Therapeutic Ingredients of the “Vision Quest”
In earlier cultures a method for gaining insight into oneself was the “vision quest” (a term associated with the Native American version of this practice). A person would go on such a quest in times of crisis (when an answer to a problem was needed), as a rite of passage into adulthood, or simply out of a desire for self-discovery. The person typically would wander into the wilderness alone, or go on a journey of some kind, searching for an insight or “sign” that would reveal some truth. Sometimes the person deprived himself of food, water, and shelter, perhaps for several days at a time, which induced an altered state of consciousness. This mixture of altered consciousness and an intense “desire to discover” caused something to happen – an experience, an event, a “sign” of some kind that resulted in an important insight.
Might there be features of such vision quest practices that resemble some of the therapeutic features of traditional psychotherapy? The following exercise incorporates some of these features. It is not a recreation of such vision quest practices, but it incorporates some of the basic elements. Here are the guidelines for the exercise:
1. For a period of at least 4 hours, leave your room or home and go out somewhere, anywhere. Don’t plan ahead as to where you will go or what you will do. Don’t do anything in particular (e.g., don’t go bowling, to the movies, to visit friends, etc.) Just go where your instincts tell you to go. Let your “intuition” carry you. Just wander (of course, don’t do anything dangerous).
Do this alone. This is very important! If you meet people you know, you may talk to them for a few minutes, but no longer than that. Continue on your way.
2. While you wander, concentrate on some question about yourself, something you want to know about yourself, or some problem you have been experiencing in your life. You could simply focus on the question “Who am I?” or any similar question. Think, reflect, ponder this question – but also let your mind “drift.”
3. The whole time keep in mind that you are on a “quest.” You are looking, waiting, expecting something. Something will happen. There will be a sign that will give you an insight into the question. It could be something that happens to you, something you see or hear. The world out there will give you the sign!
4. Take along a notebook or some paper, and a pen. Every half hour sit down and write. Note the time, the place, and what has happened. Write about your reactions to what is happening to you. Write about your thoughts, feelings, and insights. Write these notes for yourself! You do not have to hand them in. But if you want to give them to me (along with your paper), I will be glad to read them and give you feedback. During the exercise, if you’re anxious, frustrated, or bored, ask yourself “why” and write about it. If nothing important has happened, think and write about why that is so. How could you make the exercise more effective?
Important: you should delete from, and add to this set of guidelines, as you see fit. You choose the time and place.
Wandering freely out in the deserts of New Mexico, or in Scotland. Sitting on a long train journey, or in the shed at the bottom of the garden. It’s all up to you.
‘Work up to’ your vision quest: take the time to let the strength of the intention grow before you finally decide to commit yourself to it.
Build up a good ‘head of steam’.
Allow between three hours and three days time-out for the quest itself.
Don’t eat anything while you are on the vision quest.
Do drink water.
Take a mobile phone (in place of the elder who would once have looked out for you).
Stalk the unconscious.
Hunt the clues to an awareness of consciousness.
Know that you are part of a web of causality where everything is connected.
Listen to what is going on.
Look for clues in everything you sense.
Look for clues in everything you think, everything you feel, and in everything that happens to you.
Feel your connection to the earth. Breathe. Try and maintain a sense of the web of energy that surrounds you.
Try and let an intuitive sense of this energy give you direction.
Believe that you may find new and deep guidance, of profound importance to your life, if you are open to this.
Remember that if you want to find yourself, you may have to lose yourself first. Maybe ‘you’ve got to get out of it if you want to get into it’ (as somebody said) and before you can integrate yourself more effectively it may first be necessary to go to pieces.
Suspend your disbelief.
If you do not normally believe that trees and rocks have spirits, then suspend that disbelief, and treat the spirits with the respect they deserve.
The world as you know it is something that you (re)create every moment. So, you can create the world in different ways if you choose to do that. What happens to you is determined by the totality of who you are. So, take responsibilty for who you are, accept yourself totally, and run with the grain of the Universe.
Stay vigilant.
Engage fully with what is going on. (So that if you choose to go off in some new direction, you do that with commitment).
Allow yourself to be both the one who acts and the one who watches. Avoid ‘possession’ by whatever aspect of yourself is currently to the fore: be creative with identification, so that even in the middle of ecstatic experience, for example, you know that this is just one face of many. See the addictions, see the fear. Be aware of the sleepwalking parts of yourself. Choose, for a while at least, not to energise them. Don’t overindulge in thoughts and feelings whose origins are in ‘scenes from the past’. Be focussed.
Hunt the ‘ally’.
Have courage. Be a warrior. Do not underestimate the importance of the challenge.
Look for the clues. Guidance may come from anywhere: from dreams, from a tiny creature of some sort. From seeds planted in you at this time that do not sprout and grow until months have passed. You may find a spirit guide, perhaps in a totally unexpected way. You may find an ally of some unexpected sort, also in a totally unexpected way. You may be tested. You may not be tested at all. Only you know what you should do. Be strong. Extract all that you can from this. If nothing happens, that’s fine!
Let an intuitive ‘body-energy’ awareness guide your steps. Don’t hang around in places that don’t feel right: do hang around in places that do feel right.
Try and recall your dreams after you sleep.
Recover everything that makes you whole.
Thought it was good!
