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{{trope}}
Especially prevalent in [[The Nineties]],
The name is taken from the "vision quest" that many Inuit and other Native American groups undergo.
Related tropes are [[Spirit Advisor]], [[Psychological Torment Zone]] and [[Magical Native American]]. Can result in a life-changing [[Epiphany (trope)|Epiphany]].▼
It is also the name of a 1985 film about a high school wrestler grappling with adulthood while having a crush on a 21-year-old drifter. The film was directed by [[Harold Becker]] and starred [[Matthew Modine]] and [[Linda Fiorentino]]. Its soundtrack yielded the hit singles "Crazy for You" by Madonna and "Only the Young" by Journey.▼
▲
▲Related tropes are [[Spirit Advisor]], [[Psychological Torment Zone]] and [[Magical Native American]].
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* Done several times in ''[[Elf Quest]]'':
** After failing for the first time to save someone, Leetah stabs herself in the stomach to force a Vision Quest and gain more control over her healing powers.
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* Famously done in [[Grant Morrison]]'s run of [[Animal Man]] has the titular hero go on a peyote-fuelled Vision Quest. This expands his consciousness to the point where he briefly becomes aware of the reader, looking out of the page and shouting "I SEE YOU!"
* "Echo: Vision Quest", a [[Story Arc]] in ''[[Daredevil]]'' comics, which focussed on... er... [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|a character called Echo undergoing a vision quest]].
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* In the ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' pseudo-crossover ''[[Xendra]]'', the extant Slayers (and Xendra) take part in a vision quest that is a parallel to the one in the fifth season episode "Intervention". It leads to a collection of individual and group [[Epiphany (trope)|epiphanies]] both small and great.
== [[Film]] ==
* Jim Morrison is depicted as having a literal vision quest in the Oliver Stone film ''[[The Doors (film)|The Doors]]''
* That scene is then parodied in ''[[Wayne's World]]''.
* In ''[[Hidalgo]]'' Frank has a vision of himself with his mother.
* In the ''[[Star Wars]]'' universe, every padawan must undergo a "Trial of the Spirit", before they can earn the rank of Jedi. This trial often takes the form of a Vision Quest:
** In ''[[The Empire Strikes Back]]'', Yoda sends Luke into a cave that's a nexus of the Dark Side. There, Luke fights and kills a ghost of Darth Vader, then sees his own face under Vader's mask.
** In ''[[Star Wars: Clone Wars]]'', Anakin's mission to rescue the Nelvaan warriors led him into a cave where geothermal gases [[Mushroom Samba|caused him to hallucinate]]. His hallucination symbolically foreshadowed his transformation into Darth Vader.
*** Lampshaded by the [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture|Nelvaan]].
* [[Terrence Malick]]'s ''[[The Tree of Life]]'' lies somewhere between this and an
* Averted in ''[[Vision Quest (film)|Vision Quest]]'' where nobody even once went on one.
* In ''[[Inception]]'', the [[Dream Weaver]]s create a custom dream for a business heir that includes telling him he's on a Vision Quest to come to term with his relationship with his late father. However, the whole thing is orchestrated including the epiphany at the ending that consists of a fake representation of his subconsciousness in the form of his father that tells him that his father never wanted him to be as greedy and power hungry as he had become and that after his death his monopoly should be split up. When the heir wakes, the dream will fade, but the faked epiphany remains, influencing all his future business decisions.
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* Similar to the ''[[Star Wars]]'' example in the Film section, ''[[The Looking Glass Wars]]'' features the "Crystal Maze," a sort of [[Psychological Torment Zone]] which princesses must endure to prove that they have enough strength and endurance to become queen.
== [[Live
* ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'':
** Chakotay does this about once per season, or [[Magical Native American|helps someone else]] to do so.
*** Hilarious because you can imagine him [[Awesome but Impractical|having the pre-vision sweat onboard a starship]].
** B'elanna also does this when she travels to Klingon Hell and meets her mother.
* ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]''. The Dax symbionts (Ezri and Jadzia) do something similar when they communicate with their past hosts.
** Lampshaded in ''You are
* Locke goes all vision-questy in the ''[[Lost]]'' episode "Further Instructions." Not to mention that he ended up on the island after trying to go on an Australian Outback walkabout, only to find himself on a deeper spiritual journey.
* Dr Franklin in ''[[Babylon 5]]''.
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== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* In ''[[Mage: The Ascension]]'' the player character have to go through one to gain a level of magical power.
* In ''[[Shadowrun]]'', it's the most efficient
* The Lunars in ''[[Exalted]]'' have a Charm that actually allows them to make ''some'' sense out of [[Reality Is Out to Lunch|the Wyld]]—they read the flow of chaos there in order to gain insight. The process is described in the general tone of a vision quest.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* One of the ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' online flash
* Tauren characters in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' get a quest like this during the lower levels, although it pretty much boils down to following a ghost wolf to your next quest objective. (You aren't even required to follow it, as long as you know where you're supposed to go next.)
* Hakumen's story mode in ''[[BlazBlue
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* The "Wayang Kulit" arc from ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' does this for Torg, Kiki, and Bun-Bun, complete with an [[Art Shift]] to a darker pallet and plenty of [[Mind Rape]] elements.
* Subverted in ''[[The
* Parodied in [http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1352 this] ''[[Questionable Content]]'' strip.
* Shelly of ''[[Wapsi Square]]'' went on a vision quest as an important part of her backstory. She found a good deal more than what she expected, and ended up in over her head.
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** Homer experiences another Vision Quest (of a more traditional variety) during [[The Movie]].
* Mocked mercilessly in ''[[South Park]]'' when Native Americans are trying to buy out the town to build casinos and Stan has to unlock his 'Magical Middle Class White Guy' abilities. He basically gets high on meth.
* Parodied in ''[[
* A version similar to the ''Simpsons'' example above happens to [[The Tick (animation)]] when knocked into orbit.
* The Water Tribe in ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' are Inuit-based but extremely pragmatic; Sokka even appears to be an skeptic-atheist to start. Aang goes on several vision quest things to the spirit world to get advice and sort out wrongs. Zuko goes on one from his bed while sick with fever; it doesn't immediately equal a [[Heel Face Turn]], but it does pin down his soul on the 'good' side, even if he doesn't realize it right away. Though his character development is actually pretty independent of this, it's all symbolic. Given this spirit stuff is actually real in universe, one must wonder whether, had the blue dragon won him, the person we know as Zuko would somehow have been able to make his peace with Ozai's Fire Nation after [[Character Development|everything he'd seen and done]]. Not that he'd have survived long.
* Brock Samson went on a Castenada-influenced Vision Quest (along with Dr. Orpheus and his mystical crew) in ''[[The Venture Brothers]]'' episode "¡Viva los Muertos!"
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[[Category:Otherworld Tropes]]
[[Category:Metaphysical Place]]
[[Category:Vision Quest]]
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