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Jon Turk  

A scientist, noted environmental educator, and world class expedition athlete whose worldview was altered by Moolynaut, a Siberian shaman

Jon Turk received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry in 1971.  In response to Earth Day 1, he co-authored the first Environmental Science textbook in North America.  At the same time, hounded by restless spirits, Jon has kayaked across the North Pacific and around Cape Horn, mountain biked through the Gobi desert, made first climbing ascents of big walls on Baffin Island, and first ski descents in the Tien Shan Mountains in Kyrgyzia.  His two-year voyage around the North Pacific Rim was named by Paddler Magazine as one of the ten greatest sea kayaking expeditions of all times.

Jon chronicles his adventures and his mental and spiritual passages in a trilogy of three books.  The most recent, "The Raven's Gift: A Scientist, a Shaman, and Their Remarkable Journey Through the Siberian Wilderness", chronicles five expeditions to visit a 100 year old shaman in northeast Siberia.  The book examines the human potential for spiritual connectivity to nature, wellness, and our creative inner self.

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The Raven's Gift Siberia is a harsh, frozen land, so you might think that it is a place where survival depends mainly on left brain logic and pragmatism.  But it is here that I learned that magic and dreams underlie strong deads; it is here that I learned that magic flies around us all the time, waiting only to be realized.   Breakthrough creativity in any endeavor ---  science, business, or politics -- necessarily relies on  rational, practical, straight-thinking,  but it also must incorporate our innate, ancient dream-vision.

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