International Community & Programs

The School of Lost Borders holds the intent that one day meaningful rites of passage will be available to communities worldwide. With the present state of our planet and the incredible challenges people are facing, it is very heartening to witness this ancient rite re-emerging globally. We are committed to supporting the continuation of this movement and to empowering guides and colleagues around the world.

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  • We support international guides to offer wilderness rites of passage in their countries through training and mentorship such as the good resource of the German Speaking Guides Council 
  • We are available to attend and/or speak at various conferences, trainings, and gatherings around the world.
  • We attend and are a sponsor of the International Wilderness Guides Council Gathering that our co-founder Steven Foster began in 2001.
  • If folks from our international communities would like to join one of our School programs in the United States we offer various scholarship opportunities.

Some Lost Borders guides are offering vision fasts and trainings in other countries in partnership with local guides and organizations to cultivate the growth of wilderness rites of passage.

These programs are offered with the full support of the School of Lost Borders but are not offered through the School.

CONTACT INFORMATION: For inquiries about international programs please send a message to [email protected].

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International Programs

For youth: Forgiveness, Apology, and Reconciliation

Date: August 31 - September 5 2024
Instructors: Meredith Little

Location: Salzkammergut, Austria (near Salzburg)

Contact: Christian Kirchmair at [email protected]       www.christian-kirchmair.at

One of the great challenges we all face in life is to do this work now, when it is most needed, rather than waiting until the last days of our dying.  If we don’t keep our relationships current, we risk being weighed down by a lifetime of woundings, angers, and regrets that make it more difficult to surrender to our death, or to the fullness of our life.   We risk turning into yet another cycle of anger, vengeance and victimization.

In this gathering we will explore together what the four shields of Forgiveness, Apology, and Reconciliation have to teach us about restoring a personal and communal balance that embraces the wounds of the past.

WINDS OF CHANGE

Date: September 9 - 14 2024

Location: Shambhala and Women and Earth, Austria (near Vienna)

Instructors: Meredith Little

Contact: Shambhala Institute and Claudia at [email protected], with Susann Belz at Women and Earth [email protected]

 This changing world around us is both exciting and distressing, all of which can challenge our cultural and family upbringing and the ways in which we make decisions. How do we find new moral ground and our place in this unpredictable time with the daily awareness of what is happening in the global world around us as well as under our feet? This week is a chance for all of us to pause and catch up, in order to listen to what is arising in us as we move with change both personally and globally.

We imagine various forms of council during the week not to solve the problem” but rather to express our thoughts, dreams, fears and excitement in this dynamic time as we listen deeply to each other and the messages of the land. We will look at the ways that we have forgotten our place in the vast network of nature, causing an imbalance across the web and impacting our lives in so many ways.

How do we move with change and find ways of living that do no harm to the land or each other while maintaining our own balance and compassion? What inspires us enough to let go of certain dysfunctional assumptions and actions that no longer work and that keep us separated from the land and each other? And how do we inspire others, including our children and communities, to do a similar soul searching?

We will have some form of council and teaching in the morning, solo time on the land in the afternoon, and sharing of stories and/or councils in the late afternoon.

Mirroring Training: The Art of Story Telling and Listening

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Date: 

Location: Gooram, Australia (2 hours North of Melbourne)

Instructors: Roo Wharton & Pedro McMillan

Contact: Roo at [email protected]

Full info HERE

In this program, you will learn to listen and tell from the four shields -- the body, soul, mind, and spirit. You will see that human nature is not separate from the cycles and seasons of the natural world and that there is a synchronistic dance between us and nature.

In the old days, stories came from the land itself. We will practice this ancient art by going intentionally onto the land alone. This intentional practice, and the deep listening that follows, naturally leads us to the wisdom to go beyond ourselves.

During this week you will experience deep connection to the land and find your own unique way in the art of listening and mirroring.  This is a powerful individual and collective experience that will deeply and positively affect your soul and the work you bring to the world!

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land in which this guide training will be held is land of the Taungurung people. We acknowledge the traditional elders past, present and emerging.

MIRRORING THE FOUR SHIELDS OF HUMAN NATURE:
THE ART OF STORYTELLING AND LISTENING

Date:  April 28th to May 3rd 2025

Location: Les Guilleries Park, Spain

Instructors: Betsy Perluss, Diana Bacanu, Xavier Compte

Contact: [email protected]

Full info HERE

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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 such ways as to be mutually enriched by the telling and the listening. If we cannot tell with expression, our life is mute. If we cannot listen like a mirror, we cannot reflect back the wholeness of the four shields — the body, soul, mind and spirit of the teller.
What comes forth in the story is the stuff of self-transformation. Even as we “myth” ourselves into experience, so we express ourselves into existence. Our stories about our natural selves, and our means of expressing them, lead us to courage, determination, commitment, hope, wisdom, and the will to survive, to transcend the difficulty, to go beyond ourselves. Those of us who work with people must know how to listen and respond to the stories our people tell, so that we can help them create a life that is deeper, richer, and of greater benefit to our community and the earth.
This seminar is designed to evoke and create a style of listening and storytelling that is uniquely your own, to practice reflecting what you hear with the fullness of your being (body, psyche, mind and spirit). It is also a ceremony and, like all ceremonies at the School of Lost Borders, requires a willingness to lose your borders and to go beyond what is familiar and known. Our time together will be a weaving of teaching circles, solo time in nature and story council.