One of the international graduate students interviewed for this book was Il Koo Cho of Korea. He recalls that in his childhood, "most Korean villages had a very old symbolic tree. The people took care of such trees very carefully because they believed they had their own spirituality. They never cut or destroyed these. People performed religious services under the trees, bringing many kinds of food for these spirits. When somebody did not have children, they made earnest requests to these deities in trees or a river, or other nature things, because they believe all things in nature have their own spirituality." Although he no longer accepts the worship of nature deities, he still believes that nature has its own spirituality and that harmonizing with nature is important.
Ecotherapy Healing Ourselves, Healing the Earth
Howard Clinebell and Il Koo Cho on the importance of harmonizing with nature.