A spiritual process known as questing for a song is connected with bathing. This spirit song is not handed down person to person but comes to you during bathing and is a reflection of your spiritual power. Belief holds that the songs are in the air surrounding the streams and a song will only come to a person who is spiritually ready to receive it. The quest occurs for four consecutive mornings and involves other things that I cannot reveal.
Walking up a mountain trail surrounded by towering old-growth cedar trees in the dark—darkness as dense as the bottom of a cave—is disconcerting enough. To hear the subtle roar of the stream only adds to the otherworldliness of the moment. Include a bit of fear and your sense of time dissolves into timelessness. I’ve always had perfectly strong eyesight and have been a swimming/lifesaving coach and instructor, so entering a mountain stream in the dark and submerging at least four times was not too scary or difficult for me. But for Sherry the opposite was true. She has worn glasses the majority of her life and almost drowned as a child. For her to enter the mountain stream in the dark and without her glasses was an act of will, courage, and trust.
Vince put us both through the quest and at the end of the four days both Sherry and I had our songs. Please do not think that doing the four days will always result in a song. In fact, just the opposite is true. Over the years, I assisted Vince when other non-natives came to seek a song. Not one received a song during the time I assisted Vince. Only when the mind is a river of silence will one be able to sing.
