John Crockett

Antioch University
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I grew up on Black Mountain, a unique granite dome in Dummerston, Vermont. I spent my childhood scrambling over rocks, snaking through dense laurel groves, sitting by streams, and gazing at the stars. That fired an early passion for Earth sciences and astronomy. But it was a deeper calling that inspired my interest in bringing two worlds together – one of solid ground and matter, and a more elusive world of inner space and vast silence. In 1995 I met a fin whale in the Bay of Fundy, and that connected these two worlds in a way I never could have anticipated.

As a result, I have spent my life asking questions about our place on Earth, working for peace, social justice, and environmental conservation, and sharing my experiences through writing and education. Beginning around 2007, this work took the form of developing a contemplative approach to the multiple ecological crises we are facing (and causing), which I call Contemplative Ecology. Contemplative Ecology recognizes that the environmental situation is critical, and solutions are urgently needed that touch the deepest levels of who we think we are, how we view the world, and how our actions mirror those beliefs.

I have worked with the Whale Conservation Institute/Ocean Alliance, the Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation, the Student Conservation Association, and Massachusetts Audubon. I have been engaged with contemplative and meditative practices for more than fifty years. I now devote much of my time to recording natural soundscapes near my home in southern Vermont and in the Bay of Fundy.

John Crockett

Lab and Herbarium Coordinator

Environmental Studies

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  • AB, Linguistics, Brown University

When I was a college undergraduate, I studied the theoretical underpinnings of Freudian psychoanalysis with J. Giles Milhaven, a former Jesuit priest and professor of religious studies at Brown University. One of his central concepts was the therapeutic necessity of “breaking the frame.” His observation was that problems in human relationships come mainly from the ways that we frame those relationships: the belief structures that we build around our relationships to make sense out of them and align them with our own needs and desires. The frame is a simplification of the extremely complex world that we have to navigate, an evolving story that makes sense of the world from the perspective of our own limited experience.

Not all of our frames are dysfunctional, but when our framing stories are too far out of alignment with reality, we expend useless energy and cause immense suffering trying to force the world back into our frame, instead of allowing our frame to adjust to reality. The way we impose our frame on reality and the way others impose their frames on us, is the source of most of our suffering; our framing of reality is out of step with reality itself, yet we remain committed to the frame.

Can we do anything that will dissolve that frame, and allow the real to live and breathe in our lives again, to break our essential frames without causing trauma and backlash? One moment in the embrace of the real is all it takes, but the mind is perpetually fleeing from that embrace. Even though we have many strategies for avoiding the reality of it, this that is, right here, right now, is exactly what we have been looking for and it is right at hand. I try to embody this in my approaches to teaching and learning.

Contemplative Ecology, Soundscapes

  • Coracle: Into the Silence, Dummerston Congregational Church. (annual since 2011).
  • Studying Natural Soundscapes: Why Listening Matters, Center for Tropical Ecology and Conservation. Keene, NH. 03/29/2018. Recording available at https://youtu.be/ClBzvZSCyw4
  • We Need an Eco-Spiritual Revolution, Hallelujah Farm Retreat Center. Chesterfield, NH. 04/22/2017.
  • The Voice of the Earth, Hampshire College Spiritual Life Center. Amherst, MA. 11/12/2013.
  • Listening to the Voice of the Earth, Eco-Dharma Northeast Conference. Wonderwell Refuge. Springfield, NH. 09/23/2012.
  • Whales: A World of Sound. Margret and H.A. Rey Center. Waterville Valley, NH. 04/04/2009.
  • Of War and Whales: A Personal Journey from Nicaragua to Nova Scotia and Beyond, Center for Tropical Ecology and Conservation. Keene, NH. 04/04/2008. Recording available at https://youtu.be/6MU2I0cIm_c
  • Deep Calls to Deep: The Soul of the Whale, Sanctuary Retreat Center. Westminster, VT. 10/20/2007.
  • World Forum for Acoustic Ecology
  • Ecological Spirituality