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Subject: Tracker School Blog
From: XXXX
Date: December 1, 2008 2:10:31 AM EST

Hi Al,

I came across your photo-journal from your experience at the Tracker
School and I, like the commentator from Feb of this year, thought it
was quite funny in one of those "if you've been there it's three times
as entertaining" kind of ways. I've taken several Tracker courses and
I find myself very conflicted about the process and practice of the
school. I, like many who go, have long been impressed by Tom and his
writing/movies/general reputation; but with any school, especially of
the kind where you don't get those US News and World Report rankings
and reviews, I think you have to make a decision about whether you're
willing to submit to what's being taught. Tom has a very powerful,
masculine, and aggressive presence, and to me he's seemed to make a
point of being rude to anyone who approaches him, but then, he's also
a very compelling speaker and has a great deal of passion for what he
does. I actually respect him for not giving a shit whether he's liked
(although I also think that could be just as much a game, but I'm not
a psychologist). Meeting him cut him down from the god-like status he
had when I was young and reading all his books, but I think all our
childhood heroes should get a little dirt on them.

That being said, what's made my time there amazing is the experience -
which you documented so well - of being completely cut off from
anything resembling my "normal" life and being able to enjoy being
dirty and staring at the ground until my eyes bled and eating bland
food. There aren't many places in the world that ask you to be
uncomfortable. Well, that's not true....gyms are built on the
idea....but hopefully you see what I mean. Sure, it's weird to pay
lots of money to go be uncomfortable, but of course people spend lots
of money to do all sorts of ridiculous things, so if it suits you, why
not? For me it's an excuse to use that wide-angle vision (TM) and
appreciate how little I really need. The prophecy component of the
classes is the most compelling and troubling. I'm a PhD student in a
Religious Studies program (I mostly cover anthropology) so I swim in
the waters that range from beliefs that are "sort of comprehensible"
to "WTF?". The Penn and Teller approach to Tom's apocalypticism was
pretty hysterical and seemed to blow the concept of a doomsday
prophecy completely out of proportion to the bulk of what I've
encountered at the Tracker School. For me, if a prophecy makes someone
teach with so much passion, I'm willing to let them go on about their
spiritual business, so long as they don't try and serve me Kool-Aid.

Just to comment on your remark about the irony of Tom, the whitest of
the white, teaching other white folks about Native American ways: I
had a similar skepticism about whether or not this was just one more
commodification of Native American cultures, but I have to say I
relaxed more hearing the approach that the instructors took: that no
matter what your background/ethnicity/etc, that at some point all our
ancestors had to know these skills. It doesn't keep some of the red
flags from going up every time I hear about Grandfather, Mother Earth,
and on and on, but I've made peace with the idea that I am not
necessarily being dishonest or unethical to learn things like making
shelters. I've treated it like playtime, and I avoid talking about
"Mother Earth" and some of the other verbiage that gets my hackles up.

Anyway, that's my ramble, but thanks for posting all your photos and
cheery sardonic comments. It helped to see a bit of a
counter-narrative that didn't involve explicitly angry/worshiping
tones.

XXXX

# # #

Thanks, XXXX, for reading and your support. Regrettably, I probably won't be allowed to take another class, so I thank you for sharing what seemed to be "top secret" stuff: contents of what's in store for anyone who, after reading all this, may want to dig a little deeper into survival training.

I still reflect and talk about my adventure with lots of people and Tom's impetus did sort of reveal itself to me: Terminator: Salvation-like apocalypse is pretty much the only reason I'd need to know what Tom's teaching. (Thanks for confirming.) And with 2012 fast approaching, I can only imagine the general popular hysterics will probably increase demand for his classes.

I also want to thank you for countering my native-Indian exploitation comments with a really good point, which, after crediting you, I will borrow in the future to balance out my perspectives on Tom's school in particular. I find it unfortunate that I would have had to take 3 courses to have heard the same thing.

.al