VisionQuest

“Now, two years after my vision quest on Mt. Shasta, I am still missing Mount Shasta …Every day I think of my experience...and Joa, I mean everyday! You were very good to me in the creation of one of the most special happenings on my path.”
Martin, of Great Britain

Why VisionQuest?

First of all, most of us need a break from all the electronics and extra electrical energy and other forms of toxicity. We need to get grounded on the Earth. There is so much healing that comes from being grounded with our Mother Earth, and remembering the sacredness of all life.

If you are in the fog about your next steps, trying to get over a loss, or simply feeling discontent and don’t know why, it’s time to come back home to your Self and listen more deeply to your Divine Soul.

You are a blessing. There’s nothing wrong with you. Maybe you got caught up in what you’re not.

You are not your ego, or your mind‘s old stories. It may be a good time rise above the clouded mind for spiritual refreshment.

We go up on the mountain to drop it all, and come home to our authenticity. It’s an experience that cannot be said in words because it will be uniquely YOUR experience only you can have.

To sit on a mountain top without eating for days is a radical act as the human ego would rather remain over stimulated with various seductions.

There comes a time in one’s evolution when you realize there is no real satisfaction from what you get from the outer world. This is the gift of loss. It is for you to drop your attachment to what is temporary and to rediscover what is eternally fulfilling. What you have been searching for all along has always been here.

We come to Vision Quest for a stronger loving relationship with Great Spirit and all our relations. How is your relationship with God, the One Great Spirit of our Universe. And our Beloved Mother Earth?

“Seek the divine kingdom and everything else will be added.”

Have you felt distracted by stuff that seems to throw you off purpose?
Does your job or relationship lack luster?
Are you or have you been challenged by a painful relationship, or lack of loving relationships?

Maybe you need a better relationship with yourself and God first?

Do you wonder about the real purpose of your life, or why you may feel creatively stuck?

“We can not solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them”. Albert Einstein

All the solutions to our life problems reside within us.

We just need to give ourselves the time and space we need to raise our vibration to that level where only solutions exist.

You are that I AM That I AM!. Your higher mind has all the inspiring solutions, if you will open-up.

Vision Quest is for both those people who feel as though they have been on a “dead end path”and hurting for a change, and those who simply desire to feel more clear and connected with Great Spirit and their inner guidance for their next steps.

VisionQuest is not doing anything. It is a full surrendering of all doing so you can rediscover your Being. Most of us get caught in the doing, and so the most challenging part of doing a Vision Quest is deciding to give yourself some days to just BE. … to embrace whatever comes up within yourself and allow yourself to RECEIVE the grace of God and Goddess.

For many people, VisionQuest has been a life changer where they shift from busy-ness, confusion, and self doubt into a much deeper realization of their inner peace, purpose, power and deep enthusiasm for life.

VisionQuest can be a kind of death/rebirth experience. The ego feeds on outer stimuli: food, sex, drugs,(caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, marijuana, and prescription drugs) technology, work, and relationships. What we think we need to survive dies as we come home to our inner stillness and become spiritually replenished in a way words can never describe. Our temporary world gets forgotten as we remember our Eternal Self.

We do VisionQuest not to prove anything (how much we can go without food or shelter, (it’s not about suffering) We do it to remove the outer distractions that disconnect us from our Great Loving Spirit Within. (Going without something too long can also be a distraction) Each person decides what their own challenge is.

For example: We abstain from eating to give our digestive system a rest. As our digestive system can rest, it can regenerate its organs and tissues. As we shift our energy source from sugar to more oxygen by focusing on our breathing, our body tissues shift from acid to alkaline. When we are acidic, our tissues are literally breaking down and we lack energy.. When we are alkaline our tissues are regenerating and we feel tingly alive. You can bring pH test strips to find out for yourself.

The solar plexus chakra that rules our digestion is also the energy center that also rules our mind. For example: when we eat sugar, the mind races. Thus, abstaining from eating helps “pull the plug” on compulsive thinking and behavior. After some possible resistance, the mind will slow down, allowing more space for Spiritual awareness.

We can think of our thoughts as clouds in the sky and our soul as our radiant Sun. If we have too many thoughts in our mind, the light of our soul is obscured. As we empty our mind of thoughts, the light of our Soul can shine through brighter than ever. Fasting has this effect of opening our mind to our spiritual illumination.

When we let go of our un-present beliefs and opinions, our inner senses open more fully to the magnificent gifts each present moment. We become open to receive the messages our intelligent universe has to tell us. Messages of wisdom come through the living creatures that show up around us .

Each Vision Quester is in charge of his or her own experience as Joa makes only recommendations. The final judge of your bodily needs should be you. as you commune more deeply with yourself for these 3 days. Joa recommends abstaining from food intake. However, he allows sipping some water to “keep your circuits open.” Let your final authority of how you do your VisionQuest be you, but not your fear based lower self. Watch the fear based mind that needs to grab something compulsively, and you can make the choice to feel the underlying feeling, and that feeling will eventually pass, and you may get to know yourself better as an eternal being you are that is getting all your needs met. Let your decisions be guided by your higher consciousness. There is no hard rules. Work at your own level, as any amount of fasting and prayer beyond your normal daily routine will be helpful.

One of the biggest fears that can come up around doing a vision quest is the fear of being “alone.” Aloneness is one of the most painful human illusions that most of us suffered at birth. When an infant is left alone - at that moment it is literally dying. Thus, some of us still feel we are dying when we are left to ourselves. To experience enlightenment, we must dispel that familiar myth with the realization we are always in loving relationship with Everything. Our relationships are not limited to physical touch, conversations, and other outer sensations. There are deeper levels of feeling each other's presence. We do not go on our Vision Quest to be “a-lone.” We go to make peace with ourselves, and with all our relations to feel our Oneness.

Prayer-Ties

Feeling connected, nurtured, supported, protected, and guided by all our relations is enhanced through a most amazing Native American tool called Prayer-Ties. Before we go up on the mountain, each person collects cloth of seven colors for the seven directions. In the Lokota tradition, I was taught to use red for East, yellow for South, Black for West, white for North, Green for Earth, blue for Sky, and purple for Within. The cloth is cut into 4 inch squares. A pinch of tobaccos is put in the center of each square. The cloth is wrapped around the tobacco, held in the smoke of burning sage, then lifted high to the sun or moon while the person makes their prayer. The prayer can be about anything or anyone, for healing, prosperity, thanksgiving, whatever... The idea here is to pray for every being you have ever known and will know, every tree, every bird, every star, every race, every country, every experience, and every challenge. Trust your I Am (Authentic Self) will bring up everything and everyone you're mean’t to pray for. Prayer is pure positive intention that raises your energy frequency and that of your associations. After you pray for a minute while holding that prayer-tie high to the sun or moon, know that that prayer-tie is holding your prayer. You then tie it onto a long string so that each prayer tie looks like a little colorful ghost hanging on the string.

How many prayer ties you make is up to you. On my first VisionQuest I made 109 for each seven directions for total of 763. To pray that long unceasingly to all my relations and feel their love coming back was one of most enlightened experiences of my life. All that matters is that you make the same number of prayer ties for each direction. Nine for each direction is plenty.

It’s not how much you do, but how much love you put into the doing.
––Mother Theresa

The string of prayer-ties are rolled onto a stick. Once you have found your spot of land to be on, Joa roles out your prayer-ties off the stick, and arranges them in a circle around your site.

For your entire stay, you remain inside your circle of prayer-ties except to go to the bathroom or refill your water container. I cannot say in words how beautiful it is to see these little colorful ghosts dancing in the wind symbolizing the love I feel with all my relations. Inside your circle of love, it is unlikely you will ever feel alone, and you will be protected.

Each day I will visit to check-in with you. If you are feeling challenged, you are welcome to receive an Energy Healing or brief spiritual reading, If you don’t want to be visited, simply wave me on.

Once you register, an itinerary and list of supplies to bring will be emailed to you.

The suggested donation between $300-$500. No one is turned away for lack of funds.

Joa White Eagle, MA. is President of the I AM University of Spiritual Psychology, has earned two masters degrees in Spiritual Psychology, and is a graduate of the Coaches Training Institute. He has been VisionQuesting since 1998, sometimes with medicine men of the Lakota and Karuk tribes and other times on his own. He has had many past lives as a Native American, and is guided to practice vision quest with a “rainbow tribe” intuitive approach that honors many traditions and most importantly what is called forth in the present moment via prayer.