Owen Marcus - Men, stop sucking up to women; that’s not what they want

Like many other conscious men, Owen Marcus was not terribly impressed with the “Manifesto for Conscious Men,” written and promoted by Arjuna Ardagh and Gay Hendricks, Ph.D. In my own critique, I was a little harsh, maybe, but I stand by my perspective. Here is a little from the end of my "rant":

their intention is in the right place, but their statement comes from the wrong stage, the wrong perspective - idealizing men as gods/kings/warriors/magicians and women as goddesses/queens/priestesses, or whatever else, no longer serves either sex - we both more human than that, and greater than those out-dated roles allow

we do not need a new era of goddess worship - we need a new era of human compassion, a wise compassion that does not confuse biological sex with cultural gender roles, that does not limit male or female capacities based on outdated stereotypes, that does not permit any form of prejudice against any other human being, even those prejudices that are good intentioned as in the Manifesto

we need a new era of compassionate discernment, the ability to examine our perspectives as objects of awareness and discard those that put limits of on our ability to be whole and authentic people

Owen offered a comment at the time I posted that, and he has since expanded those thoughts into a full post critiquing the Manifesto.

Here is the beginning of his post:

Men – Let’s Stop Being So Politically Correct!

June 11, 2011

Stop apologizing

Why as men do we need to apologize for what we didn’t do?

Image via Wikipedia

In this video below more than a dozen men reading the “Manifesto for Conscious Men,” they drone on for more than 8 minutes, apologizing for what our ancestors did. Don’t get me wrong—I realize that over the last 2,000 years, the “white man culture” has perpetrated countless atrocities against women, children and other men.

Until recently, women haven’t had a voice to speak up against these injustices. Through their courage and persistence, they have a voice now. In fact, their voice woke men up and encouraged us to speak out against the same culture that imprisoned us—grant you, in a less extreme way.

Go read the whole post - he showed the video to his men's group and shares some of their responses. It's a good piece, and there is one quote I want to share for those of you who won't go read the article [emphasis added]:

I want to acknowledge the pain women have suffered, and continue to suffer, because of our masculine-dominated culture. But to keep apologizing for what we, as men today, didn’t do makes me sick. I wanted to shout, “Men, where are your balls?! Stop giving away your power! Stand up and say who YOU are, and what YOU are doing to help create a world that honors all of us.”

Perfect . . . .

That is exactly right - we didn't enslave women, we did not deny them equal rights, we did not deem them less than fully human. It sucks that women in the past experienced those things - it equally sucks that men in the past experienced different but equally terrible lives (and still do, just as women still are oppressed in some parts of the world).

We are in the unique position now to make the world as we want it - at least in our immediate sphere of influence. If each man shows up in his life, honors his own experience, aligns with integrity toward all beings with whom he interacts, and then helps other men to do the same, the world will be a much better place.

But we need women to share in this responsibility.

We are co-creators of this reality, from the intersubjective silence of two lovers staring into each other's eyes, to the bio-psycho-social creation of a new life, we are all humans being in relationship with each other.

The Manifesto for Conscious Men obviously works for some people, so Ardagh and Hendricks certainly nailed their marketing angle. However, it's time we stop seeking the 1% increase in awareness and make the bigger leaps into wider perspectives.

We don't need more New Age "hyperbole," as Owen points out. We need integrated and integral models to help men and women relate in new ways, healthier ways, more compassionate ways.

Tags: men, women, relationships, perspectives, masculinities, Owen Marcus, Stop Being So Politically Correct, Stop apologizing, Manifesto for Conscious Men, Arjuna Ardagh, Gay Hendricks, intention, creation, equality, respect, new age, hyperbole, apology, history, make the world a better place, co-creation, responsibility, showing up, integral models

Men's Rights Activists Hate the "Conscious Men"

Over at Paul Elam's MRA blog, A Voice for Men, there is a poll on the sidebar asking readers what they think of the "Conscious Men" (Gay Hendricks and Arjuna Ardagh and their fan club), they of The Conscious Man's Manifesto.

I posted my response back when it first came up (I was not a fan). For the sake of clarity, here is part of my response to the original posting of the Manifesto:

OK, seriously, all I hear in reading this is "worship" blah blah blah "goddess" blah blah blah "divine" blah blah blah "feminine" blah blah blah. The second part is better - we need to show our affection for our women, with words, but also with touch, our eyes, and every other way we can.

But the first part, the worship stuff? Been there, done that - had the painful break-up to show for it (to each woman I did this to, my sincerest apologies).

When we treat women as the goddess or divine feminine, more often than not we are projecting our sense of our own feminine, the anima in Jung's terminology (literally, Latin for soul), onto the human woman in front of us.

It's been my experience (and so if you are a woman reading this please correct me if I am wrong), that most women do not want to be idolized as goddesses or the divine feminine or any other pre/trans New Age object of devotion. Well, OK, maybe once in a while, but not as a standard part of the relationship.

In my experience, most women would love it if we could simply see them and appreciate them exactly as they are - beautiful, female, sexy, smart, funny, sensitive, wounded, insecure, strong, growing, anxious - the whole human mix. When we can see them and hold them when they are hurting and needing our strength as a container, and yet KNOW and SHOW that we do not see them as weak or broken, but as WHOLE human beings, the woman will feel safe to be open and vulnerable, and there is no better way to create intimacy than to be open with each other, fully and humanly open.

Clearly, I have issues with their idealizing approach, but my feelings are apparently nothing compared to the readers at Elam's blog (no specific link to the poll - it's on the main page). They seem to feel VERY strongly about this topic:

AVfM Reader Poll

The "Conscious Men" are:

• Mangina Sycophants Elevated to Art Form (47%, 58 Votes)
• Some Variation of Pig Shit (21%, 26 Votes)
• Intellectualized Submissive Masochists (15%, 18 Votes)
• Poster Boys for Assisted Suicide (14%, 17 Votes)
• Enlightened Worshipers of Women We Should All Follow (4%, 5 Votes)

Total Voters: 124

Vote

For those who not versed in the hatred of men who do not hate feminists, a mangina is (aside from the traditional definition of a man who tucks his genitals, usually a drag queen) a man who supports feminism, is a feminist, has feminine qualities, or otherwise does not think that most women (and all feminists) are somehow evil.

So, we can simply add "mangina" to the list of words that gender tyrants use (alongside words such as sissy, pussy, bitch, fag, queer, homo, and so on) to make other men feel ashamed, defective, or not masculine.

One last note on this - Elam penned his own parody of the Manifesto - much of which reveals the MRA perspective in sad, bitter detail. I am only offering a couple of representative quotes - you can go read the whole thing if you'd like:

A Letter to Women from the Conscious Men

We have felled forests, destroying entire ecosystems so that we could trap you in houses, away from the natural world, all while feigning that it was for your protection. Worse yet, we have competed with each other; building ever more extravagant and opulent homes, fitted with larger and larger closets to be filled with endless rows of clothing made from the animals sacrificed, and then saddled you with the burden of shopping for and owning all of it.

How can we ever apologize enough?

We have created a vast and vibrant consumer culture; erecting expansive, unholy malls, and forced you to flock to them with the money we have earned. These are the evil instruments of your subjugation and humiliation.

And then we poured salt in the wounds we inflicted, by blaming you for all of it! Some men, mostly those awful, insufferable MRA’s are saying that all of this was the result of a shallow, female-centric culture.

These unfortunates must be deluded.

And . . . In this passage he is still referring to MRAs at the beginning.

They claim that while men were making history, women of recent modern times were on the sidelines, preoccupied with the inanities like celebrity marriages and Sex in the City, obsessed with maximizing their sexual power over men and complaining about how they were not regarded as equals.

They claim that even when handed equality and more under the law that you women, given all the choices in the world, chose the easy way out; that you avoided the hardships and sacrifices that come with earned accomplishment and instead elected to leech off men directly or get the government to do it for you.

Please don’t listen to them. They are just mortals and beneath you; you are the Goddesses and they are your lessers.

Everything they say that is uncomfortable for you to hear is a lie. I know, you already knew that, but we feel compelled you let you know that we know it, too.

It is way past time that men like us, good men, rip through all these lies about female self-aggrandizement, narcissism and childishness in order to expose the hidden wisdsom of your Eternal Feminine Soul.

So hidden has been your Divine Nature that we have had to use shovels to get through to it. Yes, we needed big, massive, monstrously huge shovels with diesel motor power attachments and crews of men who didn’t speak English.

Even then we had to dig, and dig, and dig, and dig. But then, somewhere deep in the inner chambers of our own imagination, between the intuitive, more or less spontaneous ramblings of women’s studies professors - and our own masochistic oedipal fantasies, we found your real essence; that of the Holy Goddess - and we have vowed to lay ourselves prostrate in your presence, and to help other men, by force if necessary, to do the same.

I'm sure that Elam means all of this in good fun, right? Yeah, that's what I thought, too.

I'm guessing I'll get some accusations that my own mangina is hanging out for all the world to see. But that's cool - gender tyrants don't bother me much these days.

Tags: Paul Elam, MRA, A Voice for Men, polls, Conscious Men, Gay Hendricks, Arjuna Ardagh, The Conscious Man's Manifesto, men, women, feminism, mangina, gender, men's rights activists, culture, history, sex roles, gender tyrants

"Dear Woman" Gets the Much-Needed Will Ferrell Treatment

When Arjuna Ardagh and Gay Hendricks posted their [ridiculous? condescending? smarmy?] "Manifesto for Conscious Men" on Facebook a while back, many men who are not SNAGs (sensitive new age guys - this manifesto and the ensuing video are manifestations of Boomeritis*) found it disturbing and wrong-headed, even while granting that their intent was probably good (although, months later, it seems like a marketing ploy for workshops and a potential book, so maybe their intent was $$). I posted my less than enthusiastic response here.

Then they released a saccharine video called Dear Woman that went viral and generated a LOT of comments (nearly 3,000 remain after many were deleted), many of them homophobic, misogynistic, and/or violent - now THAT is some shit that deserves an apology.

On behalf of myself, and any other men who were offended by those comments, I regret that Arjuna and Gay were treated that way. It's one thing to disagree - and constructive disagreement is a fine way to hone perspectives - but the conversation must remain civil and each side should be respectful.

To add to the chaos, actual, honest-to-Gloria-Steinem feminists (The F Word: Feminist Media Collective) were appalled and somewhat grossed out by the "fauxpology":

This is just about the creepiest apology I have ever heard. Though it reminds me, in an uber-triggering kind-of-way, of men in my past who have desperately wanted to pretend to be my ally by telling me over and over again how magical and mystical and miraculous women are and then talking over me when I try to explain that that ain’t it.

Ok menz (and let me clarify, this video, in no way, speaks for all men, but rather for Gay Hendricks and Arjuna Ardagh [credit to Zosia Bielsk at The Globe and Mail for doing this research for me].

In fact, I believe that most men I know may or may not die of laughter interspersed with vomiting were they to watch this video) – because it’s just too easy to stop at simply making fun of this crinkled brow + fuzzy hat = goodguy! video on accounts of creepiness (though this is a very valid reaction), I would like to explain to you why Dear Woman is offensive and why I do not accept ‘your’ fauxpology.

I guess maybe they missed their target audience for this stuff? Another feminist blogger, Teen SkepChick, offered this perspective, which is similar to some of what I argued in my rant:

I was tempted to ignore the pigeon-holing as just flowery language; a work of prose intended to make the point that men need to shut up and listen. But on their website, Conscious Men state that they “worship women.”

Here’s the thing, I don’t want to be worshiped. I do not claim to speak for all of woman-kind (or all of Skepchick-kind, for that matter), but I have to say that the concept makes me uncomfortable.

There is simply no reason to worship women, no more than there is any reason to worship men. Women are not inherently holy, nor good stewards of life. We just haven’t been given the chance to screw things up. If women had run the world from the beginning, I would be willing to bet that we would still have wars and still destroy the environment. (God may have been female, though.)

We’re not a gender of saints, and we are not a gender of sinners. We have racists, environmentalists, fundamentalists, atheists, liberals, conservatives, coffee-drinkers and scone-eaters. We have dark skin and light skin and harbor irrational prejudices, just like men.

Feminism – as I understand it – is not about proving that women are better than men, or about women’s dominance over men. It’s rooted in the concept that women and men deserve equal dignity. And we will not achieve anything close to gender equality if men are not involved in the fight.

That is exactly the thing that needs to be said more often, especially by feminists who have been demonized by the MRAs (men's rights activists, who also sometimes call themselves Zeta Males). Many of the most offensive comments on the video were from those guys (who give the rest of us men a bad name).

Anyway, enough seriousness - humor and satire are always welcome and, done well, often able to deflate the self-righteous moralizing. Enter the new version of Dear Women.

So Will Ferrell and some buddies (Will Forte, Tim Heidecker, Nick Kroll, Paul Scheer, Rob Huebel and Jon Daly) got together and made a parody video - funny as hell. It's nice to see that manly feminism is thriving in this postmodern era.

Dear Woman from Will Ferrell

Yeah, I feel much better now.

* Wikipedia: According to Ken Wilber, "Boomeritis" describes a pathological belief system that afflicts Baby Boomers in particular. Boomeritis, in his view, is characterized by relativism, narcissism, and aversion to hierarchy. He believes that this attitude carried over to the so-called Generation X. [He's wrong about the Gen X part.]

Tags: men, masculinity, women, feminism, satire, parody, Dear Woman, Will Ferrell, Will Forte, Tim Heidecker, Nick Kroll, Paul Scheer, Rob Huebel, Jon Daly, Arjuna Ardagh, Gay Hendricks, Manifesto for Conscious Men, Boomeritis, humor, guilt, male guilt, history, condescending, feminists, worship, The F Word, Teen Skepchick, manly feminism

Open Practice - Reclaiming Anima Projections

Gay Hendricks, Ph.D. and Arjuna Ardagh recently posted a manifesto

- The Conscious Man's Manifesto - over at Facebook. The manifesto came out of a discussion around Ardagh's column at Huffington Post called Why It Is Wise to Worship a Woman. For a variety of reasons, it doesn't sit well with me (nor does the manifesto).

Here is a piece of what he wrote in that original article:

First, do you get what I'm talking about? Does it jive for you? Does it make sense? And second, if yes, how are you going to get from where you are now to being able to the full capacity of your heart to love for real? I'd be glad to share more about this if we get to know each other better, but here's how you get started.

First, do what I did, and create an altar in your room dedicated to Divine Feminine. Put only symbols of the feminine on it. I have a painting called "Beatrix" by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. I have a statue of Quan Kin. Populate your altar with anything that reminds you of the feminine, and spend a few minutes of the day in worship. Yes, worship. Adoration. Devotion. Offer up rose petals. Offer poems. Offer everything, and beg Her to reveal Her innermost essence to you. This will work miracles whether you're single and waiting to meet the right woman or whether you're already in relationship and long to meet your woman in a deeper way.

The second way to get started: make a practice, a discipline, of telling your woman, or any woman, ten times a day something which you adore about her. "I love the smell of your shampoo." "I love the way you laugh." "The color of your eyes is so beautiful." Of course, you need to keep it appropriate. You can go as far out on a limb as you like if you're in relationship with a woman, but with anyone else remember the gates. Keep you communication appropriate to the gate number that you find yourself at. Appreciation the curve of a woman's breast, for example, if she happens to be the cashier at the supermarket, would equate more to harassment than worship.

OK, seriously, all I hear in reading this is "worship" blah blah blah "goddess" blah blah blah "divine" blah blah blah "feminine" blah blah blah. The second part is better - we need to show our affection for our women, with words, but also with touch, our eyes, and every other way we can.

But the first part, the worship stuff? Been there, done that - had the painful break-up to show for it (to each woman I did this to, my sincerest apologies).

When we treat women as the goddess or divine feminine, more often than not we are projecting our sense of our own feminine, the anima in Jung's terminology (literally, Latin for soul), onto the human woman in front of us.

It's been my experience (and so if you are a woman reading this please correct me if I am wrong), that most women do not want to be idolized as goddesses or the divine feminine or any other pre/trans New Age object of devotion. Well, OK, maybe once is while, but not a standard part of the relationship.

In my experience, most women would love it if we could simply see them and appreciate them exactly as they are - beautiful, female, sexy, smart, funny, sensitive, wounded, insecure, strong, growing, anxious - the whole human mix. When we can see them and hold them when they are hurting and needing our strength as a container, and yet KNOW and SHOW that we do not see them as weak or broken, but as WHOLE human beings, the woman will feel safe to be open and vulnerable, and there is no better way to create intimacy that to be open with each other, fully and humanly open.

And here is the real secret guys - we have to do the same thing. We want to be seen as strong, powerful, directed, and focused, but we also have fears, anxieties, insecurities and if we can share these with our women, they will feel safe to share with us.

Real, strong, lasting intimacy is built on being vulnerable with each other - and that means being able to see the other person in all their complexity and love all the scars as well as the strengths, and to be able to show all our strengths and scars.

When I read stuff like this, from the manifesto, I see why so many relationships fail:

It’s Time To Usher In A New Era Of Goddess Worship

It’s our belief that the next step in our evolution as men rests in a restoration of our appreciation of women. By devoting ourselves to the worship of the divine feminine we discover the divinity of the masculine. By ‘worship’ we draw on two dictionary definitions: 1) we approach you with the reverence given a divine being, and 2) we pay you extravagant respect and admiration.

I call bullshit on this kind of anima projection - it is NOT what men need and it is NOT what most women want. I know because I have done this - and the women end up feeling as though I was in love with some idealized image they can never live up to.

And in reality, when we worship women as goddesses we are worshiping our own projected feminine - in a psychological sense, it's a form of narcissism.

What we really need, in my opinion, is to usher in a new era of emotional honesty and relational intimacy between men and women - and that means we must fully show up as men, and that we must allow our female partners to fully show up as women, and not confine them to a box of goddess worship where we do not really see the human being who needs our love, not our worship.

Tags: men, women, relationships, intimacy, vulnerability, spirituality, open practice, anima, projection, goddess, worship, divine, feminine, Gay Hendricks, Arjuna Ardagh, The Conscious Man's Manifesto, Why It Is Wise to Worship a Woman, New Age, authenticity, openness, honesty

Michael Cox - A “New Man” Manifesto

Michael Cox runs the Tao of Bachelorhood site, a kind of online handbook for how to be a better guy. Cox has been a bachelor all of his life, which he admits is not really a selling point, but he's happy, and along the way he has learned quite a bit "from the usual men’s books and ‘zines to Queer Eye to personal discussions with world-famous pickup artists." Okay, the pickup artists part is a bit sketchy.

Here is a bit of his "mission statement":

The Tao of Bachelorhood features down-to-earth lifestyle information for regular guys. No bikini photos, drinking games or videos of hockey fights, unless it’s to make a point. Instead we’ll explore both the big picture (keeping your integrity, behaving consistently and acting boldly) and the details of dating, grooming, fitness, relationships, clothes and nutrition.

I present this because the material I am about to share is his "New Man" Manifesto, so it seems useful to know a little about what he values in being a man.

My sense is that he is offering a down-to-earth model for being a man.

A “New Man” Manifesto

by Michael on February 17, 2012

Steve McQueen - He cleaned up well, too.

(Caution: frank talk ahead, with naughty words. Proceed only if you can handle it.)

What makes you a man?

I mean besides your penis.

I get kind of tired of seeing “expert” after “expert” (anyone can be an expert these days) try and lecture us on becoming a “modern” or “new” man. The fact is, the essence of manhood hasn’t changed, isn’t changing and will not change anytime soon, no matter how many pop psychologists want it to.

Don’t misinterpret that as suggesting that a man can’t be a teacher or a nurse, can’t raise a child, or can’t express feelings. These things are neither manly nor un-manly, and anyone who tells you a man has to somehow change to do them is full of shit.

Then there’s the other side: the (usually) guys whose only advice is to “man up.” If you were to break your leg, those same guys would tell you to “walk it off, you pansy.” It’s shotgun advice that in and of itself means nothing. Usually it’s code for doing things the laziest way possible. Well, you’re not an ape or a lion, you make choices based on some amount of self-aware, conscious thought. We’re socialized creatures who have evolved out of using genetic instinct to solve problems and decide courses of action. Thinking is not only allowed, it’s necessary.

So just what does it mean to be a man in the modern world? Get comfy…

You Are Your Habits

Life is a series of small habits that add up to who we are. What we do and how we do it. The way we eat. The way we shake hands. The way we behave when we meet a beautiful woman. How we choose to spend our free time. The way we act in public, and the way we act when no one’s watching.

All of these habits, put together, are you. They’re me. They make us leaders or lovers or loners.

Habits make the man.

Read the whole post.

Here is part two - this seems to be an ongoing series, so subscribe to his RSS feed to see future posts.

The Three Elements of Manhood (The New Man Manifesto, Part 2)

by Michael on March 7, 2012

Not a fortune; a statement of fact.

In the first part of The New Man Manifesto, we discussed the most basic building block of manliness: habits. Your habits define who you are, and if you don’t like who you are or the life you’re living, changing it is best done one habit at a time.

But what are the habits that set you apart as a great man, or at least a good man?

Most men’s magazines define manhood in materialistic terms: money, sex, power. However, chasing any of those as a “solution” is a fool’s game, and the news headlines are full of men who based their lives on the pursuit of one or more to the point where it cost them more than they gained. Money, sex and power do make for very easy articles to write, and a lot of guys are easily distracted by fancy cars or women in bikinis, so I understand why the “lad mags” promote them.

I tend to side with the philosophers, from Socrates to Richard Layard, who agree that beyond the necessities, owning things isn’t what makes people happy. Manhood, as much as we’d like it to be a goal-oriented achievement we can sketch out like a business plan, derives from within, much like happiness.

And success, as much as we’d like to define it as adulation and wealth, is probably more tied up in what we can do for others—how we use our gift. What we leave behind, not just after we’re dead, but after we’ve left the room. Success is how you feel about what you’ve just done, whether it’s an account-winning business presentation or saying “good morning” to your neighbor.

The other piece of the puzzle is the fact that we’ve got to deal with the customs and expectations of our society, as well as the realities of basic life. You’re expected to pull your weight in some way. You’re not awarded a woman as a birthright; you’re expected to attract one. Ideally you have a circle of male friends—of course, you can have female friends as well, but if you can’t make friends with other men, something’s out of whack.

The Three Elements

A “classic” successful man—one admired by other men and valued by women—can be deconstructed into three loosely defined elements:

• Leadership
• Relationships
• Life Maintenance

Each of these elements overlaps the others, and if you excel in one you’re more likely to excel in the others as well. Each element encompasses a series of habits that you can adopt, change or drop. You don’t have to be an “alpha male” in any element to be happy or successful; you merely have to demonstrate that you have these elements within you.

Read the whole post.

Paleo Lifestyle and The Paleo Manifesto

The other day I posted a defense of the ketogenic diet (no carbs for the most part), and so today I find myself sharing an article on a nutrition approach that is more palatable for a lot of people, but still much lower in carbs than the average American intake - the paleo diet. Research by leaders in the field (Loren Cordain, who essentially founded the paleo diet) and up to the National Institutes of Health have found that the paleo approach is more effective at weight loss (at least in post-menopausal women), creating healthy lipid levels and reducing cardiovascular risk factors, and treating type-II diabetes than other diets (especially the low-fat approaches).


Men's Journal offered a brief assessment of a new book on the paleo diet by John Durant, called The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health. Along with the single paragraph, they included a link to an article from December 2012 on the paleo lifestyle. First the brief review from MJ, then I have added the publisher's ad copy, then below that the older MJ article on paleo living.

Book Review: 'The Paleo Manifesto'

'The Paleo Manifesto' by John Durant

John Durant, one of the first proponents of living like a hunter-gatherer, has written the rules of the lifestyle he's been advocating for years. In his new book, as you might expect, he calls for a meat-heavy diet but also argues for occasional fasting, getting standing desks, sleeping a lot, and swimming in icy water. Durant's research piles on the studies and the opinions of experts who look at the weight-loss diets of captive gorillas and sleep habits of astronauts, making a compelling argument for the paleo movement.

– Tyghe Trimble

Here is the ad copy from Amazon:

In The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health, John Durant argues for an evolutionary – and revolutionary – approach to health. All animals, human or otherwise, thrive when they mimic key elements of life in their natural habitat. From diet to movement to sleep, this evolutionary perspective sheds light on some of our most pressing health concerns. What is causing the rise of chronic conditions, such as obesity, diabetes, and depression? Is eating red meat going to kill you? Is avoiding the sun actually the best way to avoid skin cancer? 

Durant takes readers on a thrilling ride to the Paleolithic and beyond, unlocking the health secrets of our ancient ancestors. What do obese gorillas teach us about weight loss? How can Paleolithic skulls contain beautiful sets of teeth? Why is the Bible so obsessed with hygiene? What do NASA astronauts teach us about getting a good night’s sleep? And how are Silicon Valley techies hacking the human body?

Blending science and culture, anthropology and philosophy, John Durant distills the lessons from his adventures and shows how to apply them to day-to-day life, teaching people how to construct their own personal “habitat” that will enable them to thrive. The book doesn’t just address what we eat, but why we eat it; not just how to exercise, but the purpose of functional movement; not just being healthy, but leading a purposeful life. 

Combining the best of ancient wisdom with cutting edge science, Durant crafts a vision of health that is both fresh and futuristic.

You can read an excerpt from Chapter 2 at Scribd, which is embedded below.

The Paleo Manifesto by John Durant - Excerpt by Crown Publishing Group

Finally, here is the article Men's Journal posted in December of 2012. Part of the paleo lifestyle, or primal living, is fitness - the human body was not designed and does not function well when it sits in an office chair all day (get a standing desk) or sitting on a couch all night (really, the television is not that interesting). From the article below, here is a great example of primal fitness, with the added benefit of being in nature (which offers a huge pile of physical, mental, and spiritual health benefits):

Another proponent of paleo fitness is Erwan Le Corre, a 41-year-old Frenchman who founded MovNat, fitness that focuses on natural human movement. You can see him on YouTube running barefoot through the desert, rolling through brush, hurtling over rock ledges, and swimming downstream while pushing a 500-pound log. Le Corre calls this the workout the world forgot. "Modern lives are so separated from nature and what is natural that a system like MovNat is not only refreshing, it's also powerfully effective at connecting people with their bodies," he says.

Awesome! You can read more about this style of training at Outside Magazine and at Men's Health. Okay, then, so here is the article.

The Paleo Diet and the Case for Primal Living

By Tyler Graham | Dec 2012

Can living like a caveman prevent disease and make you lean and fit? Some doctors argue that one of the hottest wellness trends is also one of the healthiest.

Photograph by Bartholomew Cooke

Perhaps you've heard of the paleo movement – eating and exercising as our ancient forefathers did – and dismissed it as a fad, a farce, a caveman version of the Atkins diet. But over the past few years, the philosophy has exploded from obscure scientific theory into one of the biggest trends in wellness, influencing everything from medicine to running shoes to the latest thinking on how we should eat and move to stay lean and healthy.

Many experts now believe that Western civilization's skyrocketing rates of degenerative disease – diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimer's, to name a few – stem from our adoption of a diet high in processed foods, exacerbated by our sedentary lifestyles. In 1985, a pair of researchers published a provocative paper leveraging the fact that, while the human species has existed for about 2 million years, grain production is only 12,000 years old, and the rise of processed foods – new to humans on an evolutionary scale – mirrors our uptick of weight gain and chronic disease. Cavemen didn't suffer from most of these diseases, primarily because their diet consisted mostly of meat, vegetables, and some fruit. They rarely died of heart attack or stroke, but from old age, viruses, or calamity like extreme weather. Today, those who still eat a traditional diet, like the Arctic Inuit and Kenyan Maasai, are virtually immune to these diseases too.

After 1985, the paleo movement started collecting members slowly but steadily, until it exploded about two years ago, launching a bevy of self-help books, snack foods like jerky and coconut chips, and the Paleo Physicians Network, with more than 2,000 members and a mission to educate doctors about treating patients based on our evolutionary nature. Crossfit, the minimalist fitness craze, has adopted paleo as its unofficial nutrition mantra – no carbs, lots of meat and vegetables. "It's about getting complete and total control over your health," says Mark Sisson, author of 'The Primal Blueprint.' "It's about having more energy at 50 than you did at 35. It's so empowering that followers become the biggest proselytizers. Everybody wants to know how they lost their 70 pounds."

More profoundly, the human genome has remained relatively stable since our hunter-gatherer days, while our diets have changed drastically. We now eat massive amounts of sugar, which triggers our bodies to store fat. Most processed foods are made from sugar, grains, and industrial vegetable oils high in trans fats, which the National Academy of Sciences declared unsafe in food in any amount. Most of what we eat is grown with pesticides, linked to cancer, birth defects, and brain disorders, and treated with carcinogenic preservatives.

As we subsist on more sugar, grains, and chemicals, we move less and spend more time hunched over steering wheels, computer screens, and smartphones. Those who exercise often jump on a treadmill or weight machine, training their bodies and isolating muscles in unnatural ways. Few of us have the muscle mass, lung capacity, or reaction time to sprint up uneven hills, duck branches, hop boulders, and pull ourselves up a ledge to avoid a bear. But that's how the paleo crowd thinks we should move.

Of course, paleo has its detractors. 'US News and World Report' cited it as the worst of 24 popular diets, based largely on the notion that "duplicating such a regimen in modern times would be difficult." They also noted that the benefits of the paleo diet are largely unstudied, a point the paleo community contends. But last summer, a study funded by the National Institutes of Health helped mute the debate when it found a paleo-style diet, high in fat and low in carbs, to be the most effective for weight loss.

If you're health conscious, there's a good chance you've already adopted some of the paleo approach. For example, paleo followers have long supported barefoot running as a way to strengthen muscles in the feet. High-intensity training, TRX suspension straps, and extreme races like Tough Mudder and Spartan Race are all paleo-approved. And limiting carbs to load up on grass-fed meat and organic produce is key to living primal. Ready to go full steam? Here are five steps to adopt the paleo approach:

Eat Like a Caveman

One of the most prominent voices in the paleo movement is journalist and author Gary Taubes, who argues that it's not calories alone that cause weight gain, but sugar and refined carbs, which spike our blood sugar and trigger the hormone insulin, telling our bodies to store energy as fat. When we eat cereal for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, and pasta for dinner – supplemented by soda, chips, and fries – these processed foods cause larger waistlines and diabetes, heart disease, and possibly even cancer over time. While medical experts used to think eating fat made people fat, "it has been clear for some time, from multiple trials, that the percent of calories from fat in the diet has minimal relation to weight gain or obesity," says Dr. Walter Willett, of the Harvard School of Public Health. Instead, says Willett, low-fat, high-carb foods, once believed to aid heart health and weight loss, are the real problem. Eating more healthy fat and fewer foods that spike insulin is the first step to primal eating. Second is to avoid industrial oils like soy and corn, rich in trans fat and inflammation-causing omega-6s. When you eliminate sugar, refined carbs, and industrial oils, you essentially eliminate all fast and convenience foods.

Move Like a Hunter

Movement in the Paleolithic era was never prescribed: The body adapted to challenges at hand, whether running from a predator, hauling a carcass, or building a shelter. We were always on the go, often at maximum output for short times. "Our caveman ancestor wouldn't have run every day because that's stupid," says Sisson, a former marathoner. Another proponent of paleo fitness is Erwan Le Corre, a 41-year-old Frenchman who founded MovNat, fitness that focuses on natural human movement. You can see him on YouTube running barefoot through the desert, rolling through brush, hurtling over rock ledges, and swimming downstream while pushing a 500-pound log. Le Corre calls this the workout the world forgot. "Modern lives are so separated from nature and what is natural that a system like MovNat is not only refreshing, it's also powerfully effective at connecting people with their bodies," he says. MovNat has thousands of followers, including members of the Special Forces.

Avoid Daily Toxins

There are toxins everywhere in our daily environment, and some of them, like pollutants in the air, can't be avoided. But others can. Since tap water can be contaminated with pollutants like arsenic and pharmaceuticals, read your local water reports and filter if necessary, and try to avoid drinking water out of plastic bottles. Eat organic foods when possible, buy food in bulk or glass, and use natural cleaners, detergents, and skin products.

Limit Modern Stressors

Our ancient ancestors had plenty of stress, whether hunting for food or keeping warm and dry in inclement weather, but it may not compare with the stress we've created in modern-day life. One of the biggest forms of modern stress? Sitting for most of the day, which takes a toll on our muscular and cardiovascular health. Fight it by using a stand-up desk or taking a walk every hour. Forgo the drudgery of soulless cardio equipment with TVs and muscle-isolating Cybex machines for activities that reinforce pleasure, whether it's forcing your body to move in unexpected ways by playing tennis or helping your muscles adapt to uneven surfaces by hiking. Choose outdoor exercise to get sun and vitamin D, which increases levels of relaxing serotonin. Never underestimate the power of play – but know it's also important to prioritize sleep over staying up late to work on your iPad or surf the Web.

Adopt a Primal Attitude

Primal living is more than a diet or new way of working out – it's a lifestyle. Once you eat and move in a way that's optimal for your body's design, you never go back. And there's a mind-set that goes along with that. Sisson believes it's important to get out of your comfort zone and try new things, whether that's building a tree house for your kids or learning to surf. Filter out negative, sensationalized news, and nurture small social networks rather than trying to collect 1,000 friends on Facebook. Most important, learn to unplug and recharge in the digital age of evolution.

See also:
• Seven Rules for Eating Paleo
• Five Primal Workouts to Reboot Your Fitness