Eternal rewards: the world's most powerful stress antidote is waiting just outside your door.

In the ABC reality-based television series Brat Camp, nine troubled teens found themselves transported into the Oregon wilds in the hope that, with the guidance of experienced counselors, nature might help defeat the demons haunting their young minds. The series was controversial, with some critics suggesting that the woes of the troubled youth were being exploited for monetary profit. In fact, two of the participants, Isaiah and Jada, were later arrested for serious crimes. But for the other seven young people, something changed in them during their brief brush with the great untamed.

People have been looking to nature for spiritual balance and physical renewal for centuries.

Many find it. What is there about nature, about the silent, sublime solitude of walking solitary paths, that touches the human heart?

The answer lies not so much in the trees, flowers, or desert sands, but in a person's willingness to accept the unseen power that drives the natural world.

Science and History

From a purely scientific perspective, nature supplies me mold used to make penicillin, the poppy seeds from which painkillers such as morphine and codeine spring, and the bark of yew trees, which, research suggests, may boast powerful anticancer agents. A mere 50 years ago, most pharmaceuticals were created from one or more natural components. Hippocrates, the father of medicine, understood its potential when he wrote, "Nature cures--not the physician."

Nature, it seems, is a storehouse not only of food, but of medicine. It's also a place to escape the maddening crowd of the city and the hustle-bustle of modern living; a true blessing that allows us humans--and all biological organisms under the sun--the gift of life.

But nature, for all her splendor, can be indifferent to the life she spawns. Hurricanes, tsunamis, volcanoes, and earthquakes indiscriminately end fives and wreak havoc on survivors. The Lisbon earthquake of 1755, in which a reported 30,000 people died in the first two minutes of the disaster, inspired the French writer Voltaire to pen his famous composition, Poem of the Lisbon Disaster, in which the author questions the "all is good" sentiment popular at the time. Rousseau, Voltaire's contemporary and equally formidable writer, disagreed with Voltaire in a letter. The immanentist philosopher Immanuel Kant responded to the disaster by initiating a discussion concerning the good that comes from harm in the hopes of elevating the concept of the sublime. For many of the most intellectual thinkers of the century, such "natural acts" called their faith in the inherent goodness of God into question.

Even today, doubt lingers in the aftermath of natural disasters. The great tsunami of 2004, in which more than 200,000 lives were lost in Indonesia, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, and other countries caused many to curse the heavens. A year later and q closer to home, Hurricane Katrina hammered the once proud city of New Orleans, drowning citizens who couldn't escape to higher ground. Nature can be as cruel as she is kind. So why do we keep turning to her in times of stress?

Developing Awareness

The American philosopher Thoreau discovered a sense of transcendence in studying the natural world. His magnum opus, Walden, is a handbook for nature lovers across the globe. Saint Augustine, one of the most brilliant writers in the Christian canon, delighted in praising God as he observed creatures such as lizards and spiders. He explored nature as an allegory for religious experience.

Christ Himself, after His baptism, withdrew into the wilderness and fasted for 40 days. There, the Bible states, He was tested by Satan and emerged triumphant. The question then remains: If nature can be indifferent or even cruel when dealing with its environment, why do so many humans insist on perceiving nature as capable of healing troubled minds and hearts?

The answer is as simple as a falling leaf. When one is immersed in nature, the individual ego is shed like a snake's skin and a truer sense of self emerges. The natural world is bigger than we are; stronger, more resilient, capable of outlasting us without even breaking a sweat.

As an avid backpacker, I can personally attest to this truth. In the wilderness, one must face the basic facts of life--food, shelter, water, and, most important, awareness of one's surroundings--in order to avoid danger and discover beauty.

Relationships with fellow seekers, out of necessity, become straightforward as each relies on the other. This heightened awareness serves to attune the mind to the process of living. In the song of the running stream or swirl of wind sashaying through the leaves, nature welcomes the ego-driven human back into his or her original, God-created state. Nature, it seems, is not indifferent. Rather, she is beyond ego and as such, is unwaveringly fair. There's nothing personal in her dangers ... or her wonders.

Potential Humility

The Trappist monk Thomas Merton wrote, "One has to be alone, under the sky, before everything falls into place and one finds his or her own place in the midst of it all. We have to have the humility to realize ourselves as part of nature." The humility of which Merton writes--a key ingredient in the preponderance of world religions--brings with it the realization that one need not comprehend the ebbs and tides of the universe to feel at peace. Humility allows the seeker to let go of the finite and identify with the infinite. Nature provides the common ground on which both God and man can peacefully walk.

In the hubbub of secular life-commuting, cell phones, commercial bombardment through television, radio, and the Internet--it's too easy to get caught up in the human condition and forget that we're merely part of a much greater whole. Secular living tends to ignore spiritual development. But it's this spiritual development--this growing awareness of the one true God--that sets us apart from every other creature on earth. Ignoring this powerful element in our lives retards our potential. However, immersing ourselves in nature, whether it be on a daily walk or a three-week jaunt into the wilderness, serves to affirm the spiritual capacity inherent in each human being.

The Miracle of Being

If you find yourself feeling stressed out with too may bills, not enough time, too much noise, and not enough compassion, dig a whole in your busy schedule and take a walk in a natural setting. Tune in to the miracle of creation, the symmetry of a newly sprung leaf, the brilliant colors of the dandelion, the rings in the trunk of a fallen tree, the mind-boggling beat of the hummingbird's wings. One merely needs to stop and smell the roses to be awed by the mysterious beauty of nature. "Earth has no sorrow," naturalist John Muir wrote, "that earth cannot heal."

Thomas Wolfe, the American author who penned Look Homeward Angel, summed it up beautifully when he said, "Nature is the one place where miracles not only happen, but they happen all the time."

Trends and Opportunities

The trend in looking to nature to heal psychological and spiritual wounds continues to grow. Naropa University, in Boulder, Colorado, offers a Master of Arts degree in wilderness therapy. The program, according to the university hand-book, "synthesizes clinical and theoretical coursework in counseling psychology with contemplative practice, wilderness skills training, and ecological approaches to therapy." This program and others like it promise to help those disenchanted with the secular life to locate or reaffirm their unique God-ordained capacity.

Most of us, however, need only set some time aside to experience the healing powers of nature. Christian philosopher Soren Kierkegaard suggests, "Above all, do not lose your desire to walk. Every day I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it."

Get up and get out. Set aside time each week to totally immerse yourself in God's creation. As you experience the stress-releasing power of nature, you just might find that for which you've been searching for so long-yourself.

Wendy Gist graduated with honors from Clayton College of Natural Health. She is a writer concentrating on natural health issues. John Gist is a critically acclaimed, award-winning author and firmer director of professional writing at Western Carolina University. The Gists live in Silver City, New Mexico.