CA Month-Long Training

*Pre-requisite for this program is having completed a guided 3 or 4-day/night vision fast within the last five years. This need not have been with the School of Lost Borders.

 Please submit an application to Betsy before enrolling or paying a deposit. You should email Betsy at [email protected] with this completed application form and wait for her response before completing enrollment. 

For forty years the School of Lost Borders has offered a unique training for students, therapists, activists, teachers, community workers, and guides interested in deepening their understanding and experience in the principles of the modern-day vision fast. Although this training supports those who choose to creatively transform and adapt this work to a variety of settings, our teachings remain rooted in the core tradition of wilderness rites of passage; namely four days and nights of fasting alone in a wilderness place, and returning with a “vision” in service to one’s community.

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 opportunity and mentorship to fully immerse themselves in the ceremonial and practical aspects of modern-day wilderness rites of passage that have evolved – and continues to evolve – throughout years of experimentation and practice, and have been passed down through the teaching of our elders. We welcome all BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ people to this ceremony. We see our diversity as a gift to the whole.

Over the years we have expanded the comprehensiveness of this training while maintaining its grounded, experiential base. Covering a wide range of relevant themes throughout the month, the essence of the teaching will emerge from our relationship with the land, where the eternal wisdom of these rites continues to inform us, reflecting the underlying movement and dynamism of all life. We also recognize that the land is inseparable from its people and that the history of colonization of this specific place must inform our teaching and responsibility to foster right relationship with the people and places we inhabit.

Our group will camp together in a remote area located in the White-Inyo Mountains, in the traditional lands of the Paiute people. This high desert landscape of juniper-pinion woodlands is situated 13 miles outside the small town of Big Pine in the Owens Valley, known by the Paiute as Payahuunadü, “the land where water flows”.

Most days will include time together in council, as well as solo time on the land, exploring the themes of the day. The apprentice-trainee must play two roles: that of initiate and that of field therapist, naïve participant and knowing professional. The experiences of initiatory activity on the land will inform and illumine the subject matter of the teaching.

Trainees will have the opportunity to learn from a rotating team of highly experienced guides and teachers from Lost Borders throughout the month, culminating in a four-day personal vision fast.

Topics will include but not be limited to:

• the theory and foundations of rites of passage
• inclusivity and intersectionality in wilderness rites of passage
• the risks of cultural misappropriation and cultural shadows
• the history and lineage of the School of Lost Borders and its continual evolving
• the barebones of our practice including:
  • the four shields of human nature
  • self-generated ceremony and the role of threshold-crossing
  • shaping and honing of intent as a foundation for threshold experiences
  • the practice of story-telling and mirroring
  • the centrality of nature as teacher and mirror
  • council practice
• rites of passage as dying practice
• the role of the guide
• the significance of the symbolic, mythic, and archetypal themes that show up in story, dream, and nature.
• the screening and preparation of candidates
• supporting a candidate’s physical/psychological/mental/spiritual safety
• variations on traditional and contemporary models of wilderness vision fasts
• working with specific populations including youth
• the all-important topic of incorporation and appropriateness of this work to the challenges of our world today.

Prerequisite:  Participation in at least one guided 3 or 4 day Vision Fast, within the last 5 years.

How to Enroll:

• Contact Betsy at [email protected] and let her know of your interest and if you have fulfilled the pre-requisite and why you are interested in this training.
• Enroll on our website using the enrolment link
• Pay the $500 deposit here
• Submit health and liability forms.
• Submit letter of intent (not due until April 1^st, 2025).

 For further information or questions contact Betsy Perluss– [email protected], or contact The School of Lost Borders – [email protected].

Please submit an application to Betsy before enrolling or paying a deposit. You should email Betsy at [email protected] with this completed Application Form for Month-long Training for Rites of Passage and wait for her response before completing enrollment.  The questions to submit can also be found below.