The Tao says: ‘When you go into the dark and this becomes total, the Darkness soon turns into light.’
Darkness can be considered as simply the absence of light - are we just turning out the light?! But perhaps Darkness is not the absence of something - it's the presence of everything our light-saturated world has hidden from us. Maybe this is why for some cultures lighting up the Darkness is even considered sacrilegious.
Why is the Darkness so intriguing to so many? For some the thought of being alone in complete Darkness is terrifying, and for others enticing. The Darkness can encapsulate both ends of the safety spectrum. On one end lies a deep, primal comfort - the unconscious longing for boundless safety which psychologists have long observed and on the other end sits our survival instincts' razor edge - the fear of unseen dangers triggering mortal terrors. By bringing consciousness and safety to our deepest fears we can regain control of our reactivity.
The brain shifts into entirely different states of consciousness. Ancient neurochemical pathways awaken. The boundaries between waking and dreaming dissolve. And in this liminal space, we discover capacities that have always been ours - we simply needed the Darkness to remember them.
What is it about Darkness which triggers the deep mystical experiences reported by so many for so long? Why is it so different from meditating with your eyes closed?
The experience of Darkness immersions reported seem to lie somewhere between meditation and psychedelics. An inbuilt trigger hidden in our biology which gives meditation practice the catalyst needed in the fast changing pace of the modern world, and slows the psychedelic experience to a pace which is integratable.
Science, if it was possible to measure the neurobiology as it happened, might be able to describe the chemical and hormonal changes which are triggered by unbroken Darkness immersion. Yet even poetry falls short of describing the conscious experience which accompanies it. So what do we know?
Knowing the chemistry is only the beginning of understanding the mystery.
Every wisdom tradition has known this secret. Tibetan monks in their meditation caves. Sufi mystics in their dark retreats. Egyptian initiates in the depths of pyramids. Indigenous shamans in their vision quests. Christian mystics in their hermitages.
They understand that Darkness isn't just the absence of light. It's a technology of consciousness that transcends culture, religion, and time. It is a doorway to the unknowable vast mystery with myriad names alluded to in spiritual traditions. God, Great Spirit, The Tao, Nagual, Akasha, Quantum Field, Collective Unconscious.
From lucid dreaming practices that allow conscious navigation of the subconscious in sleep states to shamanic journeying that connects us to non-ordinary reality, we find Darkness work in all modern, ancient, scientific, creative, spiritual and religious corners of human culture, possibly as humanity's most direct path to encountering the sacred within ordinary consciousness.
These aren't just historical curiosities – they're living practices that work as powerfully today as they did thousands of years ago.
Evidence for Darkness spans from individual testimonials to controlled laboratory studies. While personal accounts don't carry the statistical weight of randomized trials, they represent genuine lived experience and have guided healing practices for millennia. Clinical research provides measurable validation, but the transformative experiences people report from Darkness retreats - shifts in perspective, emotional healing, spiritual insight - are equally real even when they resist quantification. There is good evidence to show:
Physical Healing: Lower blood pressure, improved sleep quality, reduced stress and inflammation, balanced hormones, enhanced immune function, and protection against cognitive decline.
Emotional Integration: Natural regulation of mood, relief from depression and anxiety, enhanced emotional resilience, and deeper capacity for joy and peace.
Cognitive Enhancement: Improved focus and memory, increased creativity, enhanced neuroplasticity, and access to previously unconscious capacities of the mind.
Spiritual Awakening: Direct connection to Source consciousness (or whatever you prefer to call it), natural meditation states, enhanced intuition, deeper peace and presence,and access to perceptions that extend beyond the ordinary five senses.
These aren't just subjective reports - they're measurable changes that persist long after you return to the world of light.
Ultimately the only way to know how Darkness could benefit you is to try it. There’s nothing quite like experiential wisdom when it comes to encounters with the unexpressable.
It’s our belief that the benefits you get from Darkness depends on how you meet it. The three elements of a successful immersion could be summarised as set, setting and time.
Setting
Setting refers to the comfort and quality of the immersion space - the external environment you are immersed in. For the best experience we recommend and provide:
Set
Setting refers to your mindset in the space - the internal environment. For the best experience we recommend and support you with
Length
This is your ‘dose’ of Darkness. The longer you stay in Darkness the more intense it can become, with internal brain chemistry changes.
Days 1-3: Melatonin
Days 4-6: Pinoline
Days 7-9: 5-MeO-DMT (dimethyltryptamine)
Days 10 onwards: N,N-DMT (dimethyltryptamine)
Darkness is the laboratory. Consciousness, the experiment. The discovery is you.
Are you ready to discover what emerges when the lights go out and you begin to look inwardly?
Choose your pathway:
Or dive directly into your own experiment:
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