Bill Plotkin, Ph.D., is an eco-depth psychologist, wilderness guide, and agent of regenerative culture. As founder of southwest Colorado’s Animas Valley Institute, he has, since 1980, guided thousands of people on the journey of soul initiation. He’s also been a research psychologist (studying nonordinary states of consciousness), rock musician, and white-water river guide. In 1979, on a solo winter ascent of an Adirondack peak, Bill experienced a “call to spiritual adventure,” leading him to abandon academia in search of his true calling. He is the author of Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche (an experiential guidebook), Nature and the Human Soul: Cultivating Wholeness and Community in a Fragmented World (a nature-based stage model of human development), Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche (a nature-based map of the psyche), and The Journey of Soul Initiation: A Field Guide for Visionaries, Evolutionaries, and Revolutionaries (a guidebook for the descent to soul). His doctorate in psychology is from the University of Colorado at Boulder.