A Live Six-Week Immersion for Using the Power of Darkness for Healing, Creativity, and Transformation
Begins September 8, 2026
WITH ANDREW HOLECEK
A trusted teacher of Tibetan contemplative practice guides you into the replenishing experience of darkness lost to modern life.
A Live Six-Week Immersion for Using the Power of Darkness for Healing, Creativity, and Transformation
Begins September 8, 2026
With
Andrew
Holecek
A trusted teacher of Tibetan contemplative practice guides you into the replenishing experience of darkness lost to modern life.
As featured in
An Invitation from Andrew Holecek
DEAR FRIEND,
I have spent most of my adult life in deep inner work, centered around fifty years of meditation. My path has taken me through the traditional Tibetan Buddhist three-year retreat, and led me to explore many of the most powerful methods for inner growth that East and West have to offer.
As rewarding as so many of those approaches have been, I can tell you honestly: nothing compares to my experience with darkness. It is easily the most transformative practice I have ever done.
For nearly thirty years, this practice has brought me life-changing insights and change. It has opened dimensions of being I could not have imagined. It has birthed creativity at breathtaking new heights, healed fractures in my heart I didn’t know were there, and shown me, again and again, what really matters.
Darkness has a way of putting all our relentless activity under house arrest, and helps us address what is arguably the most important question in history: Who am I?
It has shown me that who I think I am is defined by what I do; who I really am is revealed when I finally stop doing.
In the dark, with nothing left to do, we are finally allowed to simply be.
The modern world seems designed to keep us from that stillness. We have become a sight-centric, light-centric, and wake-centric civilization, addicted to doing and achieving. The damaging effects of physical and metaphysical light pollution are contributing to the growing metacrisis, which is a crisis of touch.
Because we’re so relentlessly drawn out of ourselves with all our “weapons of mass distraction,” we’ve lost touch with ourselves, with each other, and with reality itself.
Light consolidates attention at the most superficial dimensions of being, where we end up “doom scrolling” on the surface of life—and wondering why something is missing. I call this darkness deficit disorder, which is a disorder of depth, authenticity, and connectivity. The ancient practice of dark retreat cures this disorder, and puts us back in touch with what really matters.
I want to be open with you about this practice: dark retreat is big medicine. It deserves rigor and respect. That is exactly why I want to teach it the way I’m doing it here: live, step-by-step, and supported by modern science and the wisdom traditions that engage this unique practice. With a titrated approach, starting with nothing more than ten minutes behind an eye mask, I’ll guide you gently and safely into the most rewarding practice I know.
You don’t need a cave, a monastery, or years of training. You only need a little curiosity and the willingness to meet yourself.
If any part of you feels drawn to what darkness represents, I would be honored to guide you.
About This Live 6-Week Experience
The Essential "Nourishment" We’ve Forgotten
Long before our screens and streetlights, people across the world’s wisdom traditions knew something we’ve forgotten: that darkness is not empty, and it is not the enemy. It is as essential as rest or sleep for recovering wholeness and well-being.
From the bardo practices of Tibetan Buddhism, to the ancient Greeks, to the vision quests of indigenous peoples and the contemplative cells of early Christian mystics, cultures everywhere discovered that time spent in deliberate darkness opens doors that daylight keeps closed. As Andrew puts it, “darkness is our primal home,” and we’ve wandered a long way from it.
We’re Thirsty for a Kind of Rest That We Now Lack
We are the most artificially illuminated generation in history, and something essential went missing when we lost the night. Andrew calls it a kind of “darkness deficit disorder”: like a body deprived of a vital nutrient, we feel the effects—restlessness, exhaustion, a strange inability to feel wonder—without recognizing the cause.
Instead, we tend to reach for more: more light, more input, more doing. When what’s really needed is less.
Darkness practice asks something refreshingly different. When the outer world of stimulation falls away, what remains is the natural, spacious ground of the mind, and a quality of rest and clarity most of us haven’t touched in years.
You Don’t Need a Remote Temple or a Private Cave
Andrew teaches that darkness is a necessary friend, and a vital source of creativity, healing, and transformation. It is not something to fear or overcome. In this live six-week online course, you’ll begin with a short session behind a simple eye mask and then build, week by week, at a pace that suits your life and nervous system, all in the comfort of your own home.
Across six weekly sessions, and two live Q&As, Andrew teaches you directly, adapting this revered practice to ordinary people navigating modern life.
What This Darkness Practice Offers
- A perceptual reset unlike any other: with the visual system at rest, perception recalibrates, and many people emerge seeing life with new eyes
- Deep rest and restoration for a depleted, overstimulated nervous system
- Creative renewal from within: artists, writers, musicians, and innovators report insights and fresh solutions born from a more quiet and spacious mind
- Emotional and shadow integration: in the dark, what’s been hidden can surface gently and be met with compassion
- A meditation accelerator: practitioners often find that dark practice catalyzes meditation, breaking through longstanding tedium and stagnation.
- Greater ease with fear and the unwanted, in the dark and in daily life
- A richer dream and sleep life, including the natural emergence of lucid dreaming
- Glimpses of the nondual, and moments of first-hand spiritual awakening: the open, luminous awareness beneath our busy thinking minds
And for those interested, this program will also explore two supplementary dimensions of darkness practice
Your body’s own visionary chemistry.
Darkness regulates melatonin, and research suggests that naturally-occurring DMT, along with other biochemical mediators of consciousness, are nurtured in the dark.
A conscious relationship with death and what lies beyond.
Tibetan Buddhism maps the dying process and the continuation of consciousness in detail, and dark retreat is one of the oldest preparations for the end of life. Here it is approached gently, met with equanimity rather than fear.
Who This Program Is For
Andrew created this training for anyone drawn to the replenishing quiet of darkness, whether you’ve meditated for decades or have never tried. It will especially benefit:
Curious beginners who feel the pull of the dark and want a safe, well-guided way in
Experienced meditators, contemplatives, and yoga practitioners who sense they’ve plateaued and are ready for a genuine next step
Therapists, coaches, and helping professionals who want to understand the practice for themselves and those they serve
Writers, artists, and creatives seeking to refresh their wellspring of inspiration
The overstimulated and depleted looking for genuine rest and restoration
The consciousness-curious drawn to a natural, drug-free path of inner exploration
Darkness practice is considered an advanced path in its traditions of origin. Andrew’s gift is teaching it carefully and respectfully, so that it can safely benefit anyone with an open mind.
Program Overview
Over six weeks, you’ll build a darkness practice from the ground up: informed by neuroscience and contemplative tradition, and shaped to your own preferences. Each week brings a live teaching session with Andrew and a next stage of progressive daily practice. Two live Q&A sessions will help address your specific obstacles and allow you to share your experiences along the way.
By the end of the program, you’ll be able to:
- Understand how darkness works: drawing on neuroscience, depth psychology, and contemplative tradition
- Build a personal darkness practice you can sustain, with a clear container, preparation ritual, and integration protocol designed around your own life
- Develop the skills to navigate what arises in the dark: working with fear, resistance, and challenging states using mindfulness, metta, somatic awareness, and more
- Carry the practice into daily life and into your other contemplative work
- Approach a formal dark retreat with curiosity and a working skill set rather than apprehension
- Re-educate the senses, learning to rely on the wider spectrum of felt interior body perceptions as a navigational tool, during practice and in daily life
WEEK BY WEEK
SESSION 1
The Two Faces of Darkness: Orientation and Right View
Tuesday, Sep 8
- What dark retreat is: the sutra and tantra approaches, and the three zones of comfort, growth, and risk
- Darkness as a symbol and invitation: interiority, depth, intimacy, non-duality
- Guided practice: Interoception and the Felt Sense
- Journaling as your primary integration method throughout the course, and the simple tools (like a mask) you’ll need
- Your daily practice begins (Stage 1)
SESSION 2
Why Darkness Works: The Science and Wisdom of the Practice
Tuesday, Sep 15
- The mechanisms of transformation, and why even brief durations of darkness create meaningful change
- Getting started at home: putting the mask on for your first ten-minute session
- Guided practice: Openness and the Holding Environment
- Recommendations for the week
Daily practice (Stage 2)
Live Q&A Session: Saturday, Sep 19, 12:00 pm ET (9:00 am PT)
SESSION 3
Healing in the Dark: What Darkness Repairs and Why
Tuesday, Sep 22
- The healing pathways: early detection, psychological integration, and nondual healing
- Progressive exposure: from “gray retreat” to darkness, building your container week by week
- Guided Practice: Feel It to Heal It
- Recommendations for the week
- Daily practice (Stage 3)
SESSION 4
Entering the Dark: Preparation, Container, and Keys to Success
Tuesday, Sep 29
- Attitudinal preparation: right view, unconventional standards for success, and “traveling light”
- Working with impulse and mindfulness: the one-breath pause practice
- Dark retreat hygiene: set, setting, and how to prepare your container
- Guided Practice: Silence, Dharma, and Holding
- Recommendations for the week
- Daily practice (Stage 4)
SESSION 5
Navigating the Dark: Challenges, Resistance, and Fear
Tuesday, Oct 6
- Resistance and where it comes from: ego survival strategies, shadow, and chronic contraction
- Fear as the doorway: Andrew’s four-step framework for working with challenges
- Applications beyond the dark: in daily life, in other spiritual practices, and in any difficult situation
- Guided Practice: Non-duality and the Absolute Experience
- Recommendations for the week
- Daily practice (Stage 5)
Live Q&A Session: Saturday, Oct 10, 12:00 pm ET (9:00 am PT)
SESSION 6
Returning to the Light: Integration and the Ongoing Practice
Tuesday, Oct 13
- The plastic mind: the critical integration window and how to use it
- Bringing the dark into daily life: reminding, rebodying, nightly dark retreat, and one-breath meditation
- Guided Practice: Reverse Meditation and the Final Refinement
- Designing your ongoing practice and completing your personal practice protocol
- Daily practice (Stage 6)
What Happens in the Dark
The Emerging Science
Once known only to dedicated contemplatives, darkness practice is now drawing serious scientific attention. Dr. Andrew Holecek is part of research efforts with the Institute for Advanced Consciousness Studies, the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and Northwestern University, collecting data on the transformative aspects of sensory deprivation. Andrew is co-authoring a landmark paper, using computational neuroscience to substantiate dark retreat, with researchers from three leading universities, to be published this summer.
The wider science is promising, too. Research on related sensory-rest methods links darkness to lower anxiety, reduced stress hormones, and stronger interoception, the felt sense of the body that this course is designed to cultivate. Light suppresses melatonin, while sustained darkness lets it rise naturally, supporting optimal rest and repair. Emerging research shows that darkness positively affects many other aspects of our biology and health.
None of this replaces direct experience, or promises a particular outcome. But a practice that contemplatives have valued for centuries is beginning to earn the attention of serious science and academic study.
Meet Your Teacher
Andrew Holecek
… is an interdisciplinary scholar-practitioner in Tibetan Buddhism and other nondual wisdom traditions who has spent more than thirty years helping people transform life’s greatest challenges into opportunities for awakening. A dedicated meditation practitioner who completed the traditional Tibetan Buddhist three-year retreat, Andrew is known for making profound contemplative practices accessible and practical. As one of the West’s foremost teachers of dream yoga, the spiritual dimension of lucid dreaming, he guides students in using the night to transform their waking lives. He is the Resident Contemplative Scholar at the Institute for Advanced Consciousness Studies, and a Research Consultant for the neuroscience lab at Northwestern University. Dr. Holecek is a member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, and is currently involved in five dark retreat studies, with several more in development. He is the author of Total Eclipse of the Mind, Reverse Meditation, Dream Yoga, and many other books.
What You’ll Receive
Six weekly sessions LIVE
With Andrew Holecek, Tuesdays Sep 8–Oct 13
Plus, two live Q&A sessions
With Andrew on Sep 19 and Oct 10
Recorded videos of all live sessions
Available within 72 hours and with lifetime access
A progressive daily practice
Staged gently across six weeks
In-depth journaling for ongoing integration
Of the experiences and insights gained during practice
A personal practice blueprint
For designing a darkness container suited to your life
Clear preparation and safety framework
So the practice is shaped into a comfortable and enjoyable experience optimized specifically for you
A supportive container for working with challenges
Including Andrew’s approach to meeting fear and getting past the obstacles to your progress
Plus, when you enroll today, you'll also receive:
A Free Month of Sounds True One Membership
Explore our vast range of meditations, teachings, practices, and other exclusive content, designed to support your ongoing healing and self-discovery.
Join us for
Into the Luminous Dark
Enrollment closes September 3, 2026. The live cohort begins September 8.
Financial aid is available through the Sounds True Foundation, our nonprofit sister organization. See the FAQs below to learn more.
GUARANTEE/REFUND POLICY
We unconditionally guarantee your satisfaction with all Sounds True products for one year when purchased via our website. If you complete at least half of the course (to give it a fair try) and are not 100% satisfied with your purchase, simply call or email us for a full refund.
Praise for Andrew Holecek and Total Eclipse of the Mind
I love that he treats the absence of light not as an enemy but as a collaborator—one that strips distraction, sharpens perception, and invites wonder.
- Elizabeth Gilbert
New York Times bestselling author
Andrew’s writing is like walking with a dear friend who is expertly and lovingly guiding us through the deepest passages of our mind.
- Judson Brewer, MD, PhD
New York Times bestselling author of Unwinding Anxiety
There is immense value to spending time in darkness, and this book provides a pathway into this revolutionary practice.
- Richard Schwartz, PhD
Founder of Internal Family Systems (IFS)
A masterful introduction to the ancient Tibetan practice of dark retreat.
- Christof Koch, PhD
Neuroscientist
Andrew has written a masterpiece through his years of direct experience with the Dark.
- Stephan Rechtschaffen, MD
Founder of the Omega Institute
Praise from Andrew's Program Participants
Andrew Holecek is a wonderful teacher. Easy to understand, enjoyable to listen to, a wonderful blend of humor, gentleness, and deep understanding.
- Sean M.
Dream Yoga course review
This is by far one of the most interesting, useful, practical, fascinating programs that I have bought from Sounds True. Andrew Holecek is a wonderful teacher; his thinking is clear and easy to understand, without being oversimplified. Please record other programs with this author!
- Alina B.
Dream Yoga course review
This is a wonderful course on the topic, very clearly explained and carefully crafted. I find it extremely helpful and have recommended it to several of my friends.
- Elke D.
Dream Yoga course review
Frequently Asked Questions
- Can I really learn this at home and with no prior meditation experience?
Yes, absolutely. The first session begins with guidance for complete beginners, a short practice, and then builds gradually from there. Andrew teaches darkness practice step by step, designed around your own life and nervous system. All your questions about choosing an eye mask and other practical steps will be addressed fully in the program. Beginners are welcome, and experienced meditators will find it opens genuinely new territory.
- Is darkness practice safe? What if difficult feelings come up?
Safety and preparation are at the heart of how Andrew teaches. You’ll learn how to design a comfortable container and a clear framework for working with fear or resistance if it arises. The live format means you’re never doing this unprepared or alone.
- What will I actually be able to do by the end?
You’ll have built a sustainable personal darkness practice, learned to work skillfully with whatever arises, and developed a set of tools such as journaling, the guided practices, and a personal practice blueprint, all intended for carrying the benefits into daily life well beyond the six weeks.
- How much time will it take each week?
Plan for roughly two to three hours a week (and more if you like): one live weekly session, a short daily practice that grows in stages, and time for journaling and integration. The daily practice starts small and expands with your level of comfort and familiarity.
- During sessions, how long will I actually be practicing in the dark?
While formal dark retreats may involve days or weeks in complete darkness, this program is different: it teaches gentle, “titrated” home practice that begins with just ten minutes wearing an eye mask and builds gradually over six weeks: from semi-dark “gray retreat” practice toward deeper darkness, up to sessions of roughly an hour or a few hours in a darkened space. You stay safe and in control of the practice durations throughout. By the end, you’ll know how to design a longer personal practice for yourself, if and when you choose to go further.
- When does the program begin, and what are the dates?
The live course runs for six Tuesdays, September 8 through October 13, 2026, at 8:00 pm ET | 5:00 pm PT. Two live Q&A sessions take place Saturday, September 19, and Saturday, October 10, at 12:00 pm ET | 9:00 am PT.
- What if I can’t attend all the live sessions?
No problem. All live sessions are recorded and made available within 72 hours, so you can participate fully even if you miss one in real time.
- I’m curious but a little skeptical. Is this for me?
That’s a healthy place to begin. You don’t need to believe anything in advance, only to be willing to try the practice and draw your own conclusions. Andrew grounds the work in science and tradition alike and invites your direct experience and evaluation rather than unquestioning faith.
- I've been meditating for years but feel like I've stalled: my practice feels routine, and the clear shifts and insights just aren't coming. Will this help?
As Andrew explains, this is one of the needs that dark retreat serves best. Rather than adding another technique, it removes your external references entirely, and the mind, with nothing left to hold onto, eventually settles. In that stillness, the natural luminosity of awareness becomes increasingly apparent, and states that can take decades to access through conventional practice alone may emerge on their own. “Calm abiding” (shamatha) deepens naturally, and genuine insight (vipashyana) arises from the silence and stillness. Experienced meditators often report that relatively short periods in the dark can catalyze the kind of progress that months of ordinary sitting cannot.
- Is this program a form of medical or mental health treatment?
No, this course is not intended to diagnose or treat any physical or mental health condition, or to be a substitute for therapy with a qualified, licensed medical or mental health clinician. It can be considered complementary to approved medical treatments and psychotherapy.
- How long will I have access to the materials?
You’ll receive lifetime access to the course, including recordings of all live sessions within 72 hours after livestreaming, so you can revisit and deepen your practice over time.
- Will I receive a certificate or continuing education credits?
No, Sounds True is not currently offering CEU credits for this program.
- Are scholarships or financial aid available?
Yes. The Sounds True Foundation, our nonprofit sister organization, provides donor-supported scholarships for those in genuine financial need. Learn more and apply here.
- I need tech support or access instructions. Where can I find help?
Please visit the Sounds True Help Center for answers to common questions and assistance.
- When does the program begin?
We begin live and online on September 8, 2026. You’ll receive course access on September 1 to review the introductory information before we begin on September 8.
- What is the Sounds True One membership, and how does it work?
When you enroll in this program, you’ll receive a free trial membership to Sounds True One—a premium membership platform designed to support your spiritual growth and personal transformation.
Sounds True One gives you instant access to a rich library of exclusive content, daily live sessions, guided practices, and teachings from a wide range of renowned wisdom teachers—including original programs you won’t find anywhere else. It’s the perfect companion to deepen your learning journey beyond the program.
Here’s how it works:
- Your free trial begins the moment you enroll.
- After 30 days, you’ll be automatically billed $19.99 USD per month.
- You can cancel anytime during your trial—no questions asked, and no charge.
- Even if you cancel your Sounds True One membership, you’ll still have full access to your course—it’s yours to keep.
The Dark You’ve Been Missing Is Waiting for You
The capacity for deep rest, fresh creativity, and a steadier, more spacious mind is already within you: it has simply been denied by our over-illuminated, non-stop, and overstimulating world. Here, over six live weeks, Andrew Holecek will guide you into the replenishing dark our ancestors knew and modern life forgot. No prior experience is required. All you need is a little curiosity and a willingness to meet yourself.
Are you ready to begin?
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