the following text is an extract from the book, hygienic darkroom retreat by Andrew Durham.
objections to the idea of darkroom retreat
• I could never do a darkroom retreat.
At the moment, your doing a retreat is out of the question. You cannot do it if you don’t want to, you cannot want to if you don’t believe in it; and you cannot believe in it if you don’t know enough about it. So, for the time being, forget about doing it. The only thing that matters is, does it interest you enough to learn more about it? If so, then I can recommend a good book on the subject.
• Isn’t extended darkness unnatural?
We have to be conditioned out of seeking darkness by force. eg a child will instinctually cover eyes and ears when necessary. an emotionally unrestrained parent or teacher might repeatedly tell them to uncover both immediately. They think the action is an inappropriate response! Even for a vulnerable child!. Covering our eyes, seeking solitude, and taking cover when traumatized is a reflex. Taking extended shelter as in a darkroom retreat merely supports this reflex when the trauma is great enough to require it.
Shelter is an instinct that intensifies with trauma. Large un-covered windows came to popular architecture very recently. They help create the illusion of “bringing the outside in”, of being in nature, of health. Traditional shelter, civilized and indigenous, is dark or easily darkenable.
The pre-modern culture of a people includes spending most of the day outdoors in physical activity. Or in separate structures used for economic pursuits. Home was not typically a place for stimulation. It was a place of rest, repose, bathing, eating. Shelter was very much a shelter from stimulation of human, animal and weather action.
Overstimulation (visual and auditory) is typically an aspect of the everyday brutality of a modern culture. Another response to overstimulation is blinking more than is usual – 10,000 times or more a day. Blinking is not only for keeping the eyes moistened.
• Extended darkness could be good for people, but there are many ways people can heal their suffering. Nothing works for everyone.
I wish it were that easy. Then none of this would be necessary. The sad fact is there are many ways to gain temporary relief. Some help us heal from the worst part of our suffering. That is good. It enables us to catch our breath and survive. But it does not get us near full recovery. It is merely acceptable by our lifeway’s low standards.
For full recovery, as with all living functions, nature provides single conditions or specific combinations thereof. We’re not talking about which color to paint a house. There is no menu, no smorgasbord of options in physiology to suit one’s tastes.
To breathe, one must have air.
To heal from major trauma, one must have darkness and associated conditions of profound rest. These solutions work for everyone, even other animals. But there is no substitute. Physiology is what it is. Post-modernist dogma doesn’t alter it one whit.
We can look at it in the negative as well.
Look at this false statement again.
• Extended darkness could be good for some people, but there are many ways people can heal their suffering. Nothing works for everyone.
If this tired statement were true,
• the “many other ways to heal” would work
• everyone who tried them would now be ok
• the deep healing necessary in cases of cataclysmic trauma would occur without profound rest
• profound rest would occur in compromised conditions of incomplete darkness
Profound Rest Retreat 