10 Jul Dark Room Healing Experience
Let me first start with telling you briefly of what this dark room healing is about and why it can be so benificial…
Dark room healing is about profound psychic rest in total physical darkness.
It is a method of switching off the world, with its noise and demands, and taking refuge in one’s essential self, supporting it in healing itself by itself.
Spiritual traditions have used darkness for millennia. They tend to view it as the ultimate environment for self-discipline and gaining unusual knowledge. Egyptians and Maya have used it in pyramids; Christians in catacombs; Sufis and Taoists in caves; Tibetan Buddhists in cells of monasteries.Indigenous traditions do likewise: Amazonian shamanism uses darkness in ayahuasca ceremony. Welsh shamans and Navajo, Maya, and Kogi Indians alike build special dark structures, holding darkness in high regard as essential to self-development. By reports, it is nothing less than the fountain of youth.
DMT and Melotine
In absolute extended darkness, the pineal gland floods the body with melatonin, intensifying these restful processes.Melatonin is but one of many hormones, nervous signals, and processes that facilitate the deep rest and sleep necessary to recover from and assimilate the benefits of waking life… Apparently DMT significantly builds up in one’s body when this technique is used: DAY 1-3 Complete isolation from external light causes the pineal gland to flood the brain with the neurotransmitter melatonin. 3 days of Internal Darkness and Sleep Therapy – During these 3 days one has the chance to catch up on all the lost sleep that has occurred over the last few years. This stage cannot be over emphasized, with regard to its importance in the overall process. Christ spent 3 days in the caves near the Dead Sea, utilizing this metamorphic process, which is conducive to a very gradual death of the ego. DAY 3-5 The pineal gland starts to increase the production of ‘pinoline’, whereby a greater fluidity of thought and healing of the body starts to occur. This period allows for transition, wherein numerous meditations will be carried out, which will incorporate projection of the energy body and astral travel along with (Iron Shirt) Chi Kung. DAY 6-8 At this stage the pineal gland also starts to produce the neurohormone 5-MeO-DMT. This psychoactive tryptamine is highly luminescent; it is also extremely phosphorescent due to the amount of phosphene that it transmits onto the visual cortex. The neurotransmitter 5-MeO-DMT is normally only active when we are in the womb and in the first months of our lives. It is now reactivated in the darkroom. 5-MeO-DMT switches on 40% more of the cerebral cortex and awakens the nervous system to become aware of itself; ‘beingness’ results. It is the empathogenic neurotransmitter that expands the emotional body between ‘infinity and zero’. It gives rise to telepathy in the emotional and intuitive bodies. It engages the awakening of the ‘Flower Of Life’, the spine, which begins to glow in a state of beingness and peace. 5-Meo-DMT discharges the darkness from the darkroom. A bright light will be activated. This Great White Light, the manifestation of the astral body, enables the self to project externally. (Text from Mantak Chia)
Profound psychic rest occurs in extended total darkness as a physiological response. The psyche needs darkness for rest like lungs need air for breathing and eyes need light for seeing. It knows no substitute. Healing happens involuntarily when conditions of rest are sufficiently provided. Rest is of major importance for healing to take place. However in our action-obsessed lifeway, we disdain and resist it, viewing it as a waste of time. But nothing else is possible without it, neither action nor healing. Rest is of two kinds: ordinary and profound.Ordinary rest includes nightly sleep, naps, and relaxation, alternated with daily activity in light. It is for maintenance of health.Profound rest means extended retreat lasting days, weeks, even months. It is for recovery from major trauma and sickness, including aging. It is gained in darkness and by fasting.”
*This information is from the book Natural Hygiene Dark Room Retreat by Andrew Durham
Is worth a read if you are interested.
MY EXPERIENCE OF 11 DAYS IN THE DARK ROOM
Being in the darkroom retreat, is like having a conversation with God, the black void, Truth. It is just you and the Infinite One, nothing else.
It all started some years ago with a strong curiosity to darkroom retreats. I heard about it for the first time through my Tibetan teacher. In the Dzogchen tradition this is one of the more advance practices. So usually they don’t recommend doing this when the body-mind is still very polluted, you have to reach already some level of cleanness in the body-mind vehicle. I started to look up information and talked about it with my Dzogchen teacher. However it wasn’t yet for me the time to have this experience, he suggested to do fasting first. Actually the darkroom retreat is also a fasting but a fasting for the psyche. So I started with different detoxing programs, 3 days of dry fasting and for many weeks only liquids. I kept on with eating very little food and give the digestion system a rest for at least 18 hours a day. So I would only take food within 6 hours time frame. I only ate raw foods. (Fruits, veggies, nuts and seeds) I did this 3 months prior to the Dark room retreat. My fascination in those 2 years grew stronger and stronger, and I knew that my intuition was guiding me towards this experience. So I simply followed that voice, but I didn’t knew when yet. Until there was a very clear moment in my life, I would say a painful push that triggered me into a clear readiness. That was the moment where i also realized why I wanted to do the dark room experience and clear out more of the stuff that was not serving any longer, Because even though I had already worked so hard on cleaning up my shit, still things kept on coming up, especially in my love relationship this came very apparent. So I said to my partner, this is it, this is the time for me to go really deep into fasting and clean up whatever that is left.
So a long story short…
I booked my flight to Mexico and decided to do a dark room retreat there. I chose this place because it was in complete solitude and not with a group. I wanted to have this experience completely in silence and by myself. In Thailand at the Tao Center they only offer group retreats and the prices are quite high. Same story in Europe, and they all provide daily processing with your supporter. To me this would be a huge interruption of the healing process, I actually don’t understand why someone would want daily support, unless they are not quite ready to take on a journey into darkness, which by all means does require a high responsibility and self sustainability at a certain level. You have to have at least some knowledge and experience for quite some years in meditation, yoga or other sorts of healing methods and feel really in your heart and intuition that this is the right time for you to take this powerful healing journey… otherwise I do understand some people come out, and actually say that it didn’t do much. Or they just did it because they heard you can have a DMT experience without taking Ayahuasca and they only do it because if this. With this kind of intent, the darkroom might be disappointing. As with everything I believe the intent, the true will to change is prior to any kind of healing method out there.
The right intention and the strong calling within is primary to a powerful healing experience.
So the flight to Mexico from Europe was still cheaper then booking a retreat in Europe. Dark room retreat in Germany, UK, Austria, Belgium, the prices are all around 120€ a day. (Without food)I still wonder why they ask such high prices while in Mexico and Guatemala it is 25€ a day? And of course the idea of doing this in Mexico with the sound of the ocean on the background, I didn’t had to think twice.
The Preparation
The day before I went in the dark room for a brief moment as a try out, the moment i closed the door, I felt the fear of claustrophobia coming up. Also the collective fear of darkness, emptiness, death… The moment before the actual experience I sat in the room for an hour, remembered my intention of why I wanted to do this experience, quietly feeling all the sensations flowing through, a release of tears came. I felt all fears vanish, in that moment I knew I was ready to start the journey. The moment I blew out the last candle, shortly after that I found myself in another dimension, back into mothers Womb…
AN INCREDIBLE JOURNEY OF 11 DAYS HAD STARTED…
The feeling of being in mother Gaia’s womb gave me a feeling of safety, warmth and Love…I felt calm and peaceful. And surrendered fully to whatever I needed to experience. Everything went quite smoothly, there were no horrible feelings, thoughts, dreams or intense emotions… this could be one of the reasons why my Tibetan teacher said to wait until the body-mind comes to a certain level of cleanliness. They would even use the word ‘dangerous’, in a way that it could make you completely crazy if you are not strong enough and don’t know how to deal with emotions etc.
MEETING THE DOLPHINS
I had a lot of fun being in the higher dimension where I met my dolphin friends, Guiding me through the days. The dolphins consciousness are in higher dimensions than most of us humans. I have been connecting and communicating with them for almost all my life. They are very present in the dark womb, as their consciousness resides in the higher dimensions. In this physical realm they are in mother Gaia’s womb, the ocean. I found out quite fast why I was in there and what the Dolphins were about to show me. Every day I got very clear instructions about my mission on earth. Every puzzle piece fell into place. I felt so happy and excited to be in the dark womb with them, it almost felt sad to think it would end at some point. Even though I also knew that there is no such thing, as we are multi dimensional beings…Being in the darkroom feels like being a baby in the womb, resting and surrendering. Sometimes I felt like a dolphin myself and sometimes I felt like floating in the big universe between planets. The experience of immense vastness.
Feeling ungrounded
The first few days it felt very ungrounded. I immediately wrote to my supporter to bring me more food, to ground myself. While before I went in I thought maybe to only drink juices, as I was already for three months mostly on liquids but in the darkroom, food really gave me a pleasant sense of groundedness. I still only ate raw foods, light food, salads and the delicious tropical fruits of Mexico.
The food experience in the dark is incredible. You have no idea what you are going to eat… I took the food in my hands, I smelled it, I tasted it… hmmm such an intimate experience with food, the sensations are much more intense then in daylight. Although seeing their colors is also a pleasant sensation for the eyes.
A Shift in Consciousness
The moment of a deep transformation and turning point. Suddenly a strong force of energy washed over me and gave me the message of; what you are doing here in the darkroom is not for you but for the world. I realized like never before that for the first time I was not doing some healing work for my own but I was doing this darkroom experience in service to Mother Earth and all beings… Everything that I ever did previously for self healing and self awareness was still slightly with the intent of a ‘me’ that needed something. But the biggest realization and consciousness shift came in the dark room experience that I am here and only here to serve for a new earth and new humanity. There was nothing left of a ‘me’ that needed anything from that. The sense of me vanished in the dark, i didn’t had any reference point whatsoever, there is only black… the only thing that was/is left of me is my raw material, my essence. The dolphins named her Lady Blue.
This transformation was one of the most intimate and intense experiences of my life, and only sharing with you the result of it. And of course from this transformation there is a new found energy that I will be sharing with you.
(If you want me to keep you updated with the new unfolding, then you can sign up for my newsletter on my website)
No electronics, One of the biggest advantage to my point of view is that you have no distractions, being in a space free of electronics, no iPhone, pc and social media!
The simplicity, I actually realized how simple life can be. No clothes needed, yes being naked whole day! Just a tooth brush, and toothpaste, a toilet, shower and bed, pen and paper to write (yes writing in the dark is fun and possible, although I wasn’t able to read everything clearly, as I wrote sometimes on top of other words, but it’s worth to give it a try) a yoga mat and that’s about it, really.
No time, you have absolutely no clue of what time it is. However I did know when it was night or daylight due to the sounds of nature. In the night these special kind of birds started to sing, yes I know usually birds sing during the day but here there were these special kind of birds that would sing all night and when they were quiet, I knew it was daylight again. And by the way, 1 minute could feel sometimes like 24 hours, and one day felt sometimes like a life time, in other moments, time went very fast but for the most every minute felt like ten times longer.
Vivid dreams, it is truly amazing how vivid my dreams became. I was even able to control them, and change them. And I could remember every single detail when I woke up. The dark room made my dream yoga practice quite easy. As I have been looking into this practice in the last 2 years, but never got to such a result as in the darkroom.
Lights, you will get sacred geometry healing for free. 🙂 After the 3th or 4th day I already saw sometimes very clear lights, most of the time white light but sometimes also infra red light and one time I saw dark blue color and many sacred geometry signs.
Sounds, I also got sound healing for free 🙂 incredible high vibrational sounds which I would’ve loved to record. The dolphins also showed me the importance of high vibrational sound and that we have just scratched the surface with healing sounds in this physical dimension. So they emphasized to put more effort and researches on sound. We still have quite some work to do here 😉
The fun moments
Letting things fall, it’s not a good idea to have material in the dark room that is breakable, I spilled a few times some cups of water. Gladly they were made of plastic 🙂
Those moments when I thought I was about to sit on bed but instead found myself next to it on the ground 😉 And then I had those moments that I really thought I was in space and everything in the room seemed further away or I thought I was going to the toilet but actually bumped myself against the wall. 🙂
I was probably not the only one in the room, as I sometimes felt something crawling on my leg… I probably had some company of ants or other crawling creatures but i could only have a guess of what it was because there was no way I could see them. 🙂 I know some people would find it creepy but actually I was feeling so at ease with everything, I really didn’t mind.
This was my cozy room
ACTIVITIES/PRACTICES
Sleep and rest, First and foremost, a lot of resting, lying down, sleeping or just sit in quietness and presence…
Physical exercise, it really felt good to do some exercises too, it is grounding and keeps your body strong and mind clear. It comes very handy to have some knowledge and experience in breathing, yoga, chi gong and other exercises… luckily with 15 years of yoga and breathing practices, I could bring my dark room experience to another level.
Writing, I brought an audio recorder with me in the darkroom just in case for some important things I wanted to record. But once I was in, I again was guided to not speak but mostly listen and be completely silent. And so I did. But it was very nice to have a pen and paper to write things down. Even though I wasn’t able to read everything that I wrote, it was in itself a powerful affirmation practice. I wrote at least 25 pages, so much information, ideas, insights I got. And tried even to start my second part of a book that I am about to publish. The first part was completed already quite some years ago, but realized with the second part, it will be even more complete. Unfortunately I have to start the writing all over because half of what I wrote I couldn’t read. But it was fun anyway 🙂 So in many ways it was also a productive and creative experience.
SOME DOWNSIDES
Humidity, The room was located in the middle of the jungle, so the temperatures are tropical, hot and humid. There has been a study on the elements that are needed for good quality rest or sleep, one of them is complete silence in the bedroom and a room that is not warmer than 18 Celsius degrees. Well I guess in a tropical country that is not going to be possible unless you use air conditioning. Also the humidity can get quite intense, as there is also not much air flow from outside. However there was a air-distracter, a fan and air-conditioning. So I always had to use one of those 3, and therefor it was never completely quiet. Sometimes I turned everything off for a few minutes, ah that was quite nice, to hear the complete silence. Despite of that I still could hear the ocean sounds.
Regulating own food, The other downside to my opinion was that I was not able to regulate my own food. Not to say that I appreciate very much the help of my supporter. But I was dependent on her for bringing the food one time a day around noon, as we agreed before hand. However to regulate the amount and the time is not that easy, so a cool-box with some extra fruits and juices in it would of made it much more convenient, so I could take food whenever needed or put the fruit in there when I was not able to eat at noon all the food at once. So I could be more flexible and adjust to the needs of the body.
11 days instead of 21 days
My first intention was to stay in the darkroom for 21 days. However to my surprise at some point the dolphins suddenly showed me the work that needed to be done in the darkroom was completed. However I kept in total for 21 days in deep rest and silence. First I couldn’t believe that it was completed, a part of me even didn’t wanted to end the darkroom experience. But as always, I trusted the guidance and not my mind rational thought of it must be 21 days. And I already know that I will be doing darkroom retreat again, whenever I feel it is time again.Just as with fasting for the physical body is needed regularly, to keep the body-mind vehicle as clean as possible, the darkroom is one of the best ways to keep the psyche clean. And of course, an ongoing lifestyle that is much as possible stress free, for example living close to nature, eat non polluted foods, fresh air, fresh water, the sun, healing through sound, water and regular exercises to keep the body strong…
THE DAYS AFTER…
I opened the door in the night, so my eyes could slowly adjust to the light. It was incredible to see the shadows of the trees, and of my hand in the light… I could watch it forever, everything looks and feels like new… as if I saw everything for the first time. I kept on staying inside the room for the whole day, and had one more good look at everything. I slept one more night in the room before I came fully out the next day. When I went outside, it was raining, the drops fell softly down and the sound of it was just amazing. Sometimes I closed back my eyes, to give them a break. It’s overwhelming to suddenly see so many things, coming from a space where there is no distraction, no seeing at all. I felt me brain still adjusting, and could feel dizzy in some moments when I was slowly walking around… For the most I keep on being in silence until my time in Mexico comes to an end which at the moment of this writing is still ongoing, still here for a few days more… I’m mostly sitting in my cabin, writing non stop, and yes still with pen and paper. 🙂 I have been writing down all the information that I received during the darkroom experience and still I am receiving messages… the dolphins has been calling ‘Lady Blue’ forth to be on a mission and spread the messages of mother Gaia and the Golden Dolphin – the Spirit of Freedom. (More news on this coming up in the next few months) They also inspired me to write this article because it is important for people to know that this powerful healing method is there for us to raise our vibration and clear out all that is not serving for us to create and embody the new earth frequencies…And of course moments where I just enjoyed being in a beautiful green tropical lush nature, have a swim in the wild Pacific Ocean, drink coconut water under a palm tree on the beach and get some sunlight… its incredibly nurturing and gave my creative process a boost of inspiration.
Amazing view from the cabin
DARKNESS AND SILENCE, THE GREATEST HEALING
I certainly can say after this experience that this has been for me the most beneficial and powerful healing method that I have ever done, together with the physical fasting. It cleared out so much unnecessary stuff, a huge turning point occurred and the mind becoming so clear, the body feels clean, powerful and energized. After 11 days in the darkroom I also understood why I was always so fascinated by wombs, pregnant women, mother Earth’s womb – the ocean, emptiness and deep rest. Now I feel ready with this new born energy, to swim, dance in the oceans and be forever more free.
They call Wim Hof ‘the Ice man’, well I guess I can be called ‘the Womb Woman’ 🙂 Wim found Ice as to be the force to come to our natural state, for me this is darkness, it is a more gentle force then ice but surely not less effective.
Tired of enlightenment, try endarkenment 🙂
Lots of love and blessings to you all. Please feel free to respond or ask any questions you might have.
Dewi Jewel aka Lady Blue 🌎🐬💎
No Comments