Holistic Survival School

Adult Wilderness & Survival Classes

At Holistic Survival School (HoSS), we know that you want to connect more deeply with the natural world, yourself, and your fellow humans. We believe it is your human birthright to have a physical, emotional, and spiritual connection to your local landscape.

With love and compassion, we meet you wherever you are in your life. We’ll teach you hands-on, heart-centered, Earth-based skills like foraging, pottery, fire making, hide-tanning, etc.

We strive to share these connections so that you and others can lead a fulfilling, balanced, and healthy life rooted in the natural world.

Wilderness Skills Immersion Program

HoSS is now offering a 10-month primitive skills & connection program called Deep Remembering. Join our intimate group of like-minded folks in remembering together, who we are as a species and who we are individually.

Deep Remembering takes place near Asheville, NC, for over 40 class days spread over ten months. Each month will feature a four day class that focuses on one main primitive skill, (i.e. baskets, survival, plants) as well as the emotional & spiritual lessons that will help us survive our modern lives of disconnection.

This life-changing experience will deepen your connection with yourself, nature and community. You will remember the deep range of primitive skills, community living and emotional regulation tools that are our human legacy.

Applications for 2025 open on October 1st, 2024.

Learn MORE ABOUT DEEP REMEMBERING

EVEN More Ways to Connect

HoSS is also available for for weekend workshops, alternative team building for local business, and private customized survival classes.

Curious to feel the vibe of Luke and his school? Follow us on Instagram:

Just another way that nature can help us find healing. The way nature works is how we work. Traumas of living in our current broken system make our brains adapt by becoming more black and white. All or nothing.
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But nature doesn’t usually wor

Last weekend the deep remembering 2024 students had their final test. A 24 hour solo in the wilderness. Some slept in huts made of sticks and leaves. Some fasted and prayed. Some made magic and conjured fire to their company. But all found pride and

I am so happy to be prepping for the last big outdoor push of deep remembering! This coming weekend our students will be out on solos for a full 24 hours, totally alone, and they have the choice of sleeping in a shelter made totally of leaves and st

Every year deep remembering weaves together the lives of humans around the greater Asheville community. It is amazing to watch deep remembering alumni stay and create new sub communities all around our area. What a beautiful woven collection of human

We are still missing Bojangles. There have been some potential sightings down the road and we have been working with a tracker who works with his dog for dog recoveries.
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I feel all sorts of pain around Bojangles being gone. Guilt, shame, sadness,

Most of my deep remembering students come to the program saying something along the lines of “ I know I am part of nature but I don’t feel it”.

It’s true that we are always connected to our source in a spiritual sense, but w

I had a bow class scheduled for the week after hurricane Helene and had 12 students planning on joining me!! So we had to take a (heavy)rain check. The good news is that one class has become two chances for you to come and build a bow with me!
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New

Deep remembering is a lot of things. So many things that it’s hard to describe sometimes. So here is a short list of what it is, or at least, what it could possibly be for you.
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Applications for deep remembering 2025 can be found on my website

Applications for Deep remembering 2025 are open! All of the skills HoSS teaches rolled up into one amazing program! This 10-month journey teaches experiential learning in both the physical outer realm (fire, animal processing, plants and herbs etc),

A little update from Luke:

After 16 days we now have power but are still missing Bo and lots of normal life things. We are doing great and are still happy and resilient.

As for me and Holistic Survival school, we will continue teaching our immersi

Total devastation here in WNC. My family and I are ok..besides losing the best wild dog there ever was, Bojangles. We are truly heartbroken and grieving his loss so much, and we are still holding onto a little hope that he is somewhere out there.
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Another year of elk hunting in Wyoming has come to a close. As always, this trip was filled with amazing sights, animal encounters and good talks around the fire. While it’s a bummer that I didn’t take a shot this year, I still had a blas

I will be arriving back in Wyoming today for my third year hunting elk with my homemade primitive gear on the most magical land ever. I can’t wait for another year of magical animals encounters, cold spring water, wild willow, moose and hopefu

Luke also works hard to provide other ways to connect and learn, including the blog articles and videos. You can spend some more in depth time with Luke at his recent podcast appearances too.

And of course, he is best known for his successful participation in the Discovery Channel shows Naked and Afraid, Naked and Afraid XL, and 2020’s Naked and Afraid Alone.

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About Holistic Survival School

HoSS is based in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. We teach at a variety of locations around Asheville, North Carolina, and offer classes at schools and events all over.

Luke McLaughlin, founder of HoSS, talks about how and why he started HoSS and what he hopes it will bring to the World.

We invite you to get involved with Deep Remembering, or take an upcoming class, or book us for something special. Let’s camp out for some nights, climb mountains, connect deeply, share skills and tell stories by our firelight. All are welcome!

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