Vision quest A vision quest was a Native American rite of passage and ritual used to establish contact with a spirit or force when one sought guidance and help , especially during difficult times . While a spiritual practice , it was underlain by science . ( ) A vision quest tapped directly into the participant ' s frontal cortex . A deep meditative state was created similar to an altered state of consciousness in which one could look within and ask questions one might otherwise be afraid to ask . ( ) Chakotay used a medicine bundle to embark on vision quests . Generally medicine bundles had to be comprised of items that define a person and ground them , thus allowing them to take the journey into the self . Chakotay ' s bundle contained a blackbird ' s wing , a " CHAH - mooz - ee " stone from the river , and an akoonah , a modern device used instead of psychotropic herbs to facilitate the vision quest and maintain the meditative state . The ritual was almost always commenced by speaking " A - koo - chee - moya " followed by a request to the spirits for guidance and clarity . ( ) In 2370 , Lakanta , a member of a Native American tribe on Daran V , told Wesley Crusher that he saw Wesley in one of his vision quests he held in the habak . Wesley himself embarked on a vision quest about his own life and saw his father , Jack Crusher , who told him to not follow in his footsteps by becoming a Starfleet officer and instead find his own path . This vision gave Wesley the clarity he needed to do what he felt was right and he resigned from the Academy . ( ) In 2371 Chakotay told Kathryn Janeway about a Native American tradition in which an animal acted as a person ' s counselor and guided that person through life . Chakotay helped Janeway find her own animal guide by helping her embark on a vision quest . He mentioned that he had attempted to help B ' Elanna Torres find her animal guide in a previous vision quest , but the experience had resulted in B ' Elanna actually trying to kill her guide . ( ) The medicine wheel was also used by Chakotay ' s people . When a person was sleeping or on a vision quest , it was said that he was walking the wheel , and the placement of each stone on the medicine wheel acted as a signpost to help point the way back home . ( ) In 2372 , Janeway granted Chakotay the use of a shuttlecraft so that he could perform the Pakra , a solitary ritual commemorating the anniversary of his father ' s death . ( ) When in 2372 Seska told Chakotay that the life of his alleged son was in danger , Chakotay – torn between his duties as a Starfleet officer and the obligation to his child – sought the guidance of his father , Kolopak , by embarking on a vision quest . Kolopak spoke to Chakotay in his dreams and told him that he needs to embrace the child in his heart despite his mother ' s deception because the child knows nothing of deception and had no say in the circumstances of his origins . This convinced Chakotay to find his son and save him . ( ) When ' s crew began experiencing vivid nightmare s containing mysterious aliens in 2374 , Chakotay proposed that they use their dream s to make contact with the aliens . He suggested a technique called lucid dream ing in which the dreamer takes complete control of his or her dream . Chakotay used the same techniques he used during a vision quest to enter a lucid dream . Remembering a visual cue , such as Earth ' s moon , reminded him that he was dreaming and he woke himself up by tapping the back of his hand three times . ( ) When Neelix died during an away mission later that year and was revived by using Seven of Nine ' s nanoprobe s , he found himself in a deep existential and spiritual crisis , as his death experience was not at all what he had been taught . Desperate for answers , he sought Chakotay ' s help , asking him to help him embark on a vision quest . Chakotay advised him that the vision quest was not a guarantee for answers and that it would take time to interpret the images . During his journey , Neelix saw his sister Alixia , who told him that all the stories he had heard of the afterlife and The Great Forest were lies and that there was no point to living . When he came to , Neelix was mortified , but Chakotay urged him to not jump into conclusions based on what he saw during his vision quest , as there exist many ways to interpret those images . ( ) In 2375 Chakotay , while caught with the rest of the " Voyager " crew in " chaotic space " – an area where the laws of physics are in a constant state of flux – he had vivid hallucination s which prompted him to go on many vision quests to find the answers he was seeking . ( )