This paper offers a conceptual model or theory that synthesizes previous research, personal experience, and years of dialogue with instructors of wilderness programs, and other wilderness users. The goals of this model are to create a useful tool to help practitioners improve their programs and train instructors, focus additional research, help users understand how to use the wilderness for their own benefit, and increase understanding by resource managers about how the natural environment they manage can contribute to the development of human resources. This document outlines the four basic tenets of the model and discusses four tentative principles which describe a process of learning through wilderness experiences. (CW)