Yoga instructor, 35, who got lost in Hawaii for two weeks after going on a hike says she survived by MEDITATING and claims she embraced the ordeal as an escape 'from the modern world' and a 'spiritual bootcamp'

  • Amanda Eller, 35, spoke to reporters on Maui on Tuesday - days after her rescue 
  • She survived more than two weeks in forest by drinking water and eating plants 
  • Eller denied on Tuesday that alcohol or drugs played a role in her getting lost 
  • She said she had a superfood smoothie and protein bar before her May 8 hike 
  • She says learned to embrace her ordeal after 'playing the victim' 
  • The yoga instructor says she meditated and did yoga to stay sane  

The yoga instructor who went missing in Hawaii for two weeks after getting lost on a hike says she welcomed the experience as a 'spiritual bootcamp' which was a welcome 'escape from the modern world'.   

Amanda Eller, 35, spent two weeks in the wilderness after getting lost during a run in Maui. She survived by eating berries and drinking water from a stream, she said, before she was found. 

Now in good health, despite suffering a broken tibia, she has told how she learned to 'embrace' the ordeal as an 'opportunity' and not a punishment. 

'I never felt alone and I never felt fearful. It was an opportunity to overcome fear of everything.

'It was an opportunity to be stripped away of all the comforts of this modern world and see what was left,' she said. 

Eller also believes the ordeal had special significance because 'it is the year of the boar'. 

'This is the Chinese New Year, this is the year of the boar, I'm a boar,’ she said.

‘So I'm like finding myself sleeping in boar's home. And they were like trailblazing for me,' she said.  

Amanda Eller, the 35-year-old yoga instructor who went missing for more than two weeks in a Hawaiian forest, says drugs and alcohol played no part in her getting lost

Eller said she had no 'drugs or alcohol' and that she gets high 'off life'. 

‘I definitely didn't have any drugs or alcohol or anything like that. Anybody that knows me and knows my spiritual journey in the last few years knows that I get high off of life, and I get high off of people and heart.’

 'This is the Chinese New Year, this is the year of the boar, I'm a boar. So I'm like finding myself sleeping in boar's home. And they were like trailblazing for me

'I just had such hope in my heart every day,' she said. 

Eller admitted that when she heard helicopters missing her overnight, she felt invisible.  

'You lose hope. As the sun starts to go down you're like, "Another night alone. How am I gonna stay warm? How am I gonna stay alive?" 

She said eventually, she turned to the sky and asked for 'mercy'.  

'I looked at the sky. I've had everything stripped away... I can barely move. ... And I had a moment where I was like, "mercy." ... I'm looking at the sky, like, 'Please pick me up. I'm ready. I've learned."

'You can play victim... or you can start walking down that waterfall and choose life... I had to choose life,' she said. 

Despite having a broken tibia from falling, she said she resorted to doing yoga and meditating.   

'The only thing I could do was meditate. It was the only thing that brought me peace.

This is the moment she was rescued on May 8. She said she had a plant in her mouth that she had been 'saving for dinner'

This is the moment she was rescued on May 8. She said she had a plant in her mouth that she had been 'saving for dinner' 

Cantellops said the helicopter only had five minutes left of fuel before it had to go back to the heliport when Eller suddenly came into view. They are pictured here during the rescue

Cantellops said the helicopter only had five minutes left of fuel before it had to go back to the heliport when Eller suddenly came into view. They are pictured here during the rescue 

Eller lost her shoes in a flash flood and walked barefoot for days. The skin on her ankles is severely damaged and she will be on crutches for several weeks

Eller lost her shoes in a flash flood and walked barefoot for days. The skin on her ankles is severely damaged and she will be on crutches for several weeks 

The yoga instructor, shown in the hospital, said she was 'grateful' for every breath now

The yoga instructor, shown in the hospital, said she was 'grateful' for every breath now 

'The first five days, you know, I just wanted to play victim and crawl into a hole and be like, "Why me?" 

'This is not punishment, this is a strong opportunity.  

'I want to be an inspiration to others. I want to light the fire in other people. ... I'm no different than anybody else. 

'High on life': The yoga instructor said drugs or alcohol played no part in her ordeal

'High on life': The yoga instructor said drugs or alcohol played no part in her ordeal 

'And we all get to choose life on a daily basis,' she said.  

Eller said she was not paying attention to social media, where a number of theories have been put forward as to how she got lost for 17 days.

‘Everybody can have their little theories,’ she said.

The yoga instructor from Maryland says she fell to the ground and started bawling when a rescue helicopter spotted her in a forest where she had survived by eating plants and drinking stream water for two weeks.

Eller told reporters on Maui that other helicopters had failed to see her earlier in her ordeal.

She was rescued on Friday.

Eller says she set out for a 3-mile hike in the Makawao Forest Reserve on May 8.

She didn't take a cellphone and didn't have a compass. She says her heart was telling her which way to turn.

‘I don't really know what happened,’ she said.

‘All I can say is that I got out of my car, it's like, you know, I have a strong sense of internal guidance, whatever you want to call that, a voice, spirit — everybody has a different name for it, heart.’

Eller's friend Javier Cantellops (pictured with Sarah Haynes, who helped coordinate the search effort) was in the helicopter when he spotted her waving up at him near the Kailua reservoir

Eller's friend Javier Cantellops (pictured with Sarah Haynes, who helped coordinate the search effort) was in the helicopter when he spotted her waving up at him near the Kailua reservoir

But when she tried to go back the way she came, that path didn't lead her to her car.

‘My heart was telling me, “Walk down this path, go left,” Great.

‘“Go right”. It was so strong - “Go left, go right” - I'm like, great, this is so strong that obviously when I turn around and go back to my car it will be just as strong when I go back, but it wasn't.’ 

When asked what advice she would give to hikers, she said: ‘Be over-prepared.’

‘I should have had a cellphone with me,’ she said.

‘There’s a reason we carry them all the time.’

Eller said that she normally packs food, water, and other supplies when she hikes.

But for this particular excursion, she decided not to pack anything.

‘It's a friendly jungle, there's not much that'll get ya. But still, be prepared.’ 

Eller, 35, had gone missing in the Makawao Forest Reserve on May 8 after she went hiking without her cell phone. A helicopter spotted her near a waterfall on Friday. 

Eller's friend Javier Cantellops was in the helicopter when he spotted her waving up at him near the Kailua reservoir.   

Cantellops said the helicopter only had five minutes left of fuel before it had to go back to the heliport when Eller suddenly came into view. 

'That moment will live down in the depths of my soul forever,' he told the Today show on Tuesday. 

'We're coming up this waterfall and I look down and she appears out of the woods. It can only be described as magic.' 

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