Twin Eagles Wilderness Immersion Program

Can you imagine the transformation that comes from deeply immersing in the wilderness?

Here's what is possible through the Twin Eagles Wilderness Immersion Program:

• You would feel the true freedom and self-sufficiency that only comes from providing your own needs of shelter, water, fire, and food directly from the Earth through wilderness survival skills.
• You would feel tremendously alive in your body and senses, at one with the Earth, experiencing a highly perceptive state of sensory awareness and connection to your instincts beyond what you ever thought possible through nature awareness practices like wildlife tracking and bird language.
• You would feel overjoyed to be able to live not just a sustainable life, but a regenerative life, giving back to nature as your needs get met with abundance through permaculture and regenerative design.
• You would feel so whole inside knowing that you have found your community, knowing that you have found your people!
• You would feel a deep sense of positive self-esteem, being authentically praised by your community as you share your gifts through nature based mentoring, guiding others into this same powerful experience of connection.
• You would feel a profound sense of meaning and confidence in your life that can only come from finding yourself and knowing yourself. From discovering your contribution to our world. From living your passions, your dreams, and your purpose.
• You would be living life to the fullest, being the change you wish to see in this world, and honoring the ancestors as you work to leave behind a true legacy for future generations.

All that sounds like a lot, perhaps too good to be true. I might not have believed it myself were I to read it on a page on a website as you are now. Yet this is what I experienced years ago as a student in a wilderness immersion program, and time and again, this is what our students share about how they feel at our wilderness immersion program. Let me explain...

Hi there, my name is Tim Corcoran and I want to tell you about our Wilderness Immersion Program.

I know how frustrating it feels

to yearn so badly for a life of connection and not have it. In 1999, I was in a similar place to where you might be at.

You see, I was really frustrated with my life, and felt that my daily actions were not a reflection of who I really was. I wasn't living the life I wanted to live. I was working unfulfilling jobs that I wasn't really aligned with. I felt disconnected from most of the people around me, and I didn't feel seen or appreciated for who I really was. I was totally uncomfortable knowing that my life was dependent on a fundamentally degenerative, industrial system of polluted roadways & factory farms.

I was living for my weekends when I would just take off and go explore the natural world. I couldn't get enough of the wilderness. I experienced such powerful, deep feelings of connection to the natural world that words can't possibly do justice to, yet those feelings left all too quick once I returned to the "real world". I wanted to spend more time in this deep connection with nature. I was looking for that deep sense of place. I wanted to spend more time with like-minded people who shared my passion for nature and desire to make a difference in the world.

I clearly felt the yearning to be mentored, to really have someone who would show up for me and guide me into a greater expression and experience of my own life. I was waking up. Synchronicities would happen that sparked my passion and curiosity. I sensed that there was a greater purpose to my life, yet I wasn't clear what it was. I could tell that a big change was coming.

I took some permaculture classes and was inspired by being able to meet my daily needs sustainably, yet some things seemed to be missing. The connection to nature seemed to fall short of what I was looking for, and I didn't get the mentoring that I was seeking. I had read books on self-awareness and taken up self-discovery practices like meditation, but those only took me so far as well.

Then one day, everything changed.

A friend turned me on to some books that seemed to speak to my soul. I read stories of being mentored into a deeply spiritual, yet practical, connection with the land through wilderness survival, animal tracking, wild crafting, and nature awareness. I was deeply inspired by stories of an ancient Native American who was able to meet all his own needs directly from the Earth, in a way that benefited the Earth.

The piece that impacted me the most, however, was Vision. That my life had a purpose, and that my quest in life was to seek, find, know, live, and fulfill it. To know and develop my passions and gifts and share those with the world. It was heart wrenching and extremely inspirational all at the same - because I had to admit that I wasn't currently living my Vision, yet I knew that nothing could stop me from finding it, and living it.

So I took some wilderness survival and nature awareness classes. They changed my life. Within my first week, I knew I had found my life's calling. While it was a phenomenal start, it still left me wanting more - much more. It brought me a profound pathway to connect deeply to nature and my passion, but it was just a tease of what mentoring could be. It didn't offer me an ongoing immersion into a culture of nature based mentoring.

You see, I didn't just want to take classes on these skills, I wanted to live these skills I was being introduced to, these ways of living in balance with nature. I wanted to truly feel at one with the Earth. I wanted to experience a much greater level of self-confidence, worth, and power in this world. I wanted to be with people who shared my passion for the Earth and self-awareness.

As fate would have it, while taking these classes, I heard about a wilderness immersion program that was starting up. I knew that was what I needed - not just a weeklong class on deep nature connection, but an ongoing immersion into these teachings that lasted a full year or more. I knew I would have to give up everything familiar in order to get the changes I was seeking.

So I did.

I decided to join a wilderness immersion program. "I'm going to immerse myself in nature awareness and wilderness skills, I've found my passion!" I would tell people. "You're doing WHAT?!" they would respond. Although most people didn't understand, I knew it was what I had to do in order to follow my heart. I knew the risk was one worth taking. And boy was I right. More than I could have ever imagined.

I found the mentors I was looking for, I found peers who shared my passion, and I found a whole nature based community beginning to form. A wilderness school was just getting started in southern Vermont, and my girlfriend (now wife) Jeannine Tidwell and I jumped in with two feet without looking back. We joined the pilot year of their apprenticeship program (their version of a wilderness immersion program), and totally immersed ourselves in our passions: wilderness survival, naturalist training, wild edible & medicinal plants, animal tracking, bird language, and learning to be nature based mentors.

We were in heaven.

We were blessed to be mentored by the founders of this wilderness school, as well as other prominent Native & non-Native elders and mentors like Gilbert Walking Bull, Ingwe, Jake Swamp, and others. Yet more importantly, we made the teachings our own.

We lived the teachings, weaving them into the very fabric of our beings. We experienced the awe and rapture of nature during extended wilderness survival trips. We experienced a new vision of community, and what it means to really show up for one another in a holistic web of interconnected relationships.

Perhaps most importantly, I took the journey of what we call "inner tracking". I took the time to authentically look within, seeking my passion, my power, and my purpose. I challenged long standing limiting beliefs about myself. I took the time to find myself. It wasn't easy, but this beautiful and challenging journey of self-discovery ultimately led me to my Vision. I clearly saw that Jeannine and I were to find our place in the world to form a wilderness school, and to create a wilderness immersion program to guide people into their own profound connection like I was experiencing.

This was a pinnacle experience of my life.

The wilderness immersion program was instrumental in finding my Vision. I just could not have so fully connected with my Vision without immersing so fully into a culture of deep nature connection and self-awareness.

Joining a wilderness immersion program profoundly changed my life, and was hands down one of the best things I have ever done for myself.

That is why we have created the
Twin Eagles Wilderness Immersion Program

for people with a passion for nature, community, and self-discovery. This is our passion, this is our purpose. We have crafted the Twin Eagles Wilderness Immersion Program to help you transform from yearning for deep connection, to living a life of deep connection with nature, with community, and with yourself.

And I'd like to offer our Wilderness Immersion Program as a possible next step in your journey.

Twin Eagles Wilderness Immersion Program - Overview

The Twin Eagles Wilderness Immersion Program is a nine month long, profound experience of connecting deeply with nature, community, and self. It covers eight core areas:

• Wilderness Survival & Primitive Skills
• Wildlife Tracking
• Ethnobotany - Using plants for medicine, food, and tools
• Permaculture & Regenerative Design
• Nature Based Mentoring & Cultural Restoration
• Naturalist Training
• Bird Language & Native Scout Teachings
• Inner Tracking - Know Thyself

The Twin Eagles Wilderness Immersion Program meets from September through June, running three days per week on Tuesdays, Wednesdays & Thursdays. There are also several expeditions and intensives throughout the course of the year adding to the depth of the experience.

Twin Eagles Wilderness Immersion Program - Details

Wilderness Survival & Primitive Skills

Learn to provide for your most basic physical needs of shelter, water, fire, and food directly from the natural world. Build and sleep in single person and group primitive survival shelters, long term shelters, and snow shelters. Learn to identify and purify diverse water sources in a variety of ecosystems. Train in a variety of primitive friction fire making methods. Experience the fundamentals of hunting and gathering, including primitive traps, primitive weapons (like bow & arrow and throwing sticks), and gathering wild edible plants for sustenance. Acquire primitive living skills like brain tanning buckskin, flint knapping stone tools, basketry, coal burned bowls, and more.

Wildlife Tracking

Learn the ancient art and science of wildlife tracking as a tool for exponentially expanding your awareness of the world around you. Gain both a broad and deep experience of tracking through clear print identification, sign tracking, substrate analysis, gait studies/trail patterns/interpreting behavior, strategic track aging methods, ecological assessment & big picture analysis, trailing animals, developing empathetic connection to animals via animal forms (imitating animal movement through your own body), and synthesizing all these methods into intuitive tracking ability. In the end you'll discover that the landscape is the greatest book ever written, with a constant stream of stories and mysteries just waiting to be unraveled.

Ethnobotany- Using plants as medicine, food & tools

Gather detailed knowledge of traditional plant use through experiencing herbal remedies, edible wild plants, and indigenous plant technologies. Learn a multitude of medicinal plant preparations including the practices of ethical and sacred harvesting, proper processing, preservation, and administration of tinctures, salves, poultices, compresses, infusions, syrups, liniments, decoctions, and more. Encounter the astonishing wealth of nutrition present in both local native and alien invasive wild edible plants, including roots, stalks, leaves, flowers, fruits, and seeds. Unearth ancient plant technologies such as primitive cordage making, natural fiber arts, and gathering plants for hand drills, water filters, arrow making, and more.

Permaculture & Regenerative Design

Learn how to craft vibrant ecosystems that are bountiful and abundant for ourselves and future generations. Go beyond sustainability and create regenerative living systems rooted in deep nature connection and knowledge of place that foster healthy communities and continue to strengthen over time. Experience skills like soil building, growing fruits, vegetables & medicinal plants, composting, seed saving, water collection, gray water systems, natural building, watershed restoration & erosion control, site planning, and more. Ultimately, as you discover practical ways of living that are in balance with the flow of nature, the lines of separation between human settlements and the wilderness grow fainter as a greater oneness prevails.

Nature Based Mentoring & Cultural Restoration

Learn Twin Eagles' exceptional mentoring model that builds resilient connections amongst people, nature, and self. Practice one on one mentoring techniques designed to inspire students to experience the joy of discovery, as opposed to the mere quest for knowledge. You'll experience indigenous cultural practices that are desperately needed in our modern world today. Learn group mentoring techniques that maximize the potential for learning via setting up a nature based culture of education. Learn how to truly inspire hope and responsibility for the Earth via nature based mentoring. This is a powerful step towards becoming a competent nature based mentor, instructor, and community leader.

Naturalist Training

Experience the true breadth and depth of knowledge of place that was the foundation of our indigenous ancestors' ability to survive and thrive. Study the species identification, taxonomy, and natural history of hazards, mammals, plants, ecological indicators, trees, and birds of the Inland Northwest. Discover how having a comprehensive and holistic understanding of naturalist skills and knowledge of place actually stands as the groundwork for all other nature skills. For how can you be an expert survivalist without thorough knowledge of the trees? How can you develop regenerative living systems without in-depth understanding of natural systems? How can you master inner awareness without outer awareness?

Bird Language & Native Scout Teachings

Discover the true secret of the natural world known to the native scouts of old that allows you to both detect movement and move undetected, at one with the land. You'll learn the "language" that every adult bird and animal knows; that the sounds and movements in nature all contain great meaning, and that meaning gives you great power. You'll learn skills that will dramatically increase your awareness and up close encounters with wildlife. You'll discover that this alarm system of concentric rings utilized by elusive wild animals is also the key to learning how to blend and flow with the landscape. This is the true path of natural camouflage, stealth, and invisibility.

Inner Tracking - Know Thyself

Discover how to change the world by changing yourself, and by truly knowing yourself. Learn a powerful set of inner awareness practices that unlocks your creative potential and frees you to craft the life you dream of. Learn how to navigate your inner landscape of shadow and light, and touch your true power. Find true self confidence and inner security that travels with you throughout your life and all your endeavors. Take measurable steps towards claiming your passion and purpose. Learn how to listen to the wisdom of your heart and let it be your guide. Cultivate authentic leadership that is sourced from the indomitable spirit of nature. Be the change you wish to see in the world.

Twin Eagles Wilderness Immersion Program -
Expeditions and Intensives

Throughout the course of your year at the Twin Eagles Wilderness Immersion Program, you'll experience a variety of expeditions and intensives that bring an unmatched depth and power to your journey:

• The Art of Mentoring - an annual gathering of renewal where we rebuild an intergenerational nature based village.
• Tracking Expeditions - to some of the best tracking spots in the west like Yellowstone National Park.
• Winter Snow Cave Expedition - in the spectacular Selkirk mountains of North Idaho.
• Bird Language Intensive - the best way to learn a new language is to immerse in a culture of it.
• Seasonal Rite of Passage Intensives - as landmark events in your journey.
• Wilderness Survival Challenge - Final Rite of Passage

Twin Eagles Wilderness Immersion Program - Instructors

At the Twin Eagles Wilderness Immersion Program, we're proud to have an instructing team comprised of highly passionate and gifted instructors steeped in deep nature connection and the art of mentoring. Our team is headed up by Twin Eagles Wilderness School directors and founders Tim Corcoran and Jeannine Tidwell, and supported by longtime instructor Daniel Kirchhof. In addition, we have various staff specialists come in throughout the year, focusing on areas such as permaculture, inner tracking, and cultural restoration.

Each instructor has over a decade of experience in the field, having been trained by renowned mentors and then more importantly, made the teachings their own. We haven't just practiced and learned these skills, we've lived them. As a mentoring team, our approach is sourced from the natural world, giving us an uncommon strength, unity, and resiliency.

Twin Eagles Wilderness Immersion Program - The Community

At the Twin Eagles Wilderness Immersion Program, you'll journey through the year with an intimate group of six to fifteen peers that will probably feel more like family before the year's end.

This tightly knit convergence of passionate learners is supported by a greater intergenerational community of families, students, graduates, staff, and elders all supporting the Twin Eagles vision.

Community isn't something on the sidelines; it's an essential part of the wilderness immersion program experience, interwoven into your learning journey. It's a resilient, diverse ecosystem of mentoring that is synergistic in nature and offers an incomparable power to your learning experience.

Our Mentoring Philosophy

One of the keys to Twin Eagles' success is our unique expression of nature based mentoring. Traditional indigenous elders, modern brain research, and our own personal experience all agree that the best way to learn something is by doing it. Participants are mentored to form deep relationships with the natural world, others, and themselves. The cycles of the natural world form a blueprint for learning that guides this journey of connection.

At Twin Eagles deep nature connection mentoring is a way of life. At our wilderness immersion program, you can expect to be mentored by caring, rooted, knowledgeable, and skillful instructors who will meet you where you are at and artfully guide you forward on your journey of discovery. In the end, you'll own your accomplishments as your own. You'll feel the power and resiliency of your interconnected relationships to the greater web of life. The skills, practices, and mindset learned will last a lifetime.

Twin Eagles Wilderness Immersion Program - The Location

The Twin Eagles Wilderness Immersion Program is based out of our beautiful campus outside of pristine Sandpoint, Idaho. Sandpoint was named the nation's "Most Beautiful Small Town" by Rand McNally and USA Today, and for good reason.

It sits on the northern shore of magnificent Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho's largest lake at 43 miles long, and is nestled between the Selkirk and Cabinet mountain ranges which encompass millions of acres of national forest, native habitat of wolves, grizzlies, cougars, wolverines, and the last remaining caribou in the continental 48 states.

This is a land of spirit, and of uncompromising natural beauty, home of the traditional territory of the Kalispell Tribe of Indians, a thriving arts community, and a highly progressive population that launched the Sandpoint Transition Initiative, the very first transition town to be unleashed in the US.

Twin Eagles Wilderness Immersion Program 2013-14

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Twin Eagles Wilderness Immersion Program FAQ - Coming soon!

Our Secret

Why choose Twin Eagles Wilderness Immersion Program? Here are some key elements worth considering that make us completely unique:

True Wilderness

When it comes to selecting a wilderness immersion program, don't underestimate the importance of the location. Beyond just setting the context for your learning journey, the location is something that you will make a visceral connection with, something that you will merge essences with throughout your experience. We chose the Inland Northwest because it is wild, and off the beaten path. It is rich with diversity and it includes a variety of unique ecological niches. Pristine wilderness is the norm here. Even Sandpoint is all about nature, full of progressive earthy folks and old back-to-the-land'ers. When you come to Twin Eagles, you'll truly be immersing in the wilderness.

Depth Mentoring - The Twin Eagles Experience

If you read my story above, then you'll know that we had the blessing of being mentored by some really exceptional mentors in the deep nature connection movement. They showed up powerfully for us, and we developed lasting mentoring relationships. Not only did they teach us all the skills, practices, and philosophy of the Earth, but they consistently mentored us through the inner journey as well. We were consistently being guided to look within. It was being mentored in this duality, to take the inner journey alongside the outer journey, that ultimately made all the difference and supported our long term success on this path.

As an organization, we're committed to this high quality experience of depth mentoring, especially for each of the students in the Twin Eagles Wilderness Immersion Program.

When you come here, you'll have a mentor who truly shows up powerfully for you, holding space for you as you travel deep into connection with nature, community, and yourself. A mentor who really sees you, with compassion and understanding. We're not here to "give" you something that you don't' already have, we're here to guide and support you to connect with that which is already yours, with your birthright. We're here to surrender to the truth of your journey.

The Inner Journey

Being a part of wilderness immersion programs over the last fourteen years, we've also seen the blocks that come up for people taking this journey of deep connection time and again. We've seen people both thrive and stumble on this journey, and we've seen what makes the difference. I'm going to let you in on a little secret. The only blocks that really matter are the ones on the inside. Your ability to sabotage your own passion, power & purpose, to get trapped in fear and doubt, the unconscious resistance that causes bold visions to fade away, these are the real blocks. If you can clear these inner blocks and truly learn to trust all of yourself, that's when life gets good.

Having navigated these blocks ourselves through the years, and supported many others through these blocks, we've discovered ways to clear the path. We're committed to supporting our wilderness immersion program students to move through blocks. We have gone through the fire, taken the hero's/heroine's journey, and we're here on the other side to guide you through. Showing you how to build a bow drill fire or make medicinal tinctures is one thing. But it takes a very special quality of mentoring to guide you through the inner journey. That is where our passion really shines.

Cultural Restoration and Knowledge of Place

The Twin Eagles Wilderness Immersion Program is a part of a greater journey of deepening one's connection to a specific place and restoring earth based culture.

Throughout history, human societies have created communities based on a deep understanding of the natural environment of their traditional territories. Indeed, whole cultures have evolved in relationship with the land. Every plant, animal, mountain, forest, and river of a particular region contributes to the distinctive cultural heritage of the people who live among them, and after hundreds of generations, the specific "knowledge of place" becomes inseparable from the cultural identity of its people.

However, most Americans in the 21st century have largely lost touch with the cultural heritage of their forebears, and they no longer live in relationship with the environment. As a result, many people experience a sense of loss and a longing to find some deeper meaning to life.

Many feel a need to connect in meaningful ways and to form an intimate relationship with their place, their community, and their own sense of self. This is the journey of cultural restoration.

We at Twin Eagles hold that cultural restoration begins by deepening one's knowledge of place, and the more we build cultural practices that reflect the unique character of our environment, the stronger our communities will become. We're working towards a deeply intimate relationship with our place, with the people of our place, and with our own selves. This journey spans more than just a year, or a decade, or even a lifetime. This is a multi-generational journey. Our native elders have told us this. The work of cultural restoration is some of the most important work that needs to be done in the world.

At Twin Eagles, we are honored and blessed to have been taught by many native teachers who have supported us in learning to live in relationship with the land. What they have offered has been priceless, and has fundamentally impacted us as an organization and as a community. Our relationships with native people are essential to our work of cultural restoration.

In particular, we are honored to receive the support of Barry Moses. Barry is a member of the Spokane Tribe of Indians, and he provides multicultural training to a wide variety of community organizations, school groups, and institutions of higher learning. He has given his support towards our journey of enduring cultural restoration, and is serving as our Inner Tracking Staff Specialist at the Twin Eagles Wilderness Immersion Program.

You're probably a great match for this program if:

• You have a passion for nature, community, and self-awareness.
• You are fit for challenges and adventures in both the outer and inner world.
• You value learning experientially, learning by doing.
• You respect indigenous wisdom.
• You want to discover ways to bring the wisdom of nature back into the modern experience.
• You are willing to challenge your fears.
• You're ready and willing to invest significant time and effort into your passions
• You want to discover and feel in your body how you fit in to the greater interconnected web of life.
• You are ready to wake up to a new level of consciousness, to discover a new possibility of what it is to be alive.
• In your heart, you deeply desire to live your life to the fullest.

You're probably NOT a very good match if:

• You're not really passionate about nature, community, and self-awareness.
• You don't like challenges and adventures (in either the inner or outer world).
• You are physically challenged in a way that would impede you from participating fully.
• You are a busy parent or other person who doesn't have much time on your hands outside of the established program gathering times.
• You would have to work a lot during your year with us in order to meet your financial needs.
• You're not going to put in the effort to make lasting change in your life.
• You don't want to wake up to a higher level of consciousness.

You're probably an especially great match if:

• You're a young adult on a quest to find yourself, looking for clarity and direction on your path, asking the question, "Who am I really?"
• You are fed up with the old, fundamentally degenerative paradigm, and want to change the world.
• You get that that means changing yourself.
• You want to become a nature based mentor.
• You want to find your power, and a deeper experience of confidence and worthiness.
• You wonder, "What if I could find a deep and sacred meaning to my life, a true vision rooted in the heart of nature?"
• You feel called or guided to be here.

Tuition

Twin Eagles Wilderness Immersion Program 2013 - 2014
$10,450 for the year. Includes all instruction, expeditions, and intensives. Scholarships available.

Early Bird Discount: $9,400 Save 10% by enrolling before April 15, 2013!

Applications are currently being accepted for the 2013-2014 year.
To apply, click the button below to download and complete an application packet.
You can also contact us to request an application packet via US Mail.

Twin Eagles Wilderness Immersion Program 2013-14

This application is a fillable PDF form. Please be sure you are using the latest version of Adobe Reader to fill out these forms - it's free!

Have more questions about the Twin Eagles Wilderness Immersion Program?
Visit our Twin Eagles Wilderness Immersion Program FAQ page (coming soon) or contact us.

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