Darkness is a technology which has been available to humans since before even the birth of fire. It’s a technology available to anyone, and often accidentally discovered in all corners of humanity throughout time. Embraced and developed by cultures when they find that in Darkness, the light of consciousness shines brightest.
Purveyors of almost all wisdom traditions, including Tibetan Buddhist and Bons, Sufis, Christians, Egyptians, Haitian Vodou, Japanese Shinto, Celtic tribal traditions, shamanic traditions of Dagar in Africa, Lakota in North America, Kogi of South America and many others, have used the Darkness to cross the veil in various ways. Reports from these traditions and the realm of science indicate that, when liminal states are accessed, the usual filters of rational, beta-wave consciousness are relaxed, allowing access to deeper layers of awareness, unconscious material, spiritual insights or revelations.
Enlightenment is the process of becoming free of the heaviness of life. We have come to call evil, undesired or sinister phenomena as ‘Dark’ and yet Darkness is not the enemy of enlightenment - it is enlightenment's most faithful ally.
For over a thousand years, Tibetan Buddhist practitioners have used tun (Dark retreat) as one of their most advanced practices. Monks and nuns spend weeks, months, or even years in complete Darkness, using this profound isolation to dissolve the boundaries of ordinary perception.
In the Dzogchen tradition, dark retreat is considered essential for recognizing rigpa - the natural, luminous awareness that is our true nature. Without the distractions of sight, practitioners report direct encounters with what they call ‘the clear light of awareness.’
In Darkness, there is nothing to see but the seer itself.Traditional Dzogchen teaching
Christian hermits and mystics have long sought darkness for union with the Divine. The Desert fathers retreated to caves in the Egyptian wilderness, where they discovered that physical darkness often preceded spiritual illumination.
St. John of the Cross wrote extensively about "the dark night of the soul" - not as suffering, but as the necessary passage through darkness that leads to mystical union. Many Christian contemplatives have used literal darkness as a doorway to what they call "unknowing" - a state where ordinary mental faculties cease and direct divine encounter becomes possible.
Sufi mystics speak of khalwa - spiritual retreat in Darkness - as essential for polishing the mirror of the heart. In complete Darkness, removed from all external phenomena, the seeker encounters what they call the "Darkness of God" - a luminous black that contains all colours, all possibilities.
The great Sufi poet Rumi, often wrote about this sacred Darkness: "In your light I learn how to love. In your beauty, how to make poems. You dance inside my chest where no one sees you, but sometimes I do, and that sight becomes this art, this music, this form." - The Essential Rumi (translated by Coleman Barks)
The ancient Egyptians built their most sacred spaces – the inner chambers of pyramids – in complete Darkness. Here, initiates underwent profound transformations, emerging with knowledge they claimed came directly from the gods. Most pyramids around the world are built over sacred caves that were sometimes even left completely natural. Some speculate that these caves were more sacred to the pyramid builders than the pyramids themselves - as the place of initiation to the initiate. They would go into the Darkness for extended periods and fast - staying there until enlightened, like Buddha’s vow when he sat under the tree.
There is speculation too that the inner chambers weren't burial chambers, they were also consciousness laboratories where selected individuals experienced direct recognition of their divine nature through the dissolution of ordinary perception.
Darkness removes the veil between worlds, allowing shamanic and indigenous cultures to see and interact with realities that remain invisible in ordinary light.
Across indigenous cultures worldwide, darkness has been a teacher of non-ordinary reality for humanity. Vision quests often incorporate nights of complete darkness or moonlit nights, where seekers encounter spirit guides, receive visions about their life purpose, and connect with the interconnected web of all existence.
The Huichol people of Mexico conduct their most important religious rituals - including the annual peyote pilgrimage to Wirikuta - largely at night and in liminal Darkness, believing that sensory deprivation through darkness enhances spiritual perception and awakens ‘sacred sight’.
Similarly, Australian Aboriginal cultures use Darkness in their initiation rites, understanding that spiritual maturity requires the ability to navigate invisible realities. Darkness (natural or symbolic) is sometimes used as a boundary for the uninitiated, marking entry into secret, sacred space necessary for attaining spiritual knowledge.
Traditional shamans worldwide use Darkness to enter non-ordinary states where they can:
Indigenous healing traditions recognize that much of human suffering comes from aspects of ourselves we cannot see or accept – what modern psychology calls ‘the shadow.’ Darkness work provides a safe container for encountering these hidden or repressed parts of the psyche, so we can integrate them rather than remaining unconsciously controlled by them.
The practice of lucid dreaming - becoming aware that you're dreaming while still in the dream - has been refined in Darkness traditions for millennia. Extended Darkness naturally enhances the likelihood and intensity of lucid dreams. In the Darkness the REM (rapid eye movement) states where lucid dreaming mainly occurs are extended. This is enhanced because the time the brain spends in subdued speed states (low alpha waves and below) also increases. When we do wake, there is no release of serotonin because there is no light to stimulate it, so we can fall back asleep - and this is the time when most people lucid dream.
Tibetan dream yoga and Hindu yoga nidra recognize Darkness as the optimal environment for developing conscious dreaming abilities. Dream yoga is an essential practice for the Tibetan Buddhists who believe that one needs to learn to wake up in dreams in order to be able to wake up in the Bardos - the stages between death and rebirth.
Throughout history, great artists, writers, and inventors have discovered their most profound inspirations in Darkness. Salvador Dalí and Thomas Edison both practiced accessing hypnagogic states in Darkness to access surreal imagery. Maya Angelou wrote many of her most powerful works before dawn, therefore her creativity benefited from Darkness.
How does darkness enhance creativity?
Numerous African cultures conduct their most important initiations in dark caves or specially-constructed dark spaces. These aren't seen as places of fear, but as cosmic wombs where spiritual rebirth occurs.
The sweat lodge, Earth lodge and Temazcal ceremony, practiced by many Native American tribes of North and Central America, often involves periods of complete Darkness inside the lodge. Participants report that in this Darkness, they experience visions, receive guidance from ancestors, and feel profound connection to all life.The Darkness, heat, and steam in the sweat lodge create an environment for spiritual cleansing, symbolising a return to the womb of Mother Earth.
The Lakota tradition speaks of Darkness as the place where all visions are born - where the spirits communicate most clearly because the distractions of the material world are removed.
Modern researchers have looked into the possibility that pyramid structures create unique energy fields that may enhance the consciousness-altering effects of darkness.
Some studies and proponents suggest that pyramid geometry can concentrate or focus ‘subtle energies,’ often described as energy vortices or vertically directed flows.
Others have explored the effect of sounds encoded with geometric information, including pyramid shapes, on brainwave patterns.
Reports claim that pyramids generate negative ion fields that influence mood and awareness, as well as geometrically-conducive spaces to enhance meditation and inner work.
Many who have experienced both experiences describe Darkness experiences identical to their DMT trips. DMT has been described as the ‘spirit molecule’ and is said to be naturally produces in extended Darkness.
Common themes across cultures and centuries in both Darkness and DMT trips
Darkness immersers describe the difference in Darkness of this psychedelic experience as being much slower onset, gentler and more subtle. It tends to begin after several days of total Darkness, peaking around 10-11 days in. The strength of the experience varies considerably between immersers, and can be anything from extremely subtle, to strong.
This suggests that both DMT and Darkness work are ways of accessing universal potentials of human consciousness.
Darkness’s role in living technologies of consciousness that work as powerfully today as they did thousands of years ago. The human brain hasn't changed; our capacity for transcendence hasn't diminished.
What has changed is our relationship to Darkness. In our artificially lit world, we've forgotten that Darkness isn't the absence of something. It's the presence of everything we've lost touch with. In invites us to step away from overstimulation to discover that under stimulation may be more powerful and bring more peace and happiness.
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