I'm sure Gene is a well meaning person with some degree of knowledge. But your post has more orange warning flags waving than a pack of lost bird watchers. Basic survival skills don't require a white haired indian mentor or a year in some snake eater special forces unit. It does require an open mind, a little reading and practise. Hacking up a 100 year old cactus just to sweat and puke more than you gain is idiotic, Suggesting you try it to a student without having done it yourself doubly so. In all my studies of and conversations with Apache people none of them were recorded doing this in 19th century ethnographic studies or today. They carried water, or knew where it ( hopefully) would be found. Again, Mr Ward sounds sincere. I think he needs some more experience outside of a very limited bag of tricks and practises.