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

Three years, three months, three weeks 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 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 seclusion.

They know that outsiders might dismiss them as eccentrics on a strange utopian trip. But 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 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.

"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 Bachelor" to teach yoga and prepare for his undertaking.

Dreyfus will be joined by his fiancee, Jessica Kung, a Yale University 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 Ph.D.-like study in yoga (and) meditation," said Kung, 27. "There is nothing better to do with my youth."

Family members of many of those who will join the retreat are skeptical, bewildered or angry. Hubert Dreyfus, a professor of existential philosophy at the University of California-Berkeley, worries that son Stephane is wasting his talent for writing and filmmaking to instead disappear into the desert.

Enlightenment isn't cheap. Each retreat participant will need $60,000 to $75,000 to build a cabin and pay for three years of food and supplies.

Some already have set aside the money. A few are searching for sponsors at yoga and meditation seminars, or relying on the generosity of others on the retreat.

"I'm waiting for a miracle," Ben Kramer, a 33-year-old Floridian, said as he practiced yoga with his girlfriend in an adobe temple not far from the retreat site.

Power will be supplied by solar panels or propane tanks, and members probably will have air horns to summon help if needed.

Fellow Buddhists who live nearby will help by growing or shopping for food and dropping it off twice a week. David Stumpf, a retired plant biochemist from the University of Arizona, has nearly finished building the cabin he and his wife will share on a small patch of earth surrounded by paddle cactus and ocotillo plants, whose red blooms shoot from the ground like Fourth of July fireworks. He considers the valley perfect for meditation.

"This place is stunning at sunrise," the 56-year-old said. "The lighting on the hillside is just magical."

The "retreat valley" is in the desert more than 100 miles east of Tucson. A rutted dirt road leads to Diamond Mountain University, a Buddhist campus where footpaths connect an adobe temple, a tented student lounge and yurts.

The road from there to the retreat valley is even more primitive.

Bill McMichael of Chicago, an American Airlines pilot, said he intends to quit his job to enter the retreat — leaving behind his children, ages 7 and 9. They'll live with his ex-wife. Friends will bring the kids to the retreat two or three times a year, but he'll communicate only through gestures or notes.

McMichael has explained the retreat to his youngsters by telling them it is like he is going to become an angel and reach heaven, and that he will show them how to become angels too.

"I can give them something that death can't take away," he said.