export_ofoct.com (11)
[00:01.37] Sorie: So, Mark, tell us about your experience when you lived in the wilderness.
[00:06.62] Mark: It was for a really short time.
[00:08.37] It was part of a Master's program, and part of the master's program was to go into the wilderness, and I guess it was based on a Native American vision quest.
[00:21.62] Sorie: Very interesting. So what's a vision quest?
[00:26.12] Mark: I guess a vision quest is when you - it's like a rite of passage, like a ritual where you leave where you were,
[00:38.87] at that place in your life and you enter a space which is kind of fresh or allows for the next stage to manifest almost, so you enter that threshold,
[00:58.37] that vacant space between and perhaps in that time, you're gonna, you might have a vision,
[01:03.62] or you might not but when you come out the other side you're probably, most likely, going to be a little bit different than when you went into it.
[01:15.37] Sorie: So, tell me about the beginning. What was your feeling towards this experience?
[01:20.87] Mark: Oh, I was super excited. Before I went I … they recommended like not drinking caffeine and things like that,
[01:29.62] in preparation for going there because … and sugar even because those little things have such control over our every day,
[01:38.62] that if we're suddenly fasting when we're in the wilderness, then if we loose that caffeine and sugar it's gonna like …
[01:46.37] maybe get headaches or something like that, so I prepared by dropping the caffeine and the sugar and even before I went,
[01:52.62] I noticed like clarity coming that wasn't there even before I went.
[01:59.12] Sorie: OK, so that was your physical preparation. Did you do any mental preparation?
[02:05.37] Mark: Yeah, with my wife, I also did a mini-fast, which was for one day
[02:10.62] Sorie: OK, and after that, you went to this … the wilderness in Colorado. Can you tell us how this place looked?
[02:19.62] Mark: It was dry, and we took a long time to get there in the car. It was about four hours from a place called Boulder, which is a town there.
[02:31.37] A long drive, lots of fun, talking in the car, singing, and then we arrived and the air was dry and we had a dodgy map and eventually, we found the place and it was quite high - the altitude -
[02:49.37] I can't remember exactly how high it was but it was quite high, not far from the snow line but it was summer, and it was a forest and we were staying in this Aspen woodland.
[03:01.87] That's where we were camping and the land was privately owned so that allowed for security and peace of mind.
[03:12.12] Sorie: And how many days were you there?
[03:14.12] Mark: In that space camping, on that land in total I think it was ten days of which three and a half were alone
[03:22.87] Sorie: And did you have any food? What would you eat every day? and drink?
[03:29.37] Mark: Well, when we were together - it was about ten, eleven other people -
[03:33.12] so when we were together with those people, we brought all our own food in, and we were kind of paired up,
[03:41.62] so each pair would make a certain meal every day, and we would eat kind of communally, and in those three and a half days,
[03:49.87] as part of the vision quest, there was not going to be any eating at all.
[03:56.37] Sorie: Were you afraid something would happen in the wilderness?
[04:01.62] Mark: No, I really like being in the wilderness.
[04:04.62] Sorie: Wow, yeah, it sounds very daunting really. I wouldn't be able to do what you did.
[04:15.37] Mark: Would you have been scared?
[04:16.62] Sorie:Definitely.
[04:17.37] Mark: I don't think I would have been able to do it, so I am very happy for you.
