Vision Quests

Spiritual Retreats in West Coast, United States

This is a contemporary experience based on ancient vision quests that act as a rite of passage essentially to understanding your personal link with nature. The quests usually have a duration of twelve days and the process includes fasting, solitude, poetry, ceremonial drumming and dance. Together with exercises to open up your psyche these practices are intended to separate you from everyday consciousness to enable self-discovery.

The Animas Valley Institute runs several quest trips every year to locations such as Death Valley in California, Cortez in Colorado or Lima in Montana. All the settings are remote and the focus of the quests is on healing, renewal and empowerment.

Throssel Hole Buddhist Abbey

Spiritual Retreats in North East, United Kingdom

Throssel Hole Buddhist Abbey is a working monastery that offers various opportunities for visitors through retreats. Set in a remote area of the Northumberland moors, the abbey was established in 1972 and its members live by the Soto Zen tradition.

Soto Zen, or Serene Reflection, is focused around seated meditation, although all forms of work are viewed as an opportunity for active meditation. The intention is to teach people to see beyond their own thoughts and feelings to their true nature, which is equivalent with the enlightened state of the Buddha. Once this true nature has been found the training is intended to help people express it at all times through mind, body and speech.

The retreats are open to all; people of both sexes and of any religious denomination. The only rules are that those on a retreat join in with all community activities and refrain from bringing materials that would distract or offend to the abbey, such as alcohol, music or animals. Silence and contemplation are the focuses of the retreat which includes training in meditation and daily ceremonies under the stable, knowledgeable influence of the monks.

The retreats vary from introductory courses over a weekend, through specialist retreats such as the Feeding of Hungry Ghosts that focuses on the meaning of life and death, to those involving ordination ceremonies or Jukai. All are welcome to visit the abbey on Sundays if you want to learn a little more and the abbey asks only for a donation within your means in return for the retreats.

Samadhi Hermitage

Spiritual Retreats in Deep South, United States

Set in the foothills of the Ortiz Mountains at the southern end of Sante Fe in New Mexico, you can find the Samadhi Hermitage. The contemplation cave of the sadhu Francis Ananda Love, it is open to the public in order to facilitate their desire to experience real solitude and time for contemplation.

The Samadhi Meditation Cave is a stone, octagonal room, twelve feet in diameter and seven feet below ground. There is running water, gardens providing vegetarian foods and a stone yoga deck outside the cave. It is a place of true solitude and can be an intense time of introspection, it is not recommended for beginners or those who have no experience of meditation.

Ananda is on hand to provide spiritual guidance, and massage and acupuncture therapies are available nearby at reduced rates by organisations friendly to the hermitage. The cave is essentially available to all by appointment, but Ananda makes the final decision on a person’s suitability. The cave is not available at all in the months of December through February as this is when Ananda takes his deep meditation time.

The Wild Mushroom Traveling Road Show

Spiritual Retreats in Iquitos, Peru

The Wild Mushroom Traveling Road Show starts in Iquitos, the largest city in the Peruvian rainforest, and sets off at midnight on the day of your arrival. It involves travelling with Amazonian shamans deep into the rainforest where you will visit remote tribal villages and search out and learn about the uses of medicinal plants and fungi.

The shamans provide massage and personal healing and are on hand to interpret dreams and provide spiritual guidance. Night time ceremonies are acted out under the cover of medicine trees and the focus there is on music, chanting and healing.

The trip is also ecologically aware and even benefits the unique Amazonian environment, helping to survey rare plants and fungi, in the preservation of trees and the traditional way of life of the indigenous tribal peoples.

The Human-Dolphin Connection

Spiritual Retreats in Bahamas

The WildQuest Retreat Lodge is set on the beach in Porgy Bay, a fishing village on one of the smaller, quieter Bahamian islands. From the lodge runs The Dolphin-Human Connection, a group that provides week long retreats based around the belief that contact with wild dolphins can have a therapeutic effect on mind, body and spirit.

During the week guests stay at the retreat building and participate in a program that includes yoga lessons every morning and swimming with the dolphins in their natural habitat daily. The yoga concentrates on breathing techniques, such as conscious breathing, in order to strengthen the connection between human and dolphin.

The retreats can be quite pricey, but there are discounts available for children under 17 and the website often runs special discount prices. Although the usual retreat is a week long it is possible to stay for longer on this paradise island sharing in the joyful, calm lives of the wild dolphins.