The Dark Room Meditation

[Vignan]

https://youtu.be/_Nf4SOHtVgo

I've watched this video now and linked to your "dark side of meditation" and "making sense of paranormal phenomena". This is making sense but what is this exactly? Can I have any book suggestions for this? 

[Lauritz]

I am currently studying darkness retreats. I have a 14 day darkness retreat coming up in january. 

I was first made aware of this by the story of a woman's darkness retreat in the book "The Psychedelics Explorers Guide". It is really nice to read, but probably not worth buying the whole book, if it is only for that reason.

I can recommend the book "Dawning of Clear Light" by Martin Lowenthal. Really a beautiful book. It is not very long, but many sentences go very deep. If you contemplate and try to get to the meaning behind some of it you can gain a lot of insight from it. 

And then you can find good information on this page:
https://darknessretreats.wordpress.com/2016/04/13/david-m-kleinberg-levin-dzogchen-dark-retreat/

I have so far tried to meditate for 40h in the darkness. I already noticed shifts in my awareness. I speak about it here:

 

The brain supposedly releases DMT and even 5-Meo-DMT after about a week in the darkness. So you start to see visions and are basically "tripping". From the reports I have read, it is very different though. You are still in full control obviously. And if you manage to meditate and stay calm it is a great opportunity to face ones fears. 

This is considered to be a difficult practice for advanced students according to buddhist teachings. I would not consider myself to be advanced in my  practice. It will be a major challenge for me.

I am going to post my "trip report" here at the end of january. I will have a speech-recorder with me in the darkness. It has no display and only one button for recording, so I can use it. So maybe I will be able to catch some first-hand insights that I have during the retreat.

 

https://www.dmt-nexus.me/forum/default.aspx?g=posts&m=772878

Notice the profound similarities between these four experiences, despite being triggered by very different things.

"I became Consciousness facing the Absolute. It had the brightness of myriad suns, yet it was not on the same continuum with any light I knew from everyday life. It seemed to be pure consciousness, intelligence and creative energy transcending all polarities. It was infinite and finite, divine and demonic, terrifying and ecstatic, creative and destructive..." – 5-MeO-DMT account (Stan Grof)

"As I neared the warm glowing radiance ahead of me, I felt pure ecstasy. I was in the beginning of the light. I was part of the light…It was as if I had come home. I had come home to the beginning of not just me but the beginning of all eternity." – NDE account(via Kenneth Ring)

"I was absorbed into this light, and this light became the entirety of space around me until I was only this giant, radiant light-filled void. I was real and home again and bigger than a trillion of our suns." – Darkness retreat account (Lindsey Vona)

"At one point in my meditation, my head opened and flooded with light. I watched and felt this quiet bliss and gladness take over and noticed that my body became pure vibration."

"I was a gigantic bigger-than-all-concept-of-universe radiant unending shimmering ball of light emanating perfect compassion forever without cause."

"Even my experiences of perceiving the maya, of perceiving emptiness and suchness throughout my whole “life as Lindsey” as a spiritual seeker could not come close to this total absorption into self-remembering perfection of total...er...uh...beyond words and description annihilation into truth-light." ...etc.

 

 

Edited December 15, 2017 by Lauritz

[Shroomdoctor]

@Lauritz Did you really kinda went 40 hour strong determination sitting basically or did you move sometimes?

[Lauritz]

@Shroomdoctor I definitely moved. I just did a couple of sessions of strong determination sitting. But mostly do-nothing-meditation. The aspect of letting go and surrendering control I think fits nicely with the darkness.

I will go on a 14 days darkness retreat tomorrow. I am pretty excited about it and also a little nervous. Don't know if I am going to make it.

[Shroomdoctor]

@Lauritz I wish you the best of luck, many great insights and of course, massive growth. I will go on my first retreat in February. 

[Lauritz]

Thank you, I will make sure to post a report here afterwards. 

Where are you going to do it?

 

[HII]

@Lauritz Thanks for making the video and sharing it! Dark room retreats sounded very appealing to me since the first time I heard of them and I'm quite sure I will try it out at some point. 

How exactly did you get your room pitch-black? Or was it the whole flat? Have you been to toilet at all within those 40 hours?