Are people afraid of the dark?
Fear is the most common reason people put off a dark retreat for months, sometimes years. It is worth taking apart, because it is almost never about what it appears to be about.
What people fear before they arrive
When we ask what exactly someone is afraid of, the answer “the dark” lasts about two sentences. Then something else comes out: that they will go mad in there, that they won’t last and will feel like a failure, that they will meet something in their own head they have kept shut away for years. The darkness itself is just a space. But without sight, most of what we usually distract ourselves with disappears, and what is left is whatever we have been putting off.
What happens once the lights go out
After her retreat in January, Ivana Račáková summed it up in a single sentence that describes most participants’ experience:
In the end it was much simpler than it was in my head. There is nothing to be afraid of – whenever it starts to get unpleasant, you can leave.
Ivana Račáková, January 2026
The second thing people don’t expect is that the darkness is not hostile. Lenka Müllerová wrote after her retreat in June:
The darkness surprised me very pleasantly with the way it affected me. I felt safe and completely at ease.
Lenka Müllerová, June 2025
You can turn on the light and leave at any time
That “you can leave” is not a figure of speech. There is a key and a light switch in the sanctuary, the door unlocks from the inside, and nobody is holding you there. It is precisely because you can that almost nobody does — the fear of being shut in vanishes the moment you know you are not shut in.
When someone does finish early, it is rarely because of the dark. In thirteen years it has always been either illness or a situation outside that meant the person needed to get back. We never persuade anyone to stay, and nobody loses out — whoever leaves after two nights simply had a two-night retreat. There is no performance to measure in the dark, and an early end is not a defeat.
Fear of the dark, or fear of being alone?
And then there is a distinction that deserves a paragraph of its own: most people who say “I’m afraid of the dark” are really afraid of being alone with themselves. The darkness is just an environment where that can no longer be postponed. After his three-day retreat, Jan Blažek put it more succinctly than anyone:
The only thing you can be afraid of is having time for yourself. I plan to come back for a week.
Jan Blažek, December 2025
Philippe Mallet, who came to us from France, approached it from the other side — he went into the dark precisely in order to overcome his fear:
And the dark, oh my god 🤩 ! I will never ever regret having overcome my fears.
Philippe Mallet, June 2026
So the fear won’t disappear by reading about it. It usually disappears on the first or second night, and that is about the only thing we can promise about it in advance.
Who a dark retreat is not recommended for
All of this applies to ordinary fear of the dark. There are, however, conditions for which a dark retreat is not suitable, and they have nothing to do with fear — they include acute mental health problems, a history of psychotic illness and epilepsy. You will find an overview on the page about safety and contraindications. If you are not sure, we can talk it through over the phone beforehand.