Solitude Seeking Wisdom in Extremes: A Year Alone in the Patagonia Wilderness

by Kull, Robert

• ISBN13: 9781577316329
• ISBN10: 1577316320
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-09-01
• Publisher: New World Library

Summary

On September 11, 2001, reality changed for America and much of the world. But for one man alone in the wilderness, completely cut off from world events, the lessons of life and death were very different. Extreme adventurer Bob Kull may be the only educated Westerner to have missed 9/11 and the media blitz that followed. Alone on a remote island, Kull faced a different kind of crisis-a war between body, mind, and soul. Years after a motorcycle accident left him with one leg, Kull travelled into the wilderness with supplies to live alone for a year on a remote island in the Patagonian wilderness. He sought to explore the effects of deep solitude on the body and mind and to find answers to the spiritual questions that had plagued him his entire life. With only a cat and his thoughts as companions, he wrestled with inner storms while the wild forces of nature raged around him. The physical challenges were immense, but the struggles of mind and spirit pushed him to the limits of human endurance. Solitude: Seeking Wisdom in Extremes is a diary of Kull's tumultuous year. Filled with the details of a life distilled to its unadulterated essence - the struggle of staying alive with no outside help - Solitude is also a meditation on the tensions between nature and technology, isolation and society. Kull went into solitude fishing for enlightenment, seeking The Answer, but came back empty handed. Wilderness, he found, is a place to clearly see the insanity of denying that the world is what it is. He discovered that life itself teaches us all we need to know-once we cultivate the awareness to truly listen.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Introduction: The Call of Solitude	p. xi
February 2001	p. 1
March 2001	p. 19
Interlude: On Journaling and Storytelling	p. 43
April 2001	p. 49
Interlude: Method, Solitude, and Meditation	p. 75
May 2001	p. 81
June 2001	p. 107
Interlude: A Glance at Other Solitaries	p. 127
July 2001	p. 133
Interlude: Dancing in the Hallowed Halls	p. 153
August 2001	p. 163
September 2001	p. 187
Interlude: The Urge to Be Alone	p. 203
October 2001	p. 215
Interlude: Technology and Desire	p. 239
November 2001	p. 245
December 2001	p. 257
Interlude: Spiritual Practice	p. 265
January 2002	p. 273
Interlude: Small Mind/Big Mind	p. 285
February 2002	p. 291
Reentry	p. 295
Epilogue	p. 311
Patti's Story	p. 323
Acknowledgments	p. 331
Appendix	p. 333
Notes	p. 341
Bibliography	p. 351
About the Author	p. 355
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