Days-Long ‘Dark Retreats’ Are the Newest Spiritual Conquest for Tech Elites

There are around Five darkness centers in darkness in the United States, says Berman, with around 100 around the world. Sky cellar with three dark pieces; The four -night pensions cost $ 1,770, with an additional night to settle down and another to decompress later.

The potential effects of prolonged darkness have not been well studied, but there is Early indications To suggest that the practice can have a crowd of Mental health benefits; A Czech Center says he can But “long -term fatigue and stress” by stimulating the treatment of inner experiences. When people get out of one of the three “caves” of Sky Cave, video sequences shows some Cry with emotion.

But the process of submitting to lonely isolation in total darkness also has little understood risks. “To my knowledge, there has not yet been any studies reporting the negative results of dark documents for long periods in naturalistic environments, although there are many isolated anecdotes of psychotic symptoms and prolonged dissociation,” explains David Luke, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Greenwich who conducted research on dark experiences and similarities with psychedian movements.

Some people from Berman’s Center spent up to 40 days in one of his dwellings deprived of light. Others lasted only half an hour. “We no longer let people come more than four nights,” explains Berman. “We do not think this is beneficial, because we tend to see that most people use a kind of adaptation strategy to stay in ignorance for long periods.” Such strategies, explains Berman, are difficult to define, but they essentially concern people “doing” things in darkness, even meditation or spiritual practices – rather than relaxing, doing nothing and giving in a feeling of control. This ultimately isolates them to a certain extent of the mysterious and deeply self-replication process that darkness is supposed to provoke, he says.

“This is a very dangerous practice if it is not done well,” adds Holecek, who expressed a particular concern for people who come with a “machismo, white mine”.

“I know people who have gone out who come out worse,” he said, explaining that a 49-day retirement was once a rite of advanced Tibetan Buddhist passing outside of a few traditions in which it is still used. “He fell into disgrace because badly prepared and not taken care of people entered for 49 days and then, instead of reaching illumination, they would literally go crazy.”

Jason Halbert, former vice-president of the people and global security in Snap, made a darkness retreat to Sky Cave in February 2024. Speaking to The profile The podcast shortly after, Halbert, a behavioral scientist, explained that he had taken him about a day to get used to not distracting his phone distrack. “When you are really deprived of any incoming visual stimulation, whether your phone, light, television-you have events with dreams, thoughts and darkness,” he said. “We do not achieve the huge amount of triggers that anchors our identity.”

Describing himself as someone who “thinks all the time”, Halbert compared his four -night fate in the dark to “clean my office” and said that it helped him think about the way of being a “better human, professional, dad, trainer and husband”. (Halbert left Snap in 2019; in 2017, the information reported These current and old employees allegedly allegedly told the “strange” and “inappropriate” stories at work. Halbert told Wired that allegations are “false”))