If you are exhausted and yearn to rest, like nearly everyone I know, you may be interested in what’s arguably the most radical wellness trend of 2026 – an ancient practice called “dark retreat.” This powerful experience, touted by celebrities as the latest way to achieve self-realisation and peace, involves no drugs (unlike, say, ayahuasca), no intense physical work, and no strict diet – just staying in absolute darkness in a comfortable room for 24 hours a day, for several days. Seen as an antidote to our over-lit, fast-paced lives, extended time in darkness can calm overwrought nervous systems, heal trauma, trigger creativity, bring wholeness – but, being a relatively juvenile concept in its latest commercial phase, it must be practised carefully.
My first dark retreat brought all the above. To understand the pros and cons, I delve below into what actually happens on a dark retreat. We’ll hear from experts, including spiritual teachers, dark retreat centre directors worldwide, and the field’s first scientific researchers. If the prospect still seems scary, a new option called “grey retreat” can offer a gentler, calibrated way to experience the benefits.
Where did the idea of dark retreats come from?
Weird as the idea may sound to us, dark retreats have been used for millennia to alter consciousness, initiate leaders, and arrive at wisdom. Cultures that practice this include the ancient Greeks and Egyptians, indigenous tribes, Taoists, and Tibetan Buddhist lamas, who codified it into an advanced ritual reserved for adepts sworn to secrecy.
But today, dark retreats are quickly gaining global attention, with the cautious blessing of those lamas and other practitioners. They see our speed-obsessed, ecologically precarious, contentious, constantly lit world as desperately in need of medicine. Today’s most well-known teacher of modern dark retreat, Andrew Holecek, amusingly calls the practice “borderline goth.” An American based in Colorado, Holecek is a Tibetan Buddhist-trained lama and scholar-practitioner of various nondual wisdom traditions, a popular teacher, and the author of nine books.
Dark retreats are quite intimidating. For Holecek, it’s “the most transformative practice I’ve ever done. Just a few days in the dark pays dividends for months or even years.” But it’s “also the most challenging practice I have ever done…. Absolutely nothing has demanded so much surrender.” It sounds like a lot – surrendering to total darkness and lack of control in hope of an intangible, unpredictable transformation – but Holecek assured me that there are many ways to “do the dark.” “At minimum, sitting in darkness is a way to restore our senses. Our nervous systems need periods of darkness and quiet. Entering darkness is a simple way to find balance in a world that’s lost in light addiction and runaway distraction.”
