John Hansen

John Hansen: Man of Many Hats

with a Depth of Commitment

Disaster Survival, Vibrant Health, and Spiritual Enlightenment

Every time I run into PAC Vice President (also MVEST’s “FireWise”) John Hansen, I’m reassured to know that this man is in charge of a strong, well-organized commitment

to the Marin Valley community’s shared health, safety, and security. I couldn’t help but wonder where he got such a depth of commitment.

So I asked him.

Turns out, he had first-hand experience with how ill-prepared most people are for coping with disasters.

Back in the early ’60s, following in the footsteps of his father, his grandfather, and several uncles and cousins, John was a fireman for about five years.

And he survived three major earthquakes.

The first was in the late ’40s, … “somewhere on the Mojave Desert.” Stacked boulder walls collapsed, but he was in a sturdy crib under a pitched roof. He apparently dodged two bullets that day, as the family story goes, … because there was a rattlesnake under the crib! The story is that he was apparently not frightened by all the chaos. But he did have a serious frown on his face. (I don’t know if he was frightened while managing the chaos here on Friday, September 30, 2016. But I do remember the serious frown on his face.)

Then, about a year later, the fire station where the family lived in the San Bernardino Mountains burned to the ground. Everyone got out safely but lost what little they owned.

The second earthquake was in Coalinga in 1955. He was in an old Episcopal church that promptly collapsed with the shaking. Again, he was somehow able to avoid injury and was able to climb out on his own.

The third earthquake was the Loma Prieta shaker in 1989. John lived in Santa Cruz then and was outdoors, so once again, he avoided injury.

Another Kind of Disaster Preparedness: Quest for Vibrant Health

John spent most of his formative years in Coalinga, a small town tucked at the foot of the Central California Coast Range, about 70 miles west of Fresno.

 There he met and frequently visited an old cowboy who lived alone in a small cabin in the hills nearly 20 miles from town. John is adamant: “It wasn’t an easy trek by bicycle or horseback but always well worth the journey.” Goldtree (pronounced “Goltra”) McCall was a 92-year-old (in 1954) genuine cowboy. He actually herded cattle from Texas to St. Louis in his youth. He was not a religious man in the formal sense but as John recalls, “a very wise and spiritual man in his own earthy way.” He adds, “I don’t recall any particular thing he said or did; it was simply who he was or how I perceived him that sent me on my life’s course.”

Academically, he claims that he “had trouble battling my expansive curiosity.” He “meandered” his way through various college degrees in biology, marine biology, geology, and chemistry, culminating in doctoral work in medical physiology.

Noting that he has worn many hats over the years, he lists: professional scuba diver, marine biologist, oceanographer, environmental consultant, analytical chemist, high school teacher, college lecturer, publisher, herbalist, and holistic health counselor. Then Zoe Hansen and he started a business supporting a spectrum of holistic health and medical practices until they retired the business and sold it to a Canadian doctor in 2011.

 John grew up in a Christian family but always found Christianity to be about “as fulfilling as a picture of a good meal when you’re hungry.” Over the years, he “tested the waters” with a few other popular paths like yoga, Diamond Heart, and some of the “New Age” leaders. But he continued to have the occasional profound esoteric experience that told him, “No, there is so much more.”

He became fascinated with the spiritual “mapmaker,” Ken Wilber, but even Ken explains that “the map is not the terrain.” Then there was Marin psychologist John Welwood, who integrated the spiritual realizations of Buddhism with the psychological insights of the West.

A few years after he met Zoe she introduced him to a young Buddhist monklike nascent teacher who called himself “Adyashanti.” By this time, John felt sufficiently inspired to accept a spiritual teaching. This continues to make him feel more and more “spiritually grounded.”

Which brings us to the newest of John’s many hats:

He was the middle of three kids in a traditional lower-middle-class family. His father died suddenly at the traditional age for Hansen males of 49, leaving John young and unprepared to meet his mother’s expectation to be head of the family. Years later his mother died after several years of gradually succumbing to a host of what we now call chronic degenerative diseases. She died crippled with arthritis and osteoporosis, blind from MD, deaf, and very lonely in a cognitive well of advanced Alzheimer’s. John wondered if his fate would be so dismal. He tried to embrace the Native American perspective of waking in the morning and thinking to himself, “This is a good day to die.” Nevertheless, the cloud of his parents’ demise clung to him.

It wasn’t until late last year when he read the book The End of Alzheimer’s by Dale Bredesen that those years of academic, professional, and personal experiences finally merged into the realization that not just Alzheimer’s, but nearly all chronic degenerative diseases can be prevented, and even reversed, by simple lifestyle choices.

This realization and the combination of his academic and professional experiences provided the foundation and inspiration for us — most fortunate — Marin Valley residents who reap the rewards of his deep commitment as he donned an additional hat: Leader/facilitator of our seminar/workshop/support group The Quest for Vibrant Health: A step-by-step journey of self-healing and self-rediscovery.  We hope he leads it again.    ■