Living 5 DAYS in Complete Darkness

[Music] our human senses gather close to 11 million bits of information per second 10 million of them coming from our eyes and from the day we're born till the day we die the constant processing of visual stimulation in our waking hours never stops for a second so what would happen if you stepped into a prolonged period of darkness silence and solitude where the mind is left completely alone this is exactly what amar decided to find out for himself today as he will be putting himself in this scenario and unplugging from all the over stimulation by entering what is known as a darkness retreat for five days and as his best friend i can absolutely guarantee you that for years now as he's been contemplating this experience that this is his biggest discomfort a couple days ago we're talking about screen time it's like seven hours yeah with a very active brain and a diagnosis with strong adhd since he was a kid amar struggles a lot with slowing down and giving himself a break he's been on a journey to try different mindful practices to see what works for him and today he decided to attempt to go deeper than he ever has by trying something not many have done before as some of you know i have myself maintained a daily meditation practice for over three years now using the guided meditation app headspace who we co-created our podcast with and agreed to sponsor this video and they've agreed to give the yes fam who clicked the link at the top of the description within the next five days a full 60 days for free because as you can imagine most of us won't have the opportunity to go as deep as ammar is about to go in this story so a daily meditation practice is the actual daily dose of mindfulness that we all need to find more peace and balance in our lives you said last night this is your biggest fear and i wonder if it's because it's yourself yeah it is yeah it's the mirror you cannot look away from so we packed our things flew out to oregon and met scott how you doing who has recently opened the only publicly available darkness retreat center in the united states how do you even build something like this we had some big heavy machines and dug out into the uh into the hillside have you done it a few times i have i've done it three or four times it's a space where there's no acknowledgement no one's acknowledging your existence or affirming your existence or like encouraging you or applauding you or there's no one giving you anything and it really shows us how much we get our sense of self from others here we are wow [Music] watch the footage i'm just wiping out in the tub this is where we'll pass you food okay people have really like vivid lucid dreams your sense of time is you're in the timeless thomas yeah timeless underground and dark and and so with the infrared camera set up amar was finally ready to plunge into five days of total darkness this is it let me get one one last final look i'd say what was that i was just doing like the prayers that i that i say before any heart thing give me power give me strength amen [Music] let there be light inside so dramatic see you guys see you in five news see you in five days [Music] there he goes that's it what you feeling good oh my god well we'll come back in 24 hours thank you it's a mars phone he left it in the car obviously so i'm going to be turning it off he's got on his screen saver my 10-year goals in the next 10 years i will and the first one is love myself i think this will be the first time since he got a phone that he won't have one for five days that's a discomfort on its own not having your phone for 24 hours that is the definition of definitely silence let's get comfortable let's get comfortable in let the discomfort this down i mean this darkness is unlike any other darkness i've ever experienced oh that's gonna happen a lot wow it's gonna be a long time oh no oh no you nearly adopted the duck but i was how does he say it i think my eyes is my eyes are tripping right now [Music] this was the first time in his adult life where amar's mind wasn't completely over stimulated by his usual busy schedule and after only 15 minutes in the dark his body completely shut down and he fell into the longest and deepest 16-hour night of sleep he'd ever had [Music] i just slept what feels like a whole day but i have no idea it could be three hours omar's real challenge began on the second day once he woke up as he quickly realized that not seeing anything wouldn't be his only challenge this is nice i just wish i knew what that is outside i have no idea how long i've been here i have no idea if it's the next day and i slept for a very very long time but this is the first bite slow keep slow you have nothing else to do just eat stuff i told myself to slow down eating and just chop the whole thing for as far as i remember like i've always needed so much stimulation ever since i was 11 or 12 i was diagnosed with a very severe adhd as i moved from one country to the other and moved different schools i i always came back to the same diagnosis just just because it was really hard to get me to sit down it was really hard to get me to focus on one thing at a time not even a full 24 hours in ammar was already struggling with how slowly time was passing making it very unclear whether he'd be able to make it till the end of his intended five days [Music] this is not for anyone to hear except for you guys [Music] [Music] that wasn't fun here in four steps i hit a wall this way one two three four look at that that's my chest [Music] are you there [Music] how come i i didn't think of that before food time [Music] i'm surprising myself with my patience the fact that i haven't gone to that door and just opened it what time is it what time is it today is the hardest so far time's just not passing i have my moments where i like i got this in other moments where i'm like i feel like at some point i'm just gonna open my door and walk out a wave of sadness just hit me oh i want to quit so bad i just want to open the door i'm realizing the value of like guided meditation for someone with a brain like mine it's really hard to just focus my brain on even breathing but when i'm listening to something that is just guiding me through it it's so i find it a lot easier although ammar is taking his experience with himself to an unparalleled level there's a growing need and important conversation to have in our hyper-connected society about how we can find and prioritize more quiet time i find that many around me struggle with mental health whether it is anxiety or depression and i often think about the fact that today we fill every empty second with distractions so i believe the answer lies within balance but how do we get there i have personally truly found that guided meditation every single day before i start my day to be the best possible way to reach that balance and i've actually been using the sponsor of today's video headspace basically every single day for the past four years and i could not be more thrilled to be actually working with them for me days that include meditation in the mornings and the days that don't just feel different when i don't i find my attention drifting in conversation i find myself reaching for social media much more often and i found myself much more sensitive to anxiety creeping in as andy the voice and co-founder of headspace told us on our podcast a few years ago it is the consistent practice even just five minutes every single day that will make all the difference we highly suggest that you go explore our partner for this video headspace's incredible app with over a thousand pieces of content you can find breathing exercises meditation sleep casts playlists to help you feel happier and healthier so join our yes fam community in being one of the most tapped in communities on the internet by downloading headspace and joining the daily meditation family we're hiking up to checking on him after a bit more than 24 hours for life is not knowing how long something's going to take so to be sitting right now in the complete uncertainty of of how time is faster how long it's been since i started is truly like challenging that [Music] four more times as expected it's extremely challenging dude it's so hard it's so hard damn but thank you for checking in appreciate it i'll see you tomorrow all right that's 24 hours in and he's struggling are you still here how often do people leave early does that ever happen i'd say close to half if not more you can't imagine how challenging it actually is i think for people who even have a lot of meditation experience or people have spent a lot of time in solitude it's such a different experience when you have no one to look into a tree or anything to kind of remember some of the qualities of life that you really love and cherish it's really strange like i feel like crying it's like feel abandoned after having like the slightest contact with just other human beings all right i'm off let's go please please let me sleep for like 12 hours straight please [Music] i definitely please not sleep nearly as good as last night it's the trippiest thing when you wake up because you're like you still don't know if you're in the dream or up when you open your eyes because it all looks the same i think across the board people come to realize how much they appreciate their loved ones in their life mars experience in there now probably processing thinking contemplating things that he's never contemplated before i had a very profound dream i love my mom yeah maybe this is too private all these dreams are like bringing up things i just want to sleep again it's all please let me sleep again i've tried meditating so many times it's not working for me without like guided some someone telling you what to do even even if what to do is nothing i still need it's that daily adventure of uncovering what's in my food what's that what is this oops and what about this it's cheese slow mindful be grateful for every single creature every single hand that made this food possible i'm gonna pray for bed my mama told me to when i go down like this you're supposed to really try to reach a deep meditative state because this is when you are like praying for what you want and it's supposed to be like the most devout state that you can [Music] be it's friday what colors do i miss the most yellow and green i'm pretty proud of myself my morale is still pretty high i'm like energized i don't hate myself i think today i've had the two extremes of a thought i've had the angry side of me that is that we're so behind that there's so much more that we could do and then there's the side of me that feels so grateful for every moment that i got to to create with yes theory and feeling like if i were to leave today i'm just my heart is full there's a certain truth to both of them i have space for both ideas to rise in my head we've been going for seven years and i'm already so proud of the friendships that were made that's the that's the thing that puts the most joy in my heart when i go to meet up and someone comes up to me and says i met my best friend because of yesterday or i met my girlfriend because of yes theory oh my god my response is always i met my best friends because of yesterday and did you see that little experiment that we have be replicated and scale to the rest of the world to anyone who watches and really gets it and understand what way of living we're really after i've never slowed down enough to see the inner workings of my own mind my mind works so much faster than i ever i'm able to catch up that it literally took turning off the lights to be able to see a lot more i know that not everybody will be able to i don't know find a room like this to be able to switch off the lights and you know take five days off their life but you can at least switch off your phone for a day you don't need to go to the extreme to start feeling or understanding what's on the other side all right let's breathe just one quick round get the body tingling you want to be oh no you're doing great got that all right signing off day four and this is the final sleep i was dreaming about this the second i walked and i was like oh when the moment comes and i'm just going to bed that i know that it's the final sleep and here we are good job [Music] i'd say oh like 95 of people who go in when they come out they're happy and maybe that's because they just they're out and they're finally freed from the bondage of their mind or whatever was going on but like a big shift happens right when you walk out that door all right this is the heart i'm starting to like this like i really i genuinely feel like i could spend a few more days here you just never had this clarity of thinking without any input from the outside it is a beautiful sunny day to come out to his senses are going to be very overwhelmed i think he was just singing on the baby monitor good morning omar good morning how are you feeling i feel great nice is it what is it night yes are you ready for the light i am ready for the light so i'll come all the way outside perfect oh my god light all right to new beginners wow welcome down into the world the colors are so vibrant the enlightened one yeah [Music] great color i i swear to god i swear last night i said the colors i missed the most yellow and green okay here we go today i felt such peace that i've just never experienced before in my life completely surprised myself with this one wow i i didn't know what to expect i just i didn't think i could do it colors are so like your eyes look like the wolf's eyes to me right now that's great i swear if you have breakthrough moments where you were up against the challenge or something that really moves you through stuff yeah yesterday because i was awake for so long i i experienced like the two extremes of a of a thought or a state of being my conclusion was just like just stay stay as the observer and neither one need to win or need to be like the one that you act on because both will arise and you know that is also true for my light and shadow like i think i i constantly want one of them to win rather than both to coexist realizing that my shadow is just as important to getting me to where i am today and protecting me as my light so i think it's just sitting in that in the observer seat and not necessarily engaging too much with these extreme thoughts when they arrive because that would be life how are the dreams there's one dreams that stick the sticks at and it's me telling my mom something that i think i've always wanted to tell her something from my childhood or a way that our dynamic made me feel it was very like healing moment because to just get to tell her that and it wasn't like in an angry way i was just i just told her how i felt when i was a kid and that was that's the only moment i cried in there when i woke up and i was processing that dream and your voice every night was very it was very soothing scott you have an amazing presence and energy it's a big smile yeah when you actually walk back out to life the plot thickens i made the case for this guy to actually spend the next 24 hours basically should i do this yeah yeah 100 we'll just say goodbye this is not a decision that people make spontaneously i'll see you guys around i'll miss you guys oh my god so if you want to see my reaction coming out of the darkness go to our seek discomfort channel where the full video will be uploaded as ammar was describing to take a step back from our thoughts and emotions to instead observe them without judgment we need to seek out more mindfulness to do that i have for four years and still used to this day the app had space for guided meditations it is a tool that i promise will change your life in the long run and i hope you'll check out headspace in the description below to get 60 days for free this very special offer is only available until the 19th of may so make sure you go and sign up now i'll see you on the other side

Channel: Yes Theory

Views: 1,682,892

Keywords: yestheory, seek discomfort, yes theory strangers, yes theory travel, yes theory subscribers, getting out of your comfort zone, Amazon FBA, darkness retreat, surviving in darkness, darkness therapy, complete darkness, darkest room in the world

Id: DTYuoHcLB5A

Length: 22min 53sec (1373 seconds)

Published: Sun May 15 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/Tsb313]

When Rodgers came out do you think the colors he missed the most where yellow and green as well???

[u/srry_didnt_hear_you]

Fascinating! Definitely seems like a challenge I'd be impressed by anyone who's able to go through a whole 5 days of that.

It's kinda neat how depriving yourself of so much can lead to deeper appreciation, but I also wonder if it's simply a matter of "wow that sucked so much I'm feeling very appreciative now" lolll

[u/lilturk82]

That looks amazing. The smile on his face when he opened the door made me smile, if that makes sense.

I would love to try that!

[u/danbillbishop3]

It doesn't seem that strange. Indeed, I would like to give it a try. Probably wouldn't last 4/5 days but I would probably enjoy at least a couple of days in dark solitude.

[u/Bullseyemenage]

We live in Ashland, where Sky Cave Retreats is located, and had I known AR was here, I'd have had him over for brats

[u/jwwin]

Aaron Rodgers hating lions fan here. That looks cool as shit and something I’d love to do.

[u/agk927]

I gotta do this. Tbh just workout the whole time

[u/Lieutenant-Dan-Man]

Yes Theory is awesome. I highly recommend anyone watch their videos on YouTube. Their content is truly spectacular, and a breath of fresh air from all of the BS.