I hadn’t felt this in a long time

Published 21.3.202610.10.2026

Everyone who comes to us for darkness therapy takes away an experience of their own. Some are looking for calm, some for answers, others simply want a proper rest. A dark retreat often surprises people with how simple and how deep it is at the same time. This time we are sharing the experience of one participant who decided to stop for a while and be alone with himself, free of distractions.

The way to calm and silence

I liked it a lot. The setting alone and the calm all around had something about them. I realised how much I miss silence in everyday life. I’d been through a hard stretch – always work or something at home, my head running at full speed. Here I finally switched off.

I do find time for myself at home now and then, but this is something else entirely. In darkness therapy you rest much more deeply. You don’t have to deal with anything, nobody wants anything from you. You just are.

The first days and deep rest

For the first two days I slept a lot. I fell asleep almost as soon as I arrived, and then again after eating. My body took exactly what it needed. Little by little I felt everything slowing down.

On the third day I didn’t sleep as much. I mostly just lay there, rested or walked around. I’d had enough sleep, naturally. It was a strange feeling, but a pleasant one. I hadn’t felt that kind of calm in a long time.

Thoughts that come on their own

I wasn’t bored for a moment. There was always something to think about. I was either eating, thinking, or just noticing what was going on inside me. A dark retreat gives you space to reflect without interruption.

I’ve always liked being on my own, but here I got to know it at a much deeper level. No phone, no people, no noise. Just me and my thoughts.

What darkness therapy gave me

It confirmed a lot of things for me. I realised I’m heading in the right direction in life. That calm helped me sort out my priorities.

Darkness therapy showed me that sometimes very little is enough. To stop, be in silence and give yourself some space.

A message for you

If you’re thinking about it, don’t be afraid. I had my worries at the start too. Turning off the light and staying in the dark doesn’t feel entirely natural. But once you do it, it starts to make sense.

It’s a bit like jumping into cold water. You have to pluck up the courage. Then you find out it was worth it.

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

You can also follow our YouTube channel, where you will find videos about dark retreats and experiences of darkness therapy. 🔔

The time had come to go into the dark

Published 14.3.202610.10.2026

Perhaps you too have been thinking for a while about stopping for a moment and giving yourself time just for you, in complete silence. At moments like these we are often held back by fear of the unknown, but the experience of those who have already closed the door on the noise speaks clearly. Here is an authentic account of what it’s like when you decide to face your inner shadows and find unexpected calm and strength in them. This story will show you that we often build the biggest obstacles ourselves, in our own minds, and that overcoming them brings a liberating sense of victory.

From an idea to a quick booking

I’d been thinking about this option for an awfully long time, maybe even six months. I kept telling myself it would be really interesting to try, but somehow I didn’t have the courage. At that point I didn’t really have the right inner need either; I was just thinking about it in theory. But then something changed in my life. Suddenly I felt that now was the right time, because I was working through something inside myself. At that moment everything else went out of the window. I immediately started looking for free dates and made a booking. After that it all moved very quickly, and suddenly I was getting ready for my journey.

A childhood fear and my own imagination

I have to admit I was scared. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to cope with being alone with myself, even though it was only for three days. On top of that, I’ve been afraid of the dark since I was little, and I have a very vivid imagination. In the dark, all kinds of sounds often frighten me, and when I can’t see what’s right in front of me, I don’t feel good at all. So darkness therapy was a big challenge for me. But the reality surprised me. The situation itself wasn’t as hard as I’d pictured it. I found that the biggest fear was only in my head. In the end, I felt safe in that complete darkness. When I heard a sound and happened to have my eyes closed, I simply opened them. The darkness was still there, of course, but that made me feel completely fine.

Food as an unexpected sensory experience

Before I arrived, I was also worried about practical things, like food. I was afraid I’d spill it all over myself or miss my mouth with the fork. In the end, though, it felt completely fine. Now and then I touched the plate with my fingers to check whether there was anything left, but I didn’t spill a thing. Because at home I season my food a lot and adjust the flavour, I wasn’t sure whether I’d like the food here. My worries were unnecessary. Everything was excellent, and I experienced the food much more intensely than I normally do at home, where I look at it while I eat.

Coming back with new inner strength

Today I feel rested, calm and above all very strong. I’m proud of myself for getting through the whole dark retreat. The whole experience confirmed to me that everything is just in our heads. Our mind tries to convince us that we won’t manage something new and unknown, and that it’s dangerous or frightening. But when you really need it, you feel it inside. I’d definitely encourage you not to be afraid of taking that last step and confirming your booking. In reality it’s much simpler than it seems in our imagination. For now this experience was enough for me, but I believe there will be moments in my life when I’ll gladly come back to the dark. This isn’t my last time here.

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

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

The universe means well

Published 7.3.202610.10.2026

When you decide to vanish off the face of the earth for a while and unplug from the endless rush, you discover that silence and pitch-black emptiness are your best teachers. The moment you close the door behind you, the world outside stops existing and the journey into your inner self begins. It’s not that nothing happens – rather, things start happening that you’ve never had the time or the courage for until now. Time moves at a completely different pace here, and you start sinking into depths that may even surprise you.

Imagined conversations as a path to relief

You might be wondering what you’ll do in there the whole time, but you’ll see – your mind will find you on its own. Little by little, all sorts of things start rising to the surface: old hurts, traumas or unresolved conflicts from the past. Darkness therapy gives you a safe space for what you might call an imagined conversation. In this absolute calm, you can talk in your head with people who hurt you in the past. You can get angry with them, shout at them, or tell them everything you never managed to say before, all within this safe fiction. The experience helps you rebalance the situation in your mind and settle it. When you then go back over the facts in your thoughts, you find the event no longer triggers such a strong emotional reaction in you.

The universe isn’t out to get you

During your days in isolation, it may dawn on you that there’s no strict outside judge waiting for you after death. The only one who really judges you is you. You’ll see your life not only through your own eyes, but also through the eyes of the people you’ve dealt with over the years. A dark retreat shows you that the universe never means you any harm. Even the most painful situation you’ve been through is really a task meant to move you forward. It’s just a reflection of your own inner state. As Eckhart Tolle says, things will keep happening to you in life until you understand the test and pass it. You have the chance to move from the role of someone who’s merely surviving to the role of the creator of your own happiness, just as Joe Dispenza advises.

Like being back in your mother’s womb

You definitely won’t be bored in the cabin. You’ll feel safe, almost as if you were back in your mother’s womb. You can sleep whenever you feel like it, and you don’t have to justify to anyone why you’re doing nothing. If you like, you can listen to meditations or play a musical instrument. A Tibetan singing bowl or a small drum is great – in that silence you can really feel the air molecules passing the vibrations on to one another. Just don’t bring a guitar unless it has really good tuning pegs. Without your sight you’ll knock it out of tune straight away, and the harmony of your playing will soon be gone. For moving around the space, I recommend putting an exercise mat in the middle of the cabin. It makes a great reference point, so you won’t bump into anything.

When you grab a banana instead of your headphones

Even in the middle of such deep work on yourself, you’ll have some comic moments. You might, for example, want to listen to something on your MP3 player, feel for your headphones and only realise after a while that you’re holding one banana and two apples. Or, while you’re cleansing on a vegetarian diet, you head for the toilet, find you’re sitting slightly askew and very nearly end up in the narrow space by the shower.

Definitely bring a power bank. Small players run down quickly in the cold or with frequent use, and it’s better to keep them plugged in right by the bed so you don’t get frustrated when the battery dies in the middle of an important sentence. And when you finally step out into the garden after a week, watch out for the timed sprinklers by the cherry trees and roses, so you don’t get an unwanted shower with your very first breath of fresh air. Above all, be happy and love yourself, because that’s really all life is about.

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

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

René – A dark retreat as a cure for stress and dizziness

Published 4.3.202610.10.2026

My first feelings after coming out of the dark were intense. At first it was harder to get used to the light again – it was like a bad hangover, but within three hours it was much better. It was strange to take in all the visual stimuli and the sounds of the city again. The digital detox and total peace at your place were in sharp contrast with the usual hustle and bustle. On the first day even the clinking of cutlery in a restaurant bothered me, but after my first night’s sleep back in normal surroundings these feelings disappeared.

A week in the dark brought me inner peace

Even though I’ve gone back to my old routine, I feel different. I’m calmer. Even when work gets hectic, I take things more thoughtfully and less impulsively than before.

A week in the dark helped me make peace with old grievances and little hurts from my youth. I didn’t have any mystical visions, but my dark retreat was uplifting all the same.

An unexpected health benefit

The most interesting thing for me was discovering how many things in my life “fixed” themselves. For example, the dizziness I used to suffer from when working at height on a stepladder disappeared completely, without me even noticing at first.

I saw plenty of things

Published 28.2.202610.10.2026

Have you ever tried switching off the world around you completely for a few days and staying just with yourself? Maybe it tempts you, but at the same time you’re a little worried about what will happen in that silence. That’s exactly how one brave participant of ours felt when he decided to find out what darkness therapy would do to him. Although at the very beginning he felt a real chaos in his head , this dark retreat ultimately helped him find absolute inner peace. By the second day all his thoughts had fallen beautifully into place and he found that darkness is not an enemy but a space for perfect rest.

How my sons got me into the dark

It was my sons who got me into the dark, because they gave me a dark retreat as a birthday present. We were talking about it together once and I just casually mentioned that it interested me and that it might be good. And suddenly, bang, I had it in my pocket. I was really looking forward to coming here, even though at first I couldn’t picture it at all. In the last week before I came I couldn’t even sleep properly, I was so full of anticipation. I’d known before that something like this existed, but I hadn’t taken much interest in it. But as soon as I got the present, it gripped me straight away; I started watching YouTube and searching the internet and ordered everything right away.

Good God, what am I going to do here for three days?

That’s a good question, what you actually do in there. I have to admit that my very first thought, when I switched off the light and sat down there for the first time, was: “Good God, what am I going to do here for three days?”. The feeling when you switch off the light is terribly strange. At first I couldn’t think about anything specific and all I felt in my head was that chaos. But I have to say that in the end the time flew by incredibly fast and it was simply amazing. Only on the second day did I start to notice how beautifully my thoughts had settled and I was finally able to concentrate on things from the past that I wanted to think over in peace. Now I feel great and, above all, rested. I have the feeling that everything in my head has settled into its proper place.

When the brain starts to see even in the dark

The most interesting thing about the darkness is how endless it is, and at the same time how kind and beautiful. It’s definitely not scary, and there’s nothing you need to be afraid of. It’s simply a strange and interesting feeling. If you think you won’t see anything in the dark, you’re in for a surprise. I saw plenty of things and it was really nice and pleasant. It’s amazing to watch, right there in the dark, how your brain works.

For instance, I was lying there looking at the wall right in front of my nose. I could see beautifully how it was plastered, even though I knew that inside this room there’s wood. That alone might have made me suspicious, but the image was unbelievably real. When I touched the wall, I couldn’t see my hand, because the wall was simply something my brain had filled in. It knows the wall is supposed to be there, so it just shows it to you. Definitely don’t be afraid, go for it, because that calm and the settling of your thoughts is worth experiencing.

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

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

Cigarettes in the dark

Published 21.2.202610.10.2026

Listen, this is seriously mind-blowing! It’s just an unbelievable experience that totally gets you. Maybe you’ve been thinking about it for a while, you’ve read a bit about it and you’ve heard you shouldn’t expect anything because it’ll come by itself. So you didn’t expect anything, but the closer the date got, the more you felt that strange kind of fear. You didn’t actually even know what exactly you were afraid of or what you were getting into. But as they say, the darkness calls you by itself. Bit by bit you start to realise it, and that’s when the whole thing begins.

When the darkness stirs up an inner storm and a freak-out

During the retreat it can happen that you suddenly have a proper freak-out. It’s incredibly strong, in your thoughts and in your whole perception, and at that moment you genuinely think you just can’t do it. But getting past exactly that fear then turns out to be the best thing that happens on your whole retreat. That’s the most beautiful part of it all, because it leaves you with an unreal feeling. Once you get through that, a huge calm comes over you, absolutely wonderful and impossible to describe.

Ten kinds of experience in one package

Honestly, it’s like ten kinds of experience in one. You go through everything – from euphoria to confusion, understanding, calm, all the way to psychosis. It’s seriously unbelievable. Me, for example, from the moment I shut myself in there I didn’t think about a cigarette once. I didn’t get round to thinking about it at all, I didn’t have time. I was constantly piecing thoughts together. At first there was an absolute mountain of them and I needed to sort them out. Then I was dealing with completely different things, getting over phobias and enjoying the calm. It never even crossed my mind, even though I normally smoke a few cigarettes a day.

Realising your priorities and changing your life

Darkness therapy shows you that everything important happens in your own head. Even if you decided you wouldn’t light up, you just wouldn’t, because it’s your decision. You find out loads of things about yourself in there. I’d bought piles of tobacco, for instance, and in the end I didn’t have a single one. Because it dawned on me that it’s tied up with work and my whole lifestyle. To change anything, I’d have to overhaul absolutely everything from the ground up. A dark retreat simply sorts out the stuff in your head that’s just rattling around in there and that you don’t need at all. You get your life priorities straight.

In the end the darkness hugs you and won’t let go

Don’t be scared at all, because as they say, in the end the darkness hugs you. Once you understand it and stop being afraid of it, it’s beautiful. You’re calm, you meditate and you start to become aware of space-time. It’s an unbelievable experience with a wide-reaching impact. This isn’t some marketing thing, it’s about you outdoing yourself. That’s the peak, it absolutely blows the roof off. Another interesting thing is that in the dark you’re not hungry at all. I ate just an apple, two bananas and two spoonfuls of pasta the whole time. I just drank water, lay there and meditated. The mental effort simply keeps you busy in a different way. I definitely want to try it again, maybe in a year, for five days.

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

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

I had no time for myself

Published 14.2.202610.10.2026

Imagine the moment the door closes behind you and you are left in absolute darkness. On the first day you will probably be looking forward to it, just like the participant in our interview, who threw herself headlong into this adventure. But then Wednesday and Thursday come and your mind starts to fight. You may find that your biggest struggle is not with the lack of light, but with yourself. A dark retreat pulls you out of your comfort zone and makes you face things that are easy to overlook in the everyday rush.

Struggling with yourself and the path to acceptance

Many people think the worst part is the darkness around them. The truth is that first you struggle with your own inner settings. Our guest described how, during the first few days, she felt outside her comfort zone and time seemed endlessly long. The turning point came when she stopped fighting and began to accept her own presence. Darkness therapy shows you that once you connect with yourself, you actually start to feel good in that solitude. Suddenly you realise that your own company is exactly what you needed all along.

Audiobooks as a guide to your inner world

Audiobooks can be an interesting help during this experience. For some people they work as a kind of “handbook” for working with their inner world. They help you break through the initial discomfort and steer you towards accepting yourself. In absolute silence and darkness you can feel “naked”. It is an intimacy that few people experience in today’s world. It is a look deep inside yourself that reveals that all the masks you wear out there are actually completely unnecessary. You will feel much better without them.

Returning to reality and a new awareness

As the end approaches and you know a sunrise is waiting for you, an unexpected feeling may arrive – suddenly you won’t want to leave. You get used to focusing only on yourself and not on your surroundings, other people or everyday problems. A dark retreat gives you the gift of time, more time for yourself than you have ever had before. A few hours before bed at most can’t compare with several days in a row.

From an experience like this you take away an important resolution: to connect with yourself more often. Darkness therapy opens your eyes to the fact that you need to make those moments for yourself regularly in everyday life too. Even though returning to reality and getting used to your surroundings takes time, that inner awareness stays with you. If you feel afraid to look inside yourself, or you are in some kind of conflict with yourself, this is a way to change that. Next time you will know what you are getting into, and the initial fear will give way to calm curiosity.

Would you also like to experience the feeling of putting down all your masks and finding peace within yourself? Get in touch and we will arrange a date for you.

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

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

Libor – I decided to experience it for myself

Published 12.2.202610.10.2026

I have been working as a coach and mentor for more than twenty years, but the dark retreat took me somewhere I had never been in all my practice so far. It was actually one of my clients who led me to the decision. When I met him after his retreat, I saw a completely different energy in his eyes. He struck me as someone who had found a deep inner calm and a far greater ability to focus on his work and his everyday priorities. I decided to experience it for myself and started with the three-day option.

A digital detox and an encounter with my own mind

My three days in total isolation were the biggest digital detox you can imagine in today’s fast-paced world. You put your phone away, switch off your computer and suddenly come face to face with yourself, stripped bare – with your inner voices and your own mind. Only in that kind of silence do you discover how many thoughts normally run through your head. The greatest paradox of the experience is absolute freedom. There is no judge or warden watching you; you answer only to yourself. In the dark there is no point lying to yourself, because there is nobody there to fool. Accepting the truth about yourself is the essential starting point of any real change.

Returning to the “embrace of love” and gratitude

When I left after three nights and stepped out into the early-morning half-light just as the moon was setting, I was flooded with enormous gratitude and a deep sense of belonging to nature. The coming dawn was like returning to the embrace of an all-pervading love. It was an incredibly powerful moment. I can still feel that inner state of harmony and clarity long after going back to the usual whirl of work.

In future I am considering a whole week in the dark

The experience left a big mark on me and changed the way I see inner hygiene of the mind. If I decide on a week in the dark in future, it will be with great respect and humility. It is not about proving something to myself – I want to go even deeper, to the very core of my being. But you have to be inwardly mature and ready for a step like that. Everything has its right time.

Libor

Martin: the most fundamental experience of my life

Published 9.2.202610.10.2026

The courage to drop my prejudices and go for it

The dark retreat came to me somehow on its own. I’m really glad I dropped my initial worries and prejudices and went to try this experience first-hand. I had never done anything like it before, and today I can say it was one of the most fundamental experiences and moments of my life.

Time for a life reset and sorting out priorities

After a long time, I needed to remind myself and refresh my sense of what actually matters in life. During the retreat I sorted out a lot of things in my head, which led me to take big steps. At the beginning of September I already left my job and started devoting myself to the things I had calmly thought through during the therapy.

Comfort, great food and inner peace

The overall comfort during the retreat was excellent. I was very pleased with the food – it was a nice change without meat, there was nothing to fault and the portions were really generous. A great extra was the option of listening to audiobooks, such as The Four Agreements or The Way of the Superior Man.

If anyone is considering a similar experience, I definitely recommend Léčba tmou.

Martin

You lose all sense of time

Published 7.2.202610.10.2026

A digital detox that gave me back my appetite for food and for life

For many of us, stopping in today’s rushed world is an almost superhuman task. Constant distractions, pinging notifications and an endless list of work duties keep us permanently on edge. So one participant decided to take a radical step and chose a dark retreat as a way to finally switch off from the world outside. He came to it fairly quickly – a friend gave him a voucher that the friend hadn’t used. Originally the idea was that his girlfriend would use it, but for some reason she couldn’t go in the end. As the voucher had limited validity and a window opened up to switch off, he ended up diving in head first himself.

A switched-off phone as the biggest victory

The main goal of this darkness therapy was a total digital detox. In today’s world we are surrounded by too many stimuli that distract us from ourselves. The participant was rightly proud that he kept his mobile phone switched off beside him the whole time and never once felt the need to turn it on. Thanks to that, he could finally stop thinking about what needed doing at work or what he would have for dinner. Instead, his mind turned to much deeper things that we simply overlook in the ordinary merry-go-round of everyday life.

When food becomes your only dose of dopamine

The absence of sight brings fascinating changes in how you perceive with your other senses. In the dark you lose track of time, so the only fixed point in the day becomes food. In seclusion, it works as the main dose of dopamine, and you look forward to it incredibly. Eating itself is fascinating too – when you can’t see your plate, you experience the food only through taste and smell.

The experience showed that the darkness can even change long-standing eating habits:

Food tastes fantastic, even when you don’t know exactly what you’re eating.
You even savour things you normally “can’t stand”, which in this case was kale.
Your senses sharpen and you focus on every mouthful.

Physical and mental rest in absolute calm

Although his sleep over the three days was broken up into shorter stretches, both body and mind got a rest. Darkness therapy allowed the participant to work through topics that we can’t get hold of from week to week, because we don’t know how to stop. Even everyday tasks such as brushing teeth, showering or using the toilet went surprisingly smoothly and without any trouble.

After three days there was a sense of being rested, but at the same time came the realisation that it could have done with at least one more day. So the next milestone will probably be a whole week straight away, because only a longer dark retreat allows an even deeper dive into your own inner world. For the participant, the experience was clearly beneficial and confirmed that the darkness is a powerful tool for helping modern people recover.

Would you like to try what it’s like when the world disappears completely for a few days and it’s just you and your thoughts? You might find that even kale tastes great when you eat it in complete silence and calm.

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

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