In the Arizona desert, Buddhists will embark on a three-year silent retreat

BOWIE, ARIZ. — Deep in a remote desert valley, where rattlesnakes lurk in the scrub, Stephane Dreyfus and several dozen other Buddhists are preparing to undergo a mind-altering journey:

Three years, three months and three days of silence.

There will be no word from the outside world in the Great Retreat, only the deafening quiet of rock and cactus, with seemingly endless time to ponder the emptiness of life.

Dreyfus and his fellow adherents hope to find enlightenment in the silence, a gift they plan to share when they emerge from their long seclusion.

They know that outsiders might dismiss them as eccentrics on a strange utopian trip, but their resumes suggest otherwise. Among them are an airline pilot, a dermatologist, a retired biochemist and a former television editor.

They're jettisoning the trappings of their middle-class lives to carry on a Buddhist tradition that traces its lineage through the Dalai Lamas of Tibet. For many in the group, that means leaving behind six-figure incomes, young children or aging parents for the solitude of cramped retreat cabins made of adobe, wood -- even hay bales.

Prolonged silence, they explain, is the only way to reach the deep level of inner awareness required to bring true happiness to the world.

"If I can get to the position of being perfectly free of suffering and develop high levels of mental clarity that cause enlightenment, I can show others how to get there perfectly, quickly," said Dreyfus, 32, who left a job as an assistant editor on the prime-time show "The Bachelor" to teach yoga and prepare for his undertaking.

Dreyfus, a Berkeley native, will be joined by his fiancee, Jessica Kung, a Yale graduate and also a yoga teacher.

When they start the retreat late next year in this corner of southeastern Arizona, they will be newlyweds, sharing a 500-square-foot cabin, communicating only through gestures and facial expressions, and refraining from physical intimacy. Such pleasure, they both say, would dissipate prana -- inner energy -- distracting from the important karmic work at hand.

"I feel a desire to have some serious PhD-like study in yoga [and] meditation," said Kung, 27. "There is nothing better to do with my youth."

Such talk provokes bewilderment, skepticism and even anger from the family members of many of those who will join the retreat.