Ben Wiehl - Outside Reading #1

Recently I read The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe. As I was reading Wolfe made a point that really got me thinking. "The experience -- that was the word! and it begins to fall in place. In fact, none of the great founded religions, Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, none of them began with a philosophical framework or even a main idea. They all began with an overwhelming new experience." This reminded me of the experience that some people are seeking when they go out to the Appalachian Trail to hike. Hiking in itself can be used as a healing process. It is this sort of experience that many people are seeking when they go out to the trail to hike. For a first-timer it is surely an overwhelming process. All you have to worry about is putting one foot in front of the other, and what you have left in your pack. You are free of concern of your job, school, and any other things affecting your daily life. It is surely very soothing to be relieved of all of these worries. And what better way to do so then to experience the true wilderness on a long trek. This quote opens my eyes in a way to how the experience of hiking the Appalachian Trail could coincide with the experience that many people recieve from their devotion to a religion. This relates directly to what some of the hikers were saying in the video ethnographies in class, such as Lion King. In this sense I think that it stands true that many of the best methods of healing are not through the almighty pharmaceutical pill, but through authentic experience.