1DOI 10.24412/2713-1831-2024-2-48-54
ONE DAY IN A FLOCK WITH WOLVES. LESSONS OF WILDLIFE
VADIM Ryabikov
psychologist, anthropologist, musician, leader of the Splash of Eternity expedition, author and leader of One Day in a Flock of Wolves, the retreat project; associated partner of the Wolf Project and Flow Project companies (France), former head of the cultural and natural heritage sector of the White Sea and the Solovetsky archipelago of the Russian Research Institute of Cultural and Natural Heritage named after. D.S. Likhachev (Russian Federation)
In this essay I describe a meditative retreat in contact with a flock of wolves kept in an enclosure. The retreat was conducted by me several times a year in the Leningrad region for 12 years. The principles on which the meditation practice was built are explained, and a description of the experiences of the retreat participants is given
Bruce
During the 12 years of his life, small groups of people sometimes appeared on the territory of the enclosure. 7-10 people, no more. This did not happen often, mainly in autumn and early winter. Their appearance caused Bruce a natural desire to go further into the forest and hide. Instinct dictated that bipeds were the most dangerous creatures on earth and that you should stay away from them. Bruce wisely led the entire flock as far away as the enclosure would allow, but people behaved very peacefully. As if showing respect, they sat on an island of land in the middle of the swamp not far from the enclosure, between old spruce trees, and froze in motionless poses. They sat with their eyes closed, their legs folded, their backs straight, and intently listening to something. After some time, a special silence arose around them, which seemed to invite, or at least allow, to approach.
Bruce allowed himself to close the distance. It was interesting. Some of the guests smelled like dogs. It's interesting how these once wild dogs live together with bipeds. What is it like to be domesticated? Some smelled like cats, and sometimes, some smelled like unknown birds. Some smelled
of sex and the bodies of others, probably people close to them. Some smelled like children, and some were just expecting a baby. Interestingly, bipeds most often carried one cub at a time. And someone had their period, which means the baby didn't happen this time. And some people smelled only of themselves. And this caused a painful feeling of loneliness and melancholy. Someone smelled of anxiety and fuss. Someone smelled of good strength and great fatigue. Some smelled of blossoming, some of withering, and some of mortal disease. It also happened that someone smelled of deceit and meanness.
It was a whole universe of worlds-smells unfamiliar to Bruce, each of which evoked deep feelings. There was some kind of fantastic, bewitching novelty related to bipeds, which seemed very dangerous to Bruce, and some kind of pain, which was a consequence of the tragic discrepancy between bipeds and the basic tone of life. It was as if they had lost their responsiveness to the Call, which seemed to be perceived by all living beings in this world, except, perhaps, domesticated ones. Birds, beetles, frogs, squirrels, hedgehogs, deer, fish snails, and snakes — everyone felt this Call, but bipeds and domesticated ones did not. And this deafness gave the impression of deep misfortune.
It was difficult to shake off the anxiety that this situation caused. Bruce wanted to retreat into the thicket again, so that the trees, birds, grass, sky, wind, earth, moisture, the whole symphony of life, would again awaken in the soul a sacred awe, which was a sign of readiness to hear this Call. But Bruce still lingered, feeling the need to either understand or change something. He understood that no one and nothing was holding him back, and he could always go back into the thicket of the forest, and therefore he allowed himself to linger. And it was his choice.
Photo 1. Bruce
Subjects or objects?
I conducted meditative practices and therapeutic sessions in contact with wolves for 12 years, while the wolf leader Bruce and his she-wolf Sylvia were alive.
After spending time with wolves, I find it difficult to treat them as objects in the same way as it is difficult to treat other animals, plants, as well as eco- and geosystems, and our planet as objects. Of course, I can try to perceive them as objects, but I will not leave the feeling that I am deceiving myself and that I lose understanding of what is happening in this world. Questions regarding the very essence of life remain unanswered while I build subject-object relationships with nature. While I perceive wolves as biological objects, it is difficult for me to understand why participants in a meditative retreat experience very deep feelings and cry during contact with them. Fur, paws, eyes,
mouth, fangs, the smell of the beast. What's special about this? Basically, the same dogs, only wild ones. The behavior is different, of course, from that of a dog. So what? What are these sad tears about? The answer to this question is important, because the crying that happens to people, surrounded by wolves at dusk, is one of the signs of a crying person reacting to some very deep experiences. This did not happen to everyone and not always, but there were many such cases.
History of the retreats "One Day in a Flock of Wolves"
During the same years that I led the "One Day in a Flock of Wolves" retreat, I led the "Splash of Eternity" expeditions to explore the symbolic potential of landscape. Together with the participants of these expeditions who had undergone preliminary training, we meditated in the mountains, forests, on the shores of various seas, in swamps, in caves, in tropical jungles, in the tundra. I have witnessed very deep and powerful experiences that my companions have encountered during meditations as they tune into the landscape. The range of these experiences was wide: from delight and tenderness to mystical horror. But I saw tears and sobs only during meditative contact with a wolf pack. This happened at dusk, not earlier than after 3-4 hours of meditation (with breaks) in the enclosure where wild wolves or their hybrids live, born in captivity, but still wild.
Before contacting wolves, the retreat participants underwent training for 4 hours, the purpose of which was:
— creating an atmosphere of trust and psychological safety in the group;
— mastering the practice of entering a state of meditative trance;
— activation of the ability to perceive one's own experiences and express them verbally without interrupting the meditative trance;
— achieving a special concentration of attention, when the contemplator perceives not only external objects of contemplation, but also their own state of mind;
— focusing attention on the relationship between one's internal states of mind and
the states of the environment and natural objects.
Out of a group of 7-10 people, a good result in terms of concentration, voluntary immersion in a state of meditative trance and accurate interpretation of various states of mind was usually demonstrated by 2-3 people. Usually, they already had extensive experience in meditation and working with trance states. This was enough for the group to form a mood favorable for the further development of meditative practice and the study of experiences that arise during contact with a wolf pack.
An enclosure built in the forest together with a flock of wolves can be considered as a natural landscape modified by humans, as a geographical location with its own systemic properties, boundaries, "entrance" and "exit".
The practice of meditation in the context of contact with a wolf pack activated in the retreat participants those experiences that did not arise in other contexts. The most important thing was the experience of unconditional love, the source of which was the environment and the animals. The experience was unexpected and intense. No one expected to feel love while being in close proximity to large predators. At the same time, this love was perceived as something very familiar, but for some reason forgotten and lost.
The feeling of the irreversibility of this loss caused the experience of grief and, at the same time, the need to return to a sense of unity and love with all living beings. Along with the tears of grief came cleansing and liberation from something false, which had become habitual for a long time and was built into the feeling of "normal well-being." It was difficult to explain what all this meant to the retreat participants.
Human contact with wolves in a normal state of consciousness is not accompanied by such experiences. In order to discover the presence of this love when interacting with the natural landscape, it was necessary to enter a state of meditation. But meditation alone was not enough. To arrive at such an experience, mediators were needed. In our case, these intermediaries turned out to be wild wolves, albeit born in captivity.
Environment
The context in which wolves find themselves is essential. It is unlikely that wolves would have
helped people experience this love if they themselves were in a laboratory, or in a cage surrounded by a large number of curious visitors. They need an environment with which they can build relationships based on natural laws, establishing direct and mutual connections with all living beings that form the "web of life."
The environment, as a geographical system, in addition to the geological foundation, relief, climate and microclimate, ground and surface waters, soils, includes many living organisms living in it, the results of their activities (if any) and participants of the retreats, themselves.
The environment is one of the sources of human imagination. As a result of a confluence of various kinds of circumstances, some areas of geographic space have special properties that favor the activation of the exchange of information between the consciousness of the contemplator included in the geographical system and the archaic psyche associated with the collective (ecological, according to T. Roszak) unconscious. All this contributes to the attunement of mental processes with the processes of biotic regulation.
Expeditions to study the symbolic potential of the landscape ("Splash of Eternity") were carried out in different places on the planet and in different climatic zones, from the Arctic to subequatorial regions. To train experts for exploring remote areas of the Earth, I organized small training trips in the Leningrad region (Ladoga skerries, Ko-relsky Isthmus, parks and architectural ensembles of Pushkino, Pavlovsk, Sablinsky caves, etc.). In the process of searching for places to conduct these practices, we met Yulia Ivanovich, who kept a pack of wolves, the leader of which was Bruce. Yulia Ivanovich was an animal sculptor and kept wolves mostly out of love for them and in the hope that she would be able to breed wolf-dogs with outstanding search abilities, and thus justify the costs associated with their maintenance. The place where the wolves were kept was rarely visited by people. Working in this place and including the interaction of people with wolves in the retreat program, we saw that the effect encountered during the first meeting with a wolf pack has a strong tendency to be repeated.
It was also found that the potential for psychological impact of contact with an imaginary and a real wolf differed significantly. I would especially like to note this circumstance, since it allows us not to overestimate the influence of stereotypes
and expectations associated with meditative contact with the flock. The wolf that people dream about at night, the imaginary wolf and the wolf that people met in the enclosure in reality are perceived differently by people.
Contact
The approach of the retreat participants to the enclosure was accompanied by understandable excitement. They waited with trepidation to meet large predators. None of the participants had met them closely before. However, excitement gave way to disappointment, when people saw wolves quickly moving away from them and hiding in shelters. Most participants were unaware that these animals have innate anthropo- and neophobia. For them, wolves were symbols of courage, so this behavior caused a violation of their expectations and bewilderment. During the first four years of retreats in the enclosure, the wolves could not go out to people for a long time. They could sit in their hiding places until strangers left their territory. People tried not to "put pressure" on them with their presence, politely left the enclosure and went to meditate in a swamp or to a large stone in the forest, only to resume the attempt at contact after some time.
Photo 2. Meditation in the swamp next to the enclosure
The animals gradually began to get used to the guests, but they never fully got used to it. If Bruce
and Sylvia, in their old age, demonstrated fairly confident behavior among people, then the youth, following their innate instinct, still preferred to stay away from people. For the first four years of the retreat, the animals seemed to expect guests to maintain internal silence and be completely attuned to nature. The bustle of thoughts in the head is accompanied by certain biochemical effects. The wolves probably caught the "smell of fuss." And only when the biochemistry of the guests became more "calm" and "not fussy" could the curiosity of the wolves overcome fear, and they dared to approach the guests.
The first to appear was Bruce, who very carefully began to introduce himself to the arriving people. It was as if he forbade the flock to leave the shelter until he was sure that the situation was safe. Bruce met everyone in turn.
Photo 3. Getting to know each other
At the same time, Bruce's behavior, with which he expressed different attitudes towards the guests, triggered certain group dynamics. It was discovered that retreat participants, to varying degrees, wanted personal contact with Bruce. And if Bruce ignored someone, or stayed away from someone, contact did not happen, and the person, deprived of the attention of the status leader of the pack, most often experienced frustration, and felt that something was wrong. Women felt especially acutely ignored by Bruce. The thirst for this contact, when it did not occur due to the cautious behavior of the leader, interrupted the
meditation. But if a person who had been denied attention managed to regain a state of meditative concentration and dispassion, then, as a rule, Bruce began to develop a cautious interest in this person, and tried to close the distance. Bruce began to work as an instrument of human feedback from the environment, encouraging in people a state of clarity, peace, independence and dispassion associated with meditative immersion in the environment.
Photo 4. The flock
When Bruce believed that there was no danger, he gave a signal to the entire flock. If the wolves decided to approach, they were still very careful, and the slightest movement was enough to scare them off. After four years of communication (that is, upon reaching the age of 8 years), the wolves began to allow themselves to get close to people and even sometimes have physical contact with them. They could not only sniff the guests with curiosity, but also taste them (lick them). Some wolves, most often she-wolves, sometimes tried to exchange scent with one of the people by rubbing against their body. At the same time, one-year-old wolves demonstrated their inherited model of behavior of anthropo- and neophobes, at first avoiding contact with people, but gradually overcoming this stereotype. This may indicate that wolves can overcome the hereditary conditioning of their reactions to "aliens" and modify their behavior pattern. But this happened in very different ways, and each wolf revealed its own individuality. All wolves were very different in character. Some were playful, some curious, some affectionate, some anxious, some stubborn. I was amazed by the diversity of their natures and the very fact that their features were very understandable to people.
In the vast majority of cases, people were drawn to participate in the retreat because of some idealization of the wolf. They were attracted to these creatures because they unconsciously endowed their images with special properties that could be perceived by them as resourceful or attractive. In the process of contact with wolves, everyone, without exception, experienced a complex dynamic, which included the stage of experiencing a gap between their idealized ideas about wolves and reality. The behavior of the wolves almost never coincided with the expectations of the guests.
Most participants saw wolves as fearless, free, courageous, formidable, noble masters of the wild. In reality, they turned out to be very careful and delicate. Some wolves could behave absurdly, funny, strangely. They could sit down and "pile up", scratch behind the ear with their hind paw, gnaw on a bone, etc. In reality, people could also observe wolves in a state of anxiety that was incompatible with idealization. It was noticeable that many participants avoided disappointment and tried not to notice the behavior of wolves that did not correspond to their expectations and fantasies. This led to interruption of meditation. To restore it, it was necessary to recognize disappointment, abandon idealization and practice calm acceptance of what really is.
The bustle of animals was transmitted to people who tried to meditate in their presence, which could also be accompanied by an interruption of the state of meditation. However, the very fact of "infecting" people with the state of wolves indicated the presence of empathy between them and meant the possibility of penetration into their state.
At dusk everything changed. The world around me became more contrasting, alive and meaningful. The wolves calmed down, stopped playing and fussing, but did not fall into sleep, but remained calmly awake, actively perceiving what was happening around them. They could sit next to people or nearby. A special mysterious silence spread in the forest. The wolves became part of this silence, and in order to maintain contact with them, people needed to maintain this silence within themselves.
After some time, continuing to meditate, people began to more clearly sense the presence of other living beings nearby (plants, worms, insects, birds, amphibians, reptiles, rodents, etc.), which
previously might not have been noticed or understood. Each creature in this silence seemed to radiate its animation and was perceived as a manifestation of a single, ancient natural essence. This essence was turned simultaneously to the bright sources of life and to the darkness of decay and death. But at both poles the presence of unconditional love was clearly visible. Life began to be perceived as a blessed gift, and death as a mercy. The unity of these two principles serves as the basis of wisdom, without which existence turns into a series of external events, weakly related to the innermost needs and experiences of humans and other living beings. The love that began to fill the meditators was familiar to them, although for some reason it turned out to be forgotten by them. The realization of the loss of this love and its return caused a cathartic effect, accompanied by tears.
Some participants' reports
"In an unexpected way, encountering wolves helped me relive my childhood trauma. I found myself there again, but I was no longer there alone. At some point, a feeling of pain and loneliness overwhelmed me, and I began to cry. It seems to me that the wolves felt my pain and joined me. They started howling. And I cried... It was an absolutely amazing and extraordinary moment!
I didn't notice how the hour flew by! I just wanted to be with them! I felt a huge sense of gratitude at that moment!" (Maria)
"The first thing that happened to me was the activation of my inner child. It became easy and carefree. I felt that my subtle body took on the shape of a small wolf. Then, in the process of further communication with wolves, my subtle body began to grow, I became wiser. I felt as strong and wise as possible as an adult wolf and I liked this state. The leader passed this state on to me without asking for anything in return. He did it simply and naturally. I sincerely thanked him for such training" (Sergey).
"In the last two hours there has been a penetration into the world of original meanings. Suddenly, after Bruce sat opposite me for one and a half to two minutes, I feel the depth of meaning contained in the silence, in the breeze in the tree branches, in the smells, in the night sky, in the clouds. I understand that everything that happens tells me about very great love. A very deep and strong feeling. Tears... I regret that the person has lost touch with this love. It feels like in order to be in contact with people, you need to break the connection with this love" (Irina)
"Heart-warming kindness. The question arises whether any of the participants are experiencing something similar. I open my eyes. I see tears flowing down Olga's cheeks. Joy and gratitude. It's hard to say. Much that is connected with social
Photo 5. Sylvia. Exchange of smells.
communications does not coincide with this love. The feeling is very strong. Gradually, I gain consolation and the ability to accept what does not depend on me. I gain the ability to contain, that is, interact, withstand and transform some types of malignant aggression into something safe. I begin to interact with social energies. The memory of the original is strong. While I'm trying to understand the energies that control me. I need sincere communication and processing of the experience gained" (Irina)
"What wolves teach me helps me live and act in society. It helps to work with people, and I work a lot, and mostly with mentally ill people. Intuitive perception was developed before the meeting with the wolves, but after this meeting it became deeper and more focused. Before the meeting, I could rationally explain what I "anticipated," now I seem to know, but my mind is not able to integrate all the initial data" (Tatiana)
"I went to the retreat to gain experience for work, but I found something more — I fell in love! I saw how you can be free even in an enclosure, how simply to be yourself. And the more a person allows himself to be himself, to be honest, to be natural, the greater opportunities open up for us. I'll definitely go back there! Learn to be human" (Irina)
"They licked my whole face, danced a jig on my back and stuck my furry muzzle in my hands. The first thing that flared up inside was the feeling of my family, correctness and childish sparkling joy. It was as if they called me sister and invited me to play. Then a couple of walls collapsed inside with a ringing sound, and a warm light rushed out from the depths, reviving and restoring broken connections. It was as if the drought had ended, and water ran merrily along the dry riverbeds. Light burst from the depths. We ran skipping towards him, after all, they really called me. The she-wolves showed new connections, paths and spaces: the spaces of the wolf Spirit and the friendly space of the Forest, the space of the Feminine, the space of life." (Olga).
Conclusion
In 2012, the Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness signaled the scientific consensus that humans are not the only conscious creatures, and that animals, including all mammals and birds,
as well as many other forms of life, have neurological substrates sufficiently complex to support consciousness. In April 2024, the New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness was released. Such declarations can contribute to the expansion of research into the question of the presence of subjective experience in different species of animals, and to a change in ethical standards in relation to animals,
Italian humanists of the 15th century argued that one of the most important conditions for the education of a humanist, in addition to the study of classical texts, moral and ethical improvement, is communication with educated people. An intersubjective environment of communication is needed in which the student has the opportunity to directly assimilate a humane attitude towards people, towards oneself and the world. That environment in which people experience moments of empathy and participation in community with others.
To form true humanism, eco-humanism, communication with people must be supplemented by communication with other forms of life as subjects, non-human carriers of consciousness, including wild animals such as wolves.
Wolves need wild nature. Their life is organized around the entire network of complex interactions that occur in the wild. Wildlife gives them meaning and motivation to live. Wolves have a "reward system" that encourages them to behave in a manner consistent with the "successful hunter" model, as well as behavior that helps stabilize the ecological niche. To be a successful hunter, a wolf needs to be able to "read the landscape." The ability of wolves to perceive the landscape as something living and unified, helps them satisfy their sensory hunger. They can enjoy the wildlife while being well fed. And the entire biota of which they are a part is interpreted in their minds as a source of unconditional love. They feel it.
If you meditate next to wolves, then their attitude towards nature is transmitted to people. By meditating next to wolves, people learn a very important lesson related to the processes of biotic self-regulation, participation in the "web of life." Long-term observation of wolves in their natural environment and empathic reflection of their states helps to restore connection with the "web of life." In a state of meditative trance, a person becomes more responsive to the state of wolves, to the state of nature, of which they are a part.
