Nature Teaches
By Les Mottosky
Dr. Zach Bush, MD, is a triple board-certified physician (in internal medicine, endocrinology/diabetes/metabolism, and hospice/palliative care) who trained at the University of Colorado and held positions at the University of Virginia, including work in internal medicine, endocrinology, and later as Associate Medical Director at the Hospice of the Piedmont.
After years in conventional medicine, he shifted toward integrative approaches, founding the M Clinic, Seraphic Group, and the nonprofit Farmer’s Footprint. His work emphasizes the microbiome, soil health, regenerative agriculture, and the connections between human and planetary ecosystems as root causes of chronic disease.
Bush has drawn inspiration from time spent with indigenous communities, including witnessing births in the Philippines early in his journey (which influenced his path into medicine) and ongoing collaborations with Lakota wisdom keepers, Q'ero shamans, and support for groups like the Kuntanawa tribe in the Amazon. These experiences informed his advocacy for integrating indigenous wisdom with modern science to address health, disconnection from nature, and ecological restoration.
He is now an influential educator and speaker on holistic health, food systems, and humanity’s relationship with the natural world.
Bush has recently sat down with a number of prominent podcasters to talk about his new book 'Biological Elegance'. To say it's in a category of its own, understates the idea of category. As an intro to the book states:
"We are more beautiful and more brilliant than we can imagine, but 7 generations of humans have been steadily programmed into the machine-like behavior that has resulted in the apocalyptic. We now stand at a moment in which we can subconsciously allow for the defining characteristics of life to be abstracted and attributed to machines, or we can reclaim our Biological Elegance."
That sounds like an alarm. It may be, but it's also a clarion call for humanity to return to the wisdom nature. His basic thesis is the more distant humans get from nature, the more vulnerable to toxicity we become. As Bush reminds us – despite dictionary definitions to the contrary – human beings are a brilliant, elegant and beautiful expression of nature. (I was skeptical of his claim so I popped the term 'nature' into the Mac dictionary and discovered this):
na·ture| ˈnāCHər |
noun
1 the phenomena of the physical world collectively, including plants, animals, the landscape, and other features and products of the earth, as opposed to humans or human creations
"...as opposed to..." Wow.
With that necessary digression in the rearview...
One of the more fascinating aspects of Dr. Bush's medical experience, is his time in palliative care. As he expressed in one of his recent conversations, he's been witness to more near death experiences than he can count. He asserts that when people have one foot here on Earth and one foot on the other side of the veil, they receive a download that makes our connection to everything crystal clear. All illusions and delusions collapse. Most patients – 90% – choose to embrace this opportunity, leave their bodies and pass on.
That other 10% of these hospice patients get a glimpse of the afterlife, experience what Bush calls 'radical connectivity' and make a choice to "return" to their hospital bed. Then something incredible happens. Within six months, the patient is discharged from hospice. Their disease goes away and their health recovers. With a renewed vigour, they make decisions consistent with a second, precious shot at life. They follow an impulse to express this glimpse of radical connection with their second, final and closing act. One usually accompanied by greater joy, deeper creativity and becoming a living expression of love.
That brief glimpse of "death" inspires an expression of life, previously unavailable to them.
So. Many. Questions.
Below are a few of the more practical ones that come to mind. I hope they serve you. I hope they serve me. I hope they can serve all of us...
What if the real near-death experience is living disconnected from everything around us?
What daily practice could give us the perspective that only the dying seem to find?
How can we borrow tomorrow's wisdom without borrowing tomorrow's crisis?
If connection to Earth —and every living thing on it – is our ongoing medicine, what's your first prescription?
How can we learn life's biggest lesson without paying death's tuition?
TAGS: #Nature Teaches
Les Mottosky
Writes to expand the capacity of the human behind the career.
Adaptation Strategist // I help organizations turn creativity into their competitive advantage by aligning leadership, culture and strategy to unlock adaptive innovations.
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