Straight after it ended, I judged the dark retreat to have been very beneficial and useful for me.
Apart from an excellent improvement in cognitive functions (memory, concentration, imagination, …), I also noticed much greater calm in everyday life and a marked sharpening of my senses.
The dark retreat kept working for several days
Some interesting insights into how human thinking and perception work only dawned on me several days later, through specific situations in ordinary life. I believe that the experience of chaos, irrationality, emptiness and negativity is enormously important for a person, and those were the things I was looking for in the dark.
Just as in music the silence between the notes is as important as the notes themselves, sensory deprivation and temporarily withdrawing from the world are enormously necessary and desirable for the healthy functioning of the human psyche.
A dark retreat for deeper meditation
In the dark I reached far deeper and more intense meditative states than usual, and I was also much better able to observe how our mind literally soaks into the object it concentrates on, how thoughts move in certain rhythms and patterns, what qualities they have….
A week in the dark gave me perfect physical and mental relaxation, so I would recommend it to anyone. During the whole time I didn’t experience a single emotional swing or discomfort, though in my view their possible presence is no argument against a dark retreat, because even an unpleasant experience can turn out to be beneficial in the long run.
Karel
