The Khalahari Bushmen can hear the stars?

In the 1950s, a writer named Laurens van der Post spent some time living with the Kalahari Bushmen, an intact hunter-gather tribe in Southern Africa, widely known by anthropologists to be one of the most affluent societies in the world.

Not in terms of raw wealth, but in terms of leisure and the time it takes to satisfy their needs.

According to Richard Lee’s research, they meet their subsistence needs in about 2-4 hours per day. The rest of the time they take naps, play games, tell stories, and dance under the stars. Anyway, this Laurens guy spent months out there with them across a series of expeditions and he wrote all about it.

Like, one night he overheard them talking about how they could “hear the stars.”

But try as he might, Laurens couldn't hear them. At first he felt embarrassed, so he kept this secret to himself. But he wanted to hear the stars too, so eventually he confided in the Bushmen — and at first, they thought he must be joking.

Maybe trying to pull one over on them…

So they walked him away from the fire, out under the open sky and asked again, “Can you hear them now?” Again he was forced to admit he couldn’t. And their disbelief turned to sorrow. They thought he must be sick.

Because to the Bushmen, this was just a healthy and important part of day-to-day life.

Well, as it turns out, a lot of people believe this Laurens guy had a reputation for greatly exaggerating his life’s experiences. So maybe this particular story is one of those exaggerations.

But other anthropologists and ethnographers have spent decades documenting just how deep the relationship is between this hunter-gatherer culture and the stars. In my own experience too, I’ve found that many indigenous groups see the night sky as a living, spirit-filled place, and not just nice bit of scenery.

So I would like to believe that somewhere on earth, there are a group of people that can actually hear the stars.

And maybe they can teach us some day. Maybe you’d like to believe in that too?

These daily emails for everyone, but for the ones who are willing to believe, here’s a few more things I believe:

• Attention is the first step in the learning process. If you want to get paid to teach what you know online, you need to learn how to get and keep people’s attention. I aim to teach you that in these daily emails, and all my various forms of content.
• Marketing is not about tactics, it’s about values. In my experience, people do business with people they like. And tactics which prioritize short term gain over long terms relationships will damage your trust and destroy your reputation. That’s why I encourage you to let your values permeate every piece of content you create.
• Doing what you love is the true meaning of the word discipline. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors gave their children plenty of time to play and explore their natural curiosities. While our modern school system actually prevents that from happening. But it’s never too late to find something your truly passionate about.
• Writing is magic. Writing isn’t just how you record your reality, it’s how you create it. Terence McKenna talked about how nature loves courage: and the moment you commit, impossible obstacles start to dissolve. Writing is a commitment device. Print your version of reality on the page, and you’ll have a much easier time chasing it down.

Which brings me to my point:

If you want to get paid for the quality of your thoughts and ideas, you need to get really clear and really firm on what you believe is possible for you and your students alike.

If you want to find a group of people that can help you do just that, join us inside Email Sanctuary using the link below:

https://kevinhood.me/sanctuary

Best,

Kevin Hood