Category: Participants’ experiences

😊 Sometimes all you look forward to is peace and rest. But plenty of laughter and absurd scenarios in total darkness? Hardly anyone expects that.

One of our dark retreat guests described her experience as incredibly refreshing. From the very first day she felt her body and mind relaxing. She longed for rest – and rest really did come. Not with boredom, though, but with a surprise.

Out of nowhere, a fly turned up in the dark. An ordinary insect became the main character of her inner story. A buzz you would barely notice on a normal day turned into a dramatic element in the dark. Her mind started building scenarios: what if the fly lands in the food? What if she doesn’t notice and eats it? Thoughts like these set off a wave of images that would never have arisen outside.

Despite this small challenge, she thoroughly enjoyed her days in the dark. Joy, laughter and relaxation came together in a powerful experience she would hardly have had anywhere else. It was not just about rest, but also a chance to look within – and discover how strong the imagination can be and how much power there is in stillness.

🌀 Darkness therapy does not only lead to deep contemplation. It also brings unexpected stories that you discover within yourself. And it is often the smallest events that reveal how the mind behaves without distracting outside influences.

Who would have thought that an encounter with a fly could be a gateway to calm and to laughter?

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

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

When you decide to disconnect completely from the world around you, you often head for a place where nothing disturbs you – no light, no sound, no expectations. An experience like that can change the way you see yourself. One woman who chose a dark retreat described how, by the second day, she began to feel her head calming down and a pressure easing that she had not even been aware of until then.

In the dark there is nowhere to run. Every thought gets space, every unspoken word sounds a little louder in your inner voice. This woman decided to stay for seven days. Every day she woke up without a clock, without outside stimuli, but as time went on she recognised her own inner rhythm more and more clearly. She said she missed the outer framework of the day, but that was exactly what became her teacher – she began to experience time as something fluid, not as something that ties her down.

Darkness therapy also led her into physical sensations. She heard her heartbeat, became aware of her breath, felt tension in her body that gradually let go. Thanks to a previous dark retreat she was calmer and more open to accepting the inner space, which she could now deepen again.

The dark retreat also brought her a deeper understanding of her relationships. She realised where she was pushing too hard, where she was needlessly taking on responsibility for others and where she was forgetting about herself. After coming back she was able to speak more clearly about her needs, because for the first time in her life she had truly heard them.

She described the experience as a return to herself. It was not an escape but an invitation – into a space where nothing is pretended. Darkness therapy offered her a mirror in which nothing was hidden. And that became a gift she carried with her into everyday life.

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

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

😊 “I feel very calm, almost at peace,” came the words shortly after returning from the dark. One week without light, without outside stimuli, without distractions. Silence and darkness became a space in which change began to happen – subtle, but deep.

🌱 The very first morning after the retreat ended brought a powerful experience. The birds were singing, colours came alive, and the world suddenly seemed much brighter. Body and mind perceived everything differently. “After that week in the dark, everything had bright colours and clear sounds.” The feeling lasted for hours after waking. Everyday reality began to feel like a gift.

✨ During the darkness therapy, his thoughts gradually loosened, the tension eased and a deeper inner calm began to emerge. It was not about searching for answers, but about a space in which the answers appeared on their own. The silence made it possible to listen to what is usually drowned out.

💬 “It reminded me that I like simplicity. And that I don’t need much to be happy.” That sentence captures the essence of the whole experience. Darkness therapy does not push you in any particular direction. It simply opens up space – to perceive, to stop, to become aware.

🕯️ A dark retreat does not bring the same experiences to everyone. Sometimes emotions come, sometimes insights. But almost always something settles inside. The calm born in the dark stays with you – and reminds you that the real world begins within.

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

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

Silence. No distractions. Just me, my breath and endless darkness. That is exactly how one of our guests describes her experience – she decided to step away for a while from a world full of noise and chaos. She arrived with a head full of thoughts, overloaded with work and worries about her family. “I was all over the place,” she says honestly. That is precisely why she chose a dark retreat.

Right after arriving she felt something changing. The outer noise went quiet – and the inner noise began to play out its own tune. She admits that at first it was hard to calm down. But after the first few hours she began to sink deeper into herself. “I felt I was inside. Calmer. Grounded,” she recalls. Her body and mind were suddenly given space.

Three nights in total darkness and silence transformed her sense of time. Every minute flowed differently. Long. Slow. And yet intense. “I felt that everything took an awfully long time – but it was beautiful,” she says with a smile. And she adds that she would love to repeat the experience, perhaps for longer next time.

She sees her experiences in the dark as deeply healing. For her, darkness therapy was not an escape but a return – to herself, to calm, to simplicity. “Now I notice my surroundings more. There’s more silence in me. And that’s really lovely.”

Every dark retreat brings something different. Sometimes answers. Other times just silence, in which a new way of perceiving life is born. And that is exactly where its power lies.

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

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

Hello Tom and Leni,

For many people, a dark retreat is a unique opportunity for deep self-discovery and a calmer mind. One of our guests first experienced darkness therapy over three nights and then decided on a week-long stay to explore his inner world even more thoroughly.

On his first stay he chose to fast, which led to a marked quietening of both body and mind. The experience helped him realise how heavily we depend on ordinary outside stimuli, and how hard it is to stay in touch with ourselves without them. Even so, this experience laid the foundation for further work on himself.

His second dark retreat took place under different conditions — he decided not to fast, which gave him enough energy for daily exercise and for experiencing the darkness actively. This meant he could use the stay not only to rest, but also to work actively with his body and mind, which deepened his inner experience.

All in all, darkness therapy is not an easy path. A dark retreat often uncovers hidden layers of emotions and thoughts that you have to learn to work with. On the other hand, it is precisely this honesty and confrontation with your own self that leads to a sense of inner calm and greater clarity in life.

For anyone looking for space to stop, recover and get to know themselves more deeply, a dark retreat can be a valuable experience. Darkness therapy offers a unique way to slow down, switch off the outside world and listen to what is happening inside.

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

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

Hi Lenka, hi Tomáš,

I’d like to thank you for a brilliant experience.
I really enjoyed my stay with you. The dark is truly “inspiring” – it helped me find lots of answers to all sorts of questions, or at the very least showed me a different way of looking at them.
Watching the sunrise from the little cross was a truly spectacular experience.

Before I came, I was a bit worried about how I would cope and whether I’d be “afraid” of the dark, but paradoxically the biggest “fear” only came after I left the dark. And it took the form of a “fear” of switching my phone on. The whole way home down south (150 km) I drove by the road signs, because my satnav is on my phone, which I didn’t feel comfortable turning on… Really interesting – these days people are usually afraid they won’t have a signal, not that they will…

We’ll definitely see each other again some time.
Honza

Darkness therapy as a couple brings a different kind of challenge from a solo stay. One of our couples chose a dark retreat for two, but they soon found out that each of them was entering the darkness with different expectations.

✨ “I feel rested, a little disillusioned, but also grateful. It confirmed for me that this wasn’t my last visit,” the woman shared after coming out. She had wanted to experience the darkness for a long time and went into the retreat with openness and curiosity.

The man went into the darkness mainly out of curiosity. He had no particular expectations, and that is exactly what allowed him to spend all three nights unexpectedly calmly. He felt that he enjoyed the stay at his own pace – without pressure, without needing to achieve anything. Time in the silence and the dark simply flowed naturally for him.

🌀 Gradually, though, it became clear that each partner needed something different. While one wanted to go deep inside, the other longed for contact and conversation. And that is what created a subtle tension. “I think things were grinding a bit in there,” said the man. They both realised that a dark retreat as a couple calls for a great deal of respect for the other person’s differences.

The experience brought not only inner insights but also a new perspective on their relationship. Each of them touched their own limits, and both came away with a deeper understanding – of themselves and of how they function together in a completely different environment.

🕯 Darkness therapy for two is not about constant sharing. It offers the chance to be side by side and yet each walk your own path. If partners also accept the differences that show up in the dark, their relationship can grow in a completely new way.

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

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

🙂 Several days in the dark. Silence, calm, no distractions. One of our clients decided to share what he went through during his dark retreat. In his account he describes how his body rested, how his mind slowed down and how he gradually began to sink deeper into himself. His experience shows that darkness therapy can lead not only to calm, but also to quiet yet important realisations.

The first night, he says, came with a lot of thoughts. “My head was a total mess, because I wanted to think about loads and loads of stuff.” But then he fell asleep and intense dreams began to appear. “Sort of sci-fi, childlike, or just really completely crazy dreams. People from my life turned up in those dreams. A dream that could never happen, but there was a real person in it.”

Over the following nights his state changed. “Whenever I wanted to think about something, my head was completely empty.” He describes how any deliberate thinking was interrupted by other, unrelated thoughts: “I’d try to focus on something, but another, unrelated thought would jump straight in.”

At one point he decided to give up trying to control his thoughts: “So I just didn’t think, I just lay around.” Only then did a chance come to turn his attention elsewhere – to his own story. “I gradually started recalling my whole life – from childhood up to now. And that I could do.”

For him, the experience of darkness therapy didn’t lead to planning, but to a deep slowing down and a return to himself. It is not a space for performance, but for calm. The client’s words show that a dark retreat can bring exactly what is so often missing in the everyday world – time simply to be, without having to achieve anything.

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 retreats and experiences of darkness therapy. 🔔

He went into the dark with a clear goal. He wanted to sort out something he had been putting off for a long time. He believed that a dark retreat would help him “speed up the process” and close inner issues that had been ripening in him for a long time. But as he admits looking back, everything turned out completely differently from what he expected. And that is exactly where the power of darkness therapy lies.

🌓 In the very first days he began to notice that no speeding up was coming. On the contrary – time seemed to slow down. Everything that was happening inside him was happening “terribly gradually”. He realised that the darkness does not work as an accelerator but as a space that calms you down. Instead of the change he expected within a few days, there was room for deep realisation.

🕯 During the dark retreat, things stopped going the way he imagined. The answers he wanted to hear straight away didn’t come. Instead, he learned to accept that some questions would stay unanswered – and that this is fine. He eased the pressure on himself and on his inner growth. The darkness held up a mirror in which he saw that change cannot be forced.

🌱 During the dark retreat he became more aware that life does not have to be tied to pressure or performance. He understood that inner processes need neither force nor effort to “achieve something”. This insight came gradually – in moments of silence, slowing down and solitude. It was in those moments that a new way opened up to him of being with himself without expectations.

✨ For him, darkness therapy was not the solution to a problem but a return to himself. It allowed him to be with what is – without judging and without running away. And that is where its power lies.

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

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