Joe PolishFounder of Genius Network and President of Piranha Marketing

You need darkness to reach the light.

8 Jul 2023 · 1 min

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A short transcript excerpt from a YouTube video featuring Jason Silva describing his experience with darkness retreats in Germany. Silva recounts spending seven and then ten days in complete darkness and isolation in the Black Forest, and describes the powerful, tearful awe upon first seeing light again and the sense that suffering is necessary to appreciate light.

Chapters

The thing is, if you want to experience the heights of awe, you have to explore the depths of the abyss. So a very concrete example of this is when you mentioned the darkness retreat. So I did when I spent 10 days in complete darkness and isolation. But before that, I did seven days in complete darkness and isolation. And when I came out of the darkness and the first time I saw the light, I took off my mask that came out of the dark room, put a mask on me. I was in the Black Forest in Germany. And the way the light looked in that moment, it was blinding. And it was so awe inspiring. I remember feeling this visceral, like tears were coming down my eyes, and this visceral sense of gratitude for every bit of suffering I'd ever experienced. Because I realized that you cannot really know the light unless you have first been in the dark.