Holistic Soul Survival 101
Rewilding the Mind: A Nature-Based Approach to Psychology and Meaning
A 6-Week Online Course with Luke McLaughlin for anyone craving a more soul-centric, regenerative way of being human — especially those who feel suffocated by the shallowness of modern life.
Tuesdays, 5:30–8:30pm ET
1. The Call
Our Stories Shape Our Reality
Humans are storytellers.
We can imagine a story from a different perspective, step outside ourselves, and live into a new way of being.
These fundamental stories create our unconscious belief systems. And these belief systems can be our greatest strengths in hard times, or they can be our greatest weaknesses.
The beliefs we carry can heal us or divide us… from each other, from our bodies, and from the Earth itself. So in order for us to survive, we must first examine our stories, and potentially rewrite new beliefs that help us keep us connected to our “WHY?”
Holistic Soul Survival 101 is an invitation to remember our oldest stories, the ones from our ancient ancestors that rooted us in belonging, cooperation, and aliveness.
And to write new ones for these unprecedented times that heal rather than harm. The stories that not only help us cope day to day, but also the stories that feed our souls. Because these modern times require a soul survival. If we wish to survive, we must have a revival of our souls.
Holistic Soul Survival is my foundational framework for how I teach modern humans to find their gifts, meaning, community and aliveness. It combines modern psychology with ancestral technology to help people feel alive. It’s all the best stuff I have hunted and gathered over the years and I am so excited to share it!
2. What This Course Is
Ancient Wisdom Meets Modern Psychology
Holistic Soul Survival is a 6-week online journey that introduces the foundational framework of Holistic Survival School.
You’ll explore frameworks like Polyvagal Theory, the 5 Personality Patterns, and the 8 Shields Model, each through the lens of nature connection, compassion, and meaning-making.
After 12 years of helping modern day humans heal with ancient technology and modern science, I have collected the most helpful techniques to help us thrive in our modern lives.
This isn’t about fixing yourself. It’s about remembering parts of ourselves that had to be put aside to survive. It’s about pausing, noticing, and inviting back all of those lost parts of ourselves.
3. The Problem
We’re Living in a Culture at Odds with Our Nature
Modern civilization moves faster than our biology can follow.
We’re exhausted, disconnected, and strangers in our own landscapes.
We live inside systems that reward domination, speed, and competition, while our ancestral bodies are wired for cooperation, play, and rhythm.
The result is…
Burnout. Anxiety. Isolation. Despair.
A nervous system that’s constantly bracing for impact.
And dominator culture tells you that you are the weird one. You should be fine. Just keep going.
4. The Reframe
The World Is Hard — So We Learn How to Meet It Well
The hard truth is: the world isn’t suddenly going to get easier.
The pace, the noise, the cultural pressures… they’re real, and they’re not disappearing anytime soon.
So the question becomes:
How do we take care of the most important parts of life, our meaning, our soul, our relationships, our inner steadiness, in a world that often works against them?
In this 6 week course, you’ll learn how to reframe your experience through the lens of human biology, psychology, and healthy culture so you can understand:
What your nervous system actually needs
How unconscious survival patterns shape your reactions and your lenses
How to give yourself permission to feel your grief and how to “compost” your grief into joy.
Why modern life clashes with ancient wiring
How healthy culture supports well-being (secure attachment)
And how to make clear, adult, grounded choices rather than reactive ones
This work isn’t about escaping the world.
It’s about meeting reality with discernment, compassion, and the tools to take care of yourself… so you can live a meaningful, aligned, and resilient life.
5. The Work
Rewilding the Mind, Repairing the Culture
Through storytelling, biology, and ancestral wisdom, you’ll learn to:
Understand how our ancient nervous systems are impacted in modern life
Learn and discern what daily practices can help soothe your animal body
Recognize the cultural myths that keep you disconnected.
Reconnect with ancestral ways of being, slower, embodied, communal.
Build a new inner narrative rooted in aliveness, meaning, and belonging.
Take real-world steps toward meaning, as well as personal healing and cultural repair.
This is the framework for a more soul-centric, regenerative way of being human.
6. What You’ll Experience
Over 6 Weeks You’ll Journey Through:
Week 1: The Rewilded Mind – Human superpowers, holistic survival, and story as medicine.
Week 2: Your Nervous System Is Nature – Polyvagal theory and the biology of safety and belonging.
Week 3: Human Survival Patterns – the 5 Personality Patterns, and the adult self.
Week 4: The Map of Wholeness – The 8 Shields model and human development.
Week 5: Culture Repair – Healing with nature and rebuilding community.
Week 6: Integration – Living a meaningful, grounded life.
🕯 Format: 6 weekly calls, 3 hours each
🕰 Time: Tuesdays, 5:30–8:30pm ET
💻 Location: Online (recordings available)
🪶 Total: 18 hours of guided teaching and community learning.
Tuition
Early Bird Pricing (before Dec. 31st): $297
Regular Pricing (after Dec. 31st): $397
7. The Transformation
What This Work Looks and Feels Like
Students who’ve worked with this framework often describe:
🌱 More self-compassion — a softening toward their emotions and choices, a sense of being at home in their own bodies.
🔥 Courage to act on what brings them alive — leaving draining jobs, moving closer to the land, or pursuing the craft or calling they’ve always dreamed of.
💧 Freedom to feel deeply — grief, praise, and beauty interwoven. They cry more easily, laugh more freely, and allow their hearts to open again.
🌍 A renewed sense of belonging — to community, to Earth, to the great unfolding story of being human.
You might find yourself:
Spending more time outdoors — tending fires, asking for support, walking without destination.
Noticing your unconscious survival patterns and how they impact your life
Giving yourself more compassion and understanding in hard moments in the world
Not feeling so alone in this world. Having shared reality with other humans
Reaching out for connection instead of withdrawing.
Building the courage to create something real — a garden, a song, a new rhythm for your days.
Making choices that honor your aliveness instead of your fear.
Finding meaning in the struggle (composting your grief)
This work isn’t about becoming someone new.
It’s about remembering who you already are — and living from that knowing.
8. About Luke
Your Guide
Luke McLaughlin is a naturalist, rewilder, mentor, and founder of Holistic Survival School.
For over 13 years, he’s guided people back to connection through ancestral living skills, evolutionary biology, and psychology.
He’s appeared three times on Discovery Channel’s Naked and Afraid, surviving over 80 days in the wilds of the world.
Luke blends humor, compassion, and depth to create experiences that are both grounding and transformative — bridging ancient wisdom with modern understanding to help people feel human again.
“I’ve spent the last decade teaching people in person through long-term immersion programs. This online course is my way of sharing that work with more people — to bring ancestral wisdom, psychology, and meaning-making into the homes of those who feel the call.”
9. A Note from Luke
Why This Course, and Why Now
For six years I’ve led Deep Remembering, a 10-month immersion for people ready to rebuild their relationship with nature, meaning, and community.
This winter, for the first time ever, I’m bringing the heart of that work online — to reach those who can’t join in person but still feel the same longing for connection and aliveness.
If your nervous system is craving truth, understanding, story, and belonging — now is the time.
10. Join Us
Rewild Your Mind. Remember Your Story. Reconnect to the Living World.
Enrollment is open now for Holistic Soul Survival
Questions? Email Luke. HolisticSurvivalSchool@gmail.com