A meditative ritual from Chakotay's people in which a seeker, aided by a device called an akoonah, enters a trance to consult an animal guide or departed relatives.
The vision quest is a spiritual practice of Chakotay's tribe. The seeker lays out a medicine bundle of personal objects, places a hand on an akoonah, a small device that induces the trance without drugs, and travels inward to a place of calm. There they may meet an animal guide.
It is introduced in The Cloud, in which Chakotay leads Kathryn Janeway through the ritual to find her guide, a small lizard. B'Elanna Torres admits that she once tried to kill hers. The practice returns in several episodes, usually when Chakotay needs counsel.
In Basics, Part I he uses it to ask his late father Kolopak about the child Seska claims is his. In The Fight it becomes the means by which aliens in chaotic space communicate with him.