"The elders speak, too, of the 'heyoka', a person who, in vision or dreams is visited by the Thunder Beings, and who assists humanity in it's exploration into the new worlds.  The 'heyoka', too, becomes one who is contrary to the accustomed and accepted rules of society.  The 'heyoka' does so precisely to push the fold of accepted reality, to sound the wake-up call.  According to Ogalala Sioux Elder, Looks-for-Buffalo, "The Heyoka is the counterpoint to the Thunder Beings who repeatedly dissolve the existing order and fashion a new arrangement from the pieces.

    "Not all 'heyokas' are indigenous peoples, many are living among modern society.  Modern day heyokas are charged to live as witnesses against the corruption of the Fourth World and to assist the shift into the Fifth World, as planetary midwifes."

From Lame Deer Seeker of Visions:

    "Another kind of medicine man is the heyoka, the sacred clown.

    "To us a clown is somebody sacred, funny, powerful, ridiculous, holy, shameful, visionary.  Fooling around, a clown is really performing a spiritual ceremony.  He has a power, it comes from the Thunder beings, not the animals on earth.

    "It is very simple to become a heyoka, all you have to do is dream about the lightning, the Thunderbirds, you do this and when you wake up in the morning, you are a heyoka, there is nothing you can do about it.

    "It is not easy to be a heyoka.  It is even harder to have one in the family. ... the wise old people know that heyokas are thunder-dreamers, that the Thunder beings commanded them to act in a silly way.

    "The heyokas get their power from the wakinyan, the sacred flying ones, the Thunderbirds.  These Thunderbirds are the wakan oyate - the spirit nation.  If the Thunder-beings want to put their power on earth, they send a dream to a man, a vision about thunder and lightning.  By this dream they appoint him to work his power for them in a human way.

   This is what makes him a heyoka.  Every dream which has some symbol of the thunder powers in it will make you into a heyoka.

    "A clown's work is sacred, it's a medicine man's job."