The Vision Quest
My first Vision Quest was when I was 21 years old. Since then, I’ve quested over 15 times, nine of which were for 4 days/nights. None of this really matters, except to say I have first-hand experience with questing in this way. The wisdom, power, and simplicity of this experience is beyond words, but I will attempt to do my best here.
The Vision Quest is a timeless and universal experience that provides us with the opportunity to strip away all distraction, fast from all things familiar, and in the healing heart of Nature hear the quiet voice of the heart. All cultures and peoples worldwide have at some point in their history had initiatory and rites-of-passage experiences that celebrated the transition of a person’s life into a new phase. These were times of testing, not only externally for example through fasting, but internally. It is this internal experience that is so lacking in the world today.
When you go and remove yourself from your daily flow and experiences, remove all distractions, you will begin to realize that you are not your thoughts. You are not your emotions. You are not these fleeting sensations of slight physical discomfort. When you give yourself space to be with these things, you will find that there is always movement.
Why do this out in nature? Nature has become a buzz-word again, with words like ‘earthing’ and ‘forest bathing’ permeating the field. That’s fine. Just remember nature is not some ‘-ism.’ It is the living truth we dwell within. As an ecologist, I consider truth to be far stranger than fiction. Get out of your head and touch the truth of your own being. You are not separate from the world around you.
What will you do with this responsibility of knowing that you affect things? That you hold the potential to create your own experience of life. What will you do? What really matters to you? What do you need more than anything?
The Vision Quest itself is a solo experience in Nature lasting four days and nights. The full program lasts eight days. Time is spent before the quest preparing you to gain the most from your time in solitude, and afterwards you will be given tools to help you integrate your experience into your day-to-day life.
The Vision Quest is where we ask ourselves what we truly desire in life, what we’re really working toward, and confront those areas of self that must shift in order for these things to manifest. It is a challenging, direct, and truly life transforming experience.
The Vision Quest has been used in one form or another by indigenous peoples and mystical traditions for millennia. It is an experience that connects a person to the eternal in a real and powerful way. It is to find one’s ‘Vision,’ and bring it back into the world, back into your community and life in a real and meaningful way.
This is the Vision Quest handed down from Stalking Wolf, through his student Tom Brown Jr., and subsequently through Malcolm Ringwalt. It is for all people, regardless of background or belief system. Hundreds of people around the world, from all walks of life, have Quested in this way, from teenagers to people in their late 80s.
The Vision Quest experience, while uniquely expressed in each culture, is historically common to all people worldwide throughout time. Often marking a life transition, such as from adolescence to adulthood, these rites of passage experiences were a time when a person would remove themselves from their tribe or clan for a specified time and undergo an experience in nature. Then they would return to their people / community / tribe and share their newfound ‘medicine.’ Some people would choose to continue to seek the deeper teachings of the Quest throughout their life as well.
This Vision Quest is a simple ceremony given to us by Stalking Wolf (Grandfather), a Lipan Apache elder and shaman who traveled throughout North and South America for 63 years in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Part of his Vision was to travel and learn from all peoples and philosophies, find the simple truths beyond the shackling traditions, customs, and dogmas – and pass these down. The Vision Quest is one such simple truth. The Vision Quest we run at Arbor Vitae Wellness is the Vision Quest as handed down by Stalking Wolf. It is NOT an Apache Vision Quest. It is the distilled simplicity that Stalking Wolf handed down for all people called to it. Stalking Wolf originally passed this quest to his student Tom Brown, Jr. (Tracker School), who subsequently passed it to Malcolm Ringwalt (The Oneness Quest). It is from this lineage that the facilitators of this program have been trained in. The facilitators (‘Protectors’) have extensive experience questing, as well as in running these programs.
~ Zebulun Browne
Arbor Vitae Wellness is a place of healing. We help you make deeper contact with life through embodied connection in yourself. We address conditions such as chronic stress, muscle tension and chronic disease by providing massage therapies, integrative healing services and programs rooted in nature.
Our health and wellness is interdependent with the health of every ecosystem, internal and external.
Arbor Vitae Wellness encourages you to live an empowered life rooted in real peace,
deep love, boundless joy and meaningful purpose.
Find yourself here.
Arbor Vitae Wellness
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Arbor Vitae Wellness LLC, 253 Main St., Suite #1, Yarmouth, ME 04096, USA