Actor Jim Carrey found spiritual enlightenment after spending 24 hours fearing for his life alone on a mountaintop in Arizona.

The Ace Ventura: Pet Detective star embarked on a "vision quest" with the Native American Lakota tribe, and was convinced he was going to die while stranded alone in the wilderness until he saw God and suddenly felt "light as a feather".

He tells Britain's Daily Mirror, "I didn't plan on it. I just went to a spa and I met a guy who was connected to the tribe and he told me about this vision quest which they don't let outsiders on. But I went and talked with the chief and he knew my heart was in the right place, so he decided that I could do it.

"I fasted for four days, I spent time in a sweat lodge and then they came in the middle of the night with a pick-up truck and blindfolded me and drove me to the top of this sacred mountain where they'd had these vision quests for a thousand years.

"They left me in a little seven-foot circle with a blanket and only a tiny knife to fight off cougars, mountain lions, rattlesnakes, scorpions and whatever else was there. It was so hot, it felt like 150 degrees and I thought I was dying at one point.

"What happens is the shadows change and they talk to you and when you ask questions you get answers and that was happening. Then at night I got tired of standing and I lay down on this little Indian blanket and I was really frightened.

"The coyotes were howling and the place was full of rattlesnakes, and I actually spoke out loud and said, 'God, I'm scared, be with me.' And at that point the mountain range that was above me became the perfect shape of a man laying on his back beside me. All the fear left my body and I lay there thinking, 'This is really happening. I'm actually seeing God and I can't believe it. I'm so lucky.' And I wasn't scared any more and then later the moon came up and changed the shadows and the face turned and was smiling at me, and I was just in complete bliss. I was as light as a feather.

"The next day when the chief came I asked him if he had seen the man lying on his back and he said he had never seen it."