What Is Solidarity Prepping & Why Does Their Approach To Collapse & Survival Use Polychronic Thinking?

Our foray into Solidarity Prepping is a learning journey. We are trying to equip ourselves to live humanely during the ecological collapse and the collapse of human society. We have discovered already that being in community is the fundamental requirement. Now we must learn what that means in practice.

Based on reports from Kollapscamp and some wider reading, I’ve identified five “elements” that go into the practice of being prepared—as a community—for disruptions in the systems that we usually rely on:

1. Emergency Preparedness: Learning skills, collecting supplies, and making plans.
2. Connection to Nature: Through learning knowledge-based survival skills.
3. Community Networking: Finding and participating in existing local networks.
4. Mutual Aid: Acting in concert for the material benefit of other people.
5. Disaster Relief: Responding to catastrophic events with Mutual Aid.
6. Self-defence & Anti-Fascism: Protecting our community from its enemies.

I added Connection to Nature through learning knowledge-based survival skills because these skills change how we think about our environment; Learning Wilderness Survival skills actually alters the structure of the brain through Neuroplasticity. By continually demanding spatial navigation, emotional regulation, and physical coordination, your brain physically recognises and strengthens neural pathways.

• Hippocampal Growth: Spatial learning and memory, such as navigation, compass use and map reading, are primarily governed by the hippocampus, which has been shown to grow in size or density.
• Stress Inoculation: Surviving in unpredictable conditions in nature trains the prefrontal cortex to override the fear-based impulses of the amygdala. This builds emotional resilience nd structural tolerance to stress.
• Enhanced Pattern Recognition: As you repeatedly train in nature, your brain builds an enormous database of cues (weather patterns, tracking signs, and terrain hazards). This creates faster, automatic cognitive responses in high-stakes situations.
• Sensory Restoration: Time spent in the wilderness physically dials down threat scanning, quietens rumination and switches the brain from a mode of constant modern-day cognitive overload to restored, relaxed attention.

Solidarity Preppers who learn nature connection through knowledge-based survival skills learn Polychronic thinking. Polychronic thinking is crucial in understanding nature, our place in it, and our responsibility to it. Polychronic thinking is a core element of indigenous ways of knowing; it is the exact cognitive framework required to master true wilderness survival.

While Modern Western Monochronic societies force the brain to process tasks sequentially, linearly and by the clock, the wilderness (Nature) operates through fluid, simultaneous and ecological loops.

The deep intersection between polychronic time, indigenous worldview and survival skills manifests through specific cognitive shifts.

1, Simultaneous Task Processing vs Linear Focus In survivalism

• Monochronic: Focuses on one task at a time: We will hike for 2 hours, set up camp, look for firewood and then cook.
• Polychronic (indigenous) approach: Multiple awareness streams run simultaneously: The survivalist, while walking, is assessing the terrain, reading the tracks of animals, listening to alarm calls from birds, feeling the wind on the face for direction, temperature and other qualities, scanning for forage, tinder wood and looking out for the stragglers in the party.

2, Ecological Time vs Clock Time

• Monochronic Approach: Dictated by rigid artificial deadlines: We must reach camp by 5pm
• Polychronic Approach: Dictated by a relationship with the environmental thresholds. Time is defined by natural shifts- angle of the sun, changes in temperature/humidity/ behaviour of insects. Survival depends on adapting to the environment’s timeline, not imposing a schedule on nature.

3, Non-linear causality and “Everywhen”

• Monochronic: Time is a line moving from past to future.
• Polychronic: Time is defined by natural shifts: time is circular, spiralling, and deeply historical. Everywhen is an indigenous concept of time all at once: today/tomorrow/yesterday: now in terms of landscape. In survival, the land’s past affects its now and its future. It is history and prophecy in the same space.

4, Relational awareness over Transactional output.

• Monochronic Approach: Nature is viewed as a series of isolated objects: resources for use: wood=fire, river=water.
• Polychronic Approach: Views Nature as a living web of interconnected relationships. Indigenous knowledge teaches that you do not just survive against Nature; you participate in it. Success relies on understanding the complex relationships between the cousins, how one element interacts with another. Reading the environment and the wildlife in it is the survival skill.

Features of Polychronic thinking in wilderness survival skills are a distinct advantage over linear thinking processes.

• Task Overlapping: For example, jobs are not done sequentially: you can gather tinder while scouting for a good camp, note positions of good firewood and dry kindling, collect more firewood once the fire is going, forage constantly on the move.
• Dynamic Prioritisation: You respond to the conditions around you and the weakest member of your group.
• Mental Flexibility: This prevents the dangerous psychological trap of “tunnel vision”, helping the practitioner remain observant of the natural world around them.
• Polychronic Thinking: Is indigenous thinking. It’s how the hunter/hunted percieves nature and stays alert but relaxed.

Decolonising Cognition

When you learn ancestral or wilderness survival skills, you are actively decolonising your cognitive habits. You shift your brain out of the stressful, hyperfocussed “tunnel vision” of modern scheduling and open it up to the wide-angled, multi-layered situational awareness that kept humanity alive for millennia.

The Brain Is An Antenna, Tuned To The Frequency Of Nature

The concept of the brain as an antenna is a fascinating metaphor that bridges neuroscience, quantum physics, and philosophy. It describes how our minds act as receivers rather than just generators of thought, continuously tuning into the natural world, electromagnetic fields, and the broader universe. In the realms of philosophy, metaphysics, and even modern quantum neuroscience, some researchers explore whether consciousness originates from a non-local source, with the brain acting as an interface or receiver. This perspective suggests that human awareness is tethered to a larger, interconnected web of existence. The metaphor extends to how we direct our focus. The brain can be tuned to different psychological and emotional frequencies. Studies suggest that consistently tuning into Nature helps the brain process information more optimally, protecting against depression and supporting overall well-being.

In Nature, the Human Brain produces Serotonin; research shows they intersect in how our brains process environments, focus, and time: The Serotonin Connection

• Time Perception: The serotonergic system directly modulates internal time perception. Higher serotonin levels tend to accelerate internal processing speed, influencing how you experience events second-by-second.
• Attention and Locus: The gene encoding the serotonin 1A receptor (5-HTR1A) influences your ability to focus and adapt to changes in your environment
• Cultural Adaptation: Research suggests a link between the 5-HTR1A genetic variants, serotonin function, and how individuals adapt to either monochronic (single-task, scheduled) or polychronic (multi-task, field-focused) cultures.

Polychronicity as a Trait

• Cognitive Flexibility: Polychronicity is the stable personality trait of preferring to juggle multiple activities.
• Positive Affect: Engaging in polychronic behavior has been shown to increase positive affect and reduce psychological strain in certain environments.
• Biochemistry: The ability to effectively shift between task-juggling (polychronic) and single-tasking (monochronic) is thought to be stabilized by dopamine and serotonin signaling pathways in the brain.

New-Age Neo-Shamanism: Ritualised approaches to Connection with Nature. Rituals Are Regarded as Monochronic and are often egotistically controlled.

• Sequential Flow: Rites of passage, baptisms, and ceremonies progress step-by-step. Each phase (e.g., opening a sacred space, the main act, and closing) is completed before the next begins.
• Focus on the Present: Because participants focus entirely on the task at hand, they exclude normal daily distractions.
• Punctuality & Agendas: Traditional ceremonies like weddings require guests to arrive on time and follow a strict schedule so symbolic moments can occur without interruption.

Polychronic Rituals: More commonly found among indigenous/ traditional cultures:

• Fluid Timelines: Start and end times are treated as guidelines rather than strict deadlines. The ceremony naturally begins when the key people and community members have arrived and are ready.
• Simultaneous Activities: Rather than progressing through a linear agenda, multiple things happen at once. Cooking, eating, socialising, and ritual proceedings often overlap. These can seem chaotic, and some ceremonies include elements inducing fear in participants.
• Relationship-Focused: The primary goal is building and maintaining social harmony. Interruptions, welcoming latecomers, and accommodating the changing needs of the attendees are embraced rather than viewed as disruptions.
• High Adaptability: If a logistical issue (like a delayed guest or an unexpected event) occurs, the schedule is easily modified to keep the experience positive for everyone involved.

The Freeze Response: Fear and low serotonin.

A low serotonin freeze response is a neurobiological state where the nervous system’s threat-assessment pathway—the dorsal vagal complex—shuts down due to overwhelming stress and depleted serotonin. Instead of fighting or fleeing, the body immobilizes, causing profound emotional numbness, chronic fatigue, and an inability to take action, and then you get eaten.

People rarely exhibit the freeze response when confronted with climate collapse news. They usually just glaze over and go back to scrolling. The right place to #talkcollapse is in nature.

Dystopian Survivalism: A Monochronic misunderstanding of why survival skills have nothing to do with dystopia and everything to do with egotistical envy. Embercomb, runs survival skills sessions with the intention to only use them to create rituals based on the understanding (Michael Harner) that nature based rituals bring us closer to nature. Anthropologis Michael Harner and inventor of Core Shamanism, the foundation of New-Age Shamanic-Practitioner training emphasised that a connection to nature could be achieved through ritual.

Embercomb will charge you over a £1000 for a retreat, maintaining the monochronic transactional process of capitalism while telling you they want to change the system.

New-Age Shamanic-Practicioners will tell you they dont know anyone who likes the current system, while benefitting from the current system.