What Happens When You Grow Up Without a Rite of Passage | Chris Barton | #89

Growing up is harder without a threshold.In this episode of The Lonely Chapter, Sam is joined by Chris Barton to explore what happens when societies lose meaningful rites of passage, and why growing up without initiation can leave so many people feeling unprepared for adulthood.Chris is part of a movement working to restore structured rites of passage for young people, rooted in nature, responsibility and challenge. He explains how the disappearance of these initiatory experiences in modern Western culture has contributed to confusion around identity, responsibility and belonging.We talk about what rites of passage actually are, why they once mattered, and what fills the gap when they disappear. Chris also shares how carefully designed experiences in nature can help young people develop resilience, reflection and self-trust through responsibility rather than motivation.This is a thoughtful conversation about growing up, identity, initiation, belonging, mentorship, nature, responsibility and the quiet cost of removing meaningful thresholds from modern life.Expect to learn→ What rites of passage are, and what they are not→ Why the absence of initiation often leads to risky substitutes→ How nature and challenge build resilience and self-trust→ The role of mentors and responsibility in developmentTo learn more about Chris’s workFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildnatureropEmail: [email protected]