Jesus spent 40 days in the Desert. I only spent 21, but here's what began to happen;

reply to post by dominicus

The closest I came to what you say is when I went homeless 8 years ago. The first few days I was very afraid. But soon I realized that my fear was not borne out. Once the blisters on my feet healed and I was able to walk again, the fear was gone. Those were probably the happiest and most free moments in my life. I realized that most of the things I thought I needed before I left were actually not needed at all. I could be happy with far less. I felt like a bird that had learned to fly.

I was gone for 21 days, I think.

When I got back home, everything was weird, as you say. Everything was luxury; clean showers, privacy, safety. However, like you said, I felt a fakeness to things. As the days went by, my memory of things became blunt. I discovered that after about a month at home I had re-acquired most of my previous insecurities and desires. For example, I started to become afraid of hitchhikers again. I started to think I needed my computer. I started to think that I needed the safety and privacy and comforts that the home provided. I started to not think the showers were a luxury.

To really understand what we have we have to lose it. But I think that after we lose it we find that not only do we not need it, but we don't want it. It's only after having it again that we appreciate it and think we need it. Gratefulness is temporary, unless what we have is threatened.

Government (and other people) only have power over us when they provide us something we think we need. And to think we need it we need to use it for a while. The key is to threaten what we think we need just enough to make us appreciate it, so that we can more easily be controlled. If we don't appreciate it, we won't work as hard to keep it. Our controllers want us to work hard.

Martin Luther King said that through suffering we find salvation. That quote embodies much of what I learned. But I think there's more to it. I think that through suffering we lose the fake things that control us. We soon find that the suffering is not suffering and is in fact freedom from unnecessary want. You learn that you can be happy with much less than you ever thought.

The reality is that happiness is cheap. We don't need high-power computers or big trucks or big homes or expensive perfumes or $1000 dresses or lots of this and lots of that and everything else that defines our modern lifestyle. But government and people have ideals they strive for and "cheap" is not a word they want to hear because they want us to plug in and join them and make their ideals reality. But to be honest, we all in some way play a role in this. I think we're frightened of real change in this world. Thoughts of all the bad things that could happen stream through our mind.

Originally posted by dominicus
All that to say, that there is something to, letting go of the bias bubbles we've all created by being wrapped up in the necessities of catering to society and our own ego's. By tempering that, with going into solitude, into the wild for a set amount of time, that bias bubble pops, and for that set amount of time, you find certain things about yourself, nature, Love, life, existence, that you would not otherwise find, things that remain with you for the rest of your life, things that the majority of people may not be aware of, but are most definitely there.

Excellent post and even more so to the adventure itself.
You are a much better person for doing so, and it shows.
Imagine if everyone was mandated to do so, what we could change over night!
Instead we rely on feeding our own ego's according to some contrived rules.

This is one of my favorite reads at the moment.
I definitely agree with the message and meaning.

We all need to unplug from this "society" because it is ruining our souls.

Thanks for sharing. I had a similar experience backpacking in Peru this past May, though my seclusion only lasted a week. I would love to repeat your experiment.

Best thread title ever, BTW

Very interesting, except....
the first mistake you made, when you returned, was eating that pizza.

reply to post by dominicus


Very good Dominicas. Great story.

I have spent my life in the throngs of nature. I was a hunting and fishing guide with my father during most of my life. It wasn't until I made the journey to 'civilization' when I saw the inherent insanity of such a place. A return for nature, at least for me, is entirely necessary to remember what's important.

reply to post by dominicus


Great thread!

In my younger days I went on a spirit quest in the Sonoran Desert of Mexico. Mescalito sings... Walking Zen...

reply to post by dominicus


We cannot take for granted in an experience such as this the weather and climate. If you tried to do the same in -20 degree climate I think the experience would be largely altered. It would still be enlightening but in a way that would reflect the struggle of the human flesh in this world. I highly doubt that it would be an experience that we would want to repeat unless we were highly skilled in that type of survival.

In such an environment your energy would have to shift to meet the needs. It would be interesting to note the difference between both experiences.

reply to post by dominicus

Thanks for your story. I always loved the Jesus in the Desert Story. I noticed he had an antagonist in his trip while you did not seem to. I think that is probably because it was his task to face this force head on while yours in life is probably less spiritually violent. The most I ever managed to fast is abut a week, but I do believe in the benefits. I have also been sexually abstinent (in terms of ejaculation) for a long time now and think it has very spiritual effects on ones life to log out of the sexual slavery system, so your comments to that regard were moving to me. I agree it is a mask and not an essence worth loving for its own sake, all these shallow things.

I do not have a desert available but I have had similar experiences while shutting down everything in my apartment and sexually abstaining/dropping focus on the senses a bit, feeling enlightened to certain things and encountered by forces beyond materialism, mostly good, some antagonistic, all geared toward helping me grow as a person.

Anyway thanks for sharing! (btw I do not think you are just a spec of sand, that was the only thing I was not feeling... inside of each of us lies everything IMHO. Like your man said: "The kingdom of God is within." Peace.)

reply to post by dominicus


Thanks for sharing. I did a similar thing but out in the desert in arizona

reply to post by dominicus



Next time you should try it for real. No campers...just a tent or even better a cave and a bivy.

reply to post by dominicus

I spent last Christmas through New Years in a mental ward, and no I didn't think I was Jesus, or Santa lol. On coming back out into "the world" after what for me was a type of death and resurrection experience I have to say that there was something I had that no one else seemed to have and that couldn't ever be taken away from me. Thanks for reminding me of what that's like I'd almost forgotten.

Thanks for sharing. Very cool thread. S&F.

reply to post by dominicus


So your a weenie and Jesus was not? That's all I get from This. Jesus was more than a man than we'd ever be.

Great post OP! That sounds like an amazing experience. I have often found myself more and more lately, thinking about casting off this modern society that seems to imprison us all in favor of living in and among nature. But as you said, familial responsibilities prevent me from pursuing that dream at the moment.

Takes me back to my times in the redwoods of which I am still with in spirit. Thankyou for sharing your Experience.

reply to post by dominicus


Nice story , I know a bloke (No longer with us ,Suicide?) who did this for about 3 years not in the desert but in the rainforest .
Can i ask when you did this camping trip? Winter ,summer ,Just recently?

reply to post by dominicus


That's nice and all, but eventually you would have to begin to worry about food, water, maintaining your shelter, hygiene, and planning for future natural catastrophes.

So, would not the state you achieved by a simple illusion to try and comprehend your current state of existence? After all, sitting around the camper with no or very little real world worries is not realistic.

reply to post by dominicus


Much respect brother. It's a shame that the world is so utterly cluttered with bad noise that very very few of us will ever get to experience the kind of introspective solitude you got to experience. Merely finding a place with no one around is a challenge in itself these days.

I'm happy for you man. What you did was very healthy and thank you for sharing your experience here so that we might contemplate what it would be like for ourselves. I've wanted to do this ever since I saw that movie "Into The Wild"

reply to post by dominicus


Why do you feel like comparing yourself to Jesus?

Also, what does it feel like to just "Be/Flow"? What were your thoughts and emotions like?

But can you surrender your ego? You took yourself to the wilderness to do what ? To return to us to tell us that you are still a man who did not have the balls to delve into deep meditation to die and become God? Do you not know the secret to life? YOU have to DIE before you die. What dies? You as the entire manifest universe must give up the inner belief that you are the source of your own power! That is the secret to enter the Supreme State of Nirvana. The first question is also the last. The final culmination of the entire universal pool of elements is the human body to have the brain to ask the question. Who am I?!

I know I am that which cannot be named. The all pervading awareness bliss. That infinite power which imagines consciousness to be. From suns, planets, plant life, humans , etc. it is all held as an appearance within my imagination. All universes are the Illusion. They are unreal because they are not true. Only that which permanent is true. I am the truth. I am the life of the consciousness.

How do I know this?

The truth is simple. Let me teach it to you and enlighten you.

An electron's life span lasts 1X 10 x100 Billion x 100 trillion earth years. The average human body contains 4 billion x 1 trillion electrons. But you are not the body or the mind or the ego. All the life spans of all universes are held within this time frame. Consciousness. God, will die. But I the Absolute ever prevails. I the all pervading awareness is eternal while consciousness is transitory. At the dawn of time creation was created but Not me. I am beyond time and space.

You are also me and I am You. You just need to change your understanding of who and what you. You are not what you takes yourself to be.

In reality no ONE was ever born or has ever died.

Rats may have been in that trailer too? Hope you didn't get any urine or feces in your mouth.. even the dust of it can cause the Hantavirus.. and it kills.. if you begin to feel sick, neck aches... visit the doc and mention the rats... (its really getting bad in Canada and the NE..) there's no cure either.

Camping is fun.. love the quietness of it all.. the only thing you hear is the wind blowing the branches..