Becoming an Animal

There is no barrier, boundary, or difference between humanity and nature. We are one and the same. We have just forgotten it.

Western culture has a habit of speaking and writing about the body, nature, and the physical world as something external, separate from human experience and thought. Because of this separation, it has been possible to turn almost everything, living and non-living, into a resource—and thus bring the planet to the brink of collapse. If we are to confront our environmental problems head-on, we cannot focus solely on the consequences of human actions; it is necessary to also focus on the mental and cultural patterns that precede them. Philosopher David Abram presents such a transformation of thought in his remarkable book, *Becoming Animal*. However, this is not an intellectual transformation, but a physical one. Abram situates the human mind back where it fled centuries ago—back to the earth, among the stones and bird calls, into the immediate experience of the tangible world. He returns humans to the animal world, and the animal back into the human.

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This is a wild book in every sense. Full of stories that will move you, but above all, packed with ideas that will reveal the world to you in a completely new light.
— Bill McKibben, environmentalist and writer