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Category: Participants’ experiences

Here you can read about the experiences of people who have been on a dark retreat. Please bear in mind that feelings and the course of a stay in the dark are individual, and that other people’s experiences may plant expectations in you.

Not letting others influence you

Published

Each of us at some point finds ourselves at a crossroads, longing to stop the hectic world for a moment and give some time to ourselves alone. When someone arrives at our centre determined to look into their inner space, we know a deep personal story awaits them. Today we bring you an authentic account of darkness therapy straight from one of our visitors, who decided to share his feelings, challenges and moments of insight from a week-long experience.

A decision that came from me, and the first steps

The decision to come here came from me, from inside. I had been thinking about it for a while; it’s about three or four years back that I had the first flash of an idea that I would come and spend some time alone with myself. In the end I went straight for seven days. Originally I was thinking of three days to ease in, but if I was going to do it, then seven. A week of darkness therapy was, in my opinion, an excellent decision.

On the first day I did regret it a bit, because normally you get used to your surroundings and your airspace. On the first day I felt a kind of tightness in the room. I was there alone with the darkness all around. It was hard. Then one crisis came on the third day, but we walked that one off together. I just needed to talk, to ground myself a bit and feel some support. After that I focused fully on my goal. As I got closer to the end, everything got better and better.

How people around me reacted, and finding inner certainty

The first impulse came years ago, but then it faded. I didn’t feel I needed it at the time. Then, some time around Christmas, I told myself the right moment had come. Before the dark retreat was due to start, I was completely at peace. But a few days before coming, I confided in my friends. They immediately planted the idea in my head that it was a stupid thing to do.

I fell into great uncertainty. I had been looking forward to it the whole time, but as the date approached I was terribly nervous. I even said to myself, if only I were ill. The people around me had sown a seed of doubt, and it swelled up a bit. I knew myself that I wanted this, but other people’s opinions ate away at me. With hindsight, though, I see the dark retreat as one of the most positive decisions of my life.

Realisation in silence and building immunity to pressure

In everyday life we always let ourselves be influenced by those around us. It was in the silence that I realised that I alone create my world and the way I perceive it. The people around me only tell me what is right and how I should do things. Here, my innermost feelings came to me. There was no one around, no one telling me anything, no one judging. There was only me.

Those around us influence us, but we can build up immunity. You should listen to yourself, to your inner feelings, and not to others. If I hadn’t been convinced about my path and someone had just given it to me as a gift, I probably would have run away. My colleague Irena, for instance, was given a three-day retreat as a gift by her son on the strength of a single remark. She managed it, but at first she wasn’t inwardly convinced about it.

How darkness brings a feeling of safety

People should listen to their inner voice. In ordinary life it gets drowned out by those around you, because someone is always telling you something and then you’re in a muddle inside. I used to be afraid of the dark as such. But here I discovered that darkness brings tremendous calm and safety. You know you’re not in some cave where it’s cold and chilly. It’s warm here. I spent the spring here, the most beautiful time of the year, and it turned out incredibly safe.

A new birth and feelings after coming out

The dates worked out beautifully too. Last Saturday was my name day and today is my birthday. Today I was born as someone born anew. In the morning I stepped outside, saw the moon setting and an hour later the sun rising. An incredible experience, which I wish for everyone.

The only thing I missed slightly was the element of sharing after coming out; I needed to hug someone, say, and live that moment together. But people shouldn’t be afraid to follow the path their inner voice tells them to take. I found calm and peace here. My body is resonating with joy. I realised how much I love the people around me and how much I value them. Yesterday I even shed a few tears of joy that I will see them again and that we will celebrate today.

We have put together the most frequently asked questions that clients ask before a dark retreat.

Follow our YouTube channel too, where you will find videos about the retreats and people’s experiences of darkness therapy. 🔔

MY THERAPIST REMINDED ME OF THE OPTION OF A DARK RETREAT

Published

Take a look with us into the world of deep calm through the personal story of one of our participants, who spent seven nights with us. We decided to share his authentic impressions without any embellishment. Read what this time gave him, how he experienced the darkness and why, in his view, you always have a choice.

How I came out into the light after seven nights

I feel very good. It was powerful, it was interesting, it was eye-opening, and at the same time complicated in places, but actually I feel fully rested and genuinely recharged. I was in for seven nights. That means I went in on Tuesday the seventh and I’m coming out today. The days went by very quickly.

I did discover that I can’t count, though. I was counting how many nights I had left by the meals and the feeding times. I got it wrong, and yesterday I was surprised to find I only had the last night left. I thought I still had another night to go when they brought me the alarm clock.

I think seven days like this is enough. Still, the curiosity stays with me. I wonder what happens afterwards, say on the tenth day or after a month, or when someone stays the longest time, some sixty days. What else would be running through my head and what else could be unlocked, opened up and brought back to mind deep inside the soul. Right now, though, I’m not ready to give myself a slightly longer time. For me, for now, seven nights is the ideal length.

An idea that took four years to ripen

The idea or thought first came up maybe four years back, when I was looking around for it. I was looking at cabins somewhere around Prostějov and thinking it would be a great holiday. But then I told myself it was some nonsense and threw the idea away.

I see a therapist, Mr Mokráš in Brno, and in January he reminded me of the idea and kick-started it again. After that session I told myself that I had actually wanted to try it before. All things considered, my life so far had contained a lot of bad decisions and even worse deeds. This situation actually led me to the point where I could afford to go into the cabin. My job had come to a neat end, I don’t have to worry about housing and I have no family. I had the money for it, the dates suited me perfectly, so I paid. I took a fortnight to decide before I made that step.

Safety in the darkness and answers to questions

The dark retreat gave me a lot of answers to my questions. It showed me a lot of things in my behaviour and in how I perceive myself that I hadn’t seen before. It also revealed some crazy stuff. I found out that I don’t need to be afraid of the dark, because I felt safe in there. The darkness took me in and I merged with the space. I experienced it as a strange but pleasant experience and I felt genuinely fearless.

The comfort in the cabin suited me completely. The underfloor heating warmed the place beautifully, so I felt comfortable. The ventilation worked and the water from the well tasted really good; I drank an awful lot of it. I had everything I needed to have time for myself and to think about the things that trouble me and those that don’t, what I did wrong and where I can improve.

I expected to go through more low moods, but I think I had just one single moment when I wondered what to do. I stuck it out and slept it off. Darkness therapy showed me that my morale was surprisingly good. I had no need to go and try switching the light on. I knew I was going in on the seventh and coming out on the fourteenth. I conquered myself, I didn’t crap myself over it, and I made it through the whole thing.

Don’t be afraid, and remember you always have a choice

Don’t be afraid of it, but give it time. The time has to ripen for you to come here. Bear in mind, though, that the whole time you always have a choice. You needn’t worry that they’ll lock you in here or that you’ll never see anyone again. The meals and all the service and comfort work on site, and the owners went out of their way to accommodate me in everything.

You have a choice because you can switch the light on, stop or leave at any time. No one is going to keep you here. It was precisely this thought that helped me a lot in getting through it all and completing it.

Want to find out more about the guides through the dark?

Follow our YouTube channel too, where you will find videos about the retreats and people’s experiences of darkness therapy. 🔔

Mobile phone addiction

Published

Here is another authentic story that gives you a sense of what it’s like to vanish completely from a world full of rush for a few days. In absolute silence and pitch-black darkness, our guests experience things that often escape them outside. This time, a man who urgently needed to switch off the work treadmill and recharge his life with new energy shares his experiences. Find out how this short dark retreat went and everything he realised in the course of a few days.

An escape from emails, kids and the endless rush

I feel great, I feel rested, really relaxed. After all that work stuff, where you’re just dealing with a pile of things – emails, people, problems, kids, family – these three nights were a really effective, effective rest. When I’m out there normally, I’ve always got some kind of input, stimuli.

The rest here was great in that I had no external stimuli at all. I definitely worked some things out, things I came here to work out, or I sorted out some thoughts here. So mainly those things, I suppose. And then to try to calm down sometimes during a normal day as well. Anyway, I think coming here like this, say once a year for three nights, to reset or calm down, I think that’s brilliant. To stop.

I just slept for a day and a half

It kind of struck me, because I was only here for a short time. I was here for three nights, and for a day and a half of that I was basically asleep. Yeah, the way the darkness is, it suddenly came over me and I was completely out. And then fine, then I was functioning a bit again.

Being here, I actually realised there’s quite a big addiction to the mobile. That umpteen times a day I just had the urge to reach for it and stare at it, and even though I don’t have Instagram and Facebook on it, I still had that urge. I became aware of these addictions, which are pretty big when it comes to this.

How I managed everyday things blind

When you showed me at the start, look, here’s the kettle, here’s where you make your tea, I thought, no way. You think I’m some kind of walking encyclopedia, or what? But it surprised me. Before I switched off the light, I unpacked a bit and checked where I had my things.

So I sort of learned it. OK, look, here I’ve got this, here’s my toothbrush, here I’ve got some clothes, here’s the kettle, here’s the washbasin, here’s the tap. I tried going to the washbasin blind, with my eyes closed, to test it out. And then I was more or less sure, so I went for it, the switch, I turned off the light, and I can say I managed all of it fine.

I often went straight to the tap first time. I went over there and straight away, tap, clearly here it is, off we go. The toilet too, the shower, the shower too. I learned that one as well. That tap is good, the thermostatic one. Honestly, I had no problems.

With the tea I was really careful when I was pouring it, because that’s not quite such a laugh after all. I’d say that’s a bit more advanced. But otherwise I managed it. Food was great too, I sat down on the bed there and just ate completely calmly.

The fear of not having enough food was unfounded

I won’t pretend. I was quite worried about the food, because I’m quite a greedy eater. And when it comes over me, I’m capable of really stuffing myself. So I was a bit worried, but I had no problems at all.

It was great. I really liked the food. Whether it was the breakfast, those crunchies, you must make those here yourselves, because they’re really excellent, from the oven. And the main meal was great too. I’m normally a meat-eater and I had no problem here. On the contrary, I was glad.

Why I didn’t want to be in a flat in Prague

I wanted this, it was absolutely my plan to come here, and I just wanted to switch off. I talked to a lot of different people and gathered information, and I had two requirements. The first requirement was that I needed it to be shorter. I need those four days, three nights.

And the second requirement, and this one was crucial, was that it had to be somewhere outside the city, somewhere quiet, somewhere in nature. This place is just absolutely ideal, where I can hear the birds and so on. Why? Because I was talking to a mate and he told me: Look, I spent a week in some flat in Prague and the whole week kids were screaming at me from other flats, yeah, and you really don’t want that, you really don’t.

So I can say that here it was really great. And I’m really glad that my amazing wife Renča found this darkness therapy. Hello to you. And she basically gave it to Baby Jesus and he gave it to me for Christmas. So that’s how it was.

No bogeymen were waiting for me, I simply had a rest

I can definitely tell everyone not to be afraid of it. I was genuinely surprised how manageable it is on the practical side. No bogeymen, and the Holy Spirit didn’t enlighten me either, I simply had a rest.

Completely normally. And it’s doable, it really is doable. And if you have any feelings that you won’t manage it, then the three days or four days here that I did, totally fine. Darkness therapy showed me how much a person needs to switch off from the rush now and then. This dark retreat delivered exactly what I expected of it.

We have prepared the most frequently asked questions that clients ask before a dark retreat.

Follow our YouTube channel too, where you’ll find videos about dark retreats and experiences of darkness therapy. 🔔

You won’t find the power of darkness anywhere else

Published

Are you looking for a way to slow down in today’s hectic world, shake off your worries and find the inner peace you have lost? Sometimes you simply feel that something is not right, that you are not comfortable in your own skin, and that you need a more radical change or an escape from the daily grind.

Read the honest story of a man who decided to support the transformation happening in his life and set off for a place where worries and problems stay outside the door.

My first radical solution

I thought about my very first darkness therapy for about a year, maybe a year and a half. I knew I needed to do something, to change something. Quite a few people tried to talk me out of it, but all they had was second-hand information. At the time I didn’t know anyone who had been through it themselves. All I’d heard were tall tales from friends of friends, saying that people don’t come out of a place like that normal.

But I felt I needed to give it a go. Either I’d manage it or I wouldn’t. The first time, I spent four days and four nights in a place like that. I slept through the entire first day, and then things slowly started to settle.

I drove home relaxed and at peace. My wife did say that the calm only lasted me a short while, but I reckon I drew on it for about six months. Then it started to crack again, the stress came back and everything began piling up on me once more. Thankfully, no longer to the same extent as before.

Coming back with no expectations

A year later I decided to come back, but this time I went into the dark without any expectations at all. I wasn’t waiting for quick conclusions, changes or instant miracles. All I wanted was to support the change I had set in motion within myself a year earlier. And as far as I’m concerned, that worked one hundred per cent.

I came out and I feel completely zen. The second dark retreat turned out quite differently from the first. It offered a longer and more intense experience, with a much gentler run-up. It definitely helped that I already knew exactly what I was getting into. Once again I slept through the first night and day, but then time started to stretch out miraculously. Everything slowed down.

When I stood outside in the sunshine, my stomach still churning a little, I knew straight away that I had to return to stillness for a moment. These days I prefer to give myself some time before I get into the car, and I plan a stop for a good coffee on the way.

A step back from your own life

Before my first stay my head was full of thoughts. I kept wondering what I would do there the whole time on my own, and whether I could even stand my own company. Paradoxically, though, I never felt alone in there.

I gained an enormous perspective on my own life. Suddenly you allow yourself to take that important step back; you look from a completely unfamiliar angle and simply observe. I went through everything in my head: what has been, what I want in my life and what I don’t.

If you’re facing a similar dilemma, I have one piece of advice for you. Those who don’t want to look for reasons; those who do look for ways. You don’t have to go away for a whole week straight off. Three days is plenty, which means one long weekend. It is absolutely worth it. Darkness holds a completely different kind of power, one you won’t find anywhere else.

Want to find out more about the guides through the dark?

Follow our YouTube channel too, where you’ll find videos about dark retreats and people’s experiences of darkness therapy. 🔔

A colleague told me about the darkness

Published

Here is the story of a man who decided to find out first-hand what absolute darkness does to a person. When he came to us, he was carrying lots of questions and a head full of unresolved things. Maybe you’re going through something similar right now and wondering whether an experience like this could help you find the calm and strength you’ve lost. Read how he himself experienced this intense time and what coming back into daylight gave him.

How it all started

I first heard about this a few years back. Even then it sort of caught my interest, but I didn’t really think about it any deeper at the time. I did tell myself I might give it a go some day, but I left it at that. It was only recently that this changed. I was chatting with a colleague at work and somehow the subject came up. At that moment I started really thinking about it, with the idea that I’d actually do it. It didn’t take long before I told myself I wanted to try it. My colleague hadn’t been in the dark himself, he just gave me the nudge I needed to make up my mind. He told me that someone he knew, or a friend of his, had been on a dark retreat and shared his experience. So I thought it might not be a bad idea.

Looking for calm and deep regeneration

I suppose my head was full of unresolved things and I was looking for some peace. I needed a break from everything so I could sort my thoughts out a bit. I also longed for regeneration, which I really felt strongly once it was over. Overall it was a deep, deep regeneration – physical, mental and emotional. I simply got a rest from everything. In the end I spent three nights there, which is really about two and a half days.

Fear gave way to an awakening

The only thing I was afraid of beforehand was that I’d be afraid. Once I’d paid and the day was getting closer, I was really scared. I kept thinking, I just want it to be here already, and I was very afraid. My thoughts were racing far too much. But to tell the truth, the moment I stepped into the darkness, the fear somehow fell away. I just told myself I could handle it, and the fear was basically gone. Suddenly there weren’t so many thoughts, it all just sort of settled. I didn’t quite have those feelings while I was actually in the dark, it was more after I woke up. It was a kind of awakening from the darkness.

What coming back into the light gave me

When I came out into the light, I think I felt full of love. I started telling myself I’d like to somehow pass it on and give the world love, I suppose. Those are exactly the feelings I had. Based on all of that, I’d recommend people at least give it a try. There’s probably nothing to be afraid of. Maybe it varies from person to person, but I myself had a really huge amount of fear beforehand. They were such baffling fears that I didn’t even understand them myself. Now I know that the second time I wouldn’t be afraid at all.

We’ve put together the most frequently asked questions that people ask before a dark retreat.

Take a look at our YouTube channel too – follow us for videos about dark retreats and experiences of darkness therapy. 🔔

I let go of everything that’s outside

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Stopping in today’s hectic world and giving yourself time just for you takes courage and clear priorities. Here is a first-hand account from someone who regularly steps out of the conventional cycle of everyday life to recharge and get clear about important steps in his life. Read how an experience like this changes the way you see everyday reality, and why he keeps coming back to it.

My inner journey at the end of March

I feel great, rested and relaxed. That’s how I’d put it, simply, because I just feel really good. This was actually my third week in the dark. Every two years, around the end of March, I go into the dark for a week. It’s not something I’m afraid of; if anything, I find great joy in it. For me, darkness therapy means a wonderful break from the established rhythm and the conventional cycle that all of us live in one way or another. I see it as a very useful and worthwhile change. From a conventional point of view it may seem odd that someone would choose to spend their holiday in the dark for a week, but it’s a question of priorities, of how we want to spend our time. It’s definitely not an addiction, and it can’t be, because addictions aren’t beneficial.

Introspection and the deep things that last

You go into the dark for inner reasons. It’s an inner, introspective journey, so you don’t need to talk about it much beforehand with everyone around you. I only tell people who’ll understand it. I see a dark retreat as part of a wider journey, a kind of development that changes your approach to life. When you go back to your usual routine, the most intense benefits slowly fade, and the sensory deprivation evens out within a few days. But what matters stays. In the dark you can realise a great many things. If you approach it in a self-reflective way, the long-term benefit is lasting. The deeper things stay with you and become an integral part of your path, whatever it may be. These are things you simply have to live through yourself.

Set your worries aside before the lights go out

Every experience is individual; everyone goes into it with something different and with different patterns or karma. So never compare yourself with the people around you, which is a good approach to life in general. From my own experience I can only recommend it. If you have any worries, I’d suggest setting them aside at the latest before you switch off the light in the cabin. Try not to carry too many things from outside around in your mind, and try to let go of everything. I have a ritual before the lights go out, where I consciously tell myself that I’m letting go of everything that’s outside, including the things we don’t like letting go of. You’ll see that it all carries on without us, and carries on just fine. Then you come back, hear birdsong on a beautiful day and know that the world is wonderful, just as the darkness was wonderful. There’s no reason to be afraid.

Would you like to find out more about your guides in the dark?

Follow our YouTube channel too, where you’ll find videos about dark retreats and experiences of darkness therapy. 🔔

There is no pressure here

Published

Want to know what it is like to stop for a week and disconnect from the entire outside world? We bring you the candid account of a man who spent seven days with us in absolute silence and solitude.

His open story shows how deep a transformation a person can go through when they find the courage to look into their own inner self. Read what this experience gave him and how it changed the way he sees himself and the people around him.

The road to a new stage in life

I found myself at the start of some new stage in life. One in which I will no longer have to let myself be ruled so much by my psyche. It wasn’t only me who suffered from it, but plenty of people around me too.

Thanks to having completed a dark retreat, I was finally able to look into my psyche. I was also able to feel it deeply enough to gradually move away from it. I began, little by little, to free myself from it.

In short, I had to come to terms with myself. I needed to work out, as far as possible, why my life’s troubles kept happening over and over in a similar way. I was looking for the source of that inability to deal with my own life and finally to love myself.

In more than one place I had come across what forms the entry condition for a happy life. You have to have balanced relationships with those around you and with yourself. You have to love yourself, be grateful and not give in to self-deception.

A week as the bare minimum

I doubt that anyone could really experience something like this in half an hour in church. That is simply not enough. A week, at the very least, is the time it takes for the workings of the ordinary mind to finally change.

The human mind gets out of that constant preoccupation with the stimuli around it and with itself. In the sense that you perceive what you are doing and what others are doing to you.

Darkness genuinely pulls you out of your normal, everyday way of functioning. In that darkness you experience a completely different sense of time and space, and nothing disturbs you.

In the little cabin you put at my disposal I was warm, clean and comfortable. I came across nothing that could cause fear or that should disturb me in any way.

So I don’t think there is any reason to worry about a retreat. People often wonder how they will feel when they can’t function in the normal way. They are afraid they won’t see what they usually see. They miss the social contact they normally keep up. On the contrary, only an environment like this could allow me to look at myself.

The safety of the inner self instead of outer extremes

At last I got to how I actually think and what I actually feel. I was finding out where it comes from and whether those feelings belong to me. Perhaps I had merely adopted them, taken them over, or created them myself.

Actually, I don’t think there is a better place to start dealing with self-knowledge at all. You could go to the seaside, say, or spend a month in the desert. Those are all extreme conditions. Those paths don’t offer the safety that I had here with you.

On the road there would certainly be plenty of stimuli I would react to. I mean travelling, discussions and above all sadness or longing. Everything I had until now considered part of myself, I was able, thanks to the darkness, to see differently. I experienced these things as something I had actually created myself. That is why darkness therapy is an experience I recommend with all my heart.

The courage to forgive and live freely

I sincerely wish people would find that courage. Even if it turned out to be, so to speak, too much for them, they can break off the retreat at any time. There isn’t even that pressure here of having to endure something.

People usually see a retreat as: if they can’t go outside, they are effectively imprisoned. But surely that too is part of the state you find yourself in. For me personally, it gave me the chance to simply be in that darkness for those seven days. I didn’t have to merely endure it.

It was certainly one of the longest weeks of my life. I value that, because these exceptional conditions are what I like best. Darkness therapy helped me make peace, as far as possible, with myself. I accepted the way I was, so to speak, or thought I was.

Thanks to that I felt reconciled with the people close to me, whom I have been meeting all my life. I managed, to a certain extent, to forgive myself. Thanks to that I felt that the others were being forgiven too. Because in a certain way I perceive the others as myself.

There really are many benefits to a retreat. You are able to deny yourself your usual pleasures and social contact for a week. If you can afford to switch this off for a while, you gain a lot. You can concentrate on your consciousness, your inner self and your heart. That is exactly the right gateway to another, freer way of living.

We have put together the most frequently asked questions that clients ask before a dark retreat.

Follow our YouTube channel too, where you will find videos about the retreats and people’s experiences of darkness therapy. 🔔

Don’t bring too much with you

Published

Feeling completely charged with energy and fully aware of the present moment is an experience that few people take home from a dark retreat with such ease. We’re pleased to introduce the experience of a man who set out to our cabin to explore his inner world. He prepared for the journey for a long time, but the moment to actually do it came when it made the most sense. Read how he lived through the days in absolute silence and solitude, why he left with bags full of food, and what lesson he is taking away for his everyday life.

A Christmas present that waited for years

I first heard about this experience when I was seventeen. From then on I longed for it and took an interest in it, but the right moment to consciously decide on it never came. Everything changed only when I got a voucher for Christmas from my wife. At that moment I told myself this was it, it’s here, and now I have to pick a date. I wanted to do it almost as soon as possible. With hindsight I can see that everything came along nicely and smoothly. If I’d gone at seventeen, I wouldn’t have benefited from it as much as I do now.

Originally I planned to stay just under a week, or more precisely a week minus one day, because I chose myself to finish a day early. I’d heard of it as a week, so I told myself I’d go for it straight away. I discussed it with an AI, which did tell me that in the case of any anxiety states it’s better to do just three days, but nothing of the sort happened to me. I knew in advance that I’d leave a day early, because I wanted to have one more day just for myself without having to go straight back into the normal routine.

When time slows down to a crawl

I felt calm and settled from about the moment I arrived. The first two days I probably slept through, like most people. Then three days passed as if with a snap of the fingers. But then it gradually started to slow down. Duties started coming back to me, things I’d have to do, or that I’d forgotten someone in connection with some project. Just small things, but on that last day time slowed down a lot. It was quite long, because by then I was expecting to come out.

But those thoughts certainly didn’t disturb me. What I did was write everything down on a piece of paper so I could come back to it later. Then I somehow breathed through it and let it go. I didn’t even feel that I had no contact with the world. On the contrary, I felt that the world was actually inside me. I didn’t experience a single anxious moment. But I experienced dreams very intensely. Every night I had one or more dreams and I always remembered them. On the last night I discovered that most of those dreams are really connected to some deep fear, that they probably stem from it.

I’m taking nuts and mandarins back home

If you’re planning to come here, don’t bring a load of nonsense with you, because you won’t need it anyway. That’s the first thing that comes to mind. I brought lots of clothes and a few things to keep myself occupied. My wife prepared little bags of nuts for me, messages written with a hot glue gun, some squishy toys, and she bought me a rubber breast. Honestly, I never even took that out, and I completely failed to read the glue gun message. The only thing I used the whole time was a kind of ball that I passed between my fingers.

All the mandarins, nuts and cheeses I bought, I’m taking home. I found that when I’m calm all day, my energy expenditure is almost zero and I don’t need to eat so much. I made a ritual of having muesli for breakfast and then living all day off the food you brought me. Which, by the way, was really excellent, and I had no craving for meat at all, and I still don’t feel it now.

What darkness therapy gave me

I feel full of energy and completely charged up. I’ll keep observing for a while what it actually did to me, but I’d say I feel good. Overall I think I’m doing everything right and should simply carry on. There’s nothing specific I want to focus on right now. I’ve been getting into this spiritual circle for some time, going round in it and just exploring it in more depth.

Of course, everyone has a different reason for going into something like this. It’s very individual and depends on whether you have a reason for it or whether you just want to observe yourself, your inner world, and learn to be still with yourself for a while in today’s age of distraction. For me it was a great dark retreat and I enjoyed it very much.

Want to find out more about the guides through the dark?

Follow our YouTube channel too, where you’ll find videos about the retreats and people’s experiences with darkness therapy. 🔔

It took me a day to decide

Published

Are you curious about what goes on in the mind of someone who decides to step away voluntarily from all the bustle of modern civilisation for a whole week? Today’s story offers an honest glimpse into the experience of someone who decided to try darkness therapy and was looking for a space where he could stop time completely for a while. We often hear questions about whether such an experience is safe at all, or what exactly people go through in total darkness. So instead of guessing, we asked a participant who recently completed his first dark retreat.

First steps into the dark and the search for calm

When I woke up into the darkness on the first morning, I felt a completely different kind of calm from an ordinary morning. It’s actually interesting, something new. My eyes had to get used to the light, or rather to its absence. Within ten or twenty minutes my head and eyes adjusted, and what followed was a feeling of release without any stress at all. I had never experienced anything like it before. That whole week was a chance for me to take a break from phones, the internet and everyday contact with people and my surroundings. I didn’t feel the need to overdo anything; I simply felt that this was something I wanted to enjoy there in the dark.

Expectations and the reality of the retreat

I didn’t go into the dark with any specific plans or expectations. I just wanted to let things flow and take in whatever came at any given moment. I didn’t want to know in advance what I would go through or how I would feel. In the end, darkness therapy gave me the main thing I had longed for – the chance to meet myself in silence and calm. At last I had enough time to think about all sorts of things and keep coming back to them. It was exactly as it should have been.

Fear and a sense of safety

People often ask me whether I was scared. If someone were afraid of the darkness itself, I’d understand, because at first I didn’t know how I would react either. I wondered whether the dark would start to bother me after a while. But I got used to it incredibly quickly and felt it more as a kind of bubble around me. I didn’t go through any crisis, homesickness or gloom. The dark retreat felt like a safe place to me. Besides, I knew I could open the door or switch on the light at any time. Overall, the experience didn’t feel dangerous in any way. If you are thinking about something similar, my advice is to think mainly about what exactly it is you’re afraid of.

We have put together the frequently asked questions that people ask before a dark retreat.

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I’d put a massage chair in the dark

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Many people link a dark retreat with big expectations, often stemming from stories of inner change or deep insights. But when you actually find yourself in a cabin without light, reality tends to be much simpler. Today’s story isn’t about great spiritual revelations, but an honest description of what it’s really like to switch off your phone, lose track of time and try living completely offline for a few days.

No bogeymen, just calm

A lot of you are afraid of the dark because you’ve heard stories about bogeymen supposedly lurking in the cabins. I’d like to put those fears to rest – there are no bogeymen in there. On the contrary, for me the whole experience was more about calm and the occasional boredom you have to deal with. A great help for me was the MP3 player with audiobooks that you gave me, which helped me cope better with the time in the dark.

Expectations versus reality

Beforehand I imagined that inside I’d experience some kind of reset for my head, as if I’d flicked a switch. That didn’t quite happen, and the hallucinations I was curious about didn’t turn up either, but I still consider this offline detox worthwhile. Getting away from the internet for three nights and being alone with yourself is simply a nice experience.

What made my stay more pleasant

I really have to single out the food, because the garlic soup was absolutely excellent. I really appreciate that you think of vegetarians, even though I eat meat myself. Another thing I was pleased about is the underfloor heating in the cabins. Thanks to it, it’s nice and cosy inside even in winter and you don’t have to worry about being cold.

A few ideas for improvement

When you ask me what could be improved, a massage chair came to mind. Since the cabin only has a bed or a mat, where you sit on the floor leaning against the wall, a massage chair would make the stay even more of a wellness experience. I’d known about darkness therapy for several years, but only now was the right time to try it. Next time I might try a retreat for two, because I think it could be more interesting than being completely on my own.

Want to know more about your guides in the dark?

Follow our YouTube channel too, where you will find videos about retreats and experiences of darkness therapy. 🔔

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