Oregon, 2008
2018 June 10
Hi, everybody. My name is Andrew Durham. I am 46, a discoverer, author, and American ex-patriate in southern Europe.
I will tell my story and then share my discovery with you. First, thanks to @markwhittam, my larger than life friend here on the Mediterranean, who has helped me get started on Steemit.
I grew up in Idaho, the child of working class autodidacts with an affinity for craft and esoterica. They taught me to think deeply, design well, and care a little too much about what I eat. Like most parents, they visited their shadows upon me.
At 15, I was depressed, alienated, and hypercritical of my culture. But one day I was spontaneously overcome by an intoxicating degree of joy that stayed with me for three months non-stop. It was obviously how life really is, how it is supposed to be all the time. When it faded, all I wanted was to understand it. I wanted it back.
So began a 21-year independent investigation. I did not go to college or have a career. I just searched in my own way, living in poverty, frequently homeless, reading, experimenting, and keeping the company of elders.
Finally, I discovered the essential means nature provides us for healing from major trauma. Trauma is the root cause of our strangely persistent suffering and problems. Which prevent the joy I had felt. Whatever cataclysm befell many of our ancestors thousands of years ago, life changed drastically for the worse. But just as nature makes trauma unavoidable, so it gives us a simple way through it.
Discovery
- Life begins whole, healthy, happy, harmonious.
- These reverse due to mass major trauma.
- However, organisms are self-healing.
- The primary condition of healing is rest.
- The profound rest necessary for healing from major trauma occurs naturally in extended total darkness.
This is due to physiology, attitude, and environment. All involve hygiene, the science of health.
Physiology:
- In darkness, the circadian system puts the organism in a state of rest, which deepens with time and degree of darkness.
- the work of sensory processing nearly ceases in darkness. It normally uses 45% of the brain by mass and 10% of vital energy by calorie.
- The abstract mind calms down in the absence of the abstract stimulation of vision. Other aspects of consciousness reassert themselves, balancing psychic function.
Attitude:
Hygiene's passive attitude toward healing means the will becomes mainly passive. It becomes secondary, a servant to the unconscious's active process of healing. The psyche's systems thus aligned, healing super-accelerates, working miracles of regeneration. People have recovered teeth, eyesight, sanity, strength, even youth itself.
Environment:
A hygienic darkroom retreat provides all the conditions of profound rest as well as darkness: safety, solitude, silence, warmth, fresh air, comfort, pure water and food, exercise, and time. It is a perfect storm for recovery.
You can read my ebook on it, a complete manual from theory to protocol to computer-drafted plans for components, online or by PDF, free/pay what you like, at:
http://darkroomretreat.com
Anyone with a home can test it over a 3-day weekend for less than $100 in materials.
Book cover
The restful use of darkness is part of hygiene. Hygiene is a branch of biology and nature's complete system of health. It is based on conditional self-preservation, life's two defining characteristics. Hygiene integrates with rational philosophy and thus with the rest of life on earth.
Which even includes the elite facilitators of our misery. They need a demonstration of a real alternative to their current course. Words are not enough. They must feel, by virtue of another's presence, safe, welcome, and belonging to a degree that satisfies their ancient hunger and pleasantly overwhelms their conditioning.
Once suffering on earth is ended—a small problem, actually—the next stage of our larger destiny, whatever it is, can unfold. In any case, we can live fully again, no matter what happened to us before.
If you have questions, please comment. Talking to people about this and all related matters is what I do.
I need help, as well. It turns out the skills necessary to make, prove, refine, and document this discovery are exactly opposite those necessary to organize its full application. I have only managed short retreats. I need a retreat of 20 days to heal from exhaustion and other symptoms. This has been frustrating, to say the least.
But I figure if I talk to enough people about here, someone will actually try it, experience its miraculous benefits, and wish to collaborate with me to make longer retreats, both for me and others.
Europe, 2018
Great intro Andrew! So glad you finally joined us on what can only be described as an incredibly confusing but for some, hugely rewarding and community spirited platform.
I hope you find your way and more importantly that people find your way, which I know from personal experience is very eye opening and thought provoking.
I look forward to showing you around and I hope I can be of assistance as much as you were to me in helping me purchase my first bitcoins all those years ago =)
I have been somewhat vacant this past few months but things are looking up and I should be a lot more active on the web in the very near future.
Hope to see you soon back where the sun and the people are almost always shining ;)
Peace Brother!
Hey, Mark! Thanks, and for the Resteem, too. Yes, it took me long enough to post. Just had to get settled, I guess. I'll do some more reading about how the site works and let you know if I get stuck.
Yeah, I've been wondering how you are doing on the road. Glad you'll be back soon. Till then.
Welcome to Steemit @andrewed :)
Cheers, silent-ghost.
I've written in discord, and now here;))
Nice to meet you, Andrew (your name is Andrew, right?)
I'm Talia:)
I like to meet one more great and interesting person here, I like Steemit for this very possibility.
ANd I'm not surprised you and Mark are friends, you have much in common I think, you're both very unique and bright persons.
Tell me who your friend is, and I'll tell you who you are - we say so in Russia;)
If you're Mark's friend, it tells much of you at once;) much and good I mean;)
Darkroomretreat is something new for me, but very interesting! I adore silence and darkness, and I can't sleep and rest well without it. Even a small piece of light can disturb me. I thought it was just my feature, but now I see - it's really a nature rule.
Unfortunately I can't open the link, I'll try later but I've googled and I've found much information about this method, it's so popular!
I'd like to try it too.
Do you need 20 days for healing as a rule?
Hi, Talia,
Yes, suddenly you are everywhere I look. :)
I fixed the link. Thanks for the alert. Try it again. You will find my approach is unique. Most approaches are spiritually oriented. Mine is just for health.
Yes, Mark is a great guy and his tiny house and family are fun. It's an honor to be his friend. You seem really nice, yourself. :)
Nature's rule. That's a great way to put it. The original human habitat is the floor of a rainforest, which is perfectly dark at night from the dense canopy. So yes, total darkness at night is natural and necessary for proper sleep. Jungles are notoriously noisy, but caves are silent, and I assume that people used caves for retreats in the past.
20 days is not a rule. But 8 or at least 4 days for a first or second retreat is a rule. In these short retreats, you will get a sense of how long your medium-length (less than a month) retreat should be.
Glad to see you are here on Steemit, too. I'll read your blog.
Cheers,
Andrew
haha, I hope you're not tired from me yet;))
Mark's house is wonderful, I respect such brave people deeply.
And how long does retreat usually last in hours? At least 4 days and for how long?
But how could I tire of your delightful attentions, Talia? 🙂
I say 4 days, but it's actually 3 days, 18 hours. It starts in the evening and ends after 4 nights at midday.
ah, the link gives a chance to read a book online? great!
Pleasure to meet you, Andrew! Welcome to Steemit! Thank you for introducing @markwhittam to the platform, I've really enjoyed his story and his support for @familyprotection. Now that you've joined, we have another warrior in the fight to protect the integrity of family unity and offer healing solutions for those who are traumatized. Thanks again! Following! @ironshield
Likewise, @ironshield. Thanks.
Yes, Mark is awesome. Note that I just I helped him with Bitcoin. Steemit has all been his doing. He has really introduced me to it.
Regarding FP, I see in my discord post why you might have called me a warrior, so I edited the army part out. In fact, I rewrote the whole thing to clarify other points as well.
I like to think I come in peace. Rather than a fight, I view our situation as illness. I hope you will closely consider my description of the means nature provides for recovering from it.
I'm looking at some of your posts. It seems you are fan of Ayn Rand, my all-time favorite. Will read further. Cheers, and see you around. 🙂
Hey andrew!
Brilliant work there, although it's all new information for me, still sounds very fascinating to me.
I've recently started taking interest in psychology, not professionally, but for my personal growth.
Keep up the good work man, i'd be following ya!
Thanks, @darkcheeto. I completely support your purpose and hope you find my work useful. Best wishes.
Andrew
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Welcome to Steemit Andrew
I saw your #introduceyourself and its nice to meet you.
Blogging thats what its all about on this blockchain. The best part is that you could earn money too.💴💸💰
I never blogged before I just write.
But be carefull with all your passwords, Never give those up !!
For safety tips visit https://steemit.com/steem/@verhp11/safety-first-first-aid-kit-for-steemians-who-are-just-beginning-this-great-journey from Our fellow steemy @verhp11.
The Steemify App I use is great, it is available in the Appstore and free, go cheque it out. I wish you good luck with steeming and I Will See you around🍀
Your value and input is appreciated!
Greetings from Brittandjosie from the Netherlands
@andrewed, welcome to Steemit. I know you'll enjoy being here. I give you two keys you need in your steemit journey:
Please, permit me to invite you to join the #steemschools discord here https://discord.gg/eTZqQvk and we will teach and support you to grow up in Steemit, to choose the right topic to attract readers, to use the right tags, make quality posts and comments on Steemit and gain more followers.
Thank you.
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Thanks, @evarich. Perhaps I will regain the capacity for that. For now, I'm not trying to do anything more here than write. If it's useful, I suppose people will find their own way here. I focus on content. Perhaps curators will find me and help bring others.
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STOPTo support your work, I also upvoted your post!
Thanks!
Welcome to Steemit
I enjoyed reading your journey.
Thanks, Rebeccabe. Glad you liked it. Cheers
Welcome to Steemit.
I saw Oregon on the first photo and had to upvote ya.
It takes time to learn things around here but just keep trying.
If Mark is helping you then you should have no problems. :)
Thanks, Doc. Haha, yeah, that's from the eco-village in Eugene where I lived awhile and first tried darkness. Been a long time. Guess you're there?
Up in Portland :)
Always liked that town :) Cheers.
Welcome at Steemit @andrewed :)
It can be a bit much in the beginning, but you'll get the hang of it soon.
I find your ideas very interesting, when I find the time I will read about it, or my boyfriend will do so, he's probably very interested too and not as busy as I am (well during office hours he is, but my Steemit work goes on like 24/7 lol)
But would like to read more about it, for sure :)
Enjoy yourself here!
@anouk.nox
Thanks, Anouk. Yeah, I was just commenting here for some months, watching Mark's progress. It was a little odd, but I like the positive vibe a lot. There's much to be said for the power of money, in the absence of others' physical presence, to help people behave better online.
Yes, naturally I would love for you and your boyfriend to read my writing. Here's the secret to reading it for busy people:
Don't try to read my book. Just read the blurb (the back cover content), just like you would in a bookstore. If that's interesting, read the foreword. Then the preface, etc. Not even one chapter, but just one section at a time. Let the book motivate you to keep reading it.
If it gets to be too much put it down for a while. It is intense subject matter. But, I hope, compelling.
Talk to you soon. :)
Best wishes,
Andrew
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