A vision quest is a personal experience a person undertakes to grow closer to God. A vision quest is a period of concentrated meditation that can last for several days to several months.The seeker takes only water with him and fasts for the duration of the quest. His purpose of the quest is to seek wisdom, discernment, or spiritual growth. In the Native American tradition, the quest begins in the teenage years and is continued periodically throughout his life. The seeker removes himself from society and retreats to the wilderness and waits for God to speak to him. This can come in the form of an actual vision, a symbolic action on the part of nature, or perhaps nothing will happen at all. By retreating to the wilderness, the seeker attempts to reconnect the elemental forces that created the universe and inspired the prophets of old.
What exactly is a Native American totem, and why is it imbued with the ability to speak? Why does God seem speak to us through the wilderness but not our everyday lives?
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You made a very important connections regarding this "quest" to the way the "prophets of old" did in the Jewish tradition. There, in that culture, the desert was the sacred place in which people would go to find God. Most often times this would be done as a fast - often times for "40 days" what ever that meant to the individual. The only thing I would correct in what you wrote is that the actual ceremony lasts for 4 days - not months. However, if you include the preparation time as well as the time when the person comes "out of the woods" where often times much reflections still goes on, then several months would be accurate. But the ceremony itself - 4 days. Great insight!
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