Darkness therapy

Sages and mystics throughout time have used darkness as a psycho-spiritual tool for breaking with their past lives, with socially-prescribed reality, and with the conditioning of the world outside. In the solitude of Japanese, Indian, and Tibetan caves, English groves, fogous and sidhs, the dark places of the Earth, spiritual seekers have always found solace and the introspection necessary to reflect upon the nature of reality.

:"Mystery and imagination arise from the same source. This source is called darkness. . . . Darkness within darkness, the gateway to all understanding." - Laozi

Such a time of inner seeking is there in the Buddhist literature, in the Heroic journeys of the Celts; it is also part of the initiatory practices of Africa, from which the Haitian experience of initiation stems. The priest-to-be is blindfolded when he enters the djevo - the sacred inner sanctuary of the Haitian church, where the most secret teachings are imparted - and remains in darkness for the first few days of his initiation into this ancient tradition. He is becoming a child again, and he must enter the world anew and unseeing, as we all did, in order to truly understand it once more. When he emerges, he is a spiritually mature adult and sees the world afresh - through eyes that have been washed clean by the dark.

The use of ceremonial darkness in this way is a classical method for stalking the self, accessing invisible landscapes and embracing the deeper aspects of our unconscious and supra-conscious states. Being in continuous and complete darkness over several days brings about a remarkable stillness of the mind and, from this pool of quietude, our innate powers of intuition and creativity are dramatically released.

The gifts of darkness include the experience of unusual phenomena, such as remarkably lucid levels of uncommon consciousness, where the borders between dreaming and not-dreaming diminish and then disappear altogether. The chatter of the mind ceases and we are able to experience the world as we originally saw it - as a sea of energy.

People who enter darkness in this way, in a therapeutic and supportive environment, become explorers of the infinite, seers - literally ones who see - witnessing the world not with the eyes, but with the entire body. Their subsequent comments underline the potency of this:

:"I have been waiting for the words to come to me so that I can put in writing what a difference the darkness has made in my life - it was the most incredible, fulfilling experience ever for me - It was incredible to witness and experience such harmony and feelings of safety. The darkness has given me so much - the courage to face my journey in life with a faith I never had or knew I could possibly achieve before - it has certainly been life-changing for me."
:"Amazing. I still can't find the words to describe the experience and nor am I yet fully aware of all the implications that it will have on my life. It was a truly sacred time."
:"It was an amazing and powerful experience and I feel very blessed to have been part of this."
:"The darkness was incredibly powerful. We did many things that I would not have thought possible for sighted people plunged into blindness. As individuals, our differences fell away when we were blind. Perhaps it was to do with us all being vulnerable together, so the only thing possible was to give love, understanding, compassion and acceptance. If in our society we could all recognise that even with our eyes open we are all vulnerable together, the world might become a more loving place."

Shamans knew that anything seen in darkness or with eyes closed was of the spirit. Every image had meaning, resonance, purpose. Everything sensed had information. By contrast, we are often blinded by the daylight - by the assault on our senses of ten thousand adverts and soap opera dramas, until even our hearsay is plots within plots from old TV series.

Thus, darkness becomes a vital tool to connect with an all-important alternative reality.

The effects of prolonged darkness are unique for each person, and, at the same time, quite consistent. They include the attainment of renewed energy, the ability to move past self-limitations, to meet life's challenges with greater ease, and to step into the unknown without fear, as the comments above suggest.

With no visual distractions from the outside world, the mind is forced inwards towards self-examination and the questioning of the material universe. The imagination is fired and unbridled, and, according to the shamans of many traditions, reaches out to the spirits, who hear this call and bring their gifts of insight and intuition, of seeing the world in a way that the soul remembers. We all saw the world without eyes during our first year of life in the womb and immediately afterwards. Before we were taught how to assemble reality, we never needed eyes; we just knew.

But there are other, less transcendental, reasons for the impact of darkness therapy. In the biochemistry of the brain, the neurotransmitter, serotonin, is produced by the body in reaction to light, and enables us to inhabit normal waking consciousness - to see "reality" as it is normally experienced. In darkness, however, melatonin is produced instead and is then converted into pinoline, which is involved in dreaming and new states of consciousness, so that we see reality in a wholly uncommon way.

Once pinoline is released into the brain, the production of another biochemical, DMT, is stimulated. DMT represents the body's natural ability to create any reality we choose and, interestingly, is also one of the main active ingredients within many psychotropic plants, and is present in some versions of the visionary Amazonian brew, ayahuasca, which is believed to create telepathic states among those who take it, as well as communion with the spirits of the dead. Simply being in darkness, therefore, will lead naturally to a new sense of reality.
(Edit: It should be stated that there is no proof that endogenous DMT reaches the relevant receptors in the brain, even if it is a plausible theory. See Strassman , DMT: The Spirit Molecule)

The German psychotherapist Holger Kalweit has been using "dark world therapy" as part of his healing practice for many years. He writes that during dark therapy his clients are able to dissolve the stranglehold of the rational mind so that, instead of dwelling on the pains of the past, they focus on the exact moment they are a part of, in touch with themselves and their senses - perhaps for the first time - wholly themselves. They are thereby empowered to move into a new and different future, one that they create, rather than the dictates and definitions of others that have led them into mental unease. This is the world we knew as infants, before our conditioning took over.

In the UK and internationally, authors Ross Heaven has been running darkness retreats for several years, where participants remain blindfolded and in darkness for periods of five days or more. Their findings are similar to Kalweit's.
:"Being in darkness can lead to remarkable shifts in awareness. We seem to be able to touch our original selves and overcome the socialised personas we have been forced to adopt so we can truly find ourselves once more. Those who enter darkness emerge with a completely new vision. The world looks different when you come back from the blackness, and is sensed as pure energy, where forms and shapes are fluid and structureless, since it is only our habitual way of seeing the world that actually gives them shape and meaning.

"We are all conditioned beings. When we are born, we are bundles of raw potential and the directions we might take in life are infinite. We will soon find ourselves herded in a particular direction, however, as a result of parental and then of cultural influence. By the time we are capable of independent thought, we are no longer able to think independently; we are part of the ‘mood’ of the world. Being-in-darkness changes that".

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