Article from Open Exchange

Mix two parts Grizzly Adams with one part Ram Dass, add a generous dash of the Irish, and you begin to get a sense of who Tim Corcoran is. Tim founded Headwaters Outdoor School to share his love of the wilderness and to assist others in fostering their own connection with and respect for Mother Earth. Whether you want to brush up on survival skills or experience a transformational “Rite of Passage”, Headwaters offers a wide variety of classes and trainings.

BART BRODSKY: Who were your mentors?
TIM CORCORAN: First there was my Uncle Bill, who lived in the Colorado Rockies, and my grandfather Leo, who lived in Montana in the middle of an Indian Reservation. We’re all Irish, but were very influenced by the Indian nation. The first sweat lodge I ever did was on that Indian reservation. When I was 16, an Indian called me in, made me feel safe, and then I knew that was my path. Thirty years ago I started running sweats myself. At Shasta we have about the most beautiful sweat lodge in the world, with a view of Mt. Shasta out the front door.

My other mentor, maybe more pivotal, lived in the Santa Cruz mountains. Growing up, my best friend’s father was a Swedish naturalist, and he mentored me and his son on an eight week trip, a “rite of passage” trip. We went through 35 states in an old pickup truck, culminating in a trip to Mt. Shasta where I climbed the mountain to write a code of honor to live my life by. He was instrumental in my life. I knew I was going to have nature as a major foundational part of my life. One of my specialties is to do Rite of Passage for young people and for adults.

BART: Is the Rite of Passage different for adults than it is for juveniles?
TIM: For a young person, the ideal age is 13 or 14. You’re still very receptive to learning. You don’t have deeply ingrained things where you are. With old men, you have to get through blocks, preconceived ideas, to where things really happen, where you can conceive being a man of honor in a world that doesn’t necessarily reward people for being honorable. Follow your dream, your vision for your life.

BART: Is the Rite of Passage mostly alone time or in community with a guide?
TIM: Rite of Passage generally lasts a week. This includes 24 hours alone for boys, 24 hours with no food, where each boy builds a shelter. Adults spend three to four days along.

BART: You put a lot of emphasis on learning survival skills. Is this in anticipation of social breakdown?
TIM: TV has popularized some of this, including the Travel Channel and Discovery.

BART: There’s the TV show Survivor , too.
TIM: I trained a contestant, from one of the first Survivor shows, in anticipation of his appearance on the later All-Star show. But he didn’t use what I taught him. Survivor is mostly about lying and how to manipulate someone else. But yes, people use these courses for survival. If times got tough, many people would be clueless and it would be frightening. Just imagine if gas stopped flowing, if electricity stopped flowing, what would people do? We’re so dependent . I love teaching survival skills. What I’m all about is helping people have a personal relationship with nature. And when people learn how to survive in the woods, they eliminate all their fear. Then they can have that personal relationship with nature, and more importantly, with themselves. They’ll no longer be afraid of getting lost, getting into trouble.
BART: Of course, your work is not just about survival. Tell us more about your philosophy.
TIM: There are three parts to our training: Skills, awareness, and spiritual philosophy. The awareness is the bridge between the physical and the spiritual. History, science, understanding animals, what they eat, and where they live. How to find water, using your senses like our ancestors once did, essentially to get in touch. The spiritual work teaches that everything is alive and has its own consciousness: trees, plants, rocks all “grok”. We can become them and they can become us. This is a deep relationship, and we go into shamanism, do work in a much deeper way. Ram Dass was a teacher of mine. We dwell on the surface of life, but we can go much deeper. There’s no one place you need to be, but we can go much deeper.

BART: From my own experience, when you come out of nature, part of it is always with you. You take it with you back to civilization.
TIM: Exactly. When people are deeply connected to nature, they’re willing to do the right thing. One of the reasons this world is in the state it’s in is that our leaders are detached from nature. When we spend time in nature, we learn empathy, and it becomes harder to make those bad decisions.

BART: I agree! Is there anything you’d like to add?
TIM: At Headwaters, we teach leadership skills in a traditional apprenticeship program. Kids do it, but adults do too. It lasts nine weeks. It’s very affordable, less than typical class fees. Apprentices take all classes, help us run the school, and I mentor them. This allows for a much deeper experience.

BART: I’m thinking it’s time for me to get my gear out of storage.