Interview: Inspiring Elmore, Anselm's Journey to Brazil
Interview by Emma Bradshaw
Anselm Guise is a true adventurer, one of those rare people that practices what they preach and when interested in something throws their whole body and soul into it, there are no half measures. He lives his life like this, and he runs his business much the same way, entering the office with idea after idea, that simply must be done immediately and to the highest standards.
Anselm is the drum beat of Elmore and around him is the most dedicated, professional and loyal team you could ever wish for. They are acutely aware of what he is like, the energy and enthusiasm, and sometimes impatience that he brings, and smile knowingly when the next project is explained, as they are always ready for action.
The recent trip to Brazil to stay with a Huni Kuin indigenous people is a great example of his passion to understand and truly experience the very values on which he wants to manage the Elmore Estate. I ask him about where this interest in indigenous culture originated.
“I had a bad motorbike accident in 2008, I broke 11 bones and banged my head, which took me a long time to recover from.”
For a fleeting second, I notice a memory of the pain flicker in his eyes as he recollects. “There were two books that I read at that time; Wilding by Isabella Tree and How to Change Your Mind: The New Science of Psychedelics by Michael Pollen, I found them both enlightening at a time when I was in pain and suffering with depression.”
“Pollen is an amazing writer who looks at how psychedelic drugs change our world view and puts forward a compelling case of how psychedelics could be the future of human consciousness. It sparked my interest, and I researched further into the use of the compounds that Pollen talked about.”
He continues, “In researching Peruvian culture and their medicine wheel I became fascinated by it and achieving enlightenment – in indigenous populations all over the world – their spirituality is linked to these beliefs.”
“Firstly, I’m interested in what happens if we let nature be herself, without being controlled. I have been interested in this idea that when you are born, you have no name, no language, no identity, then the world starts telling you stuff. When you agree with things then it locks in. It’s programming. Imagine if you were a child born into a culture where the language has fewer words that lead to ideas of separation, like for example just one pronoun for all. I became fascinated by this.”
“In terms of feeling a part of nature, rather than apart from nature, which I think culturally we are in western civilisations, is the cause of climate change, so many problems we have is to do with this. Our health, mentally and physically... We are not connected anymore.”
“The people that still have this connection are indigenous people, so I wanted to go to Brazil for many years and only just managed to take the time this year.”
“To spend time with an indigenous tribe, who have passed down wisdom through elders and who have lived in western society but have since reconnected with their old way of life. They invite people in to discover their secrets, their sacred medicines, one of which is ayahuasca, a strong psychedelic, made by combining two separate plants. I read somewhere the chances of randomly finding these two plants and combining them is so unlikely there’s a belief and, I feel, likelihood that the forest showed them. When you take this medicine, you become aware of a programmed dream that is western thinking. These people have relearnt their old ways by being taught a download of knowledge they receive by taking these medicines.”
“My experience, limited as it is, I think and see that these people have little, if any anxiety, depression, they are incredibly happy and healthy and perhaps they are not getting diseases like diabetes and cancer that plague the western world. They play music, they dance, they hunt, all present-in-time stuff, they aren’t thinking about tomorrow or what someone thinks of them!”
I ask Anselm how he can possibly bring his experiences in Brazil back to the UK and to Elmore Court.
“It’s hard, some people find the realities uncomfortable, for example, I think people making such big decisions with the environment should learn from cultures such as the indigenous people, so they make better decisions. It makes you less selfish, it makes you aware that you are a part of a much bigger thing. To bring that back here, I can’t do much more than try and show people.
For example, what we do in society, we need everything to be scientifically backed up, and there’s a graph for everything right? Science has to be material and observable and measurable. But you can’t measure how it feels, walking around a meadow in spring surrounded by bees and birds and animals. This is not science, it’s how you feel. We are in the realm of consciousness.
In Britain and the west we’ve unconsciously bulldozed through nature. I am trying to create a place here at Elmore where you can show a different way and it’s working, I’ve seen people come and stay in our treehouses or walk the land and drop their shoulders and forget all the stress of modern life and noticeably reconnect and you can see the sense of wonder and the smile that lands on them!”
We are spending so much time looking online for fixes, supplements, online courses, but to Anselm the answer is simple and he’s investing in it on this land, Rewilding is just the beginning.
