Experiences of Dark Retreat

Looking back, I have had two interesting experiences, and have heard of a third experience and a fourth.. All four have alluded to a darkness retreat, all four no doubt were interesting enough to recall them, so that when I stumbled across the  work, of ‪Andrew Durham‬, i pricked up my ears, and over the last few weeks, I recalled these four experiences:

1. a sculptor friend was asked to make a wooden coffin, and half way through the commission, he decided to make another for himself. And build it he did. when each of his friends came to visit, he invited them to lay in the coffin. i loved laying in there. i also trusted my friend completely to let me outta there, when i needed out. it was warm and dry and cosy and there was a wonderful swishing wwwwhhoooooshing sound swirling all 'round me. At the time, I thought I had better not really say how very much I loved the experience. I thought my liking it so much was a little creepy. Even so, we had some great laughs about liking it so much.


2. I discovered by accident, that I really loved sitting in my huge walk in old fashioned cedar-lined wardrobe- it smelled wonderful, so I began regular hour- long Vipassana sits.  And that same wwwwhhhooossssshhhhing accompanied by deepest peace ever felt as adult .  Loved getting I there - completely dark - during the day - the contrast of day and dark thrilled me - surprised by joy!


3.  About a year ago, was reading about niacin - massive doses "curing" schizophrenia.
And somewhere amongst all that reading, there was a story related by one of the researchers. Have attempted to find it since to no avail.
A woman patient - schizophrenia -  disappeared from a "facility"..  She walk back into the facility about a week later, overjoyed , declaring her total wellness. She said she had been resting under a huge pile of leaves,not emerging all that time.


4. Reading of the tribe, the Elder Brothers, the Kogi where it is a practice to spend varying amounts of time in total darkness as their choice and contribution to the tribe. Apparently, some of the babies are "chosen" by the tribe from birth.  from this webpage:

"That binding thread of spirit, called aluna, is central to the Kogi philosophy. An enlightened teacher, Mama Valencia, explains:

Everything we do is an event not only in the physical world but also in the spirit world. We live in a world shaped in spirit. Every tree, every stone, every river, has a spirit form, invisible to the Younger Brother. This is the world of aluna, the world of thought and spirit. Aluna embraces intelligence, soul and fertility: it is the stuff of life, the essence of reality. The material world is underpinned, shaped, given life and generative power in aluna, and the Mama's work is carried out in aluna. -- p. 63

Because Kogi elders or Mamas are seers, graduates of a mystery school, they have the natural ability to penetrate higher planes of existence and hidden causes. They understand the vital truth of the maxim "as above, so below." When the Younger Brother in his vanity, urged by his greed and ambition, thinks that he is "running things," that is when the planet and our existence on it become endangered. The expression of the law of the Great Mother is interfered with."