darkroom retreat

deep rest for the self-healing psyche

Andrew Durham
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DISCLAIMER: This book is not intended as medical advice. The
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 In memory of late friends,
Lisa Saavedra and John Rosenberg,
who burned bright in a benighted lifeway
and so fell long before their time.
Contents

about the book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i

preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ii

introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii

1 - hygiene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

2 - format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

3 - protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

4 - prepare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

5 - design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

6 - make . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

7 - faq . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

bibliography and influences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
CONTENTS

services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

license . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

bio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
about the book
a complete manual
Hygienic darkroom retreating consists of resting in an absolutely
dark room for days. Why do this? To restore conditions of
psychological balance, giving refuge from the constant sensory
malstimulation of civilized existence.
This seemingly trivial contrast can lead to a remarkable and
lasting restoration of your well-being, making the darkroom a
powerful tool.
The book explains everything about why a retreat works,
how to do it, and how to make a darkroom. It includes easy steps
to attain some of these effects in your own home.

toward a Natural Hygienic psychology

Neither spiritual nor disciplined, therapeutic nor medicinal, this
is the first approach to darkness—and psychology—based in Nat-
ural Hygiene. History’s most influential approach to health, Hy-
giene gave the modern world appreciation for frequent bathing,
fresh air, regular exercise, and pure food.
Natural Hygiene simply recognizes the self-preserving or-
ganism and provides it such normal conditions of life. In this
way, it has long achieved stupendous success in caring for the
self-healing body. With darkness, Hygiene now has an equally
effective way of caring for the self-healing psyche.
preface
What is a Hygienic darkroom retreat and why do it?
It consists of resting in an absolutely dark room for days
alone with food.
At first, I just did it to rest. It worked. After 54 hours, I felt
caught up on all the sleep I had ever lost, truly awake for the first
time in decades. I was stunned.
Two years later, the same thing happened. Except, unusually,
I also felt humbled. Genuinely calm. Well in my soul.
How?, I wondered. From Natural Hygiene, I vaguely remem-
bered the self-preserving nature of life, and rest as the primary
condition of healing. One morning in a dream, this and many
related clues fused in the conception of restful use of darkness in
support of the self-healing psyche.
I began testing this idea in more darkroom retreats. As
predicted, lethal psychic issues that have tortured me my whole
life began resolving themselves spontaneously. In seven years
and 16 retreats, I have seen no sign of an end to this process—
short of full recovery of psychic integrity.
The investigation has barely begun. But I have seen enough
to confidently share what I have learned: what happens in
darkness, why, how to retreat, and what for. This approach is
ripe for more participation, resources, and velocity.
Hygienic darkroom retreating requires minimal effort and
no faith. Darkness is not the absence of light, but the presence of
the self. It is yours.
introduction
This is a book of natural psychology. It shows how physical
darkness is to the psyche what a mother is to a child: origin,
sustenance, and refuge. How psychic illness and trauma, like a
scraped knee, can heal itself. Without substances, treatment, or
therapists; without loads of money, knowledge, skill, effort, or
time; and without discipline, rituals, or practices. Just restored
normal conditions.
This book offers hope to sufferers of all kinds. It calls Natural
Hygiene, a timeless system of primarily bodily health, to also
serve the soul. It disspells the pall of fear around darkness and
extricates it from historically esoteric use.

why retreat
• for the great pleasure of resting deeply
• for relief from the distress and malstimulation of civilized
existence
• to recover from exhaustion
• to heal from psychic trauma and illness
• to finally deal with one’s own suffering

history
Every civilized spiritual tradition and many indigenous ones
have used darkness for thousands of years as the ultimate
environment for self-discipline and to gain unusual knowledge:
introduction iv

ancient Egyptians and Maya in their pyramids; Christians in

catacombs; Sufis and Taoists in caves; Tibetan Buddhists in cells
of monasteries.
Western science has studied sensory destimulation since the
1950s for applications including space and health. Ayurveda, an
East Indian healing tradition, uses extended periods of darkness
for rejuvenation. By report, it is the fountain of youth.
Amazonian shamanism uses darkness in ayahuasca cere-
mony. Welsh shamans and Navajo, Maya, and Kogi Indians alike
hold darkness in high regard as essential to self-discovery.
Hygienic darkroom retreating completely secularizes the use
of darkness for the specific purpose of healing, of self-recovery.
There is nothing mystical, disciplined, or complicated about this
approach. It is rational, restful, and safe.

background
finn
I first heard about dark retreating in 2004 from my former
spiritual teacher. From a Hindu tradition, he had heard about
its use in Ayurveda. “Apparently, after a few weeks of it, one
comes out completely renewed,” he told me.
I found this very strange. I thought what people need is more
light. But like a lot of things he said, the idea of darkness stayed
with me.
Then in 2005, I was talking to an old Oregon hippy-from-
birth. Name of Finn Po. Scrawny guy, lots of energy, gently jokes
about people’s hang-ups, and is incredibly helpful. Drinks his
own pee and lives in a tiny geodesic dome he built out of garbage
20 years ago. Naturally, Finn had a darkroom.
introduction v

“Tired of enlightenment?” he asked. “Try endarkenment.”

I said, “Ohmigod, Finn, really?!”
“It’s the way of the future. Don’t be the last to know.”
“What’s it like?”
Arms wrapped round himself, he said, “It’s a luxury.”
“How do you do it?”
“Just git in the room!”
A benevolent Pied Piper, all the young people around tried
it. After listening to him rhapsodize about it all winter, I did, too.
Wow.
But as Finn likes to say, I was just getting started. It would
take two more years, the massive shock of leaving my teacher,
and another successful retreat for me to grasp the significance of
retreating in darkness.

andrew
How did all this begin?
At 15, I was overcome by rapture: sublime joy in perceiving
a perfect, beautiful universe. This feeling and perspective lasted
three months solid. When it faded, so did my conventional
interests. I wanted more than anything to understand the cause
of rapture. Living out of a backpack, I independently investi-
gated this mystery for 21 years, experimenting with philosophy,
health, and design. My darkroom retreats came toward the end
of that period. Soon after, in late 2008, my solution came:

A slight increase of vital energy from adolescence

had caused a temporary, partial restoration of my
damaged psychic integrity, revealing an enraptur-
ing universe. So perhaps a massive increase from
introduction vi

darkroom retreating could cause permanent and

complete restoration.

With this breakthrough, my search ended and my work

began. I and 25 clients have tried it. Over the course of my
16 retreats, noticeable restoration of my psychic integrity and
function has occurred. No data contradicting the basic idea has
yet emerged. Now, an internationally recognized psychology
professor unqualifiedly agrees with my theory and wants to do
research on my exact method.
What else can go right?

how it works
1. The psyche is self-healing because it is a system of an
organism.
2. The primary condition of healing is rest because:
• Healing requires the extra energy accumulated in
rest.
• Full healing only occurs in faculties at rest.
3. The psyche rests profoundly in darkroom retreat because:
• A retreat provides all conditions of profound rest:
comfort, solitude, time, and silence; absolute dark-
ness, fresh air, warmth, and natural food.
• Darkness signals us physiologically, through our
circadian system, to sleep, dream, and lose appetite.
In extended total darkness, sleep gets deeper and
longer; waking consciousness more placid.
• Sensation uses significant psychic energy. Vision
requires more than all other senses combined.
introduction vii

• The abstract nature of vision stimulates the mind.

In darkness, the mind slows down. One can stop
thinking and fall asleep more easily. When awake,
the thinking, feeling, and moving modes of con-
sciousness equalize in capacity and workload.

Because the process of healing is involuntary, it is foolproof.

Darkness works the same for everyone, just as air for breathing
and light for seeing. If nothing happens, conditions were insuf-
ficiently met. This book describes conditions and how to meet
them.

terminology
Hygiene (capitalized): Natural Hygiene
psyche: the faculty of consciousness (including the subconscious
and unconscious). The soul.
normal: what is biologically appropriate (not merely usual or
average)
psychic: of or relating to the psyche. For example, I refer to
psychic illness rather than “mental” illness. Psychology is not
just the study of the mind, but the psyche: the entirety of human
consciousness. This includes its emotional and physical forms,
not just its mental ones. Also, I am not talking about occult
phenomena.
lifeway: way of life. It is everything that happens with a group of
people in the course of living. I once used the word, culture, for
this. Then I learned culture is recent: an invention of civilization.
I wanted a bigger word which would include all approaches to
human existence. Lifeway is a nicely compressed term common
in anthropology.
introduction viii

darkroom
A dedicated Hygienic darkroom is just a small, fully functional
house in a quiet location. It has minimal furnishings, like a hotel
room. Like all houses should be but are not, it is perfectly and
easily darkened.

• It is so dark that even after your eyes adjust to it for three

days, you still cannot see your hand in front of your face.
• When you look around, you cannot see a haze or pinprick
of light anywhere.
• And inside, there are no light sources like candles.

Temporary darkrooms for shorter retreats can be anywhere

you feel you will be comfortable enough.

what is Natural Hygiene?

A philosophy of health, Natural Hygiene originated in America
a generation after the revolution. It became a mass movement
in 1832, lasting to the current day, with the lectures of Sylvester
Graham, physiologist and father of the Graham cracker. Natu-
ral Hygiene bears unswerving respect for life’s self-preserving
nature, and for the self’s primarily autonomic, secondarily voli-
tional nature. It observes that health naturally occurs in organ-
isms under normal conditions of life. So it studies and provides
them.
These conditions include fresh air, simple clothing, natural
food, and cleanliness by regular bathing. Hygiene taught the
modern world the enormous benefits of these, making Hygiene
introduction ix

the most influential approach to health in the world. Its motto:

“Health through healthful living”.
Hygiene identifies disease as the process of healing. Disease
is the normal organic activity of self-repair, cleaning, and re-
energizing, but under abnormal conditions. Thus, disease is not
an invading entity to be fought, but a natural process to support
with healthy conditions and practices.
Natural Hygiene, which could be called applied physiology,
has extensive means of caring for the physical human. But it has
lacked a psychology. I will show how, in darkness, a Hygienic
way has emerged to care for the psyche.
The fundamentals of Natural Hygiene help us reconnect
with our own common sense about healing. They guide us past
incorrect assumptions and associations we may have with it.
Once you have these absolute basics down, you can learn the
concrete details of a darkroom retreat and approach it with
confidence. After retreating, Natural Hygiene provides guidance
in all aspects of healthful living.

audience
This book is for those who suffer in any way—spiritually, men-
tally, emotionally, physically, socially, or ecologically—and need
hope that their suffering is not necessarily permanent. It is for
self-explorers and appreciators of good arguments.
Darkroom retreating is for anyone to whom it makes sense
and who feels moved to do it, whether to heal from acute
illness or to simply try it. Besides psychic illness, much physical
illness is psychosomatic and therefore amenable to self-healing
in darkness.
However, darkness is no escape. Sometimes illness needs
introduction x

to be addressed in other obvious ways first. But just knowing

about darkroom retreating can encourage us to do so. And
acquaintance with Hygienic principles is invaluable to healing
from any illness.

how to use this book

If you find sufficient reason here to retreat, then simply decide:

1. what kind of retreat to do

2. when to do it
3. where to do it
• If at a center, make arrangements and go
• If at your place
– design, make, and test your darkroom.
– arrange for support
– retreat!

After retreating, make the radical changes in lifeway you

have been longing for and are now able to. Do retreats of increas-
ing length until your psychic integrity is completely restored.
Live.

content
Chapters are mostly practical with a little theory to start with:

1. hygiene: underlying theory of the restful use of darkness

2. format: ways to use darkness in retreats and daily life
3. protocol: what little there is to do in a Hygienic darkroom
retreat
introduction xi

4. prepare: orientation for a retreat

5. design: darkroom specifications
6. make: instructions and plans for making darkroom com-
ponents
7. faq: frequently asked questions

Content is drawn from my website, darkroom retreat, at an-

drewdurham.com. There, you can also read: a series of my retreat
reports; theoretical essays linked to in this booklet; elaborative
blog posts; related myths; and essays, designs, prose, poetry, and
lyrics from the past 25 years.

open source
Thanks for reading. Share this ebook as widely as you please.
Besides being free content, this is an open source project
contained in a public code repository. Fork the project, open
an issue, or submit a pull request. Learn distributed version
control software. Or just write me directly with comments and
corrections.
donate: You can support my work by donating on my
homepage.
1 - hygiene
Natural Hygiene is a simple, natural, and rational approach to
health and healing. It provides a comprehensive framework for
the restful use of darkness in support of the self-healing psyche.
Hygiene enables us to understand what darkness is and how to
relate to it for the purpose of health.
Which is the point. We are organisms, so our job is to live.
To live fully, we need health.
What is health like according to Natural Hygiene?

“Health does not consist merely of the absence of

symptoms of illness. It is a state of positive well-
being that is evidenced by a constant state of eu-
phoria. It is rarely, if ever, experienced by humans
today.”
–Herbert Shelton, Natural Hygiene’s systematizer¹

Euphoria is exactly the sign of long-lost function that my

adolescent rapture hinted at. Once tasted, nothing else will do.
The thing is to come by it on purpose, not just by chance. What
conditions would make it possible? Identifying and providing
conditions is Natural Hygiene’s forte.
Natural Hygiene begins with ordinary observations of na-
ture. So we will do the same with the psyche and darkness before
learning more about Natural Hygiene itself. After these basics,
some distinctions further aid understanding. Then I introduce a
¹Herbert Shelton, Human Life, Its Philosophy and Laws (found online, full reference
forthcoming)
1 - hygiene 2

couple mechanics of retreating before heading into its depths,

the uncharted territory of Natural Hygienic psychology.

basics
psyche and darkness
Here is Shelton’s unsentimental view of the psyche: “The con-
scious functions of the body serve primarily to protect and
provide the needs of the subconscious functions.”² Consciousness
is not an end in itself. It serves a biological function.
Furthermore, the psyche is the primary system in the human
organism because it coordinates all the others. And not just
consciously, as when reading this book or running an errand.
The psyche includes subconsciousness (which can be made con-
scious) and unconsciousness (which cannot be made conscious).
These are diffuse throughout the organism, autonomically mon-
itoring and controlling every one of its 5,000,000,000,000,000,000
(pentillion) processes per second. Whatever affects the psyche
for good or ill affects the rest of the organism likewise.
Like any other organic system, the psyche needs a period of
rest and recovery. Since its sensory apparatus is reflexive—the
skin feels, the nose smells, the eyes see—sensory destimulation
is necessary for psychic rest. Think back to the times you got
your best sleep. Besides feeling comfortable where you slept,
your shelter was probably especially dark and quiet.
Darkness signals the regulator of our circadian (daily) rhythms,
the suprachiasmatic nucleus, to cause us to sleep. It does so by
instructing other organs of the circadian system. For example, it
²Herbert Shelton, The Science and Fine Art of Natural Hygiene, p 139
1 - hygiene 3

tells the pineal gland to secrete melatonin, a hormone that causes

sleepiness, dreams, and loss of appetite.
Human beings are diurnal creatures, naturally awake in
daytime and asleep at night. This physiological cycle is critical
to psychic function. Modern life replaces the natural extremes
of sun and stars with the relentless grey of artificial light and
sunglasses; natural sleeping patterns with graveyard shifts and
afterparties. This greyness, along with a hundred other offenses,
has pushed psychic illness to epidemic proportions. Simply put,
our lifeway is brutal, traumatic, and damaging.
Modern distress (loneliness, sensory overload, overwork,
factory food, etc) requires hundreds of millions of people to con-
sume psychoactive drugs just to function and survive. Caught
in a vicious circle, they wonder helplessly how things can ever
change.
While many factors contribute to distress, Hygienic dark-
room retreating uniquely provides an opening: a simple way to
begin reversing all of them at once. First, it harmlessly brings
them to a halt. Second, it provides the being a chance to recover
from them naturally, that is, by itself. Autonomically. No drugs,
no therapy, no experts. Self-healing unleashed.
Thus, contrary to fairy tales, religion, and light bulb adver-
tising, darkness is a good thing. Darkness, like light, is a natural
condition of life. We need nature’s full provision of it—about
10 hours a day—in order to rest properly. In crisis, we need an
extended period of darkness to recover. Darkroom retreating is
to the psyche what fasting is to the body:

• relief from processing intake

• time to fully recover from injury, intoxication, and ex-
haustion
1 - hygiene 4

• overdue recognition of exactly who and what is doing the

recovering

Instinct in extreme circumstances gives us a graphic clue to

the basic need for darkness: when psychically overwhelmed, a
person doubles over and covers her eyes. Depressed, hysterical,
or shocked from violence, her whole being cries out, “Gimme
shelter!”
Darkness is good shelter. Now let us find shelter—a context—
for darkness itself.

Natural Hygiene
Here is Webster’s basic definition:

hygiene: a condition or practice conducive to the

preservation of health, such as cleanliness. (empha-
sis added)

In common usage, hygiene means vigilant cleanliness and

use of safety equipment to protect against a hostile world. But
hygiene is more than cleanliness, and it is not fearful. It includes
all healthy conditions and practices.
Natural Hygiene goes even further. It benevolently identifies
the conditions of health with the natural, normal conditions of
life. It seeks to provide them to a self-preserving organism. This
is based on Hygiene’s observation of ubiquitous health in nature,
where only normal conditions of life occur: pure water, sunlight,
warmth, natural food, fresh air, rest, exercise, companionship,
etc. Now darkness find its place in this list, too.
Shelton describes Natural Hygiene as “the employment of
materials, agents, and influences that have a normal relationship
1 - hygiene 5

to life, in the preservation and restoration of health according to

well-defined laws and demonstrated principles of nature.”³
Natural Hygiene is based on the fact, identity, and causality
of life: that life is, that life is alive, that life lives. This means it is
inherently self-preserving, ie, self-generating, self-maintaining,
and self-healing. This is true in every respect and at every scale,
from the cells to the organism as a whole. This is the first part of
Hygiene’s Great Law of Life.
The Great Law implies others. The Law of Action states that
only the organism performs vital action, including healing. The
Law of Vitality states that energy employed to perform this
action resides only with the organism, not anything external to
it.
Thus, no drug, herb, or food; no condition or practice; no
treatment, person, or device heals. Attempting to make the body
heal with them further damages or drains its power to heal
itself, whatever benefit might appear in the short term. This
is an example of the Law of Dual Effect. A dozen other Laws
compliment these.
Whether well or ill, one’s conscious (volitional) role is to
discover and provide the normal conditions of life in the proper
proportion. The autonomic (involuntary) processes of the omni-
scient, omnipotent organism handle the rest. Hygiene systemat-
ically describes how this happens with these and other logically
interrelated laws. All are derived from simple observations ev-
eryone can make.⁴
A drug, for example, is toxic by definition (which is why
drugs are legally controlled). It is a poison. An organism does
not relate with poisons but rapidly neutralizes and expels them.
³Ibid, back cover
⁴Ibid, chapter 5
1 - hygiene 6

By contrast, an organism assimilates food into its own structure.

Since it manages its own healing, medicine of all kinds is
superfluous.
Fasting when ill is an instinctual extension of the normal
time between meals. In this break, the body can rest from
most metabolic processes, repair tissues, eliminate deeply stored
waste, and replenish itself with nutrients and energy to the
farthest reaches of every cell. So fasting is a part of Natural
Hygiene. Darkroom retreating is the twin of fasting. It enables
psychic rest like fasting enables physiological rest.
In the relationship between food and nerve energy lies
another example. Food does not actually give energy to the body
directly. Food takes nerve, chemical, and muscular energy to eat
and digest. Otherwise we could just eat to restore our strength.
Food provides sugar, which refuels everything from large muscle
movement to thinking to cell operation. Some of this refueling
can occur within seconds of eating easily digested food like
fruit. But the body only transforms sugar into reserve electrical
potential of the nerves during sleep. It only eliminates toxins
from tissues and repairs them completely while they are unused.
So again we see that no external force, but life is the owner of
the power to act for itself. Life is the doer. Hygiene helps us give
the autonomic self some of the vast attention paid in our lifeway
to the volitional self. Volition plays a critical yet small part in the
whole process of life. In darkness, Hygiene finds another means
of attending to the autonomic self.
The deep self will not solve all one’s problems in darkroom
retreat. It will have a chance to recover lost capacity. Reca-
pacitated, one can then make the radical changes in lifeway
necessary to handle remaining problems. See protocol, post-
retreat section for more about this.
1 - hygiene 7

distinctions
attitude
Hygienic darkroom retreating is not primarily about hyper-
secretion in the brain of DMT, remembering of dreamtime,
accessing higher states of consciousness, or meditation (all of
which can easily happen in retreat). It is about unglamorous,
passive rest and the mostly insensible healing that occurs in rest.
Thus, it is fundamentally different from the active approaches of
discipline (like spiritual practice), therapy, and psychedelics. It is
grounded totally in normal organic processes of the involuntary
nervous system, which occur far beneath the level of conscious
awareness; and in cellular self-maintenance, where the nervous
system does not reach, but sub- and unconsciousness does.
Civilization has taught us well: in various ways, we have
all come to think that somehow, someday, we would finally
do something about our quandary. We feel pumped up by
the prospect of doing something consciously and directly. We
enthusiastically sign up for workshops, submit to treatments,
undertake disciplines, and experiment with exotic psychoactive
substances. Meanwhile, the autonomic self, omniscient and om-
nipotent, sits in an unemployment line.
This is egomania. It is an act, a pretense of enthusiasm to
cover the pain of psychic damage, of partial self-loss, of the
suicidal urge to total selflessness. Under regular circumstances,
we won’t drop this act. We cannot because it would be too
painful and frightening. We need a really safe place in which
to do it. Darkness is such a place.
Hygiene says that we cannot do anything directly about
injury anyway. We are utterly helpless in our post-traumatic
1 - hygiene 8

fixation and denial. It is not a pleasant thought. But it is fruitful

because it can elicit a strong enough response from conscience
to finally notice and support the self-healing organism.
Pathologically disidentified from life, we are powerless. We
who still stumble chaotically try to control life rather than serve
it. So we are not going to handle our quandary. As we imagine
ourselves to be—just the conscious, volitional part—we are not
going to get it done or have anything to do with its getting done.
We are not going to figure it out. We are fit to be tied.
The best we can do is fully admit to our helplessness and
to surrender to the only forces that could ever untie the knot. It
is the Gordian Knot. But the knot actually needs to be untied.
Alexander did not properly handle it by cutting it open with his
sword, and neither will we with our schemes, efforts, or skills.
Only the small, silent, slow tendrils of the autonomic organism’s
own vast intelligence can ever untie such a tangle. But it needs
our recognition, our commission to do the job. Integrity is the
end, so integrity must be the means as well.
Natural Hygiene’s passive emphasis on rest and healing
is very important because it defines the appropriate attitude
toward retreating. I learned in fasting that how one approaches
a retreat has a great effect on what happens in it. The mind
becomes extremely powerful when it is resting and purifying.
If one’s attitude is really to passively let the omnipotent healing
forces of the organism do everything, the effect will be much
greater than if one has the doer-attitude of a practitioner. Be-
cause the more competent worker is on the job.
I know no one who has explicitly gone into darkness with the
Hygienic perspective, with the sole purpose of simply providing
the conditions of life to the self-healing organism. Since the
organism is the only thing that heals the organism, this is far
1 - hygiene 9

more powerful than any other approach can be. Attitude affects
recovery.
The main effort involved is supportive: to maintain the con-
ditions of healing. This ain’t a tall order. Stay in the darkroom.
Lie down as much as possible. Eat. Exercise. Bathe. Eliminate.
Meditate if so moved. Lie back down. Stare at the backs of your
eyelids, feel your breath and pulse, and let sleep come.
It will anyway. Darkness ensures it. A bloodstream flooded
with melatonin is compelled to sleep. And sleep deeply: I felt
positively knocked out. Dreams are fewer or more vivid. In 48
hours it is possible to catch up on all the sleep one has ever lost. I
am not speaking metaphorically. It is impossible to believe until
it happens.
To me, it felt like falling through a trapdoor. At the end of my
second successful retreat, I felt five or six more such trapdoors
awaited me, which would take about two weeks in darkness to
fall through. Then I would see the other side of my personal
struggle, my lifelong dilemma. I still await my chance.
There were times I felt I was crawling in my skin. So the
whole thing was alternately very pleasant and very unpleasant.
But it is no worse than what I go through anyway. It is just
accelerated, concentrated, and without distraction. And there is
a chance of never reliving the horror again.

fulfilment
A very pleasant effect of this restful attitude becomes more
apparent the longer a retreat goes on: a sense of fulfilment. It
is as if all one’s futile efforts of the past are redeemed and their
goal is finally realized. As lost parts of the self are recovered, the
satisfaction of simply being alive returns.
1 - hygiene 10

For the exhausted, just getting up to pee can feel like a

chore. In darkness, this feeling can intensify at first. But then,
imperceptibly, it turns to satisfaction again. For me, for example,
to exercise became fun after three days. I felt how frustrated I had
been in my inactivity.
Frustration is one of many effects of psychic damage. Dam-
age incapacitates us. We can no longer do certain normal things.
The organism generates fear of the activity to prevent us from
trying, failing, and hurting ourselves even worse.
But we still desire these activities. Frustration is the conflict
between desire and fear. It wastes a tremendous amount of
energy to keep us safe. Recapacitation removes the cause of the
fear, enables the fulfilment of desire, and releases vital energy
for other tasks. Self-recovery accelerates and deepens.
See note on fulfillment in protocol in the section on attitude.

not
There are three things the Hygienic use of darkness is not.

1. It is not discipline. For example, spiritual practice entails

super-effort to force access to subtle energy reserves for
the purpose of transformation. The will is so weak and
inefficient, and unconscious resistance is so great that
the result can only be partial. The Hygienic approach
is explicitly and exactly the opposite: rest profoundly to
accumulate energy necessary for restoration. The con-
scious self attempts nothing to directly cause healing, only
provides conditions of healing. The autonomic self is free
to heal completely.
1 - hygiene 11

In discipline, one accepts, on faith in appearances, the

idea of a basic internal conflict. One struggles “against
nature”, fights habits with practices to achieve an ideal. In
Hygiene, one is naturally motivated by logical argument
to appreciate and fulfill the actually healthy aims of one’s
habits.
2. It is not therapy. Therapy is something done to an organ-
ism from the outside. The therapist, therapy, and thera-
peutic substances are the principal actors in a therapeutic
session.
Therapy lacks an explanation for how it will perform or
substitute for the pentillions of organic processes nec-
essary for healing. In fact, darkness does nothing in a
retreat. Like air or water, it is merely an inert condition
which the self-preserving organism uses in its ceaseless
tendency toward wholeness. The principal actor is life, not
its conditions.
3. It is not a psychedelic trip, an experience of unconscious
psychic phenomena made conscious with chemicals, nat-
ural or artificial.

These are all consciously active approaches to suffering:

willed activities to improve an inert, even resistant unconscious
self, as if it were disinclined or incapable. Unfortunately, this
attitude is ignorantly coercive toward the crippled conscious
self and discouraging of the omnipotent autonomic self. It is
internalized tyranny, with its resultant triune brain drain.
In contrast, Hygienic use of darkness is essentially passive
as regards the will. Neither external influences nor one’s con-
scious self have center stage, but only play supportive roles. The
autonomic self is the principal actor.
1 - hygiene 12

No conflict. Maximum efficiency. Perfect result.

mechanics
food
Attention to diet and nutrition have always been part of Natural
Hygiene. Due to decreased activity, stress, and appetite, darkness
presents a miraculous opportunity to:

• eat well
• interrupt the malnourishing, dissociative, toxifying rela-
tionship with food from which most of us suffer
• clearly experience one’s thoughts, feelings and sensations

This is why I serve and recommend only fresh fruit and

greens to retreatants. As a sampling of the frugivorous diet, com-
mon to all anthropoid primates like us, these foods only nourish.
They do not overtax digestion, intoxify, or overstimulate the
system, nor help us suppress feeling or memory.
For more on frugivorous diet, I recommend The 80/10/10
Diet by Dr Douglas Graham. He is a Natural Hygienist, 25-year
frugivore, and Olympic trainer.
However, if the prospect of eating just fruits and vegetables
stops you from retreating, then just plan to eat as simply and
naturally as you know how. Feel free to write me with your
limitations; I am happy to make menu suggestions. Reversing
illness and suffering is a process with its own logic. Darkness is
a starting point. One step at a time.
Note: just because the frugivorous diet consists of all raw
food does not make it a “raw food diet”. Frugivorism has a large,
1 - hygiene 13

multi-dimensional set of criteria about food (timing, quantity,

proportion, combination, season, source, one’s feeling, etc). Raw
foodism only has one criterion: anything goes but high-heating.
It lacks depth and seriousness. It is fanaticism, not a whole
relationship with food.

preparation
If nothing is to be done directly in a retreat to cause healing, how
does one prepare for it? It is mostly logistics:

• understanding the Hygienic attitude of passive support

• learning how to eat frugivorously to feel satisfied
• arranging a darkroom, support, and food

Otherwise, you prepare the same way you prepare for weeks
in a hospital bed in traction. Ie, it is too late. You are already
prepared.

depths
trauma
In the course of days alone in a darkroom, it is inevitable
that any unresolved trouble from one’s past will come to the
surface. Buried thoughts, feelings, sensations, and memories of
trauma become conscious as the psyche repairs itself. This is not
the torment of endlessly reliving the past, but part of genuine
recovery from it.
Why are these things buried? The first and strongest mani-
festation of trauma is unconscious denial. Denial is not a moral
1 - hygiene 14

failure. It is subconscious success. Untended trauma easily over-

whelms an infant’s fragile consciousness. Denial prevents trauma
from shattering basic psychic integrity. Denial is maintained
until the psyche heals. Only then can one bear witness to what
has been denied.
Denial begins to lift and a traumatic event is remembered
or acknowledged. Frozen feelings resurface. Insights come. The
organism paces this sometimes intense process with great care.
The fact that it is happening proves you can handle it.
However, gaining confidence in your ability can take time. In
the next chapter, I describe some ways I learned of dealing with
intense memory and feeling in darkness. In a series of reports, I
have recorded my experiences in darkness of beginning to heal
from deep trauma.
What trauma? I mean the routine brutality of our lifeway.
Not just the bad things we condemn, but the bad things we accept
and even believe in. I’m not going to name any of them because
you’ve already been offended enough. Exactly what they are for
you, I invite you to find out yourself in darkness, where you have
a real chance to deal with them.
The bottom line is this.
No one can get brutalized day in and day out for years and
not be affected. We are not indestructable. We are vulnerable to
injury. This vulnerability is not our fault. It is the nature of our
conditional existence. Failure is not a result of weakness. It is a
sign of malfunction resulting from damage.
From this damage, we need time to heal. We deserve it simply
because we are hurt. Trauma is real. It is deep. It persists until it
heals. It disrupts everything in the meantime.
And we can heal from it. We just need basic, decent condi-
tions in which to do so: rest in dark, quiet solitude.
1 - hygiene 15

Lastly, unconscious psychic trauma often expresses itself

as physical illness. So if you are physically ill, you may well
find psychic wounds underneath your condition, wounds of
surprising intensity. These wounds are doors. On the other side
of them lie unexpected paths to health.
Much of this comes straight out of modern depth psychology:
Reich, Liedloff, Janov, Miller⁵. In describing routine civilized
traumatazation, they took heroic stands for humanity. They
only did not imagine that the psyche could repair itself without
therapy.
The human organism is resilient in some ways and vul-
nerable in others. Darkness provides our autonomic selves the
opportunity to fully put these qualities to healthy use, and to
right unfathomable wrongs.

causation
Pathology is the study of illness, including its causation: the
chain of cause and effect that leads to symptoms.
Natural Hygiene deals unflinchingly in first causes. It begins
by observing that health is the normal state of organisms under
normal conditions. Disease only occurs when something goes
wrong with conditions: harmful ones are present and beneficial
ones are absent or in a bad proportion.
Among other things, this gives Hygiene a rational standard
for evaluating conditions proposed as beneficial. Hygiene asks,
what normal relationship to life does this condition have? Did
its absence cause or contribute to the disease in the first place?
If not, then the proposal can be dismissed.
⁵Wilhelm, Jean, Arthur, Alice
1 - hygiene 16

In the case of using the condition of darkness to heal from

psychic illness, once upon a time, we were deprived of the
shelter we instinctively sought in order to heal from whatever
traumatized us. We got hurt but got no chance to heal. Resting
in a darkroom finally addresses this little-noticed intermediate
cause of ongoing suffering and illness from trauma.
Why were we deprived? Parents, our source of shelter,
were often the source of our trauma. they were misguided or
unwitting. Possibly they were traumatized with us. Or over-
whelmed. Either way, how were they to provide us proper shelter
afterward?
They did not mean to hurt us. They suffered from the same
illness arising from an often similar trauma with their parents.
They were in denial of their need for rest, just as their parents
denied them. To support our healing would have meant facing
their own terrifying pain in precisely the distressing moment
when their highest values—their children—were suffering most.
It happens occasionally, but it’s too much to expect.
So here we are.
Since humanity was fine at some point, how did trauma
begin? Sane people do not routinely hurt their children. So the
trauma had to originate externally. I don’t know exactly what,
but I guess a natural super-catastrophe in our distant past did it.
Fact is, big rocks fly around space at high speeds. Occasionally,
one lands here with unhappy consequences. Maybe we are the
butt of a cosmic joke.
What would it mean to get the joke? Everybody is innocent.
So everybody is free to heal.
On Earth, trying to prevent trauma is futile. Hope lies in
having a way to recover from it.
1 - hygiene 17

psychology
In light of the traumatic origin of disease, Hygienic principles,
and restful use of darkness, a Hygienic psychology can now be
outlined:

1. As organisms, we start out whole, functional, and happy.

2. Early, routine, major psychic trauma leaves us damaged,
malfunctional, and suffering.
3. The psyche, as an organic system, will heal itself.
4. Healing primarily requires rest due to the stillness and
extra vital energy it affords.
5. Profound psychic rest occurs autonomically in absolute,
physical darkness.
6. Therefore, by resting in darkness, we are restored to
wholeness, function, and happiness.

Natural Hygiene upholds basic findings of psychology from

several traditions. Hygiene merely shrugs at psychology’s con-
scious over-involvement in the unconscious. We are correct in
believing we have a problem and need to do something about it.
We have been incorrect about which part of ourselves has to do
it.⁶
Focusing on deep psychic rest in absolute darkness is new in
Natural Hygiene. Until now, it has focused on physiological rest
afforded by fasting, which has been its ultimate means of dealing
with serious illness. At most, Hygiene recommends keeping eyes
closed during fasts because it rests the mind⁷. A darkroom retreat
⁶As psychologists Michael Meade and James Hillman put it in the title of their 1993
book, We’ve Had a Hundred Years of Psychotherapy—And the World’s Getting Worse
⁷Hygienist, Bernarr Zovluck, quoted online
1 - hygiene 18

embodies this principle fully while providing the energy and,

frankly, the security of food to support repair of psychic systems.
It compliments fasting’s more physical benefits.
As in fasting, one hardly knows in darkness what the being
is doing at its deepest levels. Occasionally there is a chance to
consciously participate in the process. Or to find out why things
have gone wrong if it is important to change ideas and habits
related to it. Mostly one feels normal, or discomfort, or a strange
subterranean rumbling.
But one always knows the result: restoration of function.
Recovery of the lost self. Usually accompanied by feelings of
contentedness and euphoria. Darkroom retreating demonstrates
the marvelous self-healing power of the organism under proper
conditions. But for those who have suffered and failed for
years with other approaches, the process is nothing less than
miraculous. As with the rest of Hygiene, time in darkness shows
that if one wants a miracle, one need only provide for it.
And then? Healed from trauma, one will no longer be com-
pelled to repeat it. One will absorb and redeem its consequences.
As with the rest of Natural Hygiene, its bad news is much worse,
and its good news is far better.
The emergence of a Hygienic psychology and identification
of trauma at the root of all illness have massive implications
for Hygiene’s pathology and destiny. Hygiene has said illness
originates with enervation (low energy) and toxemia. Trauma
explains how these conditions themselves originate. And in
coming to terms with trauma, Natural Hygiene can finally meet
allopathy (Western medicine) in its stronghold. I have started to
develop these implications in hygiene notes.
I am only saying enough here to give you a theoretical basis
for doing Hygienic darkroom retreats. For an introduction to the
1 - hygiene 19

principles, practices, and intriguing history of Natural Hygiene,

read Shelton’s The Science and Fine Art of Natural Hygiene.
2 - format
Darkness can be used in different formats for different reasons.
Here, I describe the ones I’ve tried so you can immediately
begin experiencing for yourself deep rest in darkness. Observe
the effects in your energy level, psychic state, and general well-
being.
These are in the order I recommend you do them in.

sleep in darkness tonight

Start like this: tack dark, dense blankets over your bedroom
windows and doors to get relief tonight from outdoor ambient
light. Extend corners of the blanket as far past door on either
side as possible. Turn off or cover any devices in your room that
produce light. But make sure you have fresh air, even if it lets
in a little light for now. Get a cheap sleeping mask from a travel
store to make up some of the difference.
We all know how it is to finally get enough sleep after too
many short nights: we feel tired afterward. This is not getting too
much sleep (a physiological impossibility). We are just tapping
into the first layer of a backlog of lost sleep. Feeling groggy is the
first phase of catching up, which can take days. Reversing sleep
deprivation is like withdrawing from a drug.
Once you’re “sober”, you can see if you really like darkness
for sleeping nightly. If so, make removable inserts and lightproof
vents so your room is dark, fresh, and easily reopened to light
during the day.
2 - format 21

4-day retreat
Everyone interested in a 4-day retreat can try one. Though not
guaranteed, it is possible to catch up on all the sleep one ever
lost in darkness in about 48 hours. The amount of deep sleep to
be had in this short amount of time is hard to imagine until you
experience it.
It is best to go into darkness at night and come out three
mornings later, making the dark part of the retreat 2.5 days.
Before or after a 48 hour period, you have to sleep the night
anyway. It’s good to have a whole day awake before and after a
retreat. And it’s good to have time to spare.
After sleeping as much as possible, eating, eliminating, and
bathing, what do you do in darkness without work, people, or
media? I have found exercise and meditation to be helpful in
continuing to rest while awake. I explain more about this in the
section on attention in the protocol chapter.
Spend a minimum of 15 minutes relighting the room by
opening the window inserts bit by bit so you can slowly re-adjust
to light. This is very important.
It takes time to properly readjust to light and ordinary life.
So a period of unstressed transition back to it is critical. For every
three days of darkness, allow at least 24 hours of continued rest,
except with windows uncovered during the day.
Hormones are rebalancing and this takes time. It certainly
feels like a chemical process. Strangely, the sense of balance can
be affected. It takes time to take account of what just happened
with yourself in darkness, to begin integrating the changes, extra
energy, and value of the retreat to you.
Spend the transition quietly. Visit with no one. Take a slow
walk. Take a nap (covering the windows if you like). Lie on the
2 - format 22

grass or the sofa. Then cover the windows at sunset and sleep
the night again in darkness.
Uncover the windows when you awaken. Your supporter
should come at 10:00 to make sure you are up. Consider your
retreat finished by noon at the latest.
Ease back into your regular life, where you will likely con-
tinue to notice changes.
A regular, fully-functioning house is best for a first 4-day
retreat. But rent a retreat cabin if necessary and improvise a
bathroom. For this short of a period, running water is unnec-
essary. See the “bathroom” section of make for a short list of
requirements.

8-day retreat
This is the most beneficial retreat I have experienced myself.
Most people who can retreat for four days can go eight days
and benefit more than twice as much. This is because the
organism’s response to darkness is cumulative, so the healing
process deepens over time. Many of my early clients felt like they
were just beginning to get somewhere when their 4-day retreat
ended. So I added 8-day retreats for first-timers, and it worked
fine.
This is like the 4-day retreat except:

• a major psychic issue can arise after physical restedness is

reached
• another cycle of emotional discomfort and resolution usu-
ally occurs with that
• two days of transition are needed afterward
2 - format 23

• a bathing facility is needed for emotional as well as

physical reasons. See “bathroom” section of make for how
to make a portable indoor shower.
• cover and uncover the windows each evening (by 20:00)
and morning (by 10:00). Also do it for naps if you like.

So only go four days if eight feels like too much, or you

haven’t time or the facility. Trust your feeling about this. Life
and healing move slowly; so can you, now that you have found
a realistic way to heal.

sleep in darkness nightly

From simply darkening his bedroom, a friend reported to me a
huge difference in the quality of sleep he and his mate experi-
enced, as well as a return of vivid dreams. I have experienced
the same thing whenever I have been able to darken the room I
sleep in. As a rule, the darker the room, the better the sleep. And
perfect darkness is qualitatively better than near-darkness. See
for yourself.
It is best to go to sleep early, 20:00 at the latest. Then one
naturally awakens around 02:00. At this hour, one is freshly
rested, the promise of sleep lies ahead, and the mind and its in-
hibitions are slightly out of commission. So sex can be especially
gratifying.
It is also considered the most auspicious hour for meditating.
Creative thinking, exercising, or eating fruit are all fine, too.
Sometimes I turn on the light to clean, design, read, or write for
an hour or two. Then I go back to bed till 08:00 (give or take
a couple hours). Before widespread public lighting, this was a
common sleeping pattern. It’s called biphasic or segmented sleep.
2 - format 24

mini-retreat
This is for maintenance of restedness while keeping to your reg-
ular schedule. It is the same as sleeping nightly in darkness (see
above), except for two things: it is not just best, but mandatory
to go to bed before 20:00 and leave darkness no more than 14
hours later*. And when I awaken around 02:00, whatever else I
do, I remain in darkness.
A mini-retreat is not as impressive as regular ones. But it is
safe, it feels really good, and it doesn’t disrupt one’s schedule.
*CAUTION: Do not start a mini-retreat late and sleep extra
late. This is the one dangerous way I found to use darkness. Read
my blog post, how not to retreat, for an explanation.

future
The benefit of short retreats is clearly limited. Doing a lot of them
does not equal doing few long ones. It’s the law of diminishing
returns combined with the risk of bolstering the ego and the
frustration of glimpsed but unrealized potential.
My goal is to retreat for 20 days (5 lit). In my second
successful retreat I had a hunch that in two weeks of darkness
my psyche will heal from trauma at the core, enabling me to put
the rest of my life back together afterward.
Stories persist of astonishing physical healing occurring in
Ayurvedic darkroom retreats lasting 3-12 months: growing new
teeth (!); recovering lost hair and eyesight; and healing from
diabetes and even signs of old age. It seems worth looking into.
I would like to find a way health, including psychic health,
can be fully restored in one shot. Like healing a broken bone. To
2 - format 25

this end, I would like to see Hygienic retreat centers worldwide

with facilities and support for:
• darkroom retreats
• fasts (a la Mosseri)
• physical retraining
• training in healthy lifeway, including both lifestyle and
livelihood
• open source research and development of the above
• a village residence for staff where all this gets applied and
tested in real life
In 3-6 months, one would be:
• restored to as much function and vitality as possible
• prepared to maintain it in daily life
• prepared to deal with the residue of the past.
As a consultant, I wish to help developers of such centers
as well as places just for darkroom retreats. I also wish to help
operators of existing retreat centers include Hygienic darkroom
retreating in their programs. Those who support it become
eligible for my future network, through which I can refer clients
to you. Write me for more info.
It will take generations of healthy living for our full potential
as human beings to be restored to original levels, but huge strides
can be made in our lifetimes.

conclusion
Now that we have examined different formats of the restful use
of darkness for different purposes, let’s think ahead about what
to do in a Hygienic darkroom retreat.
3 - protocol
Here is how to retreat in darkness in a Hygienic way, to the best
of my knowledge. This chapter is a guide for retreating at a retreat
center or your own place.
I intend this to guide you, not lead you. Life itself is the
leader, and we are all learning to listen to it. So if the best of my
knowledge proves insufficient, or it clearly conflicts with you in
some way, do not force it on yourself. Rather, rely on yourself,
on the life within. You would not have made it this far without
your own good ways of seeing difficulty through.
Hygienic darkroom retreating is new and I am new at it. I
have made this up as I go based on my experience in darkness
and what I have learned from Natural Hygiene and other sources.
While my editors have done their best to help me remove
my arbitrary influence from the text, we likely missed some.
And I might have misunderstood Hygiene, mistaken my own
experience, or mistated something here. So again, you must
rely on yourself, whether you are following my guidelines or
diverging from them.
As far as I am concerned, darkroom retreating is nothing less
than recovery of the lost self. It is yourself with whom you are to
be reunited. As that happens, you become your own best guide.
This chapter is just for getting you started and helping you past
the biggest obstacles.
Only life itself can ever be the final authority on anything in
Natural Hygiene. Consider these as notes from the field and an
invitation to explore an idea whose time has come.
3 - protocol 27

mechanics
First, if you haven’t already, read the format chapter, especially
the 4-day retreat section. That gives a good description of the
overall process.

• If retreating in your own bedroom:

– neutralize it: pack up and store everything unneces-
sary to the retreat
– clean it thoroughly
– pad sharp corners and protrusions
• Food
– Eat simply the day your retreat begins. If you can eat
enough fruit and greens to satisfy yourself, do so.
– Eat dinner before coming
• Orientation
– Arrive at 18:00
– Your supporter will show you details of the room,
find out particular things you need, and talk to you
about the retreat a little bit.
– Get used to the darkroom with eyes open. Then
practice moving around and finding things with
your eyes closed or a blindfold.
– If you have no supporter, set an alarm for 10:00 the
day you will uncover the windows and your last day.
• Lights out
– How are you going to do things in a totally dark-
room? Very slowly!
– Important: when crouching, bending over, and ris-
ing, hold your arms out in front of yourself with
hands touching so you don’t hit your head. I learned
3 - protocol 28

this the hard way a couple times so you don’t have

to. Practice this.
– Food will be left between the doors. Put food scraps
in bucket provided inside the room.
– Things slowly go out of place in the darkroom. If you
would like the bed remade, lost shoes found, etc, just
let your supporter know.
– Use the scratch paper and pen provided to write
notes to your supporter. Put them between the doors.
– Avoid all other company and media during your
retreat: text, music, photos, video.

purpose
• It is better to consider any spiritual, personal developmen-
tal, or therapeutic purpose to which you might put this
retreat as part of what you are retreating from. Really: feel
free to let it all go here. Whatever is valid will come back.
If you can’t let it go, that’s ok, too.
• It is quite possible to have a goal for a retreat and make
progress with it. I did this several times. But it was out
of desperation. My aims were security objects. This kind
of purposefulness interferes with the organism’s priorities,
which cannot be improved upon. Life always knows what
is actually most urgent. (My most effective retreat was
when I felt quite hopeless that it would work. I only stayed
because of its logic.)
• Likewise, the autonomic functions of the organism will
deal with some of what we often regard as our moral
responsibilities. Darkroom retreating is not primarily an
active process (like spiritual practice). It is primarily a
3 - protocol 29

passive process, requiring minimal effort on your part.

Like waiting in a hospital bed to heal.
Thus, you do not need to make yourself meditate, pray,
chant, think hard about things, etc. But if you feel moved
to do so, do not stop yourself, either. Yes, you actually get
to consider your feelings, impulses, thoughts, and needs in
darkness.
• Again, the main purpose of the retreat is to rest. This
enables the organism to accumulate the vital energy it
needs to heal deep, psychic injuries way beyond the reach
of the will. Your principal task is to sleep.
• This process is as foolproof as possible. Given the condi-
tions of rest—most of which are built into the room itself—
you will heal. The organism is the principal actor. Your job
is to support its self-healing process by conserving energy,
including the energy expended by attention (more later).

expectations
• What I have experienced may or may not happen for you.
But you will get a distinct break from your regular life. It’s
best to consider anything more a bonus.
• I make no guarantees about what you will experience.
Perhaps you will have an amazing experience, perhaps
you won’t. It is up to your whole self, 99.99% of which
operates below the level of conscious awareness, beyond
your direct control.
I do guarantee that your being will do exactly what is
most necessary and not require more of you than you can
handle. Perfect, complete knowledge of everything about
3 - protocol 30

you and absolute power to act on this knowledge are the

autonomic self’s great gifts for you.
• As with everything, you have to learn how to do and not
do this. I’m still learning.
• As when wandering the streets of a foreign city, keep
your wits about you. Your supporter is not a doctor, just
a regular person. You remain basically responsible for
yourself.

water & exercise!

• There are two things I make sure I do, even if I don’t feel
like it:
– drink water: water coats the nerves, making time in
darkness emotionally smoother. Detection of dehy-
dration is strangely harder in darkness. Each day,
drink about 1 liter for every 20 kg you weigh.
– exercise: exercise helps me get to sleep, avoid bed
soreness, feel less out-of-sorts, prevent muscle atro-
phy, and, interestingly, maintain the psycho-physical
“space” in which healing occurs. Even five minutes a
day makes the difference between a pleasant retreat
and constant discomfort. After the first couple days,
I want to exercise more and more, something that
never happened before.

food
It is also important to eat. I strongly believe in fasting. It is
the Hygienic twin of darkroom retreating. But so far, I am not
3 - protocol 31

convinced these two processes should be done at once. Healing

the psyche and healing the body seem to have opposite metabolic
requirements. The activity of one supports the rest of the other.
Tips:

• Eat meals rather than snacks. When you are hungry, focus
and eat until you feel full and satisfied. The human alimen-
tary tract processes food in batches. A continuous stream
of food (often eaten in boredom) stresses the stomach and
leads to poor digestion.
• You will probably need 25-50% less food than usual. I
recommend keeping it to fresh, raw, ripe fruit and leafy
greens to maximize nutrition, psychic agility, and physical
elimination. Keep it in a large cooler with a block of ice. Eat
as much as you like. It is likely that your appetite will be
diminished due to extra melatonin in the blood (a reason
we do not get hungry when we sleep). This was especially
noticeable in my first retreat.
• 10% of your food, by mass, should be leafy greens: lettuce
(not iceberg), celery, spinach, parsley, cilantro. This is the
equivalent of 1-2 large heads or bunches.
• 90% of your food should be fruit, sweet and non-sweet (like
tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers). So salads can be sweet
(greens mixed with sweet fruit) and savory (greens mixed
with non-sweet fruit).
• Eliminate or minimize fatty fruits like avocados, olives.
Forego nuts and seeds altogether. One small avocado
during a 4-day retreat in a savory salad is nice.
• Most of what you consume in fruit and leafy greens is
water. So you must eat five times more volume for the
3 - protocol 32

same sense of fullness and satisfaction. Eating so much

takes getting used to. Practice it before the retreat.
• For more about food, see hygiene and prepare, and The
80/10/10 Diet by Dr Douglas Graham.

attention
• One has to do something with attention. I know of four
ways to place it:
– mentally on thoughts or thought process, often above
the head
– visually on darkness, in front of the eyes or inside
the head
– palpably on breathing, in the belly
– palpably and audibly on the pulse, in the heart
These are all good places to put attention. It just depends
on what resting requires in any given moment. Keep this
purpose in mind, and you will learn when to move your
attention around.
• Conscious placement of attention on some aspect of con-
sciousness itself is usually called meditation. Meditation
is usually considered discipline. But this is because time is
set aside for it. And its purpose is lofty. Here, time is set
aside for rest, meditation helps that, and there’s nothing
else to do. Meditation can serve the retreat. The retreat is
not for meditation.
• Obviously, thinking can be good. When you have presence
of mind, you can profit greatly by proceeding logically
through clear problems to solutions, steadily making ra-
tional connections between thoughts and experience. Yet
it’s nice to know it’s not your only option.
3 - protocol 33

• You can also look directly at darkness itself, making it

an object of attention. We are usually taught to think of
darkness as nothing or as a background for something lit.
Focusing externally on darkness, eyes open or closed, helps
calm the mind and it can be unexpectedly absorbing.
You can try this right now. Put your palms over your eyes.
Slightly overlapping your fingers above the nose helps
seal out light. Look at the backs of your eyelids like you
are looking into a wide open space. Do this for a few
minutes. Shapes and colors and spots might move around
for awhile, then slowly clear away. Focus on the still, dark
patches. It is like retracting all one’s senses back inside the
head. This can be helpful in the middle of a busy day to
feel centered and in the body again. It is also restful for the
eyes.
• Darkness seems to be a portal to the dreamworld, also
called dreamtime or timespace. Many have reported occa-
sionally seeing unusual lights and images. These moments
have a highly real, objective quality and are intensely
absorbing and bracing.
• Images of a more subjective nature can also play on the
“screen” of darkness. In other words, the images are com-
ing from the mind. At first I found this fascinating. Then
it became torturous and nightmarish. For awhile I thought
it was meaningless. Eventually, I decided it reflects what I
am repressing or denying about myself: nothing to indulge
or dismiss.
My reports describe my long struggle with this. Here is
what I learned: when the imagery becomes too much,
look for a patch of plain darkness. It is sometimes behind,
3 - protocol 34

sometimes in front of the imagery. Concentrate on it a

moment to steady yourself, then put your attention on
your breathing.
• Moving my attention into my gut to feel my breathing is
always safe, a shelter from a storm raging in my head. I
can calmly hang out there for hours while lying down,
palpating the motion of breathing. Just the in-and-out of
my belly where natural breathing occurs (not in the chest).
• From there I put my attention on my heart and palpate for
a pulse. From sensation to feeling can’t be very far. I heard
from a genuine meditation teacher that eventually one can
put attention in the heart as pure feeling.
Which sounds really nice. I look forward to that.

conservation
• Talk only if necessary. Chatting drains energy.
• Do a silent retreat for a more concentrated experience:
– Learn to write in darkness so you can take notes on
your experience and still communicate with a sup-
porter. Use a notebook. Turn the page after writing
or whenever you are in doubt about having turned
it. Use your non-writing hand to guide your pen.
– If you usually talk to yourself, catch yourself and
stop.
• Commonly, retreatants want to leave the facility quickly
upon exiting the darkroom. This is due to an unaccus-
tomed increase in energy level and well-being. They have
a sharpened sense of anticipation about their lives and
feel more in their bodies: ready to go. But rather than
3 - protocol 35

immediately re-enter regular life and probably end up

blowing off this extra energy, it is better to recirculate it,
absorb it, stabilize it.
So the retreat continues after darkness with windows
uncovered and the door opened for one day for every 2-
3 darkened days. This gives you time to re-orient to light
and gravity. Take a walk, look at nature, and reflect on
what has happened. See format and post-retreat protocol
for more about this.

discomfort
• There is usually an uncomfortable period somewhere in
the middle of the retreat, lasting minutes to hours. It’s like
a bout of pain while convalescing in a hospital. But now
it is the soul that heals. Crying is natural.
• Getting some outside air is refreshing. Have a reliable
blindfold so you can stick your head outside to take some
breaths. This is easier at night when there is no bright light
to get behind the blindfold.
• Lack of movement can cause bad feeling. Exercise can
instantly reverse it.
• The ways described in the phobia section below might be
useful.
• In a small number of cases, one can feel the retreat
is unbearably difficult. Like one is about to burst. This
happened to me my first time. It happened with a client,
also. As a last resort before quitting the retreat, call your
supporter if a little company would help.
3 - protocol 36

If you can’t stand it anymore, you can use light like a

brake on the process. Apply it by slowly opening the door
as much and long as needed. Start with your eyes closed.
Turn away from the door. Open your eyes, but do not look
into the light directly. Once you feel calm, close the door
again.

phobias
Here are some ways those with phobias related to darkness (eg,
superstition, claustrophobia, fear of the dark) can still retreat.

• red light: Keep a red LED light next to your bed (pure red
light gives no signal to the pineal gland wake you up). If
anxiety or panic become too great, turn on the light till you
feel better. If this is insufficient, turn on a regular light or
step outside till you feel calm. Then go back into darkness
again.
• microretreat: retreat for five seconds, then take a break in
(red) light till you feel ready for the next microretreat.
Gradually increase the length of the micro-retreats. Do
this for 15 minutes. The next night, go 30 minutes, etc.
• companion: retreat with another person inside or near the
darkroom till you feel ok alone.
• reason: go over the facts of your situation in your mind.
What evidence do you have for what you fear? You can
learn to recognize and dismiss arbitrary (baseless) ideas.*

I had a client from a superstitious culture who was raised to

fear the dark. But the idea of resting in darkness appealed to her
common sense. She stayed in darkness for a whole night for the
3 - protocol 37

first time in her life at my darkroom. Afterward, she said that

when her fear of monsters or ghosts came, she simply reasoned
her way through it like this:
She remembered closing and locking the door, then checking
under the bed and table and finding nothing before blowing out
the candle. The door had not opened since then, so nothing could
have gotten in. She deduced there could be no threat, calmed
down, and went back to sleep. That night, her fantastic fear
yielded to reason four times.
When she awoke in the morning, she felt ecstatic from
staying all night in absolute darkness and overcoming her fear
of it. Her rationality strengthened, and she used it to strengthen
her feeling of safety and her relationship to reality. Finally allied
with her autonomic self, the tide gently turned on her phobia .
In any case, try. If these methods fail, perhaps you will come
up with your own in the moment of crisis. An idea will occur
to you. You will feel something or have an impulse. Act on it.
Darkroom retreating isn’t all just lying around. These brief calls
for heroism are part of the minimal effort the retreat requires of
everyone at some point.
*I was raised with many superstitions. I have found pp155-
170 of Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand by Leonard
Piekoff extremely helpful in dealing with the conscious part of
them. He explains how to identify and dismiss arbitrary ideas.

support
• A supporter supplies food and checks in with a retreatant
according to their agreed schedule. The retreatant has a
way to contact the supporter at any time while main-
taining darkness. The supporter has completed at least
3 - protocol 38

one retreat as long as the retreatant’s; knows this book,

including the basic ideas of Natural Hygiene; is reliable;
and has a modicum of common sense. A professional level
of expertise is not required.
• The supporter must be able to deliver food and talk to the
retreatant in a normal voice without opening the door. A
supporter must be able to enter the room to maintain it
without letting in light. See design chapter about double
doors.
• Checking in can happen once or twice a day, or once in the
middle of the retreat or not at all. It’s up to the retreatant.
Prepared food like salads or smoothies can be delivered
daily without talking. My presence as a supporter has
diminished greatly since I started. I did my last two 4-day
retreats without a supporter and liked it a lot.

post-retreat
The effects of a retreat continue afterward, sometimes with an
intensity equal to the retreat’s. So I call it the aftermath. This is
a further period of possibility, breakthrough, and exploration. It
can last from a few days to several weeks (!).
How it goes depends on one’s personality. I’m not the stablest
oil rig in the Gulf, so it fairly tosses me around. It usually begins
with a calm, solid feeling of deep restedness from the retreat.
Then a tension builds to a crisis over days. I can feel as bad as
the worst moments of my retreat. Then an insight or discovery
comes that shows the way to the next small period of my life.
I know less about this part of my clients’ retreats than the
dark part. From what I saw and heard, their aftermaths varied
greatly in character. Sometimes they matched the drama of mine,
3 - protocol 39

sometimes they were smooth sailing. Just remember where you

just were and keep your eyes peeled.
∼∼
We all know better about our lives: things we should do for
ourselves which, strangely, we cannot do. Darkroom retreating
enables the organism to restore one’s normal ability to take
care of oneself. This is permanent recapacitation. The intensity
and highs of the experience fade, but restored capacity remains,
just as a broken leg, once healed, doesn’t become broken again
without another major mishap.
Therefore, the full application of the idea behind Hygienic
darkroom retreating means doing retreats of increasing length
alternated with periods of radical lifeway change until health is
fully restored. “Health through healthful living.”
Some changes you already know. Those you do not, you
become able to learn and apply. Resources and opportunities
right under your nose for years suddenly become visible and
interesting. Having restored part of your being, how you are is
different. So you attract different things. When you see you can
walk through the front door of a bakery and get whatever you
like, you stop begging crumbs out its back door.

summary
While I have said you are not the main actor in darkness, in truth,
a part of you is. It is the part we are taught to ignore, deny, and
disown: the autonomic self. In darkness, the conscious self we are
taught to fully identify with is servant to the autonomic self. This
corrects the conventional relationship, in which the unfailing
processes of life are harnessed to the agenda of a crippled will.
In life, you must arrange certain conditions to live. You must
3 - protocol 40

keep your wits about you. You are accountable for your own
experience. These basic facts not only do not change in the
darkroom, they become especially clear. In darkness, it is your
job to maintain certain conditions of the retreat.
Your supporter—a non-expert, non-mind-reading non-therapist—
will be on the outside helping you do that. She will be main-
taining the darkroom, bringing food, perhaps finding your lost
shoes. Like any decent person would, she will talk to you for a
few minutes if you need. It’s your retreat. If something is not
working, say so.
If you would, please write a description of what happened
before you go, while it is fresh in your memory, and share it
with your supporter. I have found reading these reports (which
should not be shared) very useful in improving the darkroom,
understanding the process, and learning to explain it to people.
4 - prepare
This is the registration form I have used with clients, followed
by the menu and list of things to bring. Even if not retreating at
a center, I suggest you read it and fill out the questionnaire to
help you prepare mentally for the retreat. Likewise, pass it on to
those you ever facilitate retreats for.
∼∼
Register for your retreat here. Follow instructions carefully.

general
• Read this book. Quiz later.
• Select dates for your retreat from the calendar below.
Retreats begin at 18:00 and end at 12:00 four or eight
mornings later. For example, a 4-day retreat that begins
on Monday evening would end on Friday morning. And a
retreat can begin the same day another ends.
• Respond by email to the questionnaire below. Responses
of one or two sentences are sufficient.
• Bring things listed below that.

terms
• Prices:
– 4 days (3 dark days, 1 lit), e360 / $480
– 8 days (6 dark days, 2 lit), e670 / $900
• Discounts:
4 - prepare 42

– Local, student, or friend: 25%

– Local and student or friend: 50%
– Offers of 35% + remainder in trade gladly considered
– No one serious turned away for lack of funds.
• Reserve dates with a 50% deposit. Balance due on arrival.
• Cancelation fees (% of total price):
– 30+ days before retreat: 5%
– 7+ days before retreat: 25% (half the deposit)
– 1-29 days if someone else can take your spot: 10%

[google calendar here]

questionnaire
1.Name:
2.Email address:
3.Phone:
4.Address:
5.Age:
6.Emergency contact name, email, and phone:
7.Retreat length:___ days
8.Retreat starting date____________ +/-___ days (for abso-
lute date, put 0)
alternate:____________ +/-___ days
9. How did you first hear about darkroom retreating?
10. How did you first hear about this darkroom?
11. Why would you like to retreat?
4 - prepare 43

12. What will you be doing the week before the retreat? (It
should not be especially exhausting or intense for you)
13. How does the menu sound to you?
14. Quiz: What heals you in darkness?
15. Quiz: Where is a good place to put your attention if you
feel crazy or tormented?
16. Would you like to maintain silence during your retreat?
17. What fears or concerns do you have that might interfere
with your retreat? (fear of the dark, claustrophobia, su-
perstition, etc)? How will you handle them? What support
might you need?
18. Assuming I am correct that practically everyone is psy-
chotic do you feel darkness might significantly affect you
for the worse? If so, how?
19. Is there anything else you would like to add?

menu
Here is a Hygienic food plan:

• pure water on tap

• frugivorous menu
– fresh fruit and leafy green vegetables (lettuce, celery,
spinach, culinary herbs)
– whole, raw, ripe, well-washed, and amply provided
for eating anytime
– green salad: sweet or savory, large, properly com-
bined, served at midday
– not served: oil, spices, salt, onions, garlic, ginger, or
ferments (like vinegar).
4 - prepare 44

• if you would like to know more about this menu before

trying it, read the food sections in hygiene and protocol
and Dr Douglas Graham’s The 80/10/10 Diet
• if this menu is unacceptable, eat as simply and naturally
as you know how. For suggestions, write me with your
limitations.

location
If you are thinking of turning a space into a darkroom, sleep
there 2-3 nights beforehand. Is there anything about it that might
disturb you and which you cannot practically change about it?
Search your feelings. Will you feel comfortable there? If so, great.
If not, keep looking. See introduction and notes of design chapter
for more comments about this.

things to bring
• Yes:
– bedsheets and pillow (let center know ahead of time
if you need these provided)
– pajamas/lounging clothes
– sweater
– slippers
– enough water bottles to hold 3 liters
– personal items
– prescription medication
• No:
– cigarettes
– electronic devices that make sound or light: comput-
ers, audio players, watches, clocks, etc
4 - prepare 45

– If you must bring any of these things, unless critical

for your health, turn them off and store them during
the retreat or ask to store them with your supporter.
– contraband and alcohol: disallowed on the premises
• Optional
– cellphone for emergency use
– special food or medicine
– exercise equipment (yoga mat, weights, etc)
5 - design
These are my specifications for the design of a dedicated Hy-
gienic darkroom retreat facility. It is a deluxe model for com-
mercial use and long retreats. You can forgo or improvise many
specifications when first trying darkness, for short retreats, and
for occasional use. The shorter the retreat, the less you need. See
format and make chapters for budget building tips.
It is best to start with a small fully functional house in a
quiet location. Fully functional means it has heating, ventilation,
running water, and electricity. But what is acceptable depends on
what you are comfortable with. If you can sleep reasonably well
in a location and feel no problems with doing a short retreat,
then try rather than wait for an ideal location.
All my retreats have succeeded or failed primarily because of
how well the darkroom itself worked. Do not tolerate too much
stale air, frequent noise, light leaks, dangers, discomforts, poor
food, etc. At some point, stress becomes distress and destroys
your retreat. Or worse, due to your conditioning, you may not
even notice these hindrances. But your body and soul will. You
will be left wondering why your retreat was not as beneficial as
I said it could be.
You should be able to turn off the light and let go of all such
concerns. The stress of healing is quite enough for anyone to
bear. A retreat is not punishment or strife. It is sanctuary for
resting and recuperating from a lifeway characterized by strife.
Success of a retreat depends on several factors including
attitude, protocol, preparation, and support. The facility is the
5 - design 47

final piece of the puzzle. Good design can build many conditions
into the room, making retreats practically foolproof. The better
the darkroom, the more effective your retreat will be. There is
no penalty for doing things correctly.
That said, maybe you cannot, for whatever reason, do every-
thing correctly. Then you do your best. If we could already do
everything correctly, we would likely have no need of darkroom
retreating.
Natural Hygiene uses only normal conditions, so these spec-
ifications only include what a good shelter would. So this is not
just the design of a darkroom, but a healthy house as well.

facility
• Building
– Security
* safe location
* keys only with retreatant and supporter
* supporter on call 24/7 through simple intercom
* lightproof bag for retreatant’s cellphone
– Quiet
* on a quiet street
* away from machines
* sound-insulated
* silent (humless) machines inside
– Solitude
* separate, small, unoccupied building1
* round if possible2
* inner door has closable, lightproof vent for speak-
ing to supporter
– Electromagnetic neutrality
5 - design 48

* natural materials: earth, plants, stone (no metal

structure)
* minimal, centralized, grounded wiring (impor-
tant in ungrounded Sweden and Albania)
* earthing bedsheet
* Faraday cage if possible
– Small:
* 4-6m inside diameter, 12-28m2
* 240+cm ceiling height in 50+% of room
* 200cm minimum ceiling height
• Interior
– Dark
* not a haze, glimmer, or pinprick of light any-
where
* easily uncoverable windows
* air/lightlock
· lightproof double doors
· space between them for a person and food
deliveries
· for communication, a small opening in in-
ner door, lightproof and closable
– Well-ventilated
* in cold climates, Fiwihex or Mitsubishi Lossnay
Heat Recovery Ventilation
* airflow: passive or from truly silent fans (large,
low RPM)
* manually adjustable airflow (possibly with smart
controls)
– Warm
* super-insulated to Passive House standards to
eliminate heating if possible
5 - design 49

* otherwise:
· thermostat inside room
· fueling outside room
· non-electric heat if possible
· otherwise, low-intensity, centralized, EM-
shielded electric heat
– Restful
* bed
· double or long single size
· mattress: layers of new foam padding of
varying firmness for adjustable softness,
aired out regularly
· polyester mattress cover
· polyester-fill comforters
· polyester-fill pillow
· cotton sheet and duvet
* sofa
* chairs
* hammock
* inversion swing
* rugs
* hard, warm floor
* dining table and chair
– Bathroom
* composting toilet
* tub with shower
* sink
* greywater drainage
– Cold food storage
* silent (unmotorized)
* uses cold from the ground, ice blocks, ventila-
5 - design 50

tion, or electronic circuit

– Safe: no protrusions or sharp corners or edges any-
where
– Shelf for personal storage
– Space for exercise

notes
1: noise Others inevitably make noise. Even if they manage to be
perfectly quiet, they can hear you. What if, like me, you have to
scream and cry? It’s nobody’s business and they should not be
burdened with it. Even if you don’t make noise, you will know
the person is there. It will influence a process that should be free.
In short, any contact with people should be brief and intentional,
not incidental. Fortunately, people aren’t going anywhere and
you can rejoin their company when you finish.
A clear exception is if you are a mother of a child who still
needs your presence. The child can be with you in darkness as
long as you both like. I have never facilitated such a retreat,
but I definitely would, and this is what I would say. I support
attachment.
The weirdest thing that happened to me with regards to
noise was in an apartment building. I kept waking up exhausted
from hundreds of short, meaningless dreams. After days of this, I
realized I was dreaming others’ mind chatter. I’m distinctly non-
“psychic”; this never happened to me before. But I am sensitive.
A canary in a coalmine. When something goes wrong, I notice.
Two years later, in December, 2013, I was in another apart-
ment building where I felt comfortable and could sleep and
dream easily. It had partly to do with my sympathetic host.
When I retreated there, I could feel others’ presence in the
5 - design 51

building, but their thoughts did not invade my dreams. So it

comes down to how comfortable one is in a given spot for
whatever one intends. I would not have done a long retreat there,
but the short one I did may have saved my life.
The worst noise comes from the grinding relentlessness of
machines, like a drill to the skull. The larger the building, the
more electrical wiring, steel framing, and reinforcement it has,
the more it electromagnetically disturbs us. Finally, there is
wireless radiation, that planet-size microwave oven we now live
inside of. Fortunately, it decreases in intensity by a square of the
distance from it. So the worst of it is avoidable.
One becomes so vulnerable in profound rest that the wrong
setting can be harmful, as in my case. Avoid retreating in large
or occupied buildings unless it is an emergency or you have no
options.
2: roundness Round buildings shield occupants from subtle
energy, physical and psychical. It flows around or through them
because roundness does not resist or capture it.
By contrast, a rectilinear building, due to the nature of the
right angle, stops movement: of people, energy, and things. This
stagnation saps and poisons occupants. Rectilinear buildings
can be temporarily used for retreats, but first they should be
remedied with Feng Shui or Vastuveda. Long term, they are
unhealthy and limited in their benefit. Replace and dismantle
them as soon as possible.
Roundness is so important, I will only endorse darkrooms
made with existing rectilinear buildings for their first five years,
and newly constructed darkrooms if they are round or have five
or more sides joined at equal, obtuse angles. Rectangular walls
and right angles where floor meets walls are fine, but not a
rectlinear floor plan.
5 - design 52

Obviously, all buildings will not become round overnight.

My priority is those where we rest and heal. Elegant, cheap, quick
shelter designs are available.
6 - make
Use these instructions to make essential components of a dark-
room. I address darkening, ventilation, and plumbing issues for
both regular and remote locations. Please send improvements
and new designs (see “open source” section in introduction.

metric
An American designer abroad and in recovery from the Imperial
measurement system, I am giving all measurements in metric.
Get a handle on this brain-descrambling system of measurement
in 10 seconds using my favorite near-equivalents:

• 25mm = 1 inch
• 10cm = 4 inches
• 4 liters = 1 gallon

Find a few more at the end of the chapter. Again, these

are rough conversions, good for understanding what I’m talking
about and working with small quantities.

ventilation
The tricky part of making a darkroom is not darkening but
ventilating it. After all, now the windows and doors are sealed!
Fresh air is always important. We breathe twice as much air
per day by mass as the food we eat. If you don’t usually pay
6 - make 54

attention to air quality, you will in a darkroom, with little more

to do all day than breathe. Poor air quality nullifies the benefits
of darkness. Go out of your way for fresh air.
The tricky parts of ventilating it are doing it quietly, com-
fortably, and economically. If you already have mechanical
ventilation in your house, with both supply and return vents
in your darkroom, then thank your lucky stars. Just turn the
manual fan switch on so it is on all the time. Likewise, if your
darkroom has a supply vent and is attached to a bathroom with
a quiet exhaust fan, your ventilation is handled. Check out the
heat recovery section.
However, most dwellings are ventilated otherwise. Supply
vents are in bedrooms and living rooms, exhaust vents in kitchens
and disconnected bathrooms. This means air exits bedrooms
around the door, usually at the bottom. So you will need at least
an underdoor lightproof vent, described below.
If your darkroom has passive or no ventilation, then it calls
for ways the air can travel in and out of the room. This entails
vents, maybe ducting, and a fan.

vent
Where possible, put the air supply vent near the head of the
bed and opposite the entry, toilet, and air return (exhaust) vent.
Sometimes rooms have lightproof and sound-dampened holes
built into them in unexpected places:
• unused holes for pipes, wires, chimneys, and ventilation.
• behind a cupboard or inside a closet
• a panel covering something up that could be temporarily
replaced with a same-size panel with a hole in it, like a
trapdoor.
6 - make 55

I once found a cosmetically damaged door in a dumpster

exactly the same size as my darkroom’s door. So I stored the
good door and cut holes in the damaged door for ventilation.
Another darkroom had no door, ventilation, or suitable
holes. So I built a frame inside the doorway with a narrow door
one one side and a panel with holes on the other. Note to renters:
I attached the frame to the doorway with metal straps screwed
into old hinge holes. So it left no trace when we dismantled the
darkroom. Similarly, we hung a silencer, 7m of ducting running
through two walls, and installed window inserts without putting
even a single new screw hole in that rented house. Imagination
conquers all obstacles (and imagination renews itself in dark-
ness).
Sewage pipes are ventilated upward. Once, friends and I
replaced a flush toilet with a composting toilet. The exposed
toilet drain pipe, being oversize and in a single-story house,
wasn’t subject to backflow. So it proved a perfect exhaust duct
for a case fan.
6 - make 56

drawings
elevation
6 - make 57

plan (enlarged image here)

6 - make 58

underdoor (enlarged image here)

Wavy line: darken ends with black marker or crayon.
6 - make 59

The first vent can go anywhere. For example, as a supply

vent, attach it to a window insert and crack the window behind
it. The other vent is for under a door.

• materials:
– thin cardboard (1-3mm) or posterboard (like a cereal
box)
– black velvet
– wood glue
– masking tape.
• essential characteristics
– matte black lining
– zigzagging air channel
• assembly
– principles:
* one square=2cm
* cut solid lines
* fold dotted lines and reflatten
* join pairs of lettered points in alphabetical order
* affix fabric inside vent but not on margin flaps,
which are for joints.
– sequence
1. fold vent together once without glue to see how
vent assembles. Temporarily tape joints
2. slit flaps where necessary to join pieces
3. where flaps have nothing to attach to, fold and
glue them back to reinforce edge
4. plan order of joint and fabric gluing
5. cut fabric
6. then glue everything
6 - make 60

The measurements of the underdoor vent must be adjusted

for the thickness of the door and the gap under the door. Tape the
triangular fins to the sides and bottom of the door. Not only line
the vent with black fabric, but the part of the door it surrounds,
the underside of the vent, and the threshold below it. Then you
can get a good light seal.

fan
The quick and dirty solution is a 12V DC case fan, also known as
a squirrel cage fan. 120mm is a common size. Salvage it from
a discarded desktop computer tower, or buy it used for $1 at
thrift stores or flea markets or new for $5-50 at a computer or
electronics store. Power it with an AC/DC universal adapter
with variable voltage for speed control ($1-5 at thrift or discount
stores).
If you do not have electricity, and you just want to try this
for a night or two, power the fan with AA batteries. You will
only need 4-8 of them for one night. Tape them together in series,
positive end of one to negative end of the next, with one fan wire
at each end of the series. No fan movement? Switch the positive
and negative wires.
Constantly changing the batteries quickly gets to be a pain.
I got a proper solar power system for less than $100:

• solar panel: 12V. Size depends on location: 10W in Guatemala,

40W in rainy Oregon winter. ($10-$100 on eBay)
• charge controller: 12V, 4 or 6-pole ($35 on eBay)
• battery: 12V 7A, lead acid ($30 at a motorcycle shop)
• wire, 20 AWG, enough to connect everything ($0-10 from
a dumpster, yard sale, or hardware store).
6 - make 61

Once set up, just keep the panel clean.

noise
Using such a small fan for more than a few days at a time raises
the noise issue. These fans run at high speed, so they hum and
develop harmonics. This can get irritating. 300-400mm case fans
are available. The bigger a fan is, the more slowly and quietly
you can run it, and the longer you can retreat without irritation.
But case fans are axial fans. These cannot efficiently generate
pressure to overcome resistance in ventilation systems (long or
narrow pipes, heat exchanging cores, filters). Centrifugal fans
can. However, motors of both case and centrifugal fans are
usually integrated with the fan blades. This puts the motors in
the airstream, so they cannot be fully silenced.
A truly silent fan is the last problem to be solved for an ideal
darkroom. I have conceived a design for a 700-900mm, low-RPM
homemade centrifugal fan, with a soundproofed motor outside
the airstream. The fan’s metal or plastic parts would be lasercut
at a sign shop according to an open-source, electronic design file.
Please write me for details.
Ventilation silencers are also available. They work like a gun
silencer and have DIY potential.

heat recovery
If you live in a cold place, I highly recommend buying and in-
stalling a Heat Recovery Ventilator (HRV). It conducts heat from
outgoing stale air to incoming fresh air, keeping the airstreams
separate.
Fine wire heat exchange (fiwihex) technology is my favorite.
It is 10x more efficient than conventional plate exchangers.
Fiwihex cores are available for $150 from Viking House and
6 - make 62

Vision4Energy. These companies’ “Breathing Windows” are in-

teresting designs for a complete ventilation system. But I lived
with one for six months and found it too loud due to its small
fans with integrated motors. Thus all my thinking about silent
fans.
The most interesting plate exchanger is the Mitsubishi _-
Lossnay_core, found in Energy Recovery Ventilators such as Re-
newaire’s. Made of high-tech paper, the Lossnay recovers heated
water vapor as well as heat from air. Lossnay’s principle has
DIY-potential, using 25m2 of non-siliconized parchment paper
(“sandwich paper” in supermarkets). I have conceived a design
for it. Please write me for details.
Both these cores would take the truly silent fan concept
mentioned above.
6 - make 63

darken door
door seal cross section

1. Affix 50mm wide strips of black fabric to door with

masking tape or white school glue. Fabric should bend
around one edge of the door when it closes and fill the
gap between the door and jam.
2. Where an underdoor vent is necessary, put strips to its
sides.
3. If gaps on sides and top leak light, affix another strip to
trim so door bends it closes with fabric between jam and
door.
6 - make 64

4. To remove glued-on fabric, wet it. This will dissolve the

glue and the strips will fall off. As this happens, wipe off
the rest of the glue with a wet rag.

darken window
To darken windows, use one of the three methods I have come
up with—insert, plastic, and foil—or have blackout blinds made
with side rails.
Problem: many blackout blinds are not completely lightproof
and some have toxic plastic coatings like polyvinyl chloride
(PVC). Get full disclosure of material content (I saw “polymer”
on a material data sheet recently, which can mean any plastic,
including pvc). Get a guarantee of absolute lightproofness of the
entire installation. Tell them you will be testing it with high-tech
equipment (eyes that have had three days to adjust to darkness).
I found PVC-free shades listed here: Draper Inc.
Of the three homemade methods, described in detail below,
the insert is best because it is easily removed, non-toxic, sound-
dampening, decorable panel. It has three variations. Plastic can
be reused, perhaps traveled with. It is easier and quicker than the
insert. It smells a little. Foil is for one-time use, and the PVC tape
is toxic, so avoid if possible.
6 - make 65

insert
elevation

This is like a stretched canvas for painting, but with light-

proof padding around the frame and maybe paper instead of
canvas. A smart, creative friend, Hannah Torres, gave me the
6 - make 66

idea. Read through instructions to understand the process and

make an exact parts list. The instructions are long because I’ve
broken the process into tiny steps. All figures are metric. As
always, feel free to write me with any questions you might have.
The insert will fit inside the window opening and against the
window frame. The insert makes space for window handles that
stick out beyond their frames.
If your air supply comes through your window, attach a
lightproof vent to cover of insert near the top. Probably attach
it to the front due to lack of space between cover and glass). If
your supply and return air pass through your window, you will
need two lightproof vents, one near the top and one near the
bottom of the insert.

parts list
1. dimensional lumber: 18-24mm x 35-50mm x 15% more
than enough length to get around the insides of your
window openings
2. deck screws: 40mm, 8-12
3. strap: webbing or strap sewn of fabric, ∼25mm wide x
200mm
4. cover
1. blanket: black, heavy, and thick, like dense wool or
2-3 polar fleece
2. sheet: heavy kraft paper or medium-weight, tightly
woven natural fabric (canvas, twill)
5. wood glue (for sheet cover)
6. cardboard (for sheet cover): clean and odorless, from fur-
niture and appliance stores. Use double-layer cardboard or
two sheets of single-layer to ensure lightproofness
6 - make 67

7. light seal (for sheet cover):

• fabric
– black fabric: jersey knit, khaki twill, or canvas
– open cell foam, 6mm thick
• felt
– felt carpet padding, ∼5mm thick
– thumbtacks

frame
1. Measure the window opening—all four sides as they are
rarely identical.
2. Determine lumber orientation (which way the wide and
narrow sides should face) to accommodate handles, blinds,
hooks, etc. If possible, the wide sides of the boards should
face the room and window rather than up, down, left, and
right. To gauge this, hold a short piece of lumber up to the
window frame.
3. Subtract 8mm from the two long measurements and cut
two boards of lumber this length. Mark each board as left,
right, top, or bottom.
4. Mark one end of each board. Put the marked ends together
depending on orientation (wide to wide side or narrow to
narrow side). Measure thickness of two boards together
at each end. Subtract these measurements from the short
window opening measurement taken in step 1. Then sub-
tract 8mm more. Cut two more boards these lengths.
5. Screw the frame pieces together, using pilot holes to
prevent the wood from splitting.
6. Using wedges or folded paper, wedge the frame into a
bottom corner of the opening.
6 - make 68

7. Cut four more pieces of wood about half the length of the
short sides for temporary angle stabilizers.
8. Screw two of them diagonally to the front of the frame in
opposite corners. This stabilizes the angles of the frame.
9. Mark the top board in the middle of the underside.

cover
blanket cover
This is a quick, non-permanent method. If you need a lightproof
vent in your window, this method is incompatible with it, so use
sheet cover instead.

1. Get a piece of thick, lightproof fabric (eg, a heavy quilt or

wool blanket) bigger than the window opening by 20cm
on all four sides.
2. Drape it over back of frame
3. Push frame (with fabric) into the window opening.
4. Use extra fabric to seal any light leaks around the edges.
Stuff extra fabric back into the crack between the frame
and window opening with a dull knife (like a table knife).
5. Ignore remaining steps. You’re done!

sheet cover
1. Remove frame from opening and place front side down on
a clean floor. 2. Screw two more stabilizing boards diagonally
to the back of the frame behind the first stabilizers. 3. Remove
the front stabilizers. 4. Put down enough clean cardboard to fit
inside the frame. 5. If it is more than one piece, butt and glue the
edges together with strips of cardboard and wood glue. Allow the
glue to dry for 30 minutes. 6. Lay the frame over the cardboard
(always front side down). 7. Mark the cardboard along the inside
6 - make 69

of the frame with a sharp pencil, taking care not to bump the
frame out of place. 8. Mark the cardboard where the top of the
frame is marked. 9. Remove the frame and cut the cardboard
along the marks. 10. Lay the frame back over it to check how well
it fits inside the frame. Trim cardboard as necessary. 11. Remove
the frame. Turn the cardboard over onto its other side, next to
where you have been working. 12. Put down something soft and
flat that is bigger than the frame, like a blanket, towel, or piece
of foam. 13. Lay down cover material, visible side down. 14. Lay
the frame over it so the cover extends beyond it 15mm to make
sure where it will end up. 15. Mark two inside corners at the
ends of a long side. 16. Remove the frame and apply a 6mm bead
of interior wood glue all the way around its front side. 17. Lay
the frame back onto the cover where you marked the corners. 18.
Press the frame into the cover all the way around to distribute the
glue. 19. Scrape up any glue that has squeezed beyond the frame.
20. Wipe around the outside with a wet rag where there was glue.
21. Weight the board with stacks of books. 22. Let the glue dry
for 4-24 hours. 23. Apply glue to the edge of the cover and wrap
it around the edges of the boards. 24. Use tape to hold it down
if necessary. 25. Lay the frame down 26. Remove the stabilizers.
27. Put the cardboard back into the frame, aligning the marks on
the cardboard and the frame. 28. Apply an 8mm bead of black
acrylic caulk where the cardboard touches the wooden frame.
6 - make 70

light seal
fabric seal

felt seal
6 - make 71

fabric seal

1. Cut 6mm thick open cell foam into 15mm strips, enough
to go around the outside of the frame twice.
2. Cut 80mm wide strips of black fabric, enough to go around
the outside of the frame once
3. Apply a 4mm bead of glue to the back of the frame near
the outside edge on one board. Spread the glue with your
finger.
4. Affix a strip of foam at the edge. Repeat for the other three
boards. There should be no gaps between the foam strips.
5. Apply a 4mm bead of glue to the outside of the frame near
the back edge on one board. Spread the glue with your
finger.
6. Affix a strip of foam at the edge. Repeat for the other three
boards. There should be no gaps between the foam strips.
7. Apply a 4mm bead of glue to the back of the frame, next to
the foam, on one board. Spread the glue with your finger.
8. Affix a strip of fabric so that it covers the foam and extends
outward beyond the frame.
9. Affix additional strips as necessary, closely butting the
ends together to leave no gaps.
10. Upon reaching a corner:
1. wrap the fabric toward the front of the frame so it
lays on the outside
2. wrap the outside part of the fabric around the corner
of the frame
3. wrap it back over the back of the frame and continue
gluing
6 - make 72

4. This leaves a folded triangle of cloth sticking out

from the back of the corner. Once you have gone
around the frame like this, use scissors to neatly trim
off triangles
11. Glue fabric strap, 25mm x 200mm to top outside of the
frame so it hangs over the front and does not interfere
with the foam and fabric light seal. This is the handle for
removing the insert from the window.

felt seal

1. Cut 50mm wide strips of felt carpet padding, enough to go

around outside of insert once
2. Apply a 4mm bead of glue to the back of the frame on
one board. Affix a strip of felt so that it extends outward
beyond the frame.
3. Affix additional strips as necessary, butting the ends tightly
together to leave no gaps.
4. Upon reaching a corner:
1. since glue is wet, secure the felt at the corner with a
thumbtack
2. wrap the felt toward the front of the frame so it lays
on the outside
3. wrap the outside part of the fabric around the corner
of the frame
4. apply a short bead of glue in the corner
5. wrap it back over the back of the frame
6. glue and secure felt with another thumbtack in the
back of the frame
7. This leaves a folded triangle of felt sticking out from
the back of the corner. Use scissors or razor knife to
6 - make 73

neatly trim off triangle so edges of felt butt against

each other, not overlap
8. Add a bit of glue under the edges and secure them
with thumbtacks
5. Glue fabric strap (see step 10 of fabric method above).
6. When glue is dry (2-4 hours), remove thumbtacks.

Put the insert into your window opening to test for light-
proofness. Add felt or fabric as necessary.

plastic
1. Cover windows with .2mm / 6-10mil (.006-.010″) black
polyethylene plastic sheeting, found at building supply
houses in rolls or off a roll by the meter. Multiple layers of
black garbage bags would work, too.
2. Measure and cut it to extend 100mm beyond window
frame because light and air often leak between the frame
and wall.
3. Tape plastic to the wall. Use 25mm black masking tape. It
is effective, cheap, sticks and conforms well to irregular
wall surfaces, yet comes off easily without residue (unless
you leave it up a long time). Not perfectly lightproof, it
works with the plastic. Local art and professional lighting
supply stores carry it. lightsonretail.com sells Intertape
PF3. If masking tape is not sticky enough on your surfaces,
use black kraft paper tape. It is thicker (more lightproof),
stronger, more expensive. Look for ProGaff (formerly Per-
macel) 743, Shurtape 724, and 3M 235.
4. Avoid electrical and gaffer’s tape. They are made of soft
vinyl and especially obnoxious adhesives and are thus
6 - make 74

extremely toxic in their manufacture, handling, use, and

disposal.
5. If the room gets too hot from direct sun, then before taping
up the black plastic, cut a piece of cardboard the same size
as the window opening. Tape or glue aluminum foil to one
side of it. Leave 15mm spaces between the strips of foil
to allow moisture to pass through. Set the cardboard in
window opening, foil facing outward.
6. If it is a cold room, do exactly the same thing as for a hot
room, but with the foil facing inward. If the room gets hot
and cold with the seasons, open up the plastic on one edge
and switch the cardboard around every six months.

foil
1. Buy heavy duty aluminum foil and black vinyl electrical
tape, 19mm wide.
2. With scissors, cut several 3cm pieces of tape and hang
them within reach of the window. Keep scissors handy,
too.
3. Remove roll of foil from box. You will unroll it directly
onto the glass and cut it with scissors in place. If you unroll
foil from the box, away from the window, then move it to
the glass, it will crease slightly. This breaks the foil and
creates light leaks you can’t see till the middle of a retreat.
Bummer.
4. The other part of the basic method is to tape the foil
directly to the glass. If you tape it to the frame, suspended
in midair away from the window, it will rattle as air
pressure changes near the window.
6 - make 75

5. Starting at top left of window pane, unroll foil downward

10cm. Tape foil at top with small piece of tape.
6. Continue unrolling to bottom. Cut a little longer than the
glass.
7. Unstick tape at top and position foil against frame.
8. With small pieces of tape every 50 cm, tape left side of foil
to frame and right side to glass (or overlapped foil).
9. Repeat steps 5-8 starting at top right of window pane. Then
fill in the middle.
10. Tape foil seams, where the foil sheets overlap. As you pull
out a length of tape, it will stretch. Let it relax before
applying it
11. Tape the foil to the frame (it’s a bit tricky to bend the
tape into the corner of glass and frame; please improve
this method).
12. Hang dark blankets over the windows to catch any leaks.

bathroom & kitchen

Here are designs for quick, cheap, portable fixtures you can
incrementally improve as you find out the value of retreating
for yourself.
For a 4-day retreat in a building without plumbing, improvise
like this:

• toilet: a 20-liter bucket with a toilet seat on top. No kidding!

– put 2 liters of sawdust in the bottom
– put 15 liters more sawdust in another bucket by the
toilet
– put a half-liter of sawdust in toilet after each use
6 - make 76

– place toilet away from bed and close to exhaust vent

– dispose of waste in a covered compost pile that is
going to sit for a year
• bathing
– washcloth or sponge for a sponge bath
– upgrade
* on waterproof floor (or covered with large plas-
tic sheet) make a 2m diameter border of towels
or bedsheet and sit in the middle
* put shower water in two 1.5-liter bottles with
drinking spouts
* hold a bottle above yourself with one hand and
wash yourself with the other
• sink
– basic
* 20-liter bottle with valve-cap
* on 20cm-high stand
* above rectangular plastic tub (like a restaurant
bus tub)
* on a table
– upgrade
* salvaged sink set in a counter-height table
* drains directly into waste bucket
* upgrade again by adding a drain tube to outside.
• drinking water (if separate from wash water): in 20-liter
bottle with valve-cap
• waste (water and food): two, 20-liter buckets with lids

Voila.
Too punk rock for you? Upgrades below.
6 - make 77

composting toilet
6 - make 78

Basically, a 20-liter bucket sits inside a solid box with a hole

in the top. The return duct attaches to a hole in the side of the box.
So all air exits the room through the toilet, containing all odor.
Bucket also collects pee, so empty it every 3-5 days. Making a
urinal or a toilet that separates pee from poop is possible, too.

construction
• top
– made of 15-20mm tongue and groove boards or
12mm plywood
– front and back boards, ∼25mm x 37mm, fit on top of
front and back frame pieces and between frame legs
– hole is slightly smaller than bucket
– attach toilet seat & lid to top
– reinforcer only for tongue and groove boards, di-
rectly behind toilet seat mounts
• liner
– liner goes inside frame
– toilet bucket goes inside liner
– liner made of 0.2mm plastic sheeting, folded into
open box. Do not cut. Fold triangular flaps, A, out-
side box
– 15mm minimum space between bucket and toilet top
– cut hole, B, 3cm small for snug fit on return duct
– top edges fold over horizontal frame pieces and get
thumbtacked in place
• frame
– joint is extra strong, non-planar joint
– dots, C, indicate heads of screws. Always drill pilot
holes for screws
– dimensions: 35-40cm high x 60cm wide x 60cm deep
6 - make 79

portable shower
exploded view
6 - make 80

A simple shower which requires no plumbing pipes uses

(from top down):

• hook (in ceiling, 30mm)

• bucket (4-liter, hangs from hook)
• siphon tube (polyethylene, 4mm ID x 50cm, bent close to
the middle with heat, hooked over the rim of the bucket)
• 4 cords (hang from hook, tie to curtain rod, maybe through
holes in the curtain)
• shower curtain rod (circular, 120cm diameter, made of
30mm OD (outside diameter) black poly pipe, wood dowel
joint)
• shower curtain (polyester, attach hooks to top edge to hang
on rod OR put rod in top hem and make holes for cord,
5cm bottom hem with small river rocks inside to weight it
down)
• large tub (90 liters or more, round or rectangular, from
garden supply store, catches everything at the bottom)

Water heating methods:

• solar: use two, clear 2-liter bottles with small sheets of

black plastic inside to act as elements.
• electric tea kettle with indicator lights covered. Obviously
this is a little dangerous, so practice it before retreating to
get measurements and procedure right.

When ready to bathe, suck on the tube to start the siphon ac-
tion. Water flows for eight minutes. Not bad. Larger bucket=longer
showers=more water needed. Dump used water into a 20-liter
bucket with a lid for disposal later.
6 - make 81

∼∼
I assume you will find simpler, more adaptable ways to make
darkrooms in a variety of settings. Please share your methods!
∼∼
More metric near-equivalents:

• 1m = 40”
• 1m2 = 10.75ft2
• 4’ x 8’ sheet = 120cm x 240cm (3m2 )
• 1 kg = 2 pounds
7 - faq
mechanics
• Do you eat in a retreat?
Yes. And food is always available.
• How many people retreat at once?
One. The point of this retreat is to rest, heal, and recover
oneself.
• How do you do things in darkness?
Very slowly. And by getting familiar with the room and
making memorable places for your belongings before it is
darkened.
• Could you retreat with a sleeping mask?
No. Masks are uncomfortable for a long period of time
and eventually leak light. The skin has light receptors, so
it would have to be covered all the time as well, even
when eating, bathing, eliminating, etc. And a minimally
furnished room is still required to eliminate dangers, dis-
tractions, and associations.
So sleeping masks don’t work for entire retreats. But they
are good for travel, naps, and sleeping until your bedroom
can be darkened.
• Is it like meditation?
Yes and no.
7 - faq 83

Yes, you go inside yourself. But not by trying. Because that

is not the point. It just happens as a result of having so little
going on outside yourself.
Your attention, when awake and holding still, is gener-
ally on yourself, not on the world, your senses, or your
thoughts. In darkness, you keep it there with much greater
ease and for a different purpose than in spiritual medita-
tion.
It is easier in darkness because of the intellect-calming
physiological response to darkness. In a meditation retreat,
the point of maintaining certain conditions is to meditate,
to practice. In darkness, the point of the conditions, includ-
ing meditation and exercise (!), is to rest.
Sometimes you can’t rest. Hold on.

concerns
• Wouldn’t you go crazy staying in darkness that long?
No. You would only go crazy in darkness from being forced
to be there, as in prison. A retreat is a choice based on
reason, and the door is always unlocked.
• Do you get bored?
Yes, and it is a very good sign. Sometimes your autonomic
self works on something so damaged, painful, and drain-
ing that the psyche has had to completely shut off feeling
to it. It becomes an internal black hole. Boredom means
you are approaching it and that recovery of a lost part of
yourself is imminent.
7 - faq 84

• Three or four weeks is a long time to sit around doing

nothing.

It is a long time compared to the moment in which you

realized you had a problem, yes. But it is mercifully short
compared to the lifetime you spent developing your problem.

objections
• 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, and you cannot want
to if you don’t know about it. So all that matters right now
is whether you feel drawn to learn more about it.
• Isn’t total darkness unnatural? Wouldn’t we normally be
exposed to stars and moon at night?
Is shelter unnatural? Large uncovered windows are very
recent in popular architecture. Most traditional shelter,
civilized and indigenous, is dark or darkenable.
Even if shelter is unnatural, the amount of light from stars
and even the moon is negligible compared to artificial
light. The eyelids are sufficient to block natural night light.
And caves are everywhere.
When people are in shock, exhausted, or emotionally over-
whelmed, they instinctively seek shelter in solitude and
cover their eyes with their hands. A darkroom retreat is
merely an extended expression of this instinct in extreme
cases.
Which are epidemic.
7 - faq 85

• Darkness could be good for some people, but there are

many ways people can heal their pain. Nothing works for
everyone.
This would mean that:
– light does not interfere with deep sleep in some ill
people
– deep healing can occur without deep sleep
– the human organism has no specific needs for heal-
ing from psychic trauma, despite its specific—and
universal—need of rest for healing in all other cases
(as well as its specific needs of air for breathing, light
for seeing, food for eating, etc).
Naturally, I disagree. Relativism makes fashionable philos-
ophy but poor physiology.
bibliography and
influences
• indigeny vs industry
– Jim Woods at Herrett Museum, Twin Falls
– Magical Child Matures, Joseph Chilton Pearce
– The Songlines, Bruce Chatwin
– The Continuum Concept, Jean Liedloff
– Ishmael, Daniel Quinn
– Where White Men Fear to Tread, Russel Means
– Prosper Waukon, Winnebago entrepreneur
– Running on Emptiness: The Failure of Civilization,
John Zerzan
• philosophical and spiritual traditions
– Atlas Shrugged, et al, Ayn Rand
– Tantric Hinduism with a private teacher
– In Search of the Miraculous, Ouspensky (Gurdjieff’s
basic teachings)
– Radical Christianity with DeWaynn Rogers (late le-
gal counsel, enigma, and possibly Teacher of the
Age)
– Animism from nature, books (above), elders (scout-
master Jack Asher; godfather and mentor, John Boyer),
extended family, and friends
• health
– Initiated into Natural Hygiene by Frederic Pate-
naude
bibliography and influences 87

– The Science and Fine Art of Natural Hygiene, Herbert

Shelton
– The 80/10/10 Diet, Dr Douglas Graham
– Introduction to Human Technology and Human Tech-
nology, William Arthur Evans (thanks to friend, A.
Sterling Voss, for finding this rare work)
• design and art
– parents, John and LouAnn, and brother, Paul
– master craftsman, Jack Nuckols
– childhood teacher, Steve Parks (Horizons School,
Twin Falls)
– accompanist and mentor, Willetta Warberg
– The Natural House, Frank Lloyd Wright
– BuckyWorks, Jay Baldwin (about Buckminster Fuller)
– Selected Poems, Robert Bly
– The Dark is Rising, Susan Cooper
• experience
– a week at Sawtooth Methodist Church Camp, Joanie
Williamson, director, 1985
– three months enraptured, 1987
– 23 days fasting in California desert, 1991
– one week at Rainbow National Gathering, Idaho,
2001
– darkroom retreating with elder, Finn Po, Oregon,
2006
– 10 days in audience of Advaita grandmaster, Arnaud
Desjardins, Montana, 2007
– eight seconds in dreamtime with elder, Adrian Wolfe,
Oregon, 2008
– 18 months with the Maya at Lake Atitlan, Guatemala,
2011
acknowledgments
First and foremost, for making the book real, thanks to my
editors,

• Are Solheim, writer and fellow refugee in darkness, for

seeing and believing in me and the book, visionary editing,
and hosting me during the rewrite
• Magnus Vanebo, philosopher, for support, enthusiastically
diving into the text, and sensitive editing

In triage, you were as merciful as you could be.

And to Bertrand Besigye, poet and fellow journeyman in
darkness, for early support of the book
Then, hundreds of people in eight countries on two conti-
nents personally made my life and work possible by morally and
materially aiding me during my prodigal search. To name but a
few:
My family, immediate and extended. I leaned on all of you
that would let me. It ain’t easy rearing a stubborn 20, 30, then
40 year-old psychotic infant in a society that denies everything.
Thanks, especially, to Grandmother Anna Lou Callen Posey,
always there, and Francois, for so much love.
Everyone named as an influence: for friendship, support, and
raising the bar so high, anti-gravity boots became necessary. And
especially:

• Jack Nuckols: giant of a human being and grand-elder. RIP.

• Willetta Warberg: who poured her heart and soul into me
acknowledgments 89

• John Boyer: who fed me with so much of his time

• my former teacher: who kept his terrible promise
• DeWaynn Rogers: who helped me up. RIP.

Each of you gave me the world.

Since darkness fell:

• Terje Tjensvoll and Simen Kirkerød, friends, hosts

• Elisabette Molin: friend, supporter, retreat host
• Marcus Ivarsson and Emma Sofie Berg: connectors
• Johan Järlind: work partner, investor, retreat host, sup-
porter, confidant, and friend in a critical year
• Åsa Ringstrom and Johan Lörne: friends and supporters
• one, unnamed, who showed me an essential part of my
lost self and so prompted the conclusive test of this idea
• The people and place of Skattungbyn, Sweden
• Stisse and Carina Gilgren: Swedish godparents
• Dr Anette Kjellgren: for unqualified, professional encour-
agement
• Sanna Aatig: friend, supporter, retreat host and nurse in
my darkest days
• Oscar, Limme, and Max at Kulturforeningen Gryning of
Helsingborg: friends and supporters. Cheers!
• Frank Cicela: angel!
• Brad Crutchfield: friend, supporter, and deep well-wisher
• Anna Ericksson: supporter and tryer(!)
• Sandro Garcia, Nancy Gayle Martin and Violet: heroic
friends, hosts, supporters, retreatants
• Chrissy Weisgard: friend, host, supporter, and, like Sandro,
a fellow dyed-in-the-wool darkness spelunker
acknowledgments 90

• Josh Brang: friend, supporter, travel agent

• All my clients: for exploring with me
• Niels Gronau: for the miraculous Guatemalan facility
• Elena Rago: for a test facility
• The Maya: for your friendship and unshakable presence
• Daniel Tucker, Ben Ramsey, and Stephanie: for KCMO
shelter
• Jesse King, John Monroe, and Lyssa Goward, Dome Vil-
lagers at Maitreya Ecovillage, Eugene: serious camaraderie
and support
• Brian Riggs Sullivan: for first help in developing these
ideas and, as always, carrying them out
• Rob Miller, Malia Shultheis, and Jen Carroll: friends and
early retreat hosts.

Always:

• Finn Po: elder, master job trainer

• John Roberts: best friend, host, and supporter
• Daniel Meulbroek: friend, supporter, and host extraordi-
naire
• Brian Riggs Sullivan: friend in the trench
• Evelyn Griffiths and Alton Sterling Voss: friends, support-
ers, fellow survivors

For help in every way, going back 26 years: so many others

it makes my head spin. Thank you.
services
writing
• Get this ebook by donation on my homepage or at leanpub.

• Quote and excerpt anything in my book and website.

Credit me and tell me where it will show up and I will
also acknowledge you on my website.
• Ask me to write for your publication on any subject
in relation to Hygienic darkroom retreating and Natural
Hygienic psychology.

speaking
I edify audiences worldwide. Just pay my minimalist expenses
plus something that fits your budget.

consulting
Get my advice on darkroom retreating, building darkrooms, and
issues arising thereof. I will respond in detail, by phone or email,
to all your questions and concerns about:

• how, where, and why to set up a darkroom

• how to organize a retreat with supporters
• how to deal with specific issues you have about retreating
itself
services 92

My responses will be based on my experience. Over the past

seven years, I have:

• done 15 retreats from 2-6 days long

• facilitated 25 retreats for others
• designed, built, and operated three working darkrooms
(and several non-working ones)
• written 100,000 words about darkroom retreating for web,
email, and print
• given 14 public talks

Write me about what you need help with.

Hourly rate: e25/$35 (negotiable)
license
Soft Copyleft 2009-2014 by Andrew Durham. Copying is an act of
♥. Copy, distribute, and sell (yes, sell) this content in any media.
Suggest changes by sending pull requests. Honor and include this
license in your reprints, and I will similarly recognize and link
to you on andrewdurham.com. Share part of your street price
we me (8% for print and 70-90% for ebooks) and/or somehow
astound me and I will also give you my endorsement, a visible
mark to use on products and ads. (This deal roughly equals what
you and I would make if I were published or self-published,
without your having to order in bulk.) Email/PayPal/Dwolla me:
info@andrewdurham.com.
bio
Born in Twin Falls, Idaho, Mr Durham traveled America for 21
years searching for the cause of joy. He independently studied
philosophy, health, and design. He tested his findings by living
outside, doing odd jobs, playing music, and building alternative
shelter.
In 2008, his quest culminated in the darkness conjecture, a
concept of the restful use of darkness in support of the self​-
healing psyche. He spent the next five years proving the concept,
documenting his work at andrewdurham.com, and building and
operating darkrooms in Guatemala and Sweden. He writes,
speaks, and consults on everything related to Hygienic darkroom
retreating.

contact
website: andrewdurham.com
email: info@andrewdurham.com
voicemail: 541.210.8470 (in US)