restricted environmental stimulation technique, chamber REST, dark therapy, solitude, mindfulness

The dark therapy, which uses principles of the Restricted Environmental Stimulation (REST) in the form of the Chamber REST, provides people a unique, intense and personal growth experience within a week or even a longer stay. It has a profound impact on all levels of the bio-psycho-socio-spiritual integrity of the person. The authors of this article are going to share their first-hand experiences with this form the dark therapy. They belong to the first psychologists and they are the first academic researchers in the Czech Republic who in 2007, 2011 and 2012 decided to be exposed to the powerful factors of total darkness, silence and solitude in the research institute of the Beskydy Rehabilitation Centre in Čeladná. They spent a three-day, a seven-day and a fortnight stay under these specific conditions of restricted environmental stimulation, which resulted in coming up with a new hypothesis on a potential therapeutic effect of this method.

The dark therapy, which uses principles of the Restricted Environmental Stimulation (REST) in the form of the Chamber REST, provides people a unique, intense and personal growth experience within a week or even a longer stay. It has a profound impact on all levels of the bio-psycho-socio-spiritual integrity of the person. The authors of this article are going to share their first-hand experiences with this form the dark therapy. They belong to the first psychologists and they are the first academic researchers in the Czech Republic who in 2007, 2011 and 2012 decided to be exposed to the powerful factors of total darkness, silence and solitude in the research institute of the Beskydy Rehabilitation Centre in Čeladná. They spent a three-day, a seven-day and a fortnight stay under these specific conditions of restricted environmental stimulation, which resulted in coming up with a new hypothesis on a potential therapeutic effect of this method.