About Evolve Wild
We offer Nature Based Experiences to help in your Journey to Personal & Cultural Transformation. Deepening your relationship with the natural world heals so much of what ails us in the modern world offers. I also connects us to something greater. Here, you align more with wild nature, the source of your authentic self.
The further you live this version of yourself into your everyday life, you bring your full self and gift to your culture at a time when it desperately needs it!
Eric Inman M.A., Founder
Prior to opening Evolve Wild, I studied and worked in the world of mental health and education for over a decade. I also became a river guide in college and later combined my skills, working in wilderness therapy. It was there that I realized how our contact with wild nature can affect everything. I discovered more through my master’s program in Cultural & Psychological Studies with a specialty in Ecopsychology. After my formal training, though, my real education began.
I went on a Yearlong Soulcraft Immersion in 2016 and opened my first outdoor experience company, facilitating nature experiences for youth and adults. I also continued guiding for other rafting companies in conjunction with my own business.
In 2023 I went through InnerTrek’s psilocybin facilitation program. I now have the opportunity to combine my background in guided camping and rafting trips to enhance both the psilocybin journey and the nature connection to create life altering experiences for everyone involved!
A "Three P" Company
We here at Evolve Wild believe companies serve the world best when they are dedicated to the Three P’s: People, The Planet, and Profits.
Business shapes culture and people’s lives. At this point, they are far too often motivated by pure greed at the expense of our human existence. How backwards is that!?
We need to examine our personal and cultural values, and demands business takes responsibility for thier actions. Evolve WIld leads by example. We provide our services to better the world rather than take from it. This, we believe, is the key to our evolution as a business, an entity of society, and for our personal evolution.
The Connective Experience
Our Journeys were designed to help you get into a different relationship with nature. Here’s how:
You have your own site, with distance and trees between your neighbors.
You can chill out on your own or relax at the group (social) site, where there is always at least one guide, within reasonable hours anyway. Whether you’re an introvert or an extrovert, you get to decide how much you want to engage with other people!
Access to nature may be one of the biggest hidden privileges in our society today.
We welcome, and do our best, to offer our experiences to people of all skin colors, ethnic backgrounds, sexual orientations, beliefs, languages, religions, SES, and political affiliations. Your experience is about you and your relationship with the world around you. We’ll do our best to hold others to those standards.
And always know that if you don’t feel respected you can talk with us about it, or disengage by leaving the social area and going to your own site (and, of course, talking with us later).
How you engage is up to you!
We offer a lot of ways to engage with the experience, and some of it pushes people’s boundaries. Whether it’s yoga, rafting, paddle boarding, sharing your intentions for coming out, or checking in with the group about where you’re at, you get to decide what you do and what you don’t do.
Even if you’re good with all that, there are other things you can do to create a deeper shift, both before you come out and while you’re here. The difference between what people think they will do at first glance vs. what they actually do while they are going through it can change dramatically! Our best advice is to stay open to what arises while you’re here.
Socially, the vibe is laid back.
I (Eric) talk about lots of things on this site, but it’s more just to let you know where I’m coming from and why I went to all the trouble to create Evolve Wild. I don’t get preachy or judgmental, and try to keep that stuff out of group conversation.
If you’re looking for deeper conversation, have questions about some of the stuff I talk about, or just want to trip out, we’re happy to go there. But there’s no requisite talking points or anything like that.
This is not a party / loud scene!
We aim to get away from modern-day distractions to allow the world around us to speak to us. But it’s a soft language, and easily drowned out. We discourage heavy drinking, loud music, and motors. We ask that you respect others on the experience by refraining from such things as well.
This is meant to be a small, but important, step along your larger journey. It’s not about what we think you should be doing, it’s about you doing what you feel as it arises, and allowing the experience to unfold.
History
In 2014 I started running Forest Dream Oregon, bringing Japanese-speaking visitors to the natural areas around Oregon. I also ran summer camps with Sugamo Advance School, serving Japanese ex-pat students.
2020 brought record crowds to the outdoors and massive fires to Mt. Hood National Forest, where I had my permit. I wasn’t able to renew my permit for the 2020 or ’21 season. I just worked as a river guide in the summers.
Though I had started the site of Evolve Wild years before, it was only in concept until then. I renewed my efforts towards building Evolve Wild during the pandemic years, though without a permit and the ability to run trip in natural areas, the heart of what I wanted to offer just couldn’t come to fruition. Late in the spring of 2022, we finally got a new permit though I didn’t have enough time to ramp up for the season of 2023.
This year finally looks to be the season we fully launch!
