Answers to Student Questions

Here is a summary of the questions regarding Vision Quest.

1. (A) Is the Native Americans the only people who go on Vision Quests? (B) Why do the Native Americans go to the wilderness to speak to God? (C) Do the Native Americans believe that the only way that God speaks to them is on a Vision Quest?

(A) Many cultures have similar rituals that help people discern their purpose in life or the appropriate decision that needs to be made. While the “form” would be different, the idea of silence and fasting would be common. In our Catholic tradition, before a man can be ordained either to the priesthood or diaconate (deacons), each must make a one week silent retreat, being guided by a Spiritual Advisor. During this week, they are requested to fast and remain in silence. I made mine at a Cuppucian Monastery, for example, about a month before I was ordained. We had one small meal each day and gathered for prayer 6 times (the first was 4am!). So I think that you would find rituals that help the person to look inside to find God’s will.

(B) The choice of going to the wilderness or woods was because, initially, they were a nomadic culture, so they had no permanent structures like churches or mosques. Their “cathedral” is the sky, so entering the woods puts the Vision Questor in the presence of God who created ALL of nature. It is a place where one can “feel” God physically in so many parts of creation (trees, rain, chill, heat, etc.) It is, for this culture, a perfect place.

(C) Native American’s believe, as we do, that God can speak to us in any number of ways – through each other, through nature, through events, through joys, through suffering, through ritual, through silence, etc.

2. What exactly is Hanblecheyapi?

It is a Lakota word that literally is translated, “Crying for a Vision.”

3. Ask yourself what you could get out of Vision Quest or is Vision Quest a good way of becoming closer to God?

Hopefully this has been answered. Vision Quest is a ritual primarily as a prayer for discernment.

4. What exactly is a totem?

A totem is generally an animal who is sent by God as a messenger or a protector or a teacher. So if, for example, one encounters a turtle, then what is the turtle trying to teach that individual. Since a turtle is one of the oldest on the planet, an elder, and is the only animal that can go inside, it teaches us wisdom and inspires the person to reflect in quiet on his or her life. That is why “totem poles” are placed outside the entrance of tribes. Poles with many images of animals sent to protect the tribe and to give them wisdom.

5. Are the pilgrimages to the western wall in Jerusalem by Jews and the voyage to Mecca by Muslims the same sort of spiritual finding as the vision quest?

While these are certainly very spiritual journeys, I would not cluster them with Vision Quest because the purposes are different.

6. Do people today still take part in these vision quests? Would it be difficult to participate in a vision quest in this day and age with all of the dangers the wilderness possesses?

Well, not really sure what you mean about today’s “dangers in the wilderness,” but I guess the short answer is that nothing is different in this respect. The “dangers” in the wilderness are about the same as they were hundreds of years ago. Questors are always subjected to the elements, rain, snow, cold, storms, heat, etc.

Yes, people do Vision Quests in many places in both North and South Americas every year. I have made four Vision Quests. The Lakota elder who is our Spiritual Leader in Michigan hosts Vision Quest every year over Memorial Day weekend every year.

7. Why does God seem speak to us through the wilderness but not our everyday lives?

God speaks to us every moment of our lives. Vision Quest is a ritual that calls the Questor to SILENCE or QUIET so that he or she can be more open to God. No noise. No family distractions. No work or school or activity pressures. It’s a time to listen. Remember the flight of Elijah in our Old Testament. He found God NOT in the wind nor earth quake, but in the “whisper!”

8. (A) Can you truly find your inner self by taking a vision quest? (B) Are we receiving a divine intervention from the Lord and finding our real purpose in life, or is our mind telling us that we have found ourselves after living in the wilderness for 3-4 days with only water. There is a difference between what is real and what our mind wants us to believe is real.

(A) Yes, we can find God (if that is what you mean by inner self) in the quiet and in our prayers. It is a time to be still and to listen.

(B) I think, like all parts of our spiritual life, there is some individual cooperation required of the person. I believe that I have experienced one or two returning Vision Questors who were “filled with themselves,” and not of God. It has been my experience that the vast majority is truly touched and return very humble. You know biblically, Paul, in Acts, warns us of similar things. That is why he suggests that we take our perceptions to the community for discernment. At the end of Vision Quest, the same thing happens. During the Inipi at the end, the Vision Questor speaks of his or her experience, telling of the how they interpreted what they saw or heard or felt. The elders and community then respond and, collectively, can tell whether it was of God or not. Often, a Questor will say that something happened but he or she did not know what to make of it. The community, elders in particular, help the person to discern.

End of questions.

Let me know if these answers are OK or if you have further questions.

Peace,

DT