shamanic retreats

I think that this is really important for us to take note of. "Instead of yoga retreats, extreme sports holidays or pricey spa breaks, the latest advice for the fast-living executive is to try to block out the seeing world. Young professionals are signing up for retreats where participants are blindfolded in order to induce hallucinations." This is in a tradition of times away that involve some kind of disruptive or disjunctive deprivation. The silent retreat is a more 'normal' version. Of course there is the issue of religious and spiritual 'technologies' being appropriated for rather more commercial and apparently therapeutic ends. However, I think that such a judgement might be premature in the light of the way that many people seem to feel a need to integrate a spiritual aspect into ordinary life ...

We're not talking small numbers either:" I joined 30 others, including teachers, nurses, actors and a City financier, ranging in age from 22 to 60." Nor cheap: "I decided to splash out £425 " -admittedly there were a few staff to help the blindfolded retreatants, but only three of them.

The disruption of being blindfolded for the duration of the retreat has some immediate mindfulness/contemplative pay-offs: ""

And there was/is some element of what we migh regard as a traditional retreat "on Saturday evening we were asked to maintain 'sacred silence' - this meant we couldn't even find out who was in the room with us. Suddenly, my world seemed darker. Sunday morning was spent in the garden on a quest to ask nature four questions: Who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going? Who are my helpers?" It's just the 'asking nature' that seems a bit odd; and when you analyse it quite hard to work out what that's about; it's interesting that it is chosen rather than 'God' given that the questions around what is meant are no less perplexing. It does alert us to an acceptability of immanent spirituality and an avoidance of transcendence in the traditional sense, which we do well to note.

And at the end of it all ... "By Monday, as we were led into the garden to take off our Mindfolds, my scepticism had largely gone. Even with my hands over my eyes, wearing sunglasses and with a blanket over my head, the light was scalding. I slowly lifted the blanket and the sight of nature in all its majesty was overwhelming. I could see everything. From the tiniest hair on the outside of a leaf to the iridescent sequins on the inside of a petal and the minuscule contours on the body of a dragonfly. But more than that I felt all of this too. It was like I had developed another layer of perception. Beyond what I saw, I could sense"
Is this not just the kind of thing we would be happy to use as the basis for a spiritual direction session? [or several].

And I ask the question whether we shouldn't also be learning from this the value of including such disjunctive events in Christian nurture and ministerial formation? How about vision quests as part of baptism and confirmation preparation? Why not blindfold potential leaders for a weekend retreat as part of opening their eyes to the beuaty of the world and the dynamics of the inner life? I suspect in our recent rationalist times we have dismissed such things as insufficiently rational and too emotional and strange. But the numbers of 'secular' people doing this kind of thing is clearly not insignificant and may point us to a change in culture whereby we, the churches, will not be seen as sufficiently serious or spiritual if we are not offering fairly good disruptive and disjunctive opportunities as part of formation. It's not as if we don't have the resources within the traditions we inherit.

I'm not proposing to do this simply as a means of psycho-engineering ersatz spiritual experiences, rather making conditions which can help people out of their normal modes of perception so that they can make discoveries that would not ordinarily occur. I am proposing that this be done in conjunction with prayer guides and spiritual coaching so that the relationship with God and vocation can be explored and so that any wierdness can be tracked/monitored in case it sets of unhelpful responses.

I've been thinking of writing a confirmation-type course where the main aim is to help the person to develop a rule of life and to begin to explore vocational issues. I could see a 'vision quest' type activity as part of that as very fitting. Alpha course have the Holy Spirit Weekend ...
The Observer | UK News | Stressed out? Put on a blindfold for 72 hours and bang into chairs: [:newagery:]