Talk:Dark retreat

Potential Conflict of Interest
A link was added to the website of Andrew Durham, who has been editing this page (adding the "Far More than Buddhist" section below). I am going to remove the link because it appears to be a conflict of interest.Msalt (talk) 21:26, 12 March 2018 (UTC)

Far more than Buddhist
Darkness retreats have been used by virtually every civilized spiritual tradition: Sufi, Taoist, Christian, Hindu, etc. Indigenous people use them, too. And now I am making a secular application of them for healing purposes. This article is incredibly myopic in implying that only Buddhists use them. -- Andrew Durham
 * Taois is added.Night Rain 5 (talk) 08:27, 25 June 2013 (UTC)
 * Yeah, I have a problem with that reference. I don't see any evidence of that being a Daoist tradition and an undocumented mention in the lede does not seem encylopedic. I'm going to take it out of there for now. You can certainly add a sentence in the body referencing the use in other traditions, but be careful of original research since you (Andrew) appear to have done personal work in this field.Msalt (talk) 21:17, 12 March 2018 (UTC)

Science, Greeks
How about a reference on the "scientists hypothesize" - Article on Dimethyltriptamine says mammals may produce it. "The study found that various mammal tissues contained enzymes capable of performing the above transformation." - But is something like this enough to say that we do, when under visual sensory deprivation? I'm sure some crazed army general has tried to extract this stuff from white torture victims before.

Also used at the time of pythagoras. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Shomon (talk • contribs) 07:25, 17 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Dimethyltriptamine - the psychedelic known as DMT? Are we sure that's connected to darkness?Msalt (talk) 21:18, 12 March 2018 (UTC)

What is it?
The lead describes who does it, and when they do it, but what is dark retreat? I have no idea what it is after reading this article. 174.89.111.52 (talk) 13:59, 24 April 2011 (UTC)
 * ^-- What (s)he said. This article is worthless. --84.144.72.204 (talk) 21:59, 25 June 2011 (UTC)
 * This is a frustratingly common phenomenon here in the English Wikipedia. Don't ask me why, though. --Belchman (talk) 23:06, 18 July 2011 (UTC)
 * Really this article should be nominated for deletion if no one can come up with some kind of content for it. This is like an article on accounting telling me that accountants do it - it's as if the writer wrote it assuming everyone knew what it was already. Atypicaloracle (talk) 06:29, 20 January 2012 (UTC)

I had done two dark retreats in Martin Lowenthal's dark retreat room. I added the following description, "A dark retreat is a solo retreat in a space that is completely absent of light. Because there is no optical stimulation, one can experience "prisoner's cinema", commonly know as the lights." Stephen L. Martin — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.61.208.39 (talk) 05:19, 24 June 2013 (UTC)

Dimethyltryptamine & Article Merging
I'm glad someone mentioned DMT here. I think this and Prisoner's Cinema could be merged into one article, perhaps as sub-articles on a greater article, maybe on the effects of dark rooms and retreats, etc. That might solve the issue of having multiple stub articles about roughly the same thing, which is the experience of long periods of darkness. I've been fairly convinced that what's happening is a buildup of dimethyltryptamine (DMT) being produced in the brain, moreso than it usually does, to the point where it would have a noticeable effect on someone's waking state of mind. There's no doubt that DMT can produce very strong spiritual and religious experiences as well as of course strong visuals, it being a psychedelic and all. Is there any research being done on this at all? Any information that could be definitely linked back to it would be very much appreciated. Alexkennethwebb (talk) 19:10, 23 January 2012 (UTC)

Decades?
Perhaps the article should elaborate on how exactly it is possible for one to survive in a dark retreat for decades? How does the practitioner feed? --ElKabong888 (talk) 08:27, 19 August 2018 (UTC)


 * This may be original research but I believe blind people do feed while not seeing anything so it doesn't seem to be much of a problem. 2001:9E8:4633:4000:C416:E6A5:7317:34D3 (talk) 23:49, 31 March 2023 (UTC)