Past Programs – School of Lost Borders

Sep 17 - Sep 23, 2023 Big Pine and Eureka Valley Petra Lentz-Snow, Gretchen (Grae) Gerlach Training

Patrilinear hierarchical systems have pushed life on earth to the raw edge of social and ecological sustainability. Many of us feel the global crisis reverberating acutely in our own bodies, in the ...

Sep 2 - Sep 17, 2023 Wild Mountain, Colorado Ruth “Roo” Wharton, Pedro McMillan Training

This training gives students an immersion in a rite of passage ceremony, including the skills involved in leading the vision fast and an understanding of how the principles of rites of passage can ...

Aug 23 - Aug 29, 2023 Wild Mountain, Colorado Nancy Jane, Bettina Straub Living the Practices

When we heal our roots, we open up new possibilities for our future. --Thomas Hubl Ancestral Trauma The stories in our lineage are part of who we are today, but much of their influence remains ...

Aug 23 - Aug 27, 2023 Dragonback Springs Ranch, Colorado Emerald North, Scot Deily Training

Who is this miracle speaking to me? And who is this miracle listening? What amazingness are we creating? Out of gray matter a star spark of thought leaps between synapses into the air, and ...

Aug 10 - Aug 19, 2023 Wild Mountain, Colorado Nancy Jane, Bettina Straub Vision Fast

Intergenerational Women’s Vision Fast - Remembering Ourselves Home - To be whole. To be complete. Wildness reminds us what it means to be human, what we are connected to rather than ...

Jul 31 - Aug 12, 2023 Inyo Mountains - Big Pine, California Scott Eberle, Silvia Talavera Vision Fast

The modern day vision quest is a border crossing practice, an opportunity to reclaim our true place in the natural world. When one steps across the threshold and into the unknown wilderness, ...

Jul 26 - Aug 6, 2023 Dragonback Springs Ranch, Colorado Emerald North, Colleen Bishop, tbird (Thompson) Bishop Vision Fast

In your bones you hear the singing of your sacred ancestors. You follow in their footsteps. You go alone, with an empty belly and a bare minimum of equipment, into the heart of the wilderness, for ...

Jun 24 - Jul 1, 2023 Wild Mountain, Colorado John Davis, Marlena deCarion Living the Practices

Direct and intimate contact with the natural world is an ancient and profound doorway to being. Our ancestors knew this, and we are rediscovering it. Curiosity, experiential inquiry, mindfulness, ...

Jun 14 - Jul 16, 2023 Inyo Mountains - Big Pine, California Betsy Perluss, Angelo Joseph Lazenka, Petra Lentz-Snow, Meredith Little, Kim Belair Training

The month-long intensive is designed for those who seek to explore and develop their vocation as wilderness guides within the tradition of the School of Lost Borders. Participants are given the ...

Jun 6 - Jun 18, 2023 Wild Mountain, Colorado Pedro McMillan, Ruth “Roo” Wharton Vision Fast

The natural world reminds us that being Queer* is both beautiful and something to be celebrated! Showing up as who we are, and with our many gifts, is a celebration of nature’s diversity and honors ...

Jun 3 - Jun 10, 2023 Inyo Mountains - Big Pine, California Scott Eberle, Collin Brown, Paul Browde Living the Practices

Queer people don’t grow up as ourselves, we grow up playing a version of ourselves that sacrifices authenticity to minimise humiliation & prejudice. The massive task of our adult lives is to ...

May 20 - Jun 1, 2023 Big Pine, California Sam DeBoskey, Scott Davidson Vision Fast

The world is changing fast… and we must do our best to keep up. We now face unprecedented waves of transformation. The blossoming and decay of our modern ways is calling attention to fundamental ...

May 15 - May 20, 2023 Big Pine, California Betsy Perluss, Katie Teague Training

The Four Shields model offers us a compass to help us find our way back to our origins on this living planet. This wheel of human nature was handed down to Steven and Meredith in the early days of ...

May 10 - May 21, 2023 Cochiti Lake and Ghost Ranch, New Mexico Emerald North, Petra Lentz-Snow Vision Fast

A woman's journey is both vigorous and introspective as she covers ground outwardly, so she ventures deep within herself. Stirred by nature's calling to be creative and complete, and beckoned by an ...

Apr 3 - Apr 14, 2023 Big Pine & Death Valley, California Petra Lentz-Snow, Scot Deily Vision Fast

Life transitions, like entering adulthood, midlife or elderhood are always "DNA invitations" to go out on the land. The need to become anew is planted deeply into our ancestral bones because it was ...

Mar 13 - Mar 18, 2023 Mesquite Springs campground, Death Valley Meredith Little Living & Dying

Resentment is like a glass of poison that a man drinks; then he sits down and waits for his enemy to die. —Nelson Mandela Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the ...

Mar 7 - Mar 18, 2023 Death Valley, California Scott Eberle, Cynthia Morrow Living & Dying

Please note: The Ballcourt ceremony is considered an “advanced program” in the Practice of Living & Dying (PLD) curriculum and is the only one in the series that has a prerequisite. Read ...

Feb 13 - Feb 24, 2023 Death Valley, California Petra Lentz-Snow, Nick LaHaise Vision Fast

“It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work and when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey. The mind that is not ...

Oct 29 - Nov 6, 2022 Death Valley, California Scott Eberle, Silvia Talavera Living the Practices

Death Valley is a vast open space that stretches on for miles. Here the scale of desolate earth and expansive sky is something to behold. Jack Kornfield writes about the open mind in manner that ...

Oct 24 - Nov 4, 2022 Cottonwood Canyon, Death Valley, California Petra Lentz-Snow, Siri Gunnarson, Kim Belair Living the Practices

The need to become anew lives deep in our ancestral bones because it was, and is, crucial for the survival of our communities that we let go of what no longer serves, and enter the calling of our ...

Oct 24 - Nov 4, 2022 Death Valley, California Meredith Little, Angelo Joseph Lazenka Living & Dying

Death is the ultimate agent of transformation—be it a physical death or “the little deaths” encountered throughout life. Indigenous cultures developed rituals to aid and guide people through ...

Oct 9 - Oct 15, 2022 Catalina State Park - Tucson, Arizona Silvia Talavera, Cary Gaunt Living the Practices

Throughout the ages, elder women have enjoyed sitting in circle to weave the rich tapestries of their stories, stories that continued to warm and inspire people across time and culture. What ...

Oct 4 - Oct 16, 2022 Wild Mountain, Colorado Pedro McMillan, Kelly McClelland Vision Fast

The sun sets on the heat and vibrance of summer. Fall is upon us, full of its hearty compost and harvests. Just as the seasons turn around us, the seasons of our lives turn with them. These changes ...

Oct 2 - Oct 15, 2022 Big Pine & Eureka Valley, California Ruth “Roo” Wharton, Angelo Joseph Lazenka Training

In these times of change and uncertainty, it is crucial that we show up for our community in ways that truly serve. The world is calling us to listen in new and old ways to connect with the land and ...

Sep 19 - Sep 24, 2022 Big Pine, California Angelo Joseph Lazenka, Betsy Perluss Training

Telling one’s own story is an ancient art. Nowadays, we have forgotten how to listen and how to tell. Yet the very survival of our species depends on our ability to communicate with each other in ...

Sep 19 - Sep 30, 2022 Cochiti Lake and Ghost Ranch, New Mexico Emerald North, Scot Deily, Ray Hillis Vision Fast

The land knows you, even when you are lost. ~ Robin Wall Kimmerer In increasing times of unrest and uncertainty it can be a common human experience to gravitate towards more “certainty” ...

Sep 3 - Sep 10, 2022 Dragonback Springs Ranch, Colorado Nancy Jane, Bettina Straub Vision Fast

Since time immemorial, women have gathered to celebrate, honor and support life. In doing so we form a sisterhood deeply rooted in our own authentic nature. As we join together to share our stories ...

Aug 31 - Aug 31, 2022 Various Locations Emerald North, Scot Deily Training

No matter our ancestry, we are all a part of the lineage upon this living planet. And because of this it is in our bones to be called again and again to the land and into ceremony to ...

Aug 17 - Aug 22, 2022 Dragonback Springs Ranch, Colorado Emerald North, Ray Hillis, Scot Deily Training

Who is this miracle speaking to me? And who is this miracle listening? What amazingness are we creating? Out of gray matter a star spark of thought leaps between synapses into the air, and ...

Aug 1 - Aug 13, 2022 Inyo Mountains - Big Pine, California Scott Eberle, Betsy Perluss Vision Fast

The modern day vision quest is a border crossing practice, an opportunity to reclaim our true place in the natural world. When one steps across the threshold and into the unknown wilderness, ...

Jul 17 - Jul 23, 2022 Los Padres National Forest, CA Petra Lentz-Snow, Gretchen (Grae) Gerlach Training

Patrilinear hierarchical systems have pushed life on earth to the raw edge of social and ecological sustainability. Many of us feel the global crisis reverberating acutely in our own bodies, in the ...

Jul 3 - Jul 9, 2022 Wild Mountain, Colorado Nancy Jane, Bettina Straub Living the Practices

When we heal our roots, we open up new possibilities for our future. --Thomas Hubl This program provides an opportunity to consciously explore how the shadows of the past remain undigested in our ...

Jun 25 - Jul 2, 2022 Wild Mountain, Colorado John Davis, Marlena deCarion Living the Practices

For the 2023 Diamond in the Rough program please click here For the 2024 Diamond in the Rough program, please click here Intimate and direct contact with the natural world is an ...

Jun 15 - Jul 17, 2022 Inyo Mountains - Big Pine, California Betsy Perluss, Larry Hobbs, Angelo Joseph Lazenka, Petra Lentz-Snow, Will Scott, Meredith Little Training

The month-long intensive is designed for those who seek to explore and develop their vocation as wilderness guides within the tradition of the School of Lost Borders. Participants are given the ...

Jun 7 - Jun 19, 2022 Wild Mountain, Colorado Pedro McMillan, Ruth “Roo” Wharton Vision Fast

The natural world reminds us that being Queer* is both beautiful and something to be celebrated! Showing up as who we are, and with our many gifts, is a celebration of nature’s diversity and honors ...

Jun 6 - Jun 16, 2022 Inyo Mountains - Big Pine, California Siri Gunnarson, Sam DeBoskey Vision Fast

Every summer the School of Lost Borders offers a wilderness rite of passage for young people ready to confirm their entry into adulthood. Nearly every culture on the planet shows evidence of a ...

May 21 - May 28, 2022 Inyo Mountains - Big Pine, California Scott Eberle, Collin Brown, Paul Browde Living the Practices

Queer people don’t grow up as ourselves, we grow up playing a version of ourselves that sacrifices authenticity to minimise humiliation & prejudice. The massive task of our adult lives is to ...

May 16 - May 21, 2022 Big Pine, California Betsy Perluss, Angelo Joseph Lazenka Training

The Four Shields model offers us a compass to help us find our way back to our origins on this living planet. This wheel of human nature was handed down to Steven and Meredith in the early days of ...

May 16 - May 27, 2022 Cochiti Lake and Ghost Ranch, New Mexico Emerald North, Petra Lentz-Snow Vision Fast

A woman's journey is both vigorous and introspective as she covers ground outwardly, so she ventures deep within herself. Stirred by nature’s calling to be creative and complete, and beckoned by an ...

Apr 17 - Apr 22, 2022 Eureka Valley, California Meredith Little Training

Of all the shields of human nature, the dark or fall shield can be at once the most compelling and the most frightening. It calls on us continually to risk everything, to let go of what has come ...

Apr 17 - Apr 24, 2022 Catalina State Park - Tucson, Arizona Silvia Talavera, Scot Deily Living the Practices

“Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly." - Langston Hughes This program is an invitation to all who have experienced a vision fast, had an idea, a ...

Apr 11 - Apr 22, 2022 Big Pine & Death Valley, California Petra Lentz-Snow, Nick LaHaise Vision Fast

Life transitions, like entering adulthood, midlife or elderhood are always “DNA invitations” to go out on the land. The need to become anew is planted deeply into our ancestral bones because it ...

Mar 14 - Mar 14, 2022 Various Locations Emerald North, Scot Deily Training

There is one place left in this round, plus a few last spots for the next upcoming 18-Month Ceremonial Immersion (beginning August 2022), please visit this link. No matter our ancestry, we are all ...

Mar 13 - Mar 24, 2022 Death Valley, California Meredith Little, Scott Eberle Living & Dying

Death is the ultimate agent of transformation—be it a physical death or “the little deaths” encountered throughout life. Indigenous cultures developed rituals to aid and guide people ...

Feb 21 - Mar 4, 2022 Death Valley, California Petra Lentz-Snow, Scot Deily Vision Fast

“It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work and when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey. The mind that is not ...

Nov 9 - Nov 20, 2021 Death Valley, California Silvia Talavera, Cynthia Morrow Vision Fast

One of a woman's greatest longings is to be seen and known in her most wild and authentic self - a self that is intimately intertwined with the creative forces and cycles of nature. Like the waxing ...

Oct 25 - Nov 5, 2021 Death Valley, California Meredith Little, Angelo Joseph Lazenka Living & Dying

Death is the ultimate agent of transformation—be it a physical death or “the little deaths” encountered throughout life. Indigenous cultures developed rituals to aid and guide people through ...

Oct 2 - Oct 10, 2021 Eureka Valley, California Scott Eberle, Cynthia Morrow Living & Dying

Throughout time and cultures, people have crossed borders of their ordinary lives seeking contact with the Mystery. An experience of Oneness, it is beyond any fixed identity. Called by many names, ...

Sep 27 - Oct 8, 2021 Cochiti Lake and Ghost Ranch, New Mexico Emerald North, Scot Deily Vision Fast

In your bones you hear the singing of your sacred ancestors. You follow in their footsteps. You go alone, with an empty belly and a bare minimum of equipment, into the heart of the wilderness, for ...

Sep 25 - Oct 1, 2021 Big Pine, California Silvia Talavera, Sara Harris Living the Practices

Throughout the ages, elder women have enjoyed sitting in circle to weave the rich tapestries of their stories, stories that continued to warm and inspire people across time and culture. What ...

Sep 25 - Sep 30, 2021 Big Pine, California Betsy Perluss, Angelo Joseph Lazenka Training

Telling one’s own story is an ancient art. Nowadays, we have forgotten how to listen and how to tell. Yet the very survival of our species depends on our ability to communicate with each other in ...

Sep 12 - Sep 19, 2021 Big Pine, California Petra Lentz-Snow, Angelo Joseph Lazenka Living & Dying

The pandemic has recently brought the nature of illness, loss and death sharply into our collective consciousness reminding us that no human, no matter how healthy or resourced, is immune to ...

Aug 30 - Sep 5, 2021 Dragonback Springs Ranch, Colorado Nancy Jane, Bettina Straub Living the Practices

This program provides an opportunity to consciously explore how the shadows of the past remain undigested in our personal and collective lives. To what degree are we aware of their impact on our ...

Aug 28 - Sep 19, 2021 Wild Mountain, Colorado Ruth “Roo” Wharton, Pedro McMillan Training

Wilderness Rites of Passage have been practiced in cultures around the world as a way to celebrate and transition from one phase of life to the next - to leave behind what no longer serves and step ...

Aug 23 - Aug 23, 2021 Inyo Mountains - Big Pine, California Petra Lentz-Snow, Gretchen (Grae) Gerlach Living the Practices

Patrilinear hierarchical systems have pushed life on earth to the edge of social and ecological sustainability. As women we feel the pain of the global crisis resonating in our bodies and personal ...

Aug 4 - Aug 8, 2021 Dragonback Springs Ranch, Colorado Emerald North, Ray Hillis, Scot Deily Training

The shields of human nature turn with the experiences of life, from the smallest cell to the great seamless whole of the biosphere called earth. It begins with the body (summer), turns into psyche ...

Aug 2 - Aug 14, 2021 Inyo Mountains - Big Pine, California Betsy Perluss, Scott Eberle Vision Fast

The modern day vision quest is a border crossing practice, an opportunity to reclaim our true place in the natural world. When one steps across the threshold and into the unknown wilderness, ...

Jul 28 - Aug 8, 2021 Wild Mountain, Colorado Pedro McMillan, Ruth “Roo” Wharton Vision Fast

The call of the earth is getting louder! The ecological stress we see in wildfires, flooding, and global pandemics can leave you feeling helpless, frightened and stuck. Technology and the fast pace ...

Jul 1 - Jul 14, 2021 Dragonback Springs Ranch, Colorado Emerald North, Scot Deily Training

The two week training offers the participant an immersion into the vision fast ceremony, including the beginning skills necessary to lead it and an understanding of how the principles of the vision ...

Jun 26 - Jul 3, 2021 Wild Mountain, Colorado John Davis, Marlena deCarion Living the Practices

Intimate and direct contact with the natural world is an ancient, direct, and profound doorway to being. Our ancestors knew this, and we are rediscovering it. Curiosity, experiential inquiry, ...

Jun 16 - Jul 18, 2021 Inyo Mountains - Big Pine, California Betsy Perluss, Angelo Joseph Lazenka, Petra Lentz-Snow, Meredith Little, John Davis Training

The month-long intensive is designed for those who seek to explore and develop their vocation as wilderness guides within the tradition of the School of Lost Borders. Participants are given the ...

Jun 8 - Jun 20, 2021 Wild Mountain, Colorado Pedro McMillan, Ruth “Roo” Wharton Vision Fast

The natural world reminds us that being Queer* is both beautiful and something to be celebrated! Showing up as who we are, and with our many gifts, is a celebration of nature’s diversity and honors ...

Jun 6 - Jun 13, 2021 Inyo Mountains - Big Pine, California Scott Eberle, Collin Brown Living & Dying

Imagine you, as a queer man, living in a community that has its own “Death Lodge,” a place where a dying person can rest and receive the visitors who come to say goodbye. This is the natural ...

May 28 - Jun 7, 2021 Inyo Mountains - Big Pine, California Siri Gunnarson, Pınar Ateş Sinopoulos-Lloyd Vision Fast

Every summer the School of Lost Borders offers a wilderness rite of passage for young people ready to confirm their entry into adulthood. Nearly every culture on the planet shows evidence of a ...

May 19 - May 30, 2021 Big Pine, California Will Scott, Larry Hobbs Vision Fast

The mystery is calling! The Sun is rising and illuminating a new and yet very ancient story about the value and worth of what it means to be a man. Perhaps now more than ever -- or perhaps now just ...

May 17 - May 28, 2021 Cochiti Lake and Ghost Ranch, New Mexico Emerald North, Petra Lentz-Snow Vision Fast

A woman's journey is both vigorous and introspective as she covers ground outwardly, so she ventures deep within herself. Stirred by nature’s calling to be creative and complete, and beckoned by an ...

May 17 - May 22, 2021 Big Pine, California Betsy Perluss, Angelo Joseph Lazenka Training

The Four Shields model offers us guidance in the form of a map to help us find our way back to our origins on this living planet. This earth-based wheel of human nature was handed down to Steven ...

Apr 11 - Apr 16, 2021 Eureka Valley, California Meredith Little Training

Of all the shields of human nature, the dark or fall shield can be at once the most compelling and the most frightening. It calls on us continually to risk everything, to let go of what has come ...

Apr 5 - Apr 16, 2021 Big Pine and Eureka Valley, California Petra Lentz-Snow, Angelo Joseph Lazenka Vision Fast

Life transitions like entering adulthood, midlife, or elderhood are always “DNA invitations” to go out on the land. The need to become anew is planted deeply into our ancestral bones because it ...

Feb 28 - Mar 11, 2021 Death Valley Scott Eberle, Meredith Little Living & Dying, Past Programs

An Advanced Program in “The Practice of Living and Dying” Death is the ultimate agent of transformation - be it a physical death or "the little deaths" encountered throughout life. ...

Nov 9 - Nov 20, 2020 Death Valley Betsy Perluss, Silvia Talavera Vision Fast

One of a woman’s greatest longings is to be seen and known in her most wild and authentic self – a self that is intimately intertwined with the creative forces and cycles of nature. Like the ...

Oct 21 - Nov 1, 2020 Death Valley Meredith Little, Angelo Joseph Lazenka Living & Dying

Death is the ultimate agent of transformation—be it a physical death or “the little deaths” encountered throughout life. Indigenous cultures developed rituals to aid and guide people ...

Oct 17 - Oct 25, 2020 Eureka Valley Scott Eberle, Silvia Talavera Living the Practices

The very transparent, unfixed, yet alive quality of consciousness is its nature, a bit like air around us. If you relax and allow this experience of unfixed knowing, you will discover what ...

Oct 10 - Oct 23, 2020 Big Pine and Eureka Valley Ruth “Roo” Wharton, Larry Hobbs Training

This training gives the student an immersion in the vision fast ceremony, including the skills involved in leading the vision fast and an understanding of how the principles of the vision fast can ...

Sep 26 - Oct 1, 2020 Big Pine, CA- Baker Creek Campground Angelo Joseph Lazenka, Betsy Perluss Training

Telling one’s own story is an ancient art. Nowadays, we have forgotten how to listen and how to tell. Yet the very survival of our species depends on our ability to communicate with each other in ...

Sep 20 - Oct 1, 2020 Cochiti Lake and Ghost Ranch NM Emerald North, , Ray Hillis Vision Fast

In your bones you hear the singing of your sacred ancestors. You follow in their footsteps. You go alone, with an empty belly and a bare minimum of equipment, into the heart of the wilderness, for ...

Sep 20 - Sep 26, 2020 Baker Creek Campground - Big Pine, California Silvia Talavera, Sara Harris Living the Practices

“We are the seeds of the tenacious plant, and it is in our ripeness and our fullness of heart that we are given to the wind and scattered.” - Kahlil Gibran Throughout the ages, elder ...

Sep 9 - Sep 16, 2020 Southern Colorado-Dragonback Springs Ranch Nancy Jane, Past Programs

The land around us (and within us) teaches with each passing season, and with each flood, drought, fire and storm, that out of change, crisis and a dying to what was, there appears a new story of ...

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