and the stress is growing more intense with each passing day.
(00:53):
To succeed, there must be a creation of new culture,
ideas and lifeways. We must be radically, ferociously, relentlessly creative.
My guest this week on Vox novis Frank Farensich, says
we must honor the Animal. Frank is a passionate advocate
(01:14):
for the human animal and a functional future. He earned
his BA at Stanford University in human biology and has
more than thirty years of teaching experience in martial arts
and health education. A former columnist for Paleo Magazine, Frank
is the author of numerous books about health and the
(01:34):
human predicament. His website is Humananimal dot earth, and he
joins me this week to share his path and latest book,
Honor the Animal, Experiential Design for Teachers coaches, trainers, therapists,
parents and health professionals. Please join me in welcoming to
(01:56):
Vox Novus Frank Forensics. Welcome, Frank glad to be here.
Please share with us your early path and challenges and
how it led to your background in martial arts and
human design.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Well, my origin story, I suppose starts as a very
young person where I had a lot of physical troubles.
I was very sick, had a lot of allergies, couldn't
really keep up with my peers on the athletic field
at all, and it wasn't looking good for me. But
my parents got me involved in swimming and that made
(02:33):
a huge difference over the course of a few years,
and I went from being really behind the curve physically
to catching up, and that led me to get really
interested in physical movement and the physical arts. I eventually
became involved with martial arts and rock climbing and a
(02:54):
whole host of studies having to do with the human body.
So that was my transformation, you might say.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
For listeners who may have some physical issues. I was
told by a doctor I was having problems with one
of my knees and the doctor told me get into
into a swimming pool and start swimming. How important is swimming?
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (03:15):
For me, it was pivotal. It was fantastic because it
increased my vitality and it got me over a lot
of these sort of vague afflictions that I had. And
it only took a few years so consistently get in
the water and eventually joined the water polo team in
high school, and that made a big difference in the
(03:39):
long term trajectory of my life.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Tell us about your trips to Africa and what you
were searching for right.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Well, when I was in college, I was in the
program in human biology, and I had a lot of
professors who were very interested in human evolution and the
big history of the human animal. And they all said
pretty much the same, if you really want to understand
how the human body works, you need to go to
Africa and understand the environment that we grew up in.
(04:09):
And I took them seriously. I said, Okay, I'll do that,
and I went to Africa, and I was fortunate I
was able to go on safari to see the natural world.
But I was also able to go out with some
Plahari bushman, the hunters and gatherers of Tanzania, and that
was really exciting for me. I learned a lot.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
What were some of the things that you learned from them?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Well, mostly it was the thought experiment of what would
it be like to live in an ancestral environment, that
that was normal for human beings for most of our
time on Earth, and how that lifestyle would have affected
our bodies, being outdoors twenty four hours a day, being
(04:54):
in small tribal bands, paying a lot of attention to habitat,
having a lot of agility, which is the ability to
walk long distances without fences or roads or interruptions, and
that contact with the natural world would have been very
awe inspiring and very good for the human body and
(05:14):
for human health.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Before we discuss your new book, Honor the Animal, please
share with us about your twenty twenty one book, Beware
False Tigers, Strategies and Antidotes for an Age of Stress.
What inspired that book and what do you share with
readers right?
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Well, stress is such a big topic in the health
and fitness world, but it's even bigger than that. And
I know that it's such a hot topic because the
autonomic nervous system, which drives a stress response, is ancient
and it's a primal part of the human body and
(05:53):
it touches every sell, every organ, every tissue in the body.
So if we can use that system, well, our bodies
will flourish. But if we have trouble with that system,
then there's going to be lots of downstream and consequences,
not just for our health, but for our behavior and
our experience in the world. So that's what led me
(06:13):
to write the book. And I continue to be really
fascinated by stress and the stress responses.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
And what did you share with readers about stress in
that book.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
The primary duality that people need to understand, and I
think a lot of people are coming around to this,
is understanding the difference between the sympathetic branch and the
parasympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system. And we've all
heard about the fight flight response, So that is the
response of the body for emergency physical action and typically movement,
(06:45):
and this is where we're running away from predators and
that kind of thing. And that's a very important piece
of the puzzle and it's very valuable in terms of
our survival and our performance. But the other side of
the system, the parasympathetic branch is just as important, and
that's the rest and digest response, or what in massage
(07:08):
school we called it the feed and breed response, And
that's the healing response that helps us put tissues and
organs back together when they've been overworked. So the key
in all of this is to use it wisely, to
have a stress response that is appropriate and acute at
the right time, and then to return back to the
(07:30):
rest and digest response as soon as possible, and to
hang out there to spend most of our time in
rest and.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Digest and not carry that stress with them right.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Right, So it's always the distinction between acute and chronic.
Acute is good, chronic is bad.
Speaker 4 (07:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
What inspired your new book, Honor the Animal and who
is it written for?
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Right?
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Well, I've been very fortunate in that I've been able
to study with all of different teachers in the world
of martial arts and massage therapy and athletic training, and
I started producing some workshops on my own and I
was able to start from scratch, and that was an
incredibly valuable experience because I didn't have to follow anybody
(08:17):
else's template. I could just make things up on the fly.
And I said what is the ideal experience, say, in
a three day workship, what do I want people to
take away from it? And that's what the book is
all about, is how to design this kind of experience.
And it's for anybody who works with the human animals,
So it could be teachers, parents, coaches, therapists, trainers, anybody
(08:42):
who who might want to do one of these experiences
with their people. It's a starting from scratch approach. You
might even call it a veterinary approach for working with
people or the human animal.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Where do we stand? What is the nature of the
modern human predicament?
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Well, the human animal is in really big trouble right now,
and for a lot of reasons, clearly, But the two
biggest ones are tied to our biology. The first one
is what they call mismatch, and that is simply the
fact that our bodies are ancient. Our bodies have this
(09:23):
aboriginal wiring you might say, these aboriginal inclinations, and we're
trying to use that kind of wiring in the modern world,
which which is radically different from the world that we're
used to. So that's a big challenge and a big
stressor for everyone. And then the other big challenge, of course,
is are ecological predicament and the fact that all of
(09:46):
our life support systems now are under continuous threat and
may actually be past the tipping points of a breakdown.
So the thing, the processes, the life systems that support
our bodies are under threat, and in turn, our bodies
are suffering.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
And what are some of the things that we can
do about disconnecting from that aboriginal build in our body, Well,
we really can't.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
I think that we are going to be aboriginal for
a very long time. And our inclinations and our preferences,
our behaviors have been shaped by evolution over the course
of hundreds of thousands of years, and the modern world
has come upon us in the matter of only a
(10:37):
few hundred years. So a lot of people have described
us as cavemen with cell phones, which is kind of
a cartoon, but I think that's kind of accurate. And
our social inclinations, our health and lifestyle inclinations have been
shaped by events that took place a very long time ago.
(10:58):
So we have to work with that, and we have
to be aware of it.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
And where does artificial intelligence come to play in this?
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Oh AI's that's really kind of a pet peeve for
me now, because it's yet another technology that we don't
really understand that's coming down the pipe here with incredible
speed and we haven't even had the conversation yet about
how that might play in. And my fear is that,
(11:31):
like many technologies, it's going to lead to atrophy in
some basic human capability. So it's just as if you
use a car all the time to drive and to
go places and you never use your legs to walk,
your legs will begin to atrophy and you'll become weaker.
And the same thing will be I'm sure true with
(11:51):
AI that if we rely on AI to explore the
world and to take over our creative capabilities and our judgment,
then those to those capabilities will also begin to atrophy.
And that does not bode well at all for our future.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
And it seems that the companies that are making the
AI elements are pushing them for profit rather than taking
the societal dangers into question.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Oh absolutely, I mean this is this is one hundred
percent apitalist enterprise. And it's not that people are making
the decisions here. Capital is making the decisions. Money and
profit are making the decisions, and so these these technologies
are basically being offered to us without reflection, and that
(12:40):
is that's just not a good way to introduce any
novelty or technology to people.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Absolutely, you've shared that humanity looks upon the animal kingdom
and nature as others. Why is this both wrong and dangerous?
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Right? This is what some people call the myth of
human supremacy, and this belief that we are like the
apex of creation, we are the alpha animal, We're the
best animal that's ever lived, and that attitude, that philosophy
is really common in the modern Western world, but it's
(13:17):
not a human universal So in other words, a lot
of cultures, a lot of people on the planet have
held a different view, a more participatory view. But it
seems over the last couple hundred years we've shifted now
to this belief in human supremacy, this belief in human exceptionalism,
(13:38):
and that, at least from my point of view, is
a really dangerous attitude to hold, because we're just another
animal and we have some very impressive capabilities, but so
do a lot of other animals, and if we want
to have a functional future, I think we need to
take a more participatory approach to start seeing ourselves in participation,
(14:05):
in harmony with the natural world, and a lot of
conservationists have made this point, but it bears repeating because
to hold a arrogant approach to nature is bound belief
to trouble.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
As we're saying, one hundred years ago, this would not
have been even a question. But where can we intervene
as a society, I guess, especially with children in schools,
and start to bring out the understanding of our relationship
with nature and with the wild kingdom?
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Right, Well, it's got to be does my martial art
teachers always put it, They said, it's always about time
on the mat. In other words, we have to be
spending more time in contact with natural processes, more time outdoors.
And I think we're going to have to give up
some of our reliance on technology. I think that the
(15:00):
proliferation of smartphones, especially amongst young people, is a real problem,
and we're going to have to give up on some
of this headlong rush into a technological future. We have
to spend more time in nature. It's that simple.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Are we allowing our environment to be abused to the
extent that it actually could lead to extinction?
Speaker 2 (15:22):
I think possibly that's the case, especially the threat of
climate chaos. We're on track now to be a three
degrees above pre industrial temperatures by twenty fifty, and so
that is within one generation. You know, people who are
(15:43):
born today will see some horrific climate consequences and whether
or not that leads to extinction and remains to be seen.
I think the effects will be patchy. There will be
some bioregions that are going to go down to extreme weather,
and I think they're going to be major food shortages
(16:03):
around the world, and there's going to be a lot
of chaos and a lot of stress. The consequences here
that we're looking at are really severe and we're not
really taking it seriously as a people. So maybe extension, yes,
but at the very least a lot of turmoil.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
And again, what could be introduced into the educational process
to change this and to intervene.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Well, young people I think need to be told the
truth above all, and I think as parents we tend
to sugarcoat a lot of things, and we want we
don't want to frighten young people. We want them to
have a sense of hope, and that's all legit. However,
it's telling the truth is fundamental here, and we're having
(16:48):
trouble with that. We're having trouble telling people the truth
of what humans are doing to the biosphere now, and
we really can't shy away from that. We need to
tell the truth first of all, to one another and
to the adult community, and then as best we can
tell that truth to young people and then give them
(17:11):
the tools, their activist tools that they can carry forward.
And we're really failing to do that right now.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
How do we generate how do we engender advocacy?
Speaker 2 (17:23):
I think we need to teach people about the nature
of power, and the way power tends to consolidate, the
way wealth tends to consolidate, the extreme inequality of the
modern world, what the capitalist system is doing to people
around the world. Some people now are calling capitalism an
injustice machine, which I think is a fair description of
(17:47):
what it is. So young people need to have the tools,
especially the language tools they need to understand how politics
and power actually work, how especially the language of metaphor
to talk about some of these problems, and to be
good public speakers when they address the community at large.
(18:09):
So these are tools that we have, we just need
to make them available.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Absolutely, are we a Planet of the Apes in reverse.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Well, yes, I have no problem with this, with this
idea of humans as animals and humans as apes, humans
as primates, humans as mammals. Our wiring is so much
the same. And chimpanzees, for example, I've been to Africa
and I've been to Gombie where Jane Goodall did our work.
I've been out with the chimpanzees, and ninety eight percent
(18:44):
of their genetic material is the same as ours. So
I don't think it makes a whole lot of sense
to say that they're somehow different from us. Obviously they're
different in subtle ways, but we're mostly the same. And
so yes, primates, mammals, vertebrates were all part of the
(19:06):
same family.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
And what was the lesson from the movie The Planet
of the Apes? So what do we see in those movies,
that series of movies about about how they treated humanity.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
You know, it's been a long time since I saw
that movie, and I can't really comment on it. But
my favorite example here comes from the movie Avatar and
Terminator and some of these works by James Cameron. We
talked a lot about our encounter with technology and our
(19:38):
encounter with native people, and that I think is super
relevant right now, and I think we really need to
need to revisit these movies and see the message that
was there.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Absolutely, we have the warning. Now we have to pay
attention to the warning. My guest is Frank Farensich. His
book is called Honor the Animal, Feriential Design for teachers, coaches, trainers, therapists,
parents and health professionals. Frank, please share with our listeners
where they can get your books and find out more
about you and your work.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Well, the book is available on all the usual outlets,
but you can go to my website Humananimal dot earth
and you'll find everything there and some of my other
books and some of my other videos and that kind
of thing. So it's all easy to find.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
And what else do you offer there?
Speaker 2 (20:29):
I also have a YouTube channel with some nature based
monologues that I do in commentary that I do in
the outdoor world, so that might be interesting to people
as well.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
And we'll be back with more Frank and on the
Animal after these words on the Old Times Radio network.
Speaker 5 (20:47):
Own Times Magazine is one of the leading online content
providers of positivity, wellness, and personal empowerment. A philanthropic organization,
their net proceeds are funneled to support worldwide charity initiatives
via Humanity Healing International. Through their commitment to creating community
and providing conscious content, they aspire to uplift humanity on
(21:08):
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Speaker 6 (21:14):
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(21:34):
Join me the first and third Monday of the month
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Speaker 4 (23:45):
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Speaker 1 (24:00):
Back on Vox Novus. My guest this week Frank Parensis,
author of the book Honor the Animal Experiential Design for teachers, coaches, trainers, therapists, parents,
and health professionals. Frank, not many people talk about experiential design.
What is it and why is it important?
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Oh? Good? I love this question because what happens when
we go through standard curriculums. Let's say you want to
be a teacher or a trainer or coach. We go
to school and we receive you might say, template, and
the template tells us how to conduct our educations that
we do with our clients. Our patients are our students,
(24:45):
and then we tend to stick with us. And what
I think we need to do in light of modern
knowledge about the human animal is we need to question
all of that and we need to start from scratch.
And that's what I talk about the veterinary model and say, Okay,
we've got these animals, with these human animals, and they
(25:06):
under they're under a certain amount of distress right now.
So starting from scratch with experiential design, what would we
do with people? If you just had a group of
people and unlimited resources, what would you do? And that's
a question that is that we don't ask often enough,
(25:28):
and I think it's a good place to start.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
And what would you say we'd start with.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Well, we've got to start with the human body and
the history of the human body, and what are our
basic needs? You know, obviously we need to be in
contact with nature to some degree, we need to be
in contact with community, and we need to have a
sense of meaning and purpose. These are like our three
(25:56):
circles of life support that surround us. And that's a
good starting place. Habitat, tribe and community, and then met
a narrative, sense of meaning and a purpose. If we
start there, we won't go too far wrong. And I
enjoy the academic disciplines all of these. The traditional schooling
(26:17):
is fine in and of itself, but we need to
get underneath that something more primal.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
You say that experience is the language of the body.
What does that mean?
Speaker 2 (26:29):
I love this phrase because when you study neuroscience, you
walk away with a couple of insights. And whether it's
changes to synapses or nerve cells, the wrappings around nerve
cells called myelin, or whether it's changes to the cortex
of the brain, all of these things are what they
(26:49):
call use dependent. In other words, those changes only take
place in response to use, in other words, experience. So
you use the brain, you use synapses and neurons in
a particular way, and they will respond with transformation. They
won't respond to anything else. The experience is the driver.
(27:14):
Repetition is the driver of nervous system transformation. So it's
correct to say that experience is the language of the body.
And I happen to love language, and a lot of
us use language in trying to transform one another, and
language can have an effect. But really, when you get
right down to it. It's the experience that the whole
(27:36):
human animal has that changes the body, that changes the
nervous system.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
So I'm working in my kitchen and I don't have
a glove on my hand, and I reach out to
grab a pot and I don't take into consideration that
there's going to be heat coming from that pot, and
my hand starts to burn.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Is that experience, Oh absolutely, and it would be. It's
poignant in and of itself. But if it happens several times,
if you have repetitions of that, that will drive that
learning home deeply into your nervous system, and you will
have synaptic changes and changes to neurons and changes to
the cortex of your brain, all driven by that experience,
(28:19):
all driven by that use. So repetition is everything, and
athletic coaches know this, and we need to listen to
some of their teaching on this.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
So in essence, this is a form of education that
comes really through the physical phenomenon, not through the intellectual phenomenon, right, And.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
That's something that we need to maybe rethink, especially at
the level of academic education and the university, because this
model that came to us in the late middle ages
of the university, where students sit and take notes and
listen to lectures and try and drive knowledge into the
(29:02):
brain through academic learning. That's one model, but it's it's
not the only model. And if you look at it
in terms of human history, deep human history, the primal
body based knowledge has always been the core of this.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
How has neglect led to the level of stress that
many experience today.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Neglect as in neglect of the body, neglect in terms
of sedentary living, neglect in terms of the domestication of
modern lifestyle. That's how a tremendous effect on the human body,
especially an atrophy of our muscular system, but also an
(29:50):
atrophy of our sensory systems, atrophy in our ability to
pay attention to the world. All of these things seem
to be a decline line. And you might even say
the vitality of the human animal itself seems to have
degraded over the last few decades. Even so, that's part
(30:11):
of our trouble.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
And also with the advent of COVID and the isolation
of people, especially kids not going to a physical school
but adjoining school through means of computers and such. What
do you think that did.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
That's been that's been a real big hit to all
of us. And obviously the technology enables people like us
to have a conversation at long distance, and that's a
welcome thing, but too much screen time. This is absolutely
clear that that cannot substitute for face to face interactions
(30:51):
with other people. I mean, this is deep social wiring
in the human animal. Our brains are literally social or
and we absolutely need that FaceTime. That's like the gold
standard for human social interactions. And technology is really getting
in the way of that. The smartphone, especially the earbuds
(31:13):
and the headphones, all of this is getting in the
way of our ability to know one another.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
And one of the things that's been wired in my head,
especially the last few years, is I have to be
overly cautious when coming to an intersection that somebody. Most
of the time, teens are not crossing the street looking
at their phones and not looking at oncoming traffic.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Oh yeah, it's everywhere now, and I think our ancestors
would be appalled at our inability to pay attention to
the world. I mean, this is not just a trivial
side effect of technology. This is going deeper, and I
really worry about young people and their ability, and even
older people now and the ability to pay attention and
(32:01):
in a consistent and sustained way. And if that goes away,
then we are at the mercy for all kinds of
forces in society that would tend to capture our.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
Attention absolutely, and and also for me personally. I found
that those who spend a lot of time on their
phones are losing their communication skills right right.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
And the thing that people forget is communication is not
just words. The body is always involved and has been
throughout history. So the body contributes in terms of our posture,
our facial expressions, are the pitch and volume of our voice,
all of these things that communication is fundamentally physical, and
(32:48):
the body knows this body language.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Yep, you're looking for common ground among teachers, therapists, coaches, trainers, parents,
and health profess How would you describe this overlap? Right?
Speaker 2 (33:04):
This is a what I call a pigeonhole problem, because
all of these professions are working with the human animal,
and we all desire essentially the same thing for the
human animal. We all want our people to be healthier
and more functional in the world, and yet we're inhibited
by these pigeonholes that tell us, Okay, you're only going
(33:24):
to work with a certain aspect of the human animal.
You might be working with the human mind, you might
be working with the human body or part of the
human body. And this division of attention ends up being
really problematic. And of course, the biggest example of this
is the mind body split of Renee Descartes. And he
(33:46):
gave us this thing several hundred years ago, and he
believed that the mind and the body are two separate entities,
and modern neurosize tells us, no, that's not the case.
The mind and body are always in dialogue with one another.
And yet we have these pigeonholes that oftentimes force us
(34:07):
to ignore the totality of the human organism. And that's
a structure that gets in our way.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
You touched upon this before you advocate for a veterinary
approach to the human animal. Please elaborate.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
Well, I just try and get away from the pigeon holes,
as you might say. And what if we had a
veterinarian come to our planet from Mars, and suppose that
veterinarian had an interest in the welfare of the human animal,
and this veterinarian has experience working with other creatures and
(34:48):
has a start from scratch approach. So what would he
or she see as the big stressors and the challenges
to the modern human animal. And we've touched on some
of those already, but I think that martian veterinarian would
be inclined to have what some people have called a
saluteogenic approach. Saluteogenic means going as far upstream as possible,
(35:12):
So salute referring to health genesis meaning beginnings, let's go
as far upstream as possible and start there.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
I just had this vision when I started reading your book,
about jumping up on a table in a BET's office
and getting on my hands and knees and sort of
a panting just I don't know why that came to me,
but that's what that's what's suck. But I think, you know,
to a certain extent, maybe are our physicians today our
veterinarians treat their patients better than physicians are treating their patients.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Well, yes, I've had that thought myself, and I've heard
other people talk that way, and it does seem to
be true. I've gotten more attentive care for my dog
sometimes than I receive in a medical office, and there's
a lot of things that contribute to that, and I
(36:05):
don't think we have time to go into all that,
but yes, I do think it's true that sometimes veterinarians
pay more attention to their patients than medical doctors do
to theirs.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
Yeah, unfortunately, you draw on three models for experiential design,
martial art, athletic training, and West African drum and dance.
How can these models inform our practices right?
Speaker 2 (36:30):
Well, you can kind of cherry pick here, because not
everybody's a martial art teacher, not everybody's an athletic trainer,
not everybody's a drummer. But you can take elements from
each of these. So, for example, you might take from
the athletic training model the immersion of the body and
(36:51):
the challenge that athletic trainers bring to their athletes, especially
what is known as specific training. That's where we look
exactly and precisely at the outcomes we're trying to achieve,
and then we train people specifically toward those outcomes. So
that's a great model. The martial art model, we can
(37:12):
draw on things like the focused practice, the community practice
that we do together in the dojo. That's a great model,
and then in West African drama dance, the beauty of
rhythm and the fact that everyone in class is working
together to share in the quest to perfect that rhythm.
That's something that we can bring in. Even if you
(37:34):
don't know how to drum, everybody can do a beat
and that's a really valuable experience as well.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
I've witnessed I watched several of your videos on YouTube
and some of the things that you do in terms
of the martial arts, and some of the exercises look
more like a refined dance to meet in martial arts.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
It's just yeah, and there's big overlap there. And in fact,
some of martial arts styles are very dance, like kung fu, kappawara,
all these things really overlap with dance and you can
have a lot of fun with that. But then you
could also draw on some of the practical self defense
(38:17):
parts of the martial arts, and that's relevant to some people,
and so there's a lot of ways you can go
with this.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
You know, it's interesting. In the last couple of years,
I've spent more time outside of my vehicle and walking
using my feet against the ground and probably probably all
of my life and what a change has come through me.
From a physical I'm seventy two, and from a physical standpoint,
the change has been phenomenal.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
Right, And that's the primary locomotior pattern for bipedal humans,
So it would make sense. I mean, you're tapping into
something that's very old, probably five or six million years
of bipedal history, and of course our bodies and our
brains would work better with that type of rhythmic engagement.
Speaker 1 (39:06):
So yes, absolutely, And not only that, but my doctors
have given me glorious reviews. My bloods are wonderful, my
blood pressure is wonderful. My heart, which I had to
actually have stents put on when I was in my
early fifties put in when I was in my early
fifties is wonderful. Everything's working beautifully, and I'm grateful that
(39:26):
that transition from getting out of the car and onto
the ground and also just looking at things as I'm walking,
getting into that rhythm I walking, and then observing the
beauty of the sky and the trees and the plants
and the flowers. You become one, literally become one with
that environment.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
Right. There's something about that speed and that tempo of
moving through the world that's so different from driving, because
driving at sixty miles an hour whatever it is, you're
taking in this highly visual stimulation and your body's not
participating really at all. So that's pretty abnormal for the
(40:05):
human animal. And getting back to walk in that's a
more holistic sensory experience for us, and it reminds us
of our normal experience on this planet.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
Absolutely. My guest Frank Parensich. His book is called Honor
the Animal, Experiential Design for teachers, coaches, trainers, therapists, parents
and health professionals. We'll be back with more after these
words on the Own Times Radio network.
Speaker 9 (40:35):
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Speaker 1 (44:18):
Back on box NOBUS. My guest this week is Frank Parensich.
His book is called Honor the Animal Experiential Design for teachers, coaches, trainers, therapists,
parents and health professionals. Frank, you share that we have
to be adapted and adaptable. How do we start?
Speaker 2 (44:38):
Oh? I love this distinction because I think it tells
us a lot about how we can train and educate ourselves.
To be adapted means your body and your skill set
is consistent with a particular environment, one that is usually
(44:59):
u changing. So if you're adapted to a particular sporting environment,
say basketball, you're really good at playing basketball. You're adapted
to that set of demands on your body. But what
if things change and now you're required to be adaptabull,
And that's a completely different skill demand, because now you
(45:21):
have to rewire yourself. You have to learn about some
new environment and some new skill set. So for the
human animal to be fully functional, we have to be both.
We have to be both adapted and adaptabule. And to
really understand this, I just turned to my dog, because
my dog is really adapted to my house and he
(45:44):
knows every corner and every smell and everything about the house,
and he can run at high speed through the house
and do all his fun things. But he's also incredibly adaptabull,
So when we move to a new place, it's not
very long before he learns that. I think he's a
good role model for all of us.
Speaker 1 (46:03):
You know that with the dog, they say the dog
knows everything through scent, that the dog knows when their partner,
their keeper, their family is returning. Based on the fact
that the scent of the family disappears over a certain
period of time, and then they know the timing when
they're coming back something for that effect. I'm not an
(46:23):
expert on it, but that's what I've read. We're not
that adaptable, though, are we.
Speaker 2 (46:29):
Well, that's what remains to be seen, because what's going
to happen with our ecological crisis now is that we
are going to be forced into situations now that are
extremely unfamiliar and challenging to us. And that's going to
be the key is to be adaptable. Can we leave
(46:50):
our adapted the cocoons that we live in now and
live in some new way? So we're going to do that.
We're going to need practical skills, but we're also going
to need the psychological flexibility to simply give up the
security that we've enjoyed for a long time and now
live in some completely new lifestyle. And it remains to
(47:11):
be seen whether we can do that.
Speaker 1 (47:13):
Are there dangers in embracing the change?
Speaker 10 (47:16):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (47:16):
Yeah, absolutely. I mean this is this is our encounter
with ambiguity and uncertainty, and there's going to be danger ahead. Absolutely,
And I think the more we resist that, the more
we resist this ambiguity, the tougher our transition is going
(47:37):
to be. And this is that Alan Watts used to
talk about a lot. He talked about the wisdom of
insecurity and the fact that the more we tie ourselves
to security, the more security we're going to want because
we're separated from a flux of life. So yeah, yeah,
this is this is on our calendar, this is what's
(47:59):
coming up for us.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
But in embracing the change, we are really manifesting an evolution.
Speaker 2 (48:08):
I think so. I think so. And there may be
opportunity in this crisis, and there may be a way
for us to enter into some new domain of human experience,
at human function, of human new human social relationships. All
of these things are possible if we could stay alive
(48:28):
long enough to do that. But there's going to be
a big transition period ahead.
Speaker 1 (48:34):
Tell us about your book and organization activism is medicine.
Speaker 2 (48:39):
Oh right. So this is my attempt to reframe activism
because for most of us, when we talk about activism,
it just sounds really stressful, and going into politics on
any level seems like a world that's just rife with conflict,
(49:00):
and we're going to have to start pushing an agenda
whatever it is, and that's difficult, that's stress inducing, and
I think a lot of us are unwilling to go there.
So we don't get involved politics, we don't get involved
in activism. We avoid the whole thing. But what if
we looked at it from a different angle. What if
(49:21):
we said, well, this activism is really an encounter with
meaning and purpose, and what if having that meaning and
purpose actually makes our bodies and our minds work better,
then we're going to get somewhere. And that's what I
believe to be the case, because if you have that
sense of meaning and purpose, there's medical evidence to show
(49:44):
that people are stronger and more resilient when they have
that sense of meaning and purpose and act on it.
So that's what I mean when I say that activism
is medicine. It can make us stronger people.
Speaker 1 (49:56):
Absolutely, we are touched upon Western medicine before. From personal experience,
it seems that traditional Western medicine as of late is
more business oriented than patient oriented. Would you agree? And
how can we address this?
Speaker 2 (50:12):
Absolutely? Yes, And in fact, there's an emerging discussion now
not just around the capitalism and the for profit part
of this, but also you might even call it the
tyranny of the medical model over the human experience and
the medicalization of human life. And there's Ivan Illits used
(50:35):
to write about this. He was worried. He was concerned
that modern medicine would become so dominant in our lives
that it would eclipse our primal capabilities. And that seems
to be the case because more and more human experiences
and human qualities now are falling under the umbrella of medicine.
(50:58):
So for example, if you you are shy and you
have social anxiety, now that's considered a medical condition. Or
if you're short, that's now we have a medical solution
for that. We have medical solutions for all kinds of
things that used to be simply part and parcel of
human life. And that is restructuring our entire approach to
(51:24):
what it means to be alive. And as a people,
we have yet to take this on. That's a conversation
we really need to be having.
Speaker 1 (51:32):
Absolutely. In your book, you say no is not enough.
What does that mean?
Speaker 2 (51:38):
Well? I took that from author Naomi Klein, and she
has been writing about activism and culture for a long time,
and she talked about Trump two point zero and that
whole challenge, and she said, yes, we have to protest,
we have to resist. All of those things are important,
but as she puts it, no is not enough. In
(51:59):
other words, there has to be a building. There has
to be a creation. There has to be a new domain,
a new thing that we build to replace the old.
It's not enough simply to tear down the existing system.
There needs to be a foundation of something new and
something better. And I think a lot of activists, in
(52:22):
our frustration, we fail to see that, or we're content
simply to protest and tear down the old. But that's
dangerous if there's nothing to put in its place. So
that's what she was talking about.
Speaker 1 (52:35):
And this really starts on the community level, doesn't it.
Speaker 2 (52:39):
Absolutely it's all about culture, and individual people can have
great ideas and great activist inclinations, but yes, any effective
work on culture and policy has to be communal and
there has to be discourse. There has to be conversation.
And as what concerns me now, we with a few exceptions,
(53:02):
really aren't talking that much about our ecological crisis. And
that's where I hope to make a difference in my work,
is to get more people talking about it.
Speaker 1 (53:14):
Absolutely. There's a wonderful word in various iterations in Africa.
The word is ubuntu and it translates as I am
because we are. When a child is born in these villages,
a gathering takes place where the question is asked, whose
child is this? And the village exclaims, simultaneously and unanimously,
(53:38):
my child. Are these the philosophies and tenets we need
to adopt in our country?
Speaker 2 (53:43):
Yes, absolutely. The philosophy of Ubuntu is identification with the tribe.
It's a social identification. And in contrast the modern world,
especially in the West here, we're a pretty individualistic some
(54:03):
will even say a narcissistic society, and that focus on
the individual and individual achievement that really distracts us from
having a sense of community at all. So we need
to go back to that fundamental and look at our
(54:25):
deep seated need to affiliate with one another that's wired
into us. And in that sense, modern culture, modern individualistic culture,
is an outlier and an exception. So this is something
that we're going to have to reckon with and.
Speaker 1 (54:41):
Soon, and that really is part of honoring the animal.
Speaker 2 (54:45):
Right absolutely, because we are a hypersocial animal.
Speaker 1 (54:49):
There you go, what would you like readers to take
away from Honor the Animal.
Speaker 2 (54:54):
Well, I think the title alone is valuable for people
because we get so distracted in honoring other things, most
notably money and power and status and that kind of thing.
But the title of this book takes us back to fundamentals.
If we honor our biology, honor the human animal and
(55:18):
the needs of the human animal, not just in ourselves
but in the people we work with, then we we'll
make a step in the right direction. So that would
be my desire for this book, simply to remember the
title wonderful.
Speaker 1 (55:34):
My guest, Frank Farensich his book Honor the Animal Experiential
Design for teachers, coaches, trainers, therapist, parents and health professionals
and all of us. Frank, please one more time share
with our listeners with it and get your books and
find out more about you and your wonderful work.
Speaker 2 (55:49):
You can go to Humananimal dot earth and the book
itself is available in all the usual places, so that's
easy to find.
Speaker 1 (55:58):
But also have that YouTube website right.
Speaker 2 (56:02):
Yeah, yeah, I've got the Honor of the Animal YouTube channel.
Speaker 1 (56:05):
Frank, thank you so much for joining us today and
sharing this valid and very important information.
Speaker 2 (56:11):
Well, thank you. It's been our real pleasure. I've really
enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (56:15):
And thank you for joining us on Box Novus. I'm
Victor the Voice Firman. Have a wonderful week.
Vox Novus, the New Voice, Vox Novus, the new Dimension.
Vox Novus thought and movement leaders who will share from
their experience and offer tools to help us navigate our
rapidly changing world. My name is Victor Furman. Welcome to
(00:29):
Vox Novus, the New Voice. The human animal is in
big trouble. An ecological and social storm is upon us,
and the stress is growing more intense with each passing day.
(00:53):
To succeed, there must be a creation of new culture,
ideas and lifeways. We must be radically, ferociously, relentlessly creative.
My guest this week on Vox novis Frank Farensich, says
we must honor the Animal. Frank is a passionate advocate
(01:14):
for the human animal and a functional future. He earned
his BA at Stanford University in human biology and has
more than thirty years of teaching experience in martial arts
and health education. A former columnist for Paleo Magazine, Frank
is the author of numerous books about health and the
(01:34):
human predicament. His website is Humananimal dot earth, and he
joins me this week to share his path and latest book,
Honor the Animal, Experiential Design for Teachers coaches, trainers, therapists,
parents and health professionals. Please join me in welcoming to
(01:56):
Vox Novus Frank Forensics. Welcome, Frank glad to be here.
Please share with us your early path and challenges and
how it led to your background in martial arts and
human design.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Well, my origin story, I suppose starts as a very
young person where I had a lot of physical troubles.
I was very sick, had a lot of allergies, couldn't
really keep up with my peers on the athletic field
at all, and it wasn't looking good for me. But
my parents got me involved in swimming and that made
(02:33):
a huge difference over the course of a few years,
and I went from being really behind the curve physically
to catching up, and that led me to get really
interested in physical movement and the physical arts. I eventually
became involved with martial arts and rock climbing and a
(02:54):
whole host of studies having to do with the human body.
So that was my transformation, you might say.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
For listeners who may have some physical issues. I was
told by a doctor I was having problems with one
of my knees and the doctor told me get into
into a swimming pool and start swimming. How important is swimming?
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (03:15):
For me, it was pivotal. It was fantastic because it
increased my vitality and it got me over a lot
of these sort of vague afflictions that I had. And
it only took a few years so consistently get in
the water and eventually joined the water polo team in
high school, and that made a big difference in the
(03:39):
long term trajectory of my life.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Tell us about your trips to Africa and what you
were searching for right.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Well, when I was in college, I was in the
program in human biology, and I had a lot of
professors who were very interested in human evolution and the
big history of the human animal. And they all said
pretty much the same, if you really want to understand
how the human body works, you need to go to
Africa and understand the environment that we grew up in.
(04:09):
And I took them seriously. I said, Okay, I'll do that,
and I went to Africa, and I was fortunate I
was able to go on safari to see the natural world.
But I was also able to go out with some
Plahari bushman, the hunters and gatherers of Tanzania, and that
was really exciting for me. I learned a lot.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
What were some of the things that you learned from them?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Well, mostly it was the thought experiment of what would
it be like to live in an ancestral environment, that
that was normal for human beings for most of our
time on Earth, and how that lifestyle would have affected
our bodies, being outdoors twenty four hours a day, being
(04:54):
in small tribal bands, paying a lot of attention to habitat,
having a lot of agility, which is the ability to
walk long distances without fences or roads or interruptions, and
that contact with the natural world would have been very
awe inspiring and very good for the human body and
(05:14):
for human health.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Before we discuss your new book, Honor the Animal, please
share with us about your twenty twenty one book, Beware
False Tigers, Strategies and Antidotes for an Age of Stress.
What inspired that book and what do you share with
readers right?
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Well, stress is such a big topic in the health
and fitness world, but it's even bigger than that. And
I know that it's such a hot topic because the
autonomic nervous system, which drives a stress response, is ancient
and it's a primal part of the human body and
(05:53):
it touches every sell, every organ, every tissue in the body.
So if we can use that system, well, our bodies
will flourish. But if we have trouble with that system,
then there's going to be lots of downstream and consequences,
not just for our health, but for our behavior and
our experience in the world. So that's what led me
(06:13):
to write the book. And I continue to be really
fascinated by stress and the stress responses.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
And what did you share with readers about stress in
that book.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
The primary duality that people need to understand, and I
think a lot of people are coming around to this,
is understanding the difference between the sympathetic branch and the
parasympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system. And we've all
heard about the fight flight response, So that is the
response of the body for emergency physical action and typically movement,
(06:45):
and this is where we're running away from predators and
that kind of thing. And that's a very important piece
of the puzzle and it's very valuable in terms of
our survival and our performance. But the other side of
the system, the parasympathetic branch is just as important, and
that's the rest and digest response, or what in massage
(07:08):
school we called it the feed and breed response, And
that's the healing response that helps us put tissues and
organs back together when they've been overworked. So the key
in all of this is to use it wisely, to
have a stress response that is appropriate and acute at
the right time, and then to return back to the
(07:30):
rest and digest response as soon as possible, and to
hang out there to spend most of our time in
rest and.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Digest and not carry that stress with them right.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Right, So it's always the distinction between acute and chronic.
Acute is good, chronic is bad.
Speaker 4 (07:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
What inspired your new book, Honor the Animal and who
is it written for?
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Right?
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Well, I've been very fortunate in that I've been able
to study with all of different teachers in the world
of martial arts and massage therapy and athletic training, and
I started producing some workshops on my own and I
was able to start from scratch, and that was an
incredibly valuable experience because I didn't have to follow anybody
(08:17):
else's template. I could just make things up on the fly.
And I said what is the ideal experience, say, in
a three day workship, what do I want people to
take away from it? And that's what the book is
all about, is how to design this kind of experience.
And it's for anybody who works with the human animals,
So it could be teachers, parents, coaches, therapists, trainers, anybody
(08:42):
who who might want to do one of these experiences
with their people. It's a starting from scratch approach. You
might even call it a veterinary approach for working with
people or the human animal.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Where do we stand? What is the nature of the
modern human predicament?
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Well, the human animal is in really big trouble right now,
and for a lot of reasons, clearly, But the two
biggest ones are tied to our biology. The first one
is what they call mismatch, and that is simply the
fact that our bodies are ancient. Our bodies have this
(09:23):
aboriginal wiring you might say, these aboriginal inclinations, and we're
trying to use that kind of wiring in the modern world,
which which is radically different from the world that we're
used to. So that's a big challenge and a big
stressor for everyone. And then the other big challenge, of course,
is are ecological predicament and the fact that all of
(09:46):
our life support systems now are under continuous threat and
may actually be past the tipping points of a breakdown.
So the thing, the processes, the life systems that support
our bodies are under threat, and in turn, our bodies
are suffering.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
And what are some of the things that we can
do about disconnecting from that aboriginal build in our body, Well,
we really can't.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
I think that we are going to be aboriginal for
a very long time. And our inclinations and our preferences,
our behaviors have been shaped by evolution over the course
of hundreds of thousands of years, and the modern world
has come upon us in the matter of only a
(10:37):
few hundred years. So a lot of people have described
us as cavemen with cell phones, which is kind of
a cartoon, but I think that's kind of accurate. And
our social inclinations, our health and lifestyle inclinations have been
shaped by events that took place a very long time ago.
(10:58):
So we have to work with that, and we have
to be aware of it.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
And where does artificial intelligence come to play in this?
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Oh AI's that's really kind of a pet peeve for
me now, because it's yet another technology that we don't
really understand that's coming down the pipe here with incredible
speed and we haven't even had the conversation yet about
how that might play in. And my fear is that,
(11:31):
like many technologies, it's going to lead to atrophy in
some basic human capability. So it's just as if you
use a car all the time to drive and to
go places and you never use your legs to walk,
your legs will begin to atrophy and you'll become weaker.
And the same thing will be I'm sure true with
(11:51):
AI that if we rely on AI to explore the
world and to take over our creative capabilities and our judgment,
then those to those capabilities will also begin to atrophy.
And that does not bode well at all for our future.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
And it seems that the companies that are making the
AI elements are pushing them for profit rather than taking
the societal dangers into question.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Oh absolutely, I mean this is this is one hundred
percent apitalist enterprise. And it's not that people are making
the decisions here. Capital is making the decisions. Money and
profit are making the decisions, and so these these technologies
are basically being offered to us without reflection, and that
(12:40):
is that's just not a good way to introduce any
novelty or technology to people.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Absolutely, you've shared that humanity looks upon the animal kingdom
and nature as others. Why is this both wrong and dangerous?
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Right? This is what some people call the myth of
human supremacy, and this belief that we are like the
apex of creation, we are the alpha animal, We're the
best animal that's ever lived, and that attitude, that philosophy
is really common in the modern Western world, but it's
(13:17):
not a human universal So in other words, a lot
of cultures, a lot of people on the planet have
held a different view, a more participatory view. But it
seems over the last couple hundred years we've shifted now
to this belief in human supremacy, this belief in human exceptionalism,
(13:38):
and that, at least from my point of view, is
a really dangerous attitude to hold, because we're just another
animal and we have some very impressive capabilities, but so
do a lot of other animals, and if we want
to have a functional future, I think we need to
take a more participatory approach to start seeing ourselves in participation,
(14:05):
in harmony with the natural world, and a lot of
conservationists have made this point, but it bears repeating because
to hold a arrogant approach to nature is bound belief
to trouble.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
As we're saying, one hundred years ago, this would not
have been even a question. But where can we intervene
as a society, I guess, especially with children in schools,
and start to bring out the understanding of our relationship
with nature and with the wild kingdom?
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Right, Well, it's got to be does my martial art
teachers always put it, They said, it's always about time
on the mat. In other words, we have to be
spending more time in contact with natural processes, more time outdoors.
And I think we're going to have to give up
some of our reliance on technology. I think that the
(15:00):
proliferation of smartphones, especially amongst young people, is a real problem,
and we're going to have to give up on some
of this headlong rush into a technological future. We have
to spend more time in nature. It's that simple.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Are we allowing our environment to be abused to the
extent that it actually could lead to extinction?
Speaker 2 (15:22):
I think possibly that's the case, especially the threat of
climate chaos. We're on track now to be a three
degrees above pre industrial temperatures by twenty fifty, and so
that is within one generation. You know, people who are
(15:43):
born today will see some horrific climate consequences and whether
or not that leads to extinction and remains to be seen.
I think the effects will be patchy. There will be
some bioregions that are going to go down to extreme weather,
and I think they're going to be major food shortages
(16:03):
around the world, and there's going to be a lot
of chaos and a lot of stress. The consequences here
that we're looking at are really severe and we're not
really taking it seriously as a people. So maybe extension, yes,
but at the very least a lot of turmoil.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
And again, what could be introduced into the educational process
to change this and to intervene.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Well, young people I think need to be told the
truth above all, and I think as parents we tend
to sugarcoat a lot of things, and we want we
don't want to frighten young people. We want them to
have a sense of hope, and that's all legit. However,
it's telling the truth is fundamental here, and we're having
(16:48):
trouble with that. We're having trouble telling people the truth
of what humans are doing to the biosphere now, and
we really can't shy away from that. We need to
tell the truth first of all, to one another and
to the adult community, and then as best we can
tell that truth to young people and then give them
(17:11):
the tools, their activist tools that they can carry forward.
And we're really failing to do that right now.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
How do we generate how do we engender advocacy?
Speaker 2 (17:23):
I think we need to teach people about the nature
of power, and the way power tends to consolidate, the
way wealth tends to consolidate, the extreme inequality of the
modern world, what the capitalist system is doing to people
around the world. Some people now are calling capitalism an
injustice machine, which I think is a fair description of
(17:47):
what it is. So young people need to have the tools,
especially the language tools they need to understand how politics
and power actually work, how especially the language of metaphor
to talk about some of these problems, and to be
good public speakers when they address the community at large.
(18:09):
So these are tools that we have, we just need
to make them available.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Absolutely, are we a Planet of the Apes in reverse.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Well, yes, I have no problem with this, with this
idea of humans as animals and humans as apes, humans
as primates, humans as mammals. Our wiring is so much
the same. And chimpanzees, for example, I've been to Africa
and I've been to Gombie where Jane Goodall did our work.
I've been out with the chimpanzees, and ninety eight percent
(18:44):
of their genetic material is the same as ours. So
I don't think it makes a whole lot of sense
to say that they're somehow different from us. Obviously they're
different in subtle ways, but we're mostly the same. And
so yes, primates, mammals, vertebrates were all part of the
(19:06):
same family.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
And what was the lesson from the movie The Planet
of the Apes? So what do we see in those movies,
that series of movies about about how they treated humanity.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
You know, it's been a long time since I saw
that movie, and I can't really comment on it. But
my favorite example here comes from the movie Avatar and
Terminator and some of these works by James Cameron. We
talked a lot about our encounter with technology and our
(19:38):
encounter with native people, and that I think is super
relevant right now, and I think we really need to
need to revisit these movies and see the message that
was there.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Absolutely, we have the warning. Now we have to pay
attention to the warning. My guest is Frank Farensich. His
book is called Honor the Animal, Feriential Design for teachers, coaches, trainers, therapists,
parents and health professionals. Frank, please share with our listeners
where they can get your books and find out more
about you and your work.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Well, the book is available on all the usual outlets,
but you can go to my website Humananimal dot earth
and you'll find everything there and some of my other
books and some of my other videos and that kind
of thing. So it's all easy to find.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
And what else do you offer there?
Speaker 2 (20:29):
I also have a YouTube channel with some nature based
monologues that I do in commentary that I do in
the outdoor world, so that might be interesting to people
as well.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
And we'll be back with more Frank and on the
Animal after these words on the Old Times Radio network.
Speaker 5 (20:47):
Own Times Magazine is one of the leading online content
providers of positivity, wellness, and personal empowerment. A philanthropic organization,
their net proceeds are funneled to support worldwide charity initiatives
via Humanity Healing International. Through their commitment to creating community
and providing conscious content, they aspire to uplift humanity on
(21:08):
a global scale. Home Times co creating a more conscious lifestyle.
Speaker 6 (21:14):
This is Kathy Biele, host of Celestial Compass featuring astrology.
You can use Celestial Compass points you to what's going
on in the sky and what you can do with
it down here on Earth. We also explore fun, effective
and cosmic tools for navigating this adventure we call life.
(21:34):
Join me the first and third Monday of the month
at five pm Eastern Time for a Celestial Compass. It's enlightening, entertaining,
and empowering.
Speaker 7 (21:44):
We ask parents who adopted teens to share their journey.
Speaker 8 (21:48):
There are many times I thought I can't do this.
I mean, what parent isn't worried about what am I
not doing right? What am I not doing enough? And
then I realized, wait, that's being a parent.
Speaker 9 (22:00):
Don't worry about being perfect.
Speaker 10 (22:01):
I've had around three other mother figures in my life,
but only one of them has taught me how a mother.
Speaker 8 (22:08):
Loves the greatest reward for me is He makes me
better every day.
Speaker 9 (22:14):
I would tell a family considering adopting a teenager that
that teenager, whoever it is, needs you, and they need
what you have to offer.
Speaker 8 (22:24):
Dayer is giving me hope. He's our son and that
is what he will always be.
Speaker 7 (22:31):
Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. You can't
imagine the reward. Visit adopt us kids dot org to
learn more. A message brought to you by adopt Us Kids,
the US Department of Health and Human Services, and the
ad Council. Hey dad, your prescription will be ready in
just a minute. Hey Dad, your laundry will be ready.
Speaker 11 (22:51):
In just a minute.
Speaker 7 (22:53):
Dad, your lunch will be ready in just a minute.
Speaker 11 (22:56):
Hey honey, why don't you take a minute. When you
help care for a loved one, you give them as
much time as you can making sure they're safe and comfortable.
But it's just as important that you take some time
for yourself.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
At AARP, we.
Speaker 11 (23:12):
Can help with information and useful tips on how you
can maintain a healthy life, balance, care for your own
physical and mental well being, and manage the challenges of
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take of yourself, the better care you can provide for
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Speaker 6 (23:26):
Thanks Dad, Thank you.
Speaker 11 (23:29):
You're there for them, We're here for you. Find free
care guides to support you and your loved one at
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A public service announcement brought to you by AARP and
the Council.
Speaker 4 (23:45):
Hi, this is bellemar. I can find humor and almost anything,
but one thing I never laugh about its cruelty to animals.
If you don't get the joke, A there right, People
for the Ethical Treatment of Animals five on one front
straight in Norfolk, Virginia, two three five one oh.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Back on Vox Novus. My guest this week Frank Parensis,
author of the book Honor the Animal Experiential Design for teachers, coaches, trainers, therapists, parents,
and health professionals. Frank, not many people talk about experiential design.
What is it and why is it important?
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Oh? Good? I love this question because what happens when
we go through standard curriculums. Let's say you want to
be a teacher or a trainer or coach. We go
to school and we receive you might say, template, and
the template tells us how to conduct our educations that
we do with our clients. Our patients are our students,
(24:45):
and then we tend to stick with us. And what
I think we need to do in light of modern
knowledge about the human animal is we need to question
all of that and we need to start from scratch.
And that's what I talk about the veterinary model and say, Okay,
we've got these animals, with these human animals, and they
(25:06):
under they're under a certain amount of distress right now.
So starting from scratch with experiential design, what would we
do with people? If you just had a group of
people and unlimited resources, what would you do? And that's
a question that is that we don't ask often enough,
(25:28):
and I think it's a good place to start.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
And what would you say we'd start with.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Well, we've got to start with the human body and
the history of the human body, and what are our
basic needs? You know, obviously we need to be in
contact with nature to some degree, we need to be
in contact with community, and we need to have a
sense of meaning and purpose. These are like our three
(25:56):
circles of life support that surround us. And that's a
good starting place. Habitat, tribe and community, and then met
a narrative, sense of meaning and a purpose. If we
start there, we won't go too far wrong. And I
enjoy the academic disciplines all of these. The traditional schooling
(26:17):
is fine in and of itself, but we need to
get underneath that something more primal.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
You say that experience is the language of the body.
What does that mean?
Speaker 2 (26:29):
I love this phrase because when you study neuroscience, you
walk away with a couple of insights. And whether it's
changes to synapses or nerve cells, the wrappings around nerve
cells called myelin, or whether it's changes to the cortex
of the brain, all of these things are what they
(26:49):
call use dependent. In other words, those changes only take
place in response to use, in other words, experience. So
you use the brain, you use synapses and neurons in
a particular way, and they will respond with transformation. They
won't respond to anything else. The experience is the driver.
(27:14):
Repetition is the driver of nervous system transformation. So it's
correct to say that experience is the language of the body.
And I happen to love language, and a lot of
us use language in trying to transform one another, and
language can have an effect. But really, when you get
right down to it. It's the experience that the whole
(27:36):
human animal has that changes the body, that changes the
nervous system.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
So I'm working in my kitchen and I don't have
a glove on my hand, and I reach out to
grab a pot and I don't take into consideration that
there's going to be heat coming from that pot, and
my hand starts to burn.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Is that experience, Oh absolutely, and it would be. It's
poignant in and of itself. But if it happens several times,
if you have repetitions of that, that will drive that
learning home deeply into your nervous system, and you will
have synaptic changes and changes to neurons and changes to
the cortex of your brain, all driven by that experience,
(28:19):
all driven by that use. So repetition is everything, and
athletic coaches know this, and we need to listen to
some of their teaching on this.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
So in essence, this is a form of education that
comes really through the physical phenomenon, not through the intellectual phenomenon, right, And.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
That's something that we need to maybe rethink, especially at
the level of academic education and the university, because this
model that came to us in the late middle ages
of the university, where students sit and take notes and
listen to lectures and try and drive knowledge into the
(29:02):
brain through academic learning. That's one model, but it's it's
not the only model. And if you look at it
in terms of human history, deep human history, the primal
body based knowledge has always been the core of this.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
How has neglect led to the level of stress that
many experience today.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Neglect as in neglect of the body, neglect in terms
of sedentary living, neglect in terms of the domestication of
modern lifestyle. That's how a tremendous effect on the human body,
especially an atrophy of our muscular system, but also an
(29:50):
atrophy of our sensory systems, atrophy in our ability to
pay attention to the world. All of these things seem
to be a decline line. And you might even say
the vitality of the human animal itself seems to have
degraded over the last few decades. Even so, that's part
(30:11):
of our trouble.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
And also with the advent of COVID and the isolation
of people, especially kids not going to a physical school
but adjoining school through means of computers and such. What
do you think that did.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
That's been that's been a real big hit to all
of us. And obviously the technology enables people like us
to have a conversation at long distance, and that's a
welcome thing, but too much screen time. This is absolutely
clear that that cannot substitute for face to face interactions
(30:51):
with other people. I mean, this is deep social wiring
in the human animal. Our brains are literally social or
and we absolutely need that FaceTime. That's like the gold
standard for human social interactions. And technology is really getting
in the way of that. The smartphone, especially the earbuds
(31:13):
and the headphones, all of this is getting in the
way of our ability to know one another.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
And one of the things that's been wired in my head,
especially the last few years, is I have to be
overly cautious when coming to an intersection that somebody. Most
of the time, teens are not crossing the street looking
at their phones and not looking at oncoming traffic.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Oh yeah, it's everywhere now, and I think our ancestors
would be appalled at our inability to pay attention to
the world. I mean, this is not just a trivial
side effect of technology. This is going deeper, and I
really worry about young people and their ability, and even
older people now and the ability to pay attention and
(32:01):
in a consistent and sustained way. And if that goes away,
then we are at the mercy for all kinds of
forces in society that would tend to capture our.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
Attention absolutely, and and also for me personally. I found
that those who spend a lot of time on their
phones are losing their communication skills right right.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
And the thing that people forget is communication is not
just words. The body is always involved and has been
throughout history. So the body contributes in terms of our posture,
our facial expressions, are the pitch and volume of our voice,
all of these things that communication is fundamentally physical, and
(32:48):
the body knows this body language.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Yep, you're looking for common ground among teachers, therapists, coaches, trainers, parents,
and health profess How would you describe this overlap? Right?
Speaker 2 (33:04):
This is a what I call a pigeonhole problem, because
all of these professions are working with the human animal,
and we all desire essentially the same thing for the
human animal. We all want our people to be healthier
and more functional in the world, and yet we're inhibited
by these pigeonholes that tell us, Okay, you're only going
(33:24):
to work with a certain aspect of the human animal.
You might be working with the human mind, you might
be working with the human body or part of the
human body. And this division of attention ends up being
really problematic. And of course, the biggest example of this
is the mind body split of Renee Descartes. And he
(33:46):
gave us this thing several hundred years ago, and he
believed that the mind and the body are two separate entities,
and modern neurosize tells us, no, that's not the case.
The mind and body are always in dialogue with one another.
And yet we have these pigeonholes that oftentimes force us
(34:07):
to ignore the totality of the human organism. And that's
a structure that gets in our way.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
You touched upon this before you advocate for a veterinary
approach to the human animal. Please elaborate.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
Well, I just try and get away from the pigeon holes,
as you might say. And what if we had a
veterinarian come to our planet from Mars, and suppose that
veterinarian had an interest in the welfare of the human animal,
and this veterinarian has experience working with other creatures and
(34:48):
has a start from scratch approach. So what would he
or she see as the big stressors and the challenges
to the modern human animal. And we've touched on some
of those already, but I think that martian veterinarian would
be inclined to have what some people have called a
saluteogenic approach. Saluteogenic means going as far upstream as possible,
(35:12):
So salute referring to health genesis meaning beginnings, let's go
as far upstream as possible and start there.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
I just had this vision when I started reading your book,
about jumping up on a table in a BET's office
and getting on my hands and knees and sort of
a panting just I don't know why that came to me,
but that's what that's what's suck. But I think, you know,
to a certain extent, maybe are our physicians today our
veterinarians treat their patients better than physicians are treating their patients.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Well, yes, I've had that thought myself, and I've heard
other people talk that way, and it does seem to
be true. I've gotten more attentive care for my dog
sometimes than I receive in a medical office, and there's
a lot of things that contribute to that, and I
(36:05):
don't think we have time to go into all that,
but yes, I do think it's true that sometimes veterinarians
pay more attention to their patients than medical doctors do
to theirs.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
Yeah, unfortunately, you draw on three models for experiential design,
martial art, athletic training, and West African drum and dance.
How can these models inform our practices right?
Speaker 2 (36:30):
Well, you can kind of cherry pick here, because not
everybody's a martial art teacher, not everybody's an athletic trainer,
not everybody's a drummer. But you can take elements from
each of these. So, for example, you might take from
the athletic training model the immersion of the body and
(36:51):
the challenge that athletic trainers bring to their athletes, especially
what is known as specific training. That's where we look
exactly and precisely at the outcomes we're trying to achieve,
and then we train people specifically toward those outcomes. So
that's a great model. The martial art model, we can
(37:12):
draw on things like the focused practice, the community practice
that we do together in the dojo. That's a great model,
and then in West African drama dance, the beauty of
rhythm and the fact that everyone in class is working
together to share in the quest to perfect that rhythm.
That's something that we can bring in. Even if you
(37:34):
don't know how to drum, everybody can do a beat
and that's a really valuable experience as well.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
I've witnessed I watched several of your videos on YouTube
and some of the things that you do in terms
of the martial arts, and some of the exercises look
more like a refined dance to meet in martial arts.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
It's just yeah, and there's big overlap there. And in fact,
some of martial arts styles are very dance, like kung fu, kappawara,
all these things really overlap with dance and you can
have a lot of fun with that. But then you
could also draw on some of the practical self defense
(38:17):
parts of the martial arts, and that's relevant to some people,
and so there's a lot of ways you can go
with this.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
You know, it's interesting. In the last couple of years,
I've spent more time outside of my vehicle and walking
using my feet against the ground and probably probably all
of my life and what a change has come through me.
From a physical I'm seventy two, and from a physical standpoint,
the change has been phenomenal.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
Right, And that's the primary locomotior pattern for bipedal humans,
So it would make sense. I mean, you're tapping into
something that's very old, probably five or six million years
of bipedal history, and of course our bodies and our
brains would work better with that type of rhythmic engagement.
Speaker 1 (39:06):
So yes, absolutely, And not only that, but my doctors
have given me glorious reviews. My bloods are wonderful, my
blood pressure is wonderful. My heart, which I had to
actually have stents put on when I was in my
early fifties put in when I was in my early
fifties is wonderful. Everything's working beautifully, and I'm grateful that
(39:26):
that transition from getting out of the car and onto
the ground and also just looking at things as I'm walking,
getting into that rhythm I walking, and then observing the
beauty of the sky and the trees and the plants
and the flowers. You become one, literally become one with
that environment.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
Right. There's something about that speed and that tempo of
moving through the world that's so different from driving, because
driving at sixty miles an hour whatever it is, you're
taking in this highly visual stimulation and your body's not
participating really at all. So that's pretty abnormal for the
(40:05):
human animal. And getting back to walk in that's a
more holistic sensory experience for us, and it reminds us
of our normal experience on this planet.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
Absolutely. My guest Frank Parensich. His book is called Honor
the Animal, Experiential Design for teachers, coaches, trainers, therapists, parents
and health professionals. We'll be back with more after these
words on the Own Times Radio network.
Speaker 9 (40:35):
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Speaker 1 (44:18):
Back on box NOBUS. My guest this week is Frank Parensich.
His book is called Honor the Animal Experiential Design for teachers, coaches, trainers, therapists,
parents and health professionals. Frank, you share that we have
to be adapted and adaptable. How do we start?
Speaker 2 (44:38):
Oh? I love this distinction because I think it tells
us a lot about how we can train and educate ourselves.
To be adapted means your body and your skill set
is consistent with a particular environment, one that is usually
(44:59):
u changing. So if you're adapted to a particular sporting environment,
say basketball, you're really good at playing basketball. You're adapted
to that set of demands on your body. But what
if things change and now you're required to be adaptabull,
And that's a completely different skill demand, because now you
(45:21):
have to rewire yourself. You have to learn about some
new environment and some new skill set. So for the
human animal to be fully functional, we have to be both.
We have to be both adapted and adaptabule. And to
really understand this, I just turned to my dog, because
my dog is really adapted to my house and he
(45:44):
knows every corner and every smell and everything about the house,
and he can run at high speed through the house
and do all his fun things. But he's also incredibly adaptabull,
So when we move to a new place, it's not
very long before he learns that. I think he's a
good role model for all of us.
Speaker 1 (46:03):
You know that with the dog, they say the dog
knows everything through scent, that the dog knows when their partner,
their keeper, their family is returning. Based on the fact
that the scent of the family disappears over a certain
period of time, and then they know the timing when
they're coming back something for that effect. I'm not an
(46:23):
expert on it, but that's what I've read. We're not
that adaptable, though, are we.
Speaker 2 (46:29):
Well, that's what remains to be seen, because what's going
to happen with our ecological crisis now is that we
are going to be forced into situations now that are
extremely unfamiliar and challenging to us. And that's going to
be the key is to be adaptable. Can we leave
(46:50):
our adapted the cocoons that we live in now and
live in some new way? So we're going to do that.
We're going to need practical skills, but we're also going
to need the psychological flexibility to simply give up the
security that we've enjoyed for a long time and now
live in some completely new lifestyle. And it remains to
(47:11):
be seen whether we can do that.
Speaker 1 (47:13):
Are there dangers in embracing the change?
Speaker 10 (47:16):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (47:16):
Yeah, absolutely. I mean this is this is our encounter
with ambiguity and uncertainty, and there's going to be danger ahead. Absolutely,
And I think the more we resist that, the more
we resist this ambiguity, the tougher our transition is going
(47:37):
to be. And this is that Alan Watts used to
talk about a lot. He talked about the wisdom of
insecurity and the fact that the more we tie ourselves
to security, the more security we're going to want because
we're separated from a flux of life. So yeah, yeah,
this is this is on our calendar, this is what's
(47:59):
coming up for us.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
But in embracing the change, we are really manifesting an evolution.
Speaker 2 (48:08):
I think so. I think so. And there may be
opportunity in this crisis, and there may be a way
for us to enter into some new domain of human experience,
at human function, of human new human social relationships. All
of these things are possible if we could stay alive
(48:28):
long enough to do that. But there's going to be
a big transition period ahead.
Speaker 1 (48:34):
Tell us about your book and organization activism is medicine.
Speaker 2 (48:39):
Oh right. So this is my attempt to reframe activism
because for most of us, when we talk about activism,
it just sounds really stressful, and going into politics on
any level seems like a world that's just rife with conflict,
(49:00):
and we're going to have to start pushing an agenda
whatever it is, and that's difficult, that's stress inducing, and
I think a lot of us are unwilling to go there.
So we don't get involved politics, we don't get involved
in activism. We avoid the whole thing. But what if
we looked at it from a different angle. What if
(49:21):
we said, well, this activism is really an encounter with
meaning and purpose, and what if having that meaning and
purpose actually makes our bodies and our minds work better,
then we're going to get somewhere. And that's what I
believe to be the case, because if you have that
sense of meaning and purpose, there's medical evidence to show
(49:44):
that people are stronger and more resilient when they have
that sense of meaning and purpose and act on it.
So that's what I mean when I say that activism
is medicine. It can make us stronger people.
Speaker 1 (49:56):
Absolutely, we are touched upon Western medicine before. From personal experience,
it seems that traditional Western medicine as of late is
more business oriented than patient oriented. Would you agree? And
how can we address this?
Speaker 2 (50:12):
Absolutely? Yes, And in fact, there's an emerging discussion now
not just around the capitalism and the for profit part
of this, but also you might even call it the
tyranny of the medical model over the human experience and
the medicalization of human life. And there's Ivan Illits used
(50:35):
to write about this. He was worried. He was concerned
that modern medicine would become so dominant in our lives
that it would eclipse our primal capabilities. And that seems
to be the case because more and more human experiences
and human qualities now are falling under the umbrella of medicine.
(50:58):
So for example, if you you are shy and you
have social anxiety, now that's considered a medical condition. Or
if you're short, that's now we have a medical solution
for that. We have medical solutions for all kinds of
things that used to be simply part and parcel of
human life. And that is restructuring our entire approach to
(51:24):
what it means to be alive. And as a people,
we have yet to take this on. That's a conversation
we really need to be having.
Speaker 1 (51:32):
Absolutely. In your book, you say no is not enough.
What does that mean?
Speaker 2 (51:38):
Well? I took that from author Naomi Klein, and she
has been writing about activism and culture for a long time,
and she talked about Trump two point zero and that
whole challenge, and she said, yes, we have to protest,
we have to resist. All of those things are important,
but as she puts it, no is not enough. In
(51:59):
other words, there has to be a building. There has
to be a creation. There has to be a new domain,
a new thing that we build to replace the old.
It's not enough simply to tear down the existing system.
There needs to be a foundation of something new and
something better. And I think a lot of activists, in
(52:22):
our frustration, we fail to see that, or we're content
simply to protest and tear down the old. But that's
dangerous if there's nothing to put in its place. So
that's what she was talking about.
Speaker 1 (52:35):
And this really starts on the community level, doesn't it.
Speaker 2 (52:39):
Absolutely it's all about culture, and individual people can have
great ideas and great activist inclinations, but yes, any effective
work on culture and policy has to be communal and
there has to be discourse. There has to be conversation.
And as what concerns me now, we with a few exceptions,
(53:02):
really aren't talking that much about our ecological crisis. And
that's where I hope to make a difference in my work,
is to get more people talking about it.
Speaker 1 (53:14):
Absolutely. There's a wonderful word in various iterations in Africa.
The word is ubuntu and it translates as I am
because we are. When a child is born in these villages,
a gathering takes place where the question is asked, whose
child is this? And the village exclaims, simultaneously and unanimously,
(53:38):
my child. Are these the philosophies and tenets we need
to adopt in our country?
Speaker 2 (53:43):
Yes, absolutely. The philosophy of Ubuntu is identification with the tribe.
It's a social identification. And in contrast the modern world,
especially in the West here, we're a pretty individualistic some
(54:03):
will even say a narcissistic society, and that focus on
the individual and individual achievement that really distracts us from
having a sense of community at all. So we need
to go back to that fundamental and look at our
(54:25):
deep seated need to affiliate with one another that's wired
into us. And in that sense, modern culture, modern individualistic culture,
is an outlier and an exception. So this is something
that we're going to have to reckon with and.
Speaker 1 (54:41):
Soon, and that really is part of honoring the animal.
Speaker 2 (54:45):
Right absolutely, because we are a hypersocial animal.
Speaker 1 (54:49):
There you go, what would you like readers to take
away from Honor the Animal.
Speaker 2 (54:54):
Well, I think the title alone is valuable for people
because we get so distracted in honoring other things, most
notably money and power and status and that kind of thing.
But the title of this book takes us back to fundamentals.
If we honor our biology, honor the human animal and
(55:18):
the needs of the human animal, not just in ourselves
but in the people we work with, then we we'll
make a step in the right direction. So that would
be my desire for this book, simply to remember the
title wonderful.
Speaker 1 (55:34):
My guest, Frank Farensich his book Honor the Animal Experiential
Design for teachers, coaches, trainers, therapist, parents and health professionals
and all of us. Frank, please one more time share
with our listeners with it and get your books and
find out more about you and your wonderful work.
Speaker 2 (55:49):
You can go to Humananimal dot earth and the book
itself is available in all the usual places, so that's
easy to find.
Speaker 1 (55:58):
But also have that YouTube website right.
Speaker 2 (56:02):
Yeah, yeah, I've got the Honor of the Animal YouTube channel.
Speaker 1 (56:05):
Frank, thank you so much for joining us today and
sharing this valid and very important information.
Speaker 2 (56:11):
Well, thank you. It's been our real pleasure. I've really
enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (56:15):
And thank you for joining us on Box Novus. I'm
Victor the Voice Firman. Have a wonderful week.
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