Tom Brown Jr Survival classes?

Don't get too teared up about it, Ridge Walker... religion is no man's posession. There are far worse things happening with religion than a guy making money of it. Exactly how are the Nations people suffering or getting ripped off? Really? If it were something they made a living from and Tom was running a monopoly, I'd say sure... shame on Tom. That isn't the case. He is "stealing" from no one. Nobody has put up a case strong enough to disprove his claims or shut him down. I would think that if I started charging for classes in Buddhism and Lama Ole stepped in and proved that I was never taught Buddhism and was making up the meditations and lineage... they would shut me down pretty quick.



The Tracker School does much more than teach people for money. Medicine Waters and the Children of the Earth Foundation are doing good things.


Rick
 
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I'm really just concerned that all of the religious discussion will curtail my collection of followers as I have already secured a location for our retreat in Guyana. :)
 
Codger_64 said:
Was he the guy who could track a mouse across dry concrete or a gravel road?
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I don't know if he could do that, but, I took a survival course with Ron Hardt up in Vermont approx. 20 years ago. He took a course with Tom Brown, and he advised me that Tom said he could make it thunder.
 
No, not that guy.

My intent at humor is apparently lost. My intent was not to compare the guy the thread is about with the likes of Jim Jones, but simply to say that a lot of people are looking for new age spirituality or some other type of religious experience and they sometimes have more money than common sense.
 
Professor said:
Nah, I was with ya Don. No worries.

Professor.
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I might have lost Rick!

Jim Jones was a disgusting individual. There is a really surreal documentary on Guyana, not the movie with Powers Boothe. Real insight into what a nutter he really was.
 
Don Rearic said:
No, not that guy.

My intent at humor is apparently lost. My intent was not to compare the guy the thread is about with the likes of Jim Jones, but simply to say that a lot of people are looking for new age spirituality or some other type of religious experience and they sometimes have more money than common sense.
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I understood:thumbup:
 
DOC-CANADA said:
I'm not really taking sides on this, one way or another. I read all his books and I'm the richer for it, but there's no way I'd pay that kind of money for any survival course.

I find it noteworthy that most of the people deriding him, have never taken any of his courses, and most that have, aren't complaining.

Doc
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That's me. My wife has all his books and while I'd like more detailed pictures overall most of the stuff is ok. As far as his history and spirituality I'm not a native american but he makes some OK points.

I also find it noteworthy that every time a Tom Brown thread comes up there is a sizeable contingent who have never attended who repeat the same stuff about his spirituality but at the same time it seems like the majority of people who have actually taken classes that post do not feel ripped off, so I sort of go with the people who've been there:thumbup:
 
Having read a bunch of snippets, anecdotes and whatnot about him and his teaching over the years my position is that there would be little if anything to recommend to a friend and perhaps it has some worth to a stranger. It's not worth me dwelling on whether there has been lying or fraud or whatever. Although in meatspace I would say that I do tend to call a spade a spade and there are sufficient arrows pointing in that direction to motivate me to avoid it, proven, unproven, or just a bad smell I can live without. Nope, I can make a case strong enough to get me to avoid it without needing to address any of that. By analogy my case is as follows: Courses like that strike me as like someone asking me to find a good driving instructor for their child. One might be as good as another at endowing the child with the basics of driving, good enough to pass their driving test even, but only one of them prattles on about a bunch of irrelevant 'spiritual' stuff that has nothing to do with anything during the process. Nobody I like would thank me for finding their child one like that. In fact, I'd anticipate complaints along the lines of; “well, he's teaching me to drive ok but you're not the one stuck in a car with him while he goes on about all this other crap he's into. I just want to learn to drive, couldn't you have picked one of the many others that'll stick to the brief and just do that?”. I guess that tells you something about the intolerance of the people I'm friendly with, but I think they'd have a right to be. I wouldn't have liked it either. In fact, I'd feel a bit insulted at despite having a grasp of the internal combustion engine apparently some 'spiritual' element was what gave it propulsion. I figure a mechanical understanding is all that is required to make it functional and predictable, nothing else is required. Same with these schools, keep it simple, understand how it works and why. Nothing else is necessary or desirable, why make it harder with a veneer of crap. That said, I can see how it might help some others learn. I believe a good acronym for them as adults is GROLIES. And I can certainly get how embellishment or fictional components can help young children learn. I might describe to a child that their hard drive rotates by using imagery from a magickal land with invisible spiritual hamsters inside their computer that tread an imaginary magickal wheel. BS can have it's uses like that when overcoming a comprehension disorder. But downside is once they've come of age you've go to go back and amend all that teaching aid imagery; dump santa, the tooth fairy, dicky-birds, and all that. Obviously if the information is hard to get across in plain speak invoking all that bogus imagery could pay dividends and the ignorant punter still gets to learn something so they are happy. Still, I'm well rooted in the first scenario and not this, not when dealing with unimpaired adults. Go straight for the brain of how and why, cut the crap and keep on target.
 
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I am going to say something rather controversial. Shocking, I know.

Most of the people that come into this forum are handed a vast resource of knowledge. They have to be able to read and they have to be able to comprehend what they read. Then they can go out and actually do it.

If a total newbie comes into this forum and actually does that...I mean DOES THAT...do they need Tom Brown? Do they need Ron Hood? Do they need INSERT YOUR FAVORITE SURVIVAL SCHOOL OR CELEBRITY HERE...?

NO, they do NOT.

Anyone that tells you otherwise just needs that reinforcement and they don't believe what I just said or they are pimping for whatever "school" or "celebrity."

My Dad taught me how to build a "one match fire" when I was about six years old, I don't need some wannabe Indian or Green Beanie poseur to teach me proper fire construction or how to use a ferrocerium rod and, thanks to stuff like the Internet and YouTube, you don't really need someone like that to teach you how to make a firebow and drill or other things, either. The viral or geometric growth of knowledge from the Internet has put these needy individuals to rest. The cats are out of the bags.

Harsh?

Perhaps.

True?

You can count on it.
 
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