Into the woods: how one man survived alone in the wilderness for 27 years

[Joinfortmill]

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/mar/15/stranger-in-the-woods-christopher-knight-hermit-maine?utm_term=64312d21d2cc38955fc4a588837db416&utm_campaign=TheLongRead&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=longread

The Guardian updated 2021. I found this article fascinating.

At the age of 20, Christopher Knight parked his car on a remote trail in Maine and walked away with only the most basic 'supplies. He had no plan. His chief motivation was to avoid contact with people. This is his story'

by Michael Finkel

[hauckeye]

1. I read a book about this guy- very interesting

[Goonch]

2. The Last True Hermit Survived Alone for 27 Years (YouTube)

&t=51s

[brer cat]

3. Very interesting read.

[dameatball]

4. I didn't intend to watch the entire thing but I did. Fascinating. Just guessing that there are

others throughout the world.

[Warpy]

10. Yes, and they're hermits in different ways for different reasons

there was a post Vietnam rise in hermits living out in the woods, we called them "trip wire vets" for the trip wires they'd set up, not to cause harm but to make noise and alert them to unwanted company so they could hide.

In Japan, there isn't that much wilderness left so hermits tend to be urban. They quit their jobs and just stop talking to friends and family, not answering knocks at the door and even taking it to the extreme of starving to death rather than shopping for food. The term is "hikikomori" and there are a lot of articles and videos about them. Outreach usually doesn't work, the last thing they want is company.

It's not paranoia that stops people from contacting others for help or for food or whatever, it's getting to the point where dealing with other people becomes exquisitely painful. I can relate to that, but it's an intermittent thing for me. Sometimes I can stand company and sometimes I can't.

[Chainfire]

6. So what does society do to a hermit that committed scores or hundreds of burglaries?

What was the bottom line?

[stopdiggin]

8. I think this has to be part of the story

if we're talking what really happened - and real social phenomenon.

I'm not offering criticism - just the observation that even the most isolated, ascetic (and perhaps misanthropic?) - have some degree of dependence - interaction if you will, on larger society. In short - even the famed mountain men - came down from the hills on a semi-regular basis. (until they didn't) And most all ascetics - have some sort of pipeline and contact ...

And too - as in the case of 'isolation' in prison settings - there is a certain degree of pathology - in both origins, and outcome ....

[Chainfire]

12. The man made a choice to live by thieving from others. He must be a Republican.

The story mentioned him defeating security systems to allow him to break and enter into peoples homes to steal what he needed to not only to survive, but to steal batteries to power his various electronic devices that he also had to have stolen. As far as I am concerned, he is not some kind of reclusive folk hero, but just a weird, anti-social thief who owes a lot of people a lot of restitution.

When someone breaks into your home, they take more from you than just the items that they steal. Stolen items can usually be replaced but the sense of security is gone, your privacy has been violated, and you always have to wonder when it will happen again. The next time, will he catch you at home and harm you or your family.

I would throw the book at the guy.

[Warpy]

11. He didn't have family money to buy groceries with like Thoreau did

My parents had a lakeside cabin for a few years and they had a couple of break ins, no real damage to the property and only a few cans of food were taken. They caught the guy breaking into someone else's place and my parents thought about it and didn't press charges.

The bottom line is that extreme hermits like this guy have enough of a loose screw to qualify for SSD, a local social worker being his contact person to receive his grocery list, buy it, and leave it at a pickup point. That would be the sane way to accommodate him but we don't live in a sane country. We live in one lousy with Republicans who only listen to billionaires.

[mitch96]

7. Just b/c he is "different" they are gonna study him like a lab rat? Now that sucks...

He just marched to the beat of a different drum.
m

[Goonch]

9. Capture and aftermath

Knight was captured by game warden Sergeant Terry Hughes on April 4, 2013, while burgling the Pine Tree Camp in Rome, Maine.[7] He was sentenced to seven months in jail on October 28, 2013, of which he had already served all but a week while awaiting sentencing.[7] In addition to the jail sentence, Knight paid $2,000 in restitution to victims, completed a Co-Occurring Disorders Court Program (designed for people with substance abuse problems and mental health disorders), and completed three years of probation.[6][8]

Knight has described deep-felt ethical misgivings about the burglaries committed, saying that stealing is wrong. Even the prosecutor said a longer sentence would have been cruel.[7] Judge Nancy Mills believes that Knight was unlikely to reoffend.[6] After release, Knight met with the judge every week, avoided alcohol, and secured a job with his brother.[8]

Journalist Michael Finkel met with Knight for nine one-hour sessions while he was in jail. This was the genesis for first an article in GQ in August 2014, and then the book The Stranger In The Woods, published in March 2017.[11][8]

Knight was largely reluctant to express any inkling of motives or insights gained through his experience, but he did offer, "solitude bestows an increase in something valuable ... my perception. But ... when I applied my increased perception to myself, I lost my identity. There was no audience, no one to perform for ... To put it romantically, I was completely free." Finkel compared this observation to similar statements by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Charles de Foucauld, and Thomas Merton.[8] Knight however resented being compared to Henry David Thoreau, instead calling him a dilettante because Thoreau only lived for two years in his Walden Pond cabin and his mother did his laundry, saying he was "...just a show-off who went out there and wrote a book saying 'Look how great I am.' "[12] Knight now leads a quiet life in rural Maine.
Wiki

[Warpy]

13. HAHAHa! I agree with his assessment of Thoreau

I'm glad therapy allowed Knight to find a balance. I just hope he can keep that balance.