The podcast explores the intense and sometimes difficult experiences that participants face at a meditation retreat, including feelings of terror and a break with reality. Despite these challenges, leaving the retreat is discouraged.
Attending a meditation retreat can lead to challenging experiences and potential suffering, including a deep sense of terror or a break with reality that could resemble a psychotic break.
Participants in the retreat are encouraged to beautify their minds by focusing their thoughts and achieving mental clarity and tranquility, despite the physical discomfort and challenges they may face.
Deep dives
Challenging experiences and potential for suffering
Attending a meditation retreat can lead to challenging experiences and potential suffering. Some participants may encounter a deep sense of terror or a break with reality that could resemble a psychotic break. These experiences can be likened to being in a mental torture chamber. Despite the difficulties, leaving the retreat is discouraged as it is considered a bad idea.
Beautifying the mind as the final rule
The final rule of the retreat is to beautify the mind. Participants are urged to focus their minds and tame their thoughts during meditation sessions. The goal is to achieve a state of mental clarity and tranquility. However, the process may not be easy, as physical discomfort, such as back and knee pain, along with hunger, can make the experience challenging.
Introducing Untold, a new podcast from the special investigations team at the Financial Times. In its first series, The Retreat, host Madison Marriage examines the world of the Goenka network, which promotes a type of intensive meditation known as Vipassana. Thousands of people go on Goenka retreats every year. People rave about them. But some people go to these meditation retreats, and they suffer. They might feel a deep sense of terror, or a break with reality. And on the other side, they’re not themselves anymore. Untold: The Retreat launches Jan. 24.