Animas Valley Institute

   Located in southwest Colorado, in the valley of the Río de las Animas Perdidas (River of Lost Souls), and run by Bill Plotkin, “psychologist and wilderness guide” since 1980, the Animas Valley Institute describes itself as “one of North America’s longest-standing organizations offering contemporary wilderness rites,” including vision quests. It offers “nature-based programs supporting the recovery and embodiment of the life of the soul, the unique truth, passion, and gifts we each were born with.” Like other neo-shamanic centers, the institute refers to the psychology of Carl Jung, especially “individuation,” to validate its focus on “the mysterious energies within our psyches that guide us on the inward journey to soul.”