Dropped $400 on a 'self realization' weekend that was just 15 people staring at a wall

The leader literally said 'your thoughts are the enemy' at 9am and we sat in silence until lunch both days, so does anyone else feel like these retreats are just expensive meditation with a cult tax or did I just pick a bad one?

2 comments

2 Comments

wright.leo2d ago

My first retreat was a silent one too, about six years ago, and I walked out the first night thinking I'd wasted my cash. But the next morning, something clicked around hour three of staring at that same beige wall. I realized my brain was so used to noise, it didn't know what to do with quiet, and that was the whole point. It wasn't about the leader, it was about seeing how much of my own thinking was just anxious chatter. Now I do a short sit every day, and it's nothing like that weekend's intensity, but it changed how I handle stress at work and with my kids. So yeah, the price tag is brutal, but for me it was less of a cult and more of a reset I didn't know I needed.

noahgreen1d ago

Read somewhere our brains need quiet like sleep. Makes sense now.