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Dark Retreat, Psychedelics, and Virtual Reality: Peril or Promise?
September 16 - September 22, 2024
Andrew Holecek
Robert A.F. Thurman
Anthony Bossis, Ph.D.
Dark retreat is one of the most transformative meditations ever devised. This ancient practice is making a comeback as celebrities proclaim its benefits. Darkness can unleash the power of the luminous mind, bring light to the world, and ironically provide an antidote to this Dark Age. Psychedelics are taking the globe by storm. Entheogens can remove your fear of death, jumpstart your meditation, and change the course of your life. Virtual reality offers a revolution in pedagogy. VR can spark psycho-spiritual evolution and modernize meditations like dream yoga, deity yoga, and bardo yoga. What do these three tools have in common? What is the science that supports their outrageous claims? How can you safely and effectively use them in your life?When used properly, dark retreat, psychedelics, and virtual reality have the potential to light you up. When used improperly, they can readily burn you up. This highly experiential retreat explores the opportunities and obstacles in these ancient and modern methods, revealing their potential to accelerate personal and societal transformation.Noted psychedelic researcher Dr. Anthony Bossis will join Andrew and Robert for an entire day of teaching. We're thrilled to be able to welcome him to the program. He will address the history, science, and reemergence of psychedelic research and the study of mystical experience with implications for end-of-life psychospiritual and existential distress, grief, meaning-making, and the relevance for thanatology and religious studies. The importance of safety, context of set and setting, and session preparation, psychedelic session support, and integration will be discussed.Topics include:"So be wise, because the world needs more wisdom, and if you cannot be wise, pretend to be someone who is wise, and then just behave like they would. And now go, and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. Make. Good. Art."- Neil Gaiman
ScheduleMonday, September 16
ABOUT THE TEACHERs
Andrew Holecek
Andrew Holecek is an author, speaker, and humanitarian who offers seminars internationally on meditation, lucid dreaming, and the art of dying. He is the author of many books, including The Power and the Pain: Transforming Spiritual Hardship into Joy, and Preparing to Die: Pr...
Robert A.F. Thurman
Robert Thurman is Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University as well as co-founder and President of Tibet House US and it's Menla Retreat & Spa. A world-wide lecturer on Tibetan Buddhism, activist for the plight of the Tibetan people, translator of Buddhis...
Anthony Bossis, Ph.D.
Anthony is a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at NYU School of Medicine, adjunct professor of religious studies at the University of Ottawa, and a researcher at Lundquist Institute-Harbor-UCLA. For nearly twenty years, he has been conducting FDA-approved clinical rese...
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