This offering is full and we have created a waiting list.

For thousands of years, people from every tradition have known the power of fasting alone in nature. They went out on their own, supported by their communities, to say thank you, to ask for what was needed, to come back with gifts for their people. This way, at its essence, is a prayer for the wellbeing of all life and a returning home to oneself.

This coming summer we invite you to join with others in such a ceremony to mark and confirm the stage of life you find yourself in and have the chance to take a long quiet look at what has been, what is alive now, and what is to come. This time of “great turning,” as many now call it, is one of great change, great unrest, and great uncertainty. Personally, we feel the need to have the support of each other, our ancestors, our elders, our families, and the earth itself, if we are truly to enter this time with the global heart/mind that is being called for. The strength, inspiration, connection and profound teaching that can arise in ceremony in nature are among the best gifts we can offer to ‘our people’— those activists, explorers and heart warriors who will carry us into the future.

We thus offer this year’s fast to young leaders, ages 16 to 30, who feel that their call and work is in this awakening global community; those who are already in or feel called to the fields of change, service and healing. We are inviting individuals from different communities and organizations worldwide to come together in the deepest valley in the continental US and go from there into the high desert of the Inyo Mountains. We will come together to strengthen and renew care for ourselves, others and the earth, and to open to what life is now asking of us. Each participant will be supported by the guides to clarify personal intention as well.

The journey is twelve days, with prep time, a four-day solo fast, and three days of incorporation during which we will bear witness to and learn from each other’s stories. We will live alone and together in the natural world, opening to the truths of self/nature, and share in a personal and global prayer for the future. Because of the international nature of this quest and the high cost of travel, we are offering a lower fee than the usual for a School of Lost Borders quest. The minimum payment is $400 to cover expenses and a permit, and then in addition a sliding scale donation/dana of $300-$900 as support for the guides. If you have need for a part scholarship, please apply soon. We will work with you to make this possible if it feels right to come. Finances should never be a barrier to participation in such a ceremony. The true teaching on this trip will come through Nature, the people and the place, the Owens Valley and the Inyo Mountains of Eastern California

Gigi Coyle Gigi began with a series of three-day retreats at a convent school when she was twelve. In her early twenties, the seeds of that experience led her to travel--alone in the wilderness, and in other cultures--seeking pathways to spirit, integral healing, and the partnership possible between all beings. She still travels that road. For thirty years, she has worked with individuals and groups in different communities and cultures, helping to build bridges “between the worlds.” She has organized and co-led journeys to the rainforest, to the oceans, to the desert; journeys dedicated to witnessing and learning through the great suffering and abundant grace found on this planet. Today, she offers council and the desert fast as two of the simplest, oldest, tried-and-true forms for initiation, healing, confirmation and celebration of work, life, and vision. She is co-author of The Way of Council and The Box; Remembering The Gift. In 2008 she created and is now leading an eleven-month intergenerational, global pilgrimage, Beyond Boundaries.

Win Phelps Win is a namer, a finder, a cultural translator, a deep listener, a savage witness, a poet and philosopher, a Taoist, a lover, father, son, and husband, a long-time student of Sri Aurobindo. He has been an award-winning film & TV director, a private eye, a transformational coach, a Chinese Mandarin translator for Army Intelligence, and a truck driver. He is a carrier of council and on staff as a wilderness rites-of-passage guide and trainer for the School of Lost Borders. He lives in Big Pine, CA in the Eastern Sierra and is a primary steward at Three Creeks, where we sit in council before and after our quests. As associate director of Beyond Boundaries he has been an integral part of its pilgrimage of service in 2009/2010.
 
Will Scott Will counts himself among the “young leaders called to a vision of global community” for whom this quest is offered. He has spent the past ten years working to understand and heal the relationship between humans and the natural world as a teacher, facilitator, wilderness rites-of-passage guide, regenerative designer and nature awareness instructor. As the youngest guide with the School of Lost Borders, Will has naturally taken an interest in intergenerational efforts. He was one of the first to commit to the original incarnation of Beyond Boundaries, a cross-cultural journey of service, listening and learning, and has been an active and important part of the pilgrimage every since.