I was asked what I hoped people would take away from this book . . . well . . . my hope is to add to a deeper understanding of who these ‘first people’ really are, so that we come to know more of what this ancient race has brought into the context of our lives on earth, and know what they have contributed towards the spiritual evolution of humanity.
Through this understanding, I hope people will gain more truth with regard to our own nature, to understand how we modern humans stand in this world. I think it is a vital part of human evolution to carry, in knowledge, the truth of that which came before us, of those who walked before us . . . the absence or presence of that knowledge reflects clearly in who we are now.
I would like to know that I have made it a little more possible for people to acknowledge the invisible world, and to live within the world of Spirit . . . to develop the certainty that it is acceptable to believe in that which you cannot see . . . to know, that what is unknown, is also true.
I hope that with this book I have strengthened the bridge between the ancient race and us, that the memory lines are extended from their archetypal dreaming consciousness to our wide awake modern human consciousness . . . and that we can, through this knowledge, do more than we have done.
Bushman Winter 
Dear Paul
Thank you so much for your authentic account of this important piece of history. Recently after our remarkable conversation I started reading your book…. captivating and had goosebumps.
While I understand your remark “the lower human nature triumphs over the higher human nature” in the context where it’s placed, it’s also the other way around. Isn’t it a dance between light and shadow? Enriching our human experience as spiritual beings? In any case the human soul grows through these experiences…
Epicurus expressed himself as: “Only or principle will give you courage, that is the principle that no evil lasts forever nor indeed for very long.”
Would love to continue our conversation, brother.
Best
Jürgen
Hi Paul,
Thanks so much for your wonderful inspirational talk last week. I am about to embark on a two month journey to another land of “first people”. Food and water will be a precious commodity. I am going to read your book, sketch, stretch (the mind and body), live under the stars, wake and sleep with the sun.
What a wonderful place the world would be if there was no malice, prejudice or inequality. If we all could be mindful of our thoughts, words and actions. If there was no isolation, separation or loneliness. If we all felt truly connected with each other, nature and the spirit world.
Thank you for bridging the ancient world with our modern world, we all have so much to learn and discover from each other, in our journey that is the mystery of life. Hopefully through listening and understanding we will all enable our eyes “to be nicely open” a little more. By sharing our experiences, knowledge and wisdom, we might be able to reconnect with each other and really enjoy the nature of “being”. Maybe our lesson learned through the bushmen is that we all can
understand, appreciate and discover what it is to be “family”.
I am not sure that I will be able to use the bath water on my return as well as you did but I am sure I will appreciate every precious drop! I am sure I will have a million questions too! Thanks again. Kim
“Living outside of truth” … Your discussion with Aubrey Masango prickled something in me as I’m sure your talks have done to many over the years. The idea that the Gwikwe do not have a word describing truth is so hugely profound on my understanding of what you mean by living in truth. Not having a word to describe truth because it is a lost concept due to the fact that they LIVE truth should be a life changing and attitude altering concept when grasped.
Although mine has been a life of bars and concrete and totally on the other end of the scale from yourself, there is a place where we can all unite when we really look back and bring ourselves to a point in the present, where we TRULY understand why and what has brought us to the present, what we have lost and gained because of it, and implementing real change moving forward as humanity. The semantics of “black this and white that and you’re a colonizer” etc. just takes on total irrelevance when we realise that within us is a part of every other and vice versa. The Human Race can only divide itself by semantics and the stuff we create to divide us. Nature never had a thing to do with that.
I decided to come out of my box and speak my truth after I heard you on Aubrey’s show. My lessons may have been learned in a very different environment, but spiritual understanding of self is a Universal Intelligence which can be gained from any given situation — good or bad.
The impact of your discussion with Aubz has made me really stand up and start walking … I’ve been crawling for a long time. Thank you
Craig
Hello Craig, The separation of which you speak has been a necessary part of of human evolution and development on this earth . . . our fall from divinity or separation from oneness will give rise to the impulse to bring together that which has become separate. It is only in absolute isolation that we will truly comprehend the value of human community, and it seems that only in darkness will we understand the nature of light. We humans stand now at such a critical juncture in our evolution . . . which way do we face? down or up?
Dear Paul,
I appreciate the writing of your book, “The Bushman Winter has come”. I’ve just finished and found it to be a message worth hearing, through my eyes, as I read every word.
I had the privilege of listening to your interview for, “The Calling” in its entirety. That interview is what led me to your work. Thank you for bringing yourself forward. It has been helpful for me to feel your words in my soul.
In my experience truth is a feeling, a knowing one has when looking into the eyes of another long before words are exchanged. Maybe that is why the /Gwikwe do not have a word to describe truth? Because it is being felt at the causal level, guiding them moment to moment.
Your writings about life with the First People was well received. It is clear to me, to know one’s origin (authentic self) is to have experienced the full unravelling into one’s truth. I appreciate your bringing our origin into the light for all who have eyes to see.
Regards,
Maggie
Thanks for bringing these thoughts Maggie. It is because the old streams of humanity live within the absolute of Truth itself that they have no need to express the incidental ideas of truth which are all too readily proffered up in our modern world . . . one must differentiate between Truth as a percept and truth as a concept.
In /Gwikwe language there is neither concept nor word for misunderstanding, and that too is indicative of the nature of a root language . . . everyone always understands what is being said. The word speaks out of the phenomenon itself, and is not the derived or prejudiced idea of someone’s current opinion. The understanding of this obliges all of us to listen and speak more thoughtfully.
If we pay attention to what is right as we go forward in this life, we modern humans have the option of absolute wonder before us . . .
Hi Paul, I attended your lecture in Grahamstown, and have just started reading your book. In our vehicle it was the subject of much debate and discussion between my daughter, a group of dancers that I transported back to Cape Town, and me. The subject of food and drink, respecting, or honoring what we use to nourish ourselves, as well as our destruction of that which gives us life, were the hot topics. We talked of the parallels between your comments on food and water, and a lecture given by Professor Tim Noakes Monday, regarding the benefits of a high fat, high protein diet, and eating what is natural for humans to eat. We truly have strayed far from our connection to the world and that which the first people knew. Thank you for placing in words the wisdom you have learned.
Hello Simon – thanks for being there. It was a good few days for me at Wordfest in Grahamstown . . . I met with some really good people. What was most gratifying was the response from Rhodes University as an academic institution. The value that people like Joy Owen bring into what I insist will be ‘New Anthropology’ opens up an entire world for study and understanding . . . a world of relationships that we humans now need on our earth. So much to learn.
Dear Paul John
I am grateful that you were called to spend the time with the /Gwikwe people that you did, as you did, and that they accepted you and shared with you, as they did. And more so that you took the time to write this book. It must have been quite a work, maybe painful some times to go back so deep in memory.
I have been slowly finding my way towards a more Soulful and fundamental way of life. Your book expresses the essence of what we have to learn from our Bushman brothers and sisters/mothers and fathers so lucidly, and powerfully. It opens a door to a world of learning, and will be one of my bibles, as they will remain teachers to me.
Thank you
Elizabeth
&
Thank you.
Thank you for your words Elizabeth. May your eyes be always open. paul
Elizabeth I am sorry I have taken so long to answer to your acknowledgement. I can only say that for me this book is a starting point, more than anything it reminds me daily of how much work I must do in order to be worthy of what I have been gifted to write.
Dear Paul
i have so enjoyed my interaction with you having read what for me was a deeply spiritual book.
thank you.
Peter