The pineal gland holds the key to consciousness itself – and Darkness is what turns that key.
Total Darkness can trigger mystical experiences in ways which meditation alone can't.
Darkness seems to shut down the major cortical centres of the brain as they are robbed of stimulation. This depresses mental and cognitive functions, particularly in the higher brain centres. Emotional and feeling states can become accentuated, especially the sense of smell and the higher, often dormant, sense perceptions. Dreams become more lucid, and the dream state manifests in our conscious awareness. Eventually, we awaken within ourselves the awareness of the Source, the spirit, the soul. We descend into what Taoists call the void, into the Darkness of deep, inner space.
Taoists refer to the collection of endocrine glands at the core of the brain as the 'Crystal Palace'. They include the pineal, hypothalamus, thalamus, and pituitary glands.
Hard science that explicitly maps the neurochemistry throughout the journey, is expensive and difficult to do. In its absence, a synthesis of educated theory with spiritual wisdom and direct experience has led to hypotheses about the neurochemistry.
According to Mantak Chia, ‘The pineal gland initiates a cascade of inhibitory reactions, permitting visions and dream-states to emerge in our conscious awareness. Eventually, the brain synthesises the “spirit molecules” 5-methoxy-dimethyltryptamine (5-MeO-DMT) and dimethyltryptamine (DMT), facilitating the transcendental experiences of universal love and compassion.’
Here's what we think is going on:
In the absence of light, the amino acid tryptophan evolves into a sequence of indoleamines (indole derivatives) in the Crystal Palace over time. While the timeline varies between individuals and the changes aren't sudden, the general progression can be summarized as:
Knowing about this progression may influence your decision about how long to stay in Darkness.
Darkness activates a succession of changes of states of consciousness, alongside which neurochemistry changes. It is thought that this natural progression is interrupted in normal life by the cycle of light and dark.
Tryptophan is the precursor for both serotonin and melatonin. Serotonin speeds up your mental activity as is needed for conscious, waking activity, and melatonin slows it down to facilitate the regenerative functions of sleep.
Without light, the Crystal Palace synthesises melatonin and triggers a cascade into the visionary tryptamines.
Function: Regulates circadian rhythms and sleep-wake cycles
Effects: Promotes sleepiness, helps synchronize the body's internal clock with day-night cycles, has antioxidant properties, and influences seasonal behavioural changes. Levels naturally rise in Darkness and fall in light.
This is your brain's first gift in Darkness - a return to natural rhythm, restoring sleep cycles that modern uses of light have disrupted. It offers the perfect preparation for the body and mind to receive the subtler transmissions.
Function: Less well understood, but appears to act as a neuromodulator in the brain
Effects: Influences consciousness and altered states of awareness - known as a visionary neurotransmitter. Research suggests it may have neuroprotective properties and might play a role in meditation or dream states. Some studies indicate it could affect dopamine regulation and transport serotonin.
Here, the brain begins opening doorways that remain closed in constant light. Pinoline appears to bridge ordinary consciousness and the extraordinary states that follow, permitting visions and dream-states to emerge.
Function: The function of 5-MeO-DMT remains unconfirmed by modern science, though it has gained attention through the growing popularity of Bufo alvarius (Sonoran desert toad) medicine. Both types of DMT are released in large amounts at birth and death. Rick Strassman's research in DMT: The Spirit Molecule’ explores DMT's potential functions.
Effects: Can produce altered states of consciousness, mystical experiences, and shifts in perception and sense of self.
This is where the journey can become particularly profound, because the brain begins producing the compounds that it produces at life's most significant thresholds.
Function: This remains debated. It's naturally produced in small amounts in the human brain and many plants.
Effects: May include deeper levels of visual experiences. Sometimes the externalization of internal energies is perceived as encountering entities.
The deepest levels of the brain's natural neurochemical production - where consciousness encounters its own creative capacity.
Important Note: The effects will not be like smoking DMT. They are much more gradual and subtle. There's significant variation in experience between individuals - some have minimal or no visions at all. Generally, longer stays in darkness increase the likelihood of experiencing disorientation and visual phenomena.
Both types of DMT are being studied for potential therapeutic applications in treating depression, PTSD, and addiction.
Serotonin is stimulated by light and speeds up brain activity to higher alpha and beta wave frequencies. Melatonin slows brain activity into deeper states.
This creates a fundamental shift in consciousness: where light-driven serotonin maintains active, analytical states, Darkness-produced melatonin allows access to deeper, more receptive layers of awareness essential for healing, creativity, and spiritual insight.
In our light-saturated world, we've become dependent on serotonin's activation. Darkness offers the profound gift of melatonin's depth.
The hypnagogic state occurs during the transition from wakefulness to sleep - that drowsy, drifting period just before falling asleep. The hypnopompic state is the reverse transition from sleep to wakefulness.
During these states, brain waves shift from faster beta waves (13-30 Hz) of normal waking consciousness through alpha waves (8-13 Hz) toward slower theta waves (4-8 Hz). This theta range is associated with deep meditation, creativity, and altered states of consciousness. The brain is essentially between frequencies, creating a unique neurological window.
Darkness extends the brain's time in these states - which may explain why Darkness practices appear in spiritual traditions worldwide. In these states you might experience:
In these liminal states, the usual filters of rational consciousness relax. This can potentially allow access to deeper layers of awareness and insight, and profound shifts can occur.
In darkness, you may not just be having experiences - you may be participating in the reshaping of the very organ that creates all your experiences.
Extended Darkness may enhance neuroplasticity - the brain's ability to form new connections and restructure existing ones. Research suggests that significant environmental changes, like entering complete Darkness, can stimulate neuroplastic responses.
This means that insights and transformations occurring in Darkness may become integrated into new neural pathways and patterns that can persist after returning to light. More research is needed to fully understand these mechanisms.
What we think happens is that the Darkness heightens the role of the hypothalamus, which affects circadian (day-night) rhythms in the body. The hypothalamus not only regulates hormones related to the day/night cycle, but it orchestrates the activities of many other internal clocks.
The hypothalamus directs body functions though two main pathways. One is the brainstem, located at the top of the spinal cord and providing a link to the Autonomic Nervous System, the ANS. The ANS has two parts; the sympathetic nervous system, which activates the 'fight or flight' response and the parasympathetic nervous system, which activates the body's 'rest and digest' activities. Darkness produces melatonin in the pineal gland, which quietens the sympathetic nervous system and allows for the daily rejuvenation of mind and body.
At the 'pinoline stage' of the Darkness experience (days 3-5), the nervous system becomes aware of itself. On days 6-8 the pineal gland starts to produce 5-MeO-DMT, switching on 40% more of the cerebral cortex and allowing the nervous system to become more aware of itself. Here it's possible for the nervous system's bio-computer to reprogramme itself, potentially giving rise to profound meditative trance states and even telepathy in the emotional and intuitive bodies. The 5-MeO-DMT prepares the nervous system for the DMT production of the pineal gland (days 9-12 in darkness) in psychoactive milligram doses.
This information is taken from Mantak Chia: 'Darkness Technology: Darkness Techniques for Enlightenment' (2002).
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