Jim Carrey’s spiritual trip to the Mojave Desert
Throughout his fascinating career, Jim Carrey developed a unique reputation in the industry for his often unusual approach to the roles he took on. While his unconventional techniques often elevated the quality of his comedy, they also led him to some dark and bizarre experiences. One perfect example of the latter is the time he tried to get into Andy Kaufman’s headspace by filling his clothes with cheese.
No matter how surreal the challenge is, Carrey has never backed down from an interesting experience and that isn’t just limited to his cinematic projects. At a time when he was confronted by a spiritual block, the celebrated actor decided to pursue more profound revelations about himself and the world around him by travelling to the Mojave desert.
During a conversation with Howard Stern about the strange sequence of events that happened, Carrey revealed: “I fasted for four days… just water and juice. So what happens is they pick me up in the middle of the night, about two, three in the morning, something like that. They drive me onto the reservation, Billy Jack-style. They blindfold me, so I can’t see where we’re going.”
He was turned onto this unique experience by a stranger he had met, who had told him about the tribe there who guide spiritual seekers to their destinations. After he convinced them of the sincerity of his intentions and his determination to attain a higher truth, Carrey was left alone on a mountain with a knife to fend off mountain lions and a limited quantity of water.
Detailing the inhospitable conditions of his surroundings, Carrey added: “It starts to get hot; it’s like 120 in the desert, and I’m burning… and my skin is burning off my bones, and I’m covering my head with my T-shirt… they gave me 12 ounces of water, they say, ‘Take it slowly, sip it slowly. It has to last.’ In half an hour, the water’s gone…”
Following the quick depletion of his rations and the increasingly oppressive heat, the actor’s strength rapidly deserted him, and he was forced to lie down on the ground. Although he had been warned by the tribe about lethal rattlesnakes in the area, the Dumb and Dumber star did not have the energy to continue standing.
Almost resigned to his fate given the situation, Carrey even started praying despite not having any particularly religious tendencies because he was actually afraid of dying right there. Fortunately for him, not only did he survive, but he also experienced something inexplicably ecstatic when he was lying down, and the mountain range in front of him transformed into a smiling man.
Check out the full interview below.
