How long sweat lodge

Suddenly she could feel the wind blowing from the west. It rushed by and through her and, she says, took with it all that had ailed her. When she saw her doctors later, she says, scans showed that the areas of her brain that had been injured were healed. She returned to school and got straight As. For a year afterward, she'd wake up each morning at 4 a. She went on to study medicine but never let go of what she'd experienced.

Ijaz saw in the indigenous people a "highly evolved relationship with the natural world and the spiritual world," a connection with the sacredness of life that they've maintained, in spite of all their suffering. Elder Wally Swain brings ancient wisdom to the gathering about climate change.

The part that was missing. That connection, however, is one that needs to be restored, especially for young indigenous people, Courchene and other elders say. Too many of their young people are city bound, walking on concrete instead of land. They are surrounded by violence, drugs and alcohol, not nature and animals. They spend more time looking at technology than they do the stars and the moon. They listen to loud music but not the wind.

The struggles they face, including suicide rates that are five to seven times higher than nonindigenous Canadian youth, are seen as lasting repercussions from the residential schools, or what Courchene calls "one of the darkest periods in our history. They didn't know how to love children, he says, because they hadn't been shown love themselves. The Turtle Lodge offers a place for young people to glean the wisdom of their ancestors and reclaim what rightfully belongs to them.

She was born, raised and still lives in Winnipeg but makes frequent trips to the Turtle Lodge. She saw the poverty of indigenous people around her, the struggles with addiction, the rates of incarceration and suicide. She let the stereotypes of her people and their problems influence how she felt about herself. She was ashamed.

But when she began to learn about her rich culture, she felt love and an enormous sense of pride. It was a revelation she needed to share.

Through her cultural outreach program, started in , she's arranged meetings with elders, picked medicinal plants with participants and taken them to a variety of ceremonies, including sweats -- "anything we can be a part of so we feel a connection to elders and these sacred lodges. They only show up when they're ready, she says, and for that reason the door is always open. Erica Daniels knows from experience the power of reclaiming one's identity.

Two young men who walked through that door join us in the sweat lodge ceremony. They each have stories of running with gangs, trying to find a sense of belonging. Now, instead, they share excitement about going on their first vision quest, maybe next summer. The sweat ceremony consists of four rounds, marked by four songs. In the first we offer prayers for all of humanity, the second for our respective races of people, the third for our families and the fourth for ourselves.

Between rounds, Courchene shares pieces of wisdom. After the second round, he announces that the spirits came to offer one of the young men -- Donavan Sutherland, 16 -- a spiritual name. It's his first and one he's been waiting for. After the ceremony, Donavan gets in Daniels' car and heads back to the Turtle Lodge.

As the car pulls onto the property, he spots a bird in a nearby tree. It's a bald eagle. Just as Donavan steps out of the car, the eagle flies toward him and swoops past -- leaving him, and those he's with, both awestruck and moved. Finding that part of himself, with the help of an ancient sacred ceremony, is exactly what his ancestors would have wanted.

It is widely considered inappropriate to walk between the Sweat Lodge and the fire used to heat the stones. Glasses, jewelry, earrings and cellphones should be removed. There will be berries, fish or other food offered during or after the Sweat Lodge. A participant should not refuse the food offered unless there are health reasons such as allergies. Sweat Lodge protocols and methodologies vary among First Nations. In the past, among the Nehiyaw and Nahkawe, men and women normally had separate Sweat Lodges.

Every aspect of a ceremony — from the construction of the lodge to the prayers offered — is imbued with deeply spiritual symbolism.

It is not simply a "shvitz". Sweat lodges are most commonly associated with Native America — and indeed a large proportion of the ones found in the USA and Europe follow this lineage — however, ritual sweats have been part of our lives for thousands of years, with examples found across continents and cultures, from Icelandic saunas to Turkish hammams and Japanese onsens.

In the North American Indian tradition, the lodge is built using willow bark that is placed in the ground in a circular shape and then covered with blankets.

The heat inside is generated by hot basalt stones that are placed in the centre and doused with water and medicinal herbs. Emerging and mingling with the steam they enter the body… driving out everything that inflicts pain. Before the ancestor spirits return to the stone, they impart some of their nature to the body.

That is why one feels so well after having been in a temescal. Indeed, devotees of sweat lodge ceremonies evangelise about the mental clarity, physical energy and spiritual revitalisation they bring.

Serena, a year-old Oscar-winning film producer, has twice attended The Sweat Lodge in Oxfordshire. I feel meditative, connected and calm. Each ceremony generally involves a maximum of 25 people in the lodge.

Participants — who despite rumours suggesting otherwise, tend to be clothed, albeit lightly — enter the structure in a clockwise direction and sit in a circle on the ground. Done with ceremony and ritual, it becomes a place where we connect with ourselves, each other and Mother Earth.

Altars and the sacred place where the heated rocks are kept before the ceremony are kept outside the structure. Conductors will indicate how to best prepare for a sweat.

Usually, participants will be told to abstain from alcohol and drugs beforehand. After making an offering to the conductor, participants also make offerings to the altar outside the lodge, and to the Grandmothers and Grandfathers — the heated rocks — before entering the sweat lodge. The fire keeper is in charge of heating the rocks and placing them inside the fire pit in the centre of the lodge. Other items are also placed inside the lodge, such as water used to pour onto the rocks, thereby creating steam , tobacco a sacred offering , medicines certain herbs , and musical shakers and drums used during prayers.

Once inside, participants sit in a circle around the fire pit for a length of time determined by the conductor and depending on the purpose of the sweat; often, this is a few hours. The fire keeper closes the door before the ceremony begins.

Music is played and prayers are recited throughout the ceremony, inviting healing spirits into the lodge.

In turn, participants are asked to talk about themselves and their reasons for using the lodge — this is their opportunity to speak to the Creator, to share their personal stories and to meditate on life. At the end of the ceremony, the conductor says prayers to thank the Creator and spirits. Elders might also smoke sacred pipes at this point. The fire keeper then opens the door to the lodge. While enlightening and purifying, the experience of the sweat lodge has also been described as physically and mentally challenging.

The heat and darkness inside the lodge can be intense for some participants. At times, the temperature, coupled with the overall spiritual experience, has been known to cause hallucinations.

The sweat also forces participants to look inward, acknowledging personal struggles, which can be difficult, though rewarding. Participants have also described the sweat lodge as a way to connect with Mother Earth, using the natural elements of fire, earth, air and water to heal and cleanse.