I've never heard of sweat lodge ceremonies or vision quest?

They are two separate but related ceremonies in ndn cultures that require an offering of suffering for spiritual gifts or blessings. In the sweat lodge, large stones are brought into the lodge that have been heated to red hot and glowing. They are placed in a specific manner. Women enter first and sit on one side of the lodge, then the men enter and sit on the other. The sweat leader spaeks for awhile and then the doorman outside closes us into total darkness, relieved only by the glowing stones. It begins to heat up instantly. Leader takes the bucket of water that had been blessed and uses a dipper or a brush made from a large bundle of leaves and throws water onto the rocks. Steam instantly erupts and the first singer starts the ceremony out with a song that we all sing. We sing it and pray as long as the singer keeps going. Then more water and the next singer. That is repeated thru 4 singers, and then the leader calls for the doorman to "open up". We get a respite for a few minutes and people will tell if they experienced anything spiritual in the first round. Then the door closes again the round is repeated thru 4 more songs and applications of water to the rocks. This is done for 4 rounds 16 songs and then the sacred pipe at the end. For us, it is a religious experience. For many ndns from outside of CA they have a pit dug and they are placed into it by an elder after the sweat, and they stay there and fast for 4 days and nights, only drinking water praying for a vison from the spirit world that may give them some knowledge, or gift that they can call on thru their lives. Not everybody is given a vision. Those that are given a vision will return from their quest with the elder and sweat again, and describe the vision in the lodge. Sometimes spirits will caution them not to tell all or to wait to tell all. That about sums it up.

Sorry about that wall of text, but the explanation is complicated.

Wow, I've only managed 8 minutes tops in a sweat lodge. This sounds fascinating, I'd love to hear what was experienced spiritually.

Where did you attend a sweat ceremony?

Oh it wasn't a sweat ceremony, just a sweat lodge. Put the water on the stones, felt like I couldn't breath.

It was just a sweat lodge at a gym, not a ceremony.

No was just a lodge at a spar.

System still glitching?

Yep, puts me off of answering. You type a response and the page doesn't load. It's a nightmare.

Yes, it's been going on since the 17th-18th or so. At 1 pint logging on took me to a blank page with a server error notice.

I got the same, tiny writing in the corner