Solitude

[Yawning Man]

Hey gang

Has anyone here had experience with long periods of seclusion? We're talking physical solitude, as a lot of people experience feeling alone psychologically so lets not confuse the two. And it has to be voluntary solitude. As i understand it, being forced into solitude has a lot of negative effects.

So has anyone purposfully gone away for a while to be by themselves? To meditate, or other reasons? I'm specifically interested in those who have gone out with the intention of gaining something. A new perspective on themselves or something going on in their life. But even more to the point people who have done it for spiritual reasons. What were they? Did you achieve them?

I ask this because i'm planning on spending a significant amount of time in outback australia. I've been wanting to do this for a while so was just wanting to gauge others ideas on what solitude can bring a person. But feel free to discuss solitude as a means of developing your spirituality and/or yourself.

I want to spend time in the desert as i think the wide open spaces and the vast expanse will have a different affect than if i were to spend it in the bush, enclosed in shade. Know what i mean? More of a 'I can see for ages, i'm completely alone' type effect.

cheers

Edit: I can't spell physical lol

Edited June 20, 2010 by Yawning Man

[JDanger]

I've never done it personally, but it's definitely something that's been on my mind recently. Solo trips I find most beneficial; I can only imagine a long term vision quest of sorts (no drugs needed) has the potential to yield something heavy.

Apparently it worked for Jesus

[Yawning Man]

Jesus went off into the desert for 40 day and 40 nights. He needed to know 'Am i the son of God...or just mental'? Haha.

Yeah J danger, obviously the use of entheogens crossed my mind, but i think the solitude will be enough. I'm not going with a goal in mind or a list of things to think about. Just going by myself and whatever comes up is obviously important enough.

cheers

[gerbil]

I try and go away by myself as often as possible on hunting trips, it's not strictly but more or less in a partial state of solitude in that i am alone on large blocks of land, but if i've got an intention like hunting, it's not so much introspective as it is exploratory, observationally planned and depending on method, reactionary. Some of the best times are setting up in a spot and just waiting all day, which allows for introspective time as well as observing a land system function, which can tie into the introspection as you come to terms with your place in the specific spot, you are the anomaly in the piece of land that usually remains human free.

It's usually in small bursts of 3-4 days, 2-3 nights. And underlying whatever activities, i often go just to get away from society, i mean i like people but i find society and the way many people behave highly impact my life in a negative way, the escape by oneself allows for the stress to deplete and my own self to open up.

The night times can give you the willies pretty easy, the main worry is running into people, alone in the middle of nowhere, can freak the hell outta you and brings up primal instincts which again can give you the willies even more as you realise your capabilities and thoughts.

The night time is the biggest introspective solitude time of the journey, each night. Particularly winter can be difficult as after a brief post sundown spotlight, it's time to bed down at like 6pm for a long night alone, often due to conditions and area your even further isolated from the outdoors through the bubble of the tent which can be something to really detract from certain parts of the melding into the landscape.

The one thing that's unavoidable is your connection with the natural world and the specific landscape you are in. The realisation of life outside of yours is highly apparent, with highly complex societies going on 24/7 outside of our humancentric worlds. If you allow it, the forming of relationships with the animals can occur even simply on the level of really getting to understand a specific species behaviour and going from area to area you can then notice minor differences in populations of the same species, it's very interesting, like people think they know what a kookaburra sounds like, bullshit, they know what they've heard and not the full spectrum. The complexities of nature become apparent, as do the linkage.

Very important issue to consider is your safety, simple things like a fall can land you in serious trouble, and then there are snake,ant,spider bites, dogs, pigs etc. the first few are the main issues IMO. It's a tricky one, solitude isn't really solitude if you have someone to call on hehe but finding a middle ground to suit your goals is important.

I think the open plains would be very interesting, as you say different from the bush, the bush can be a real head fuck, not that the desert can't, all unique in their own right i guess, i suppose the bush can feel more claustrophobic.

Someone posted an interesting story here not long ago, 'bout the 'did you hear the corroboree too' people hearing noises of a coroboree whilst out on the plains, by themselves at night.

Bit scattered there, hope it made sense. Suppose i was trying to communicate as you've already more or less stated, the benefits you wish to get our of solitude are specifically up to your mind set and actions, even in solitude if you don't allow for the reason you are there to initiate, the solitude can be counter-productive.

i think some of the most joyous times have been alone and taking the time to sit and watch an ant nest.

Edited January 28, 2010 by gerbil

[Quill]

Jack Kerouac got a job watching for fires from a cabin on the side of a mountain, apparently it worked for him. he describes this glowing experience in Desolation Angels.

I believe if you are strong willed it would definitely be a worthy experience. But if you start to crack, seek company.

[Mt.B]

My space of choice is the Alpine region. I like your idea of the desert too. I'm usually out in the wilderness on some sort of adventure but there is also plenty of time to think/meditate. I've only done it for sort periods, like 2-4 days, though if I had the time I'd like to go longer. Solitude is something I enjoy and I feel a lot healthier after it. No grandiose insights or epiphanies have arisen though Something else that I've just recently been experimenting with is fasting and I wanting to combine the two to see what the effect will be.

[C_T]

This guy Evan Tanner, an MMA fighter, went into the desert on his own for a self discovery. Something happened to his transport and he didn't make it... Be careful.

[Chiral]

Being alone....aaahhhhhhh...serenity now.

I would give anything for alone time just a month would be sweet...finish a book, write some music, study some micro-organisms, collect seed, bath in a river, take hallucinogens a few times and unravel...mmmmm how sweet that would be.

[blip]

.

Edited April 5, 2010 by lsdreamz

[Yawning Man]

Gerbil man, awesome write up, you descibe a lot of the things i had thought i would experience. A lot of good points i hadn't considered. You mention the environment tying in with introspection. Funny you mentioned that, i know in my previous post i said i had no goals as such but something i would love to achieve would be to strengthen my bond with the earth.

I find myself agreeing more and more that gaia exists. And i think distancing myself from technology and having nothing to listen to and see but my surroundings will aid me. I'm lucky because i have no rent (thanks mum & dad) and am only working casual jobs atm so can basically say thanks, see ya in a few months. So it's a perfect time for me to do this.

I understand the risks involved. So i'm researching a few people who offer survival courses. I think two will be suffice lol. Mainly because their techniques will be different and they should be a few days length.

I should point out i'm in a VERY good place right now. Above all i am happy and feel stable (have problems with anxiety and had issues with depression in the past) but am addressing these issues which has had an effect to make me more confident and less stressed. I wouldn't do this if i were unsure, just like i wouldn't take lsd or shrooms for the same reason.

Thanks dreamz, i would love to come along to the oberon trip. I'll see, such an epic trip to get there lol.

Thanks for the replies everyone, good to see i am not alone on this. Chiral, i understand being a full time parent makes it very difficult to get away, but for everyone else i think it's easily managable. And gerbil i'll look into the corroborees at night!

cheers

Edited January 29, 2010 by Yawning Man

[drugo]

Historically there are heaps of accounts of mystics spending a decade or two 'wandering' places, like the desert, and becoming 'enlightened', 'initiated', and integrated into life in progressive ways. I like the idea of going walk-about in the desert. There is something really magical about its simpleness - dirt and sky, well stars also ;) It seems, at times, almost like an awesome canvas for the soul to paint itself into novel forms.

Enya says, a pligrimage is a long walk to find yourself, and I say, if you're lucky you might lose yourself also.

Having said all that, I prefer trying to bring transcendental mindfulness into the cultural model i'm in. That is, hanging out in Aus (mainly), and integrating realities of natural/spiritual/other ecologies into my collective social experience. It is hard, there are so many distractions, demonic impules, and depressing energies lurking the shadows of our culture.

I think we need to heal the collective, we are pack animals, and we are the pack. Resonating socially (and ~spiritually~) with profound humans has been probably the best meditation that has helped me on my journey so far. I'm not sure if deserting it 'all' would be that great for me, personally.

I find daily meditation to be empowering.

If you feel that being alone is for you, I honour the devotion, but just ask that you eventually bring back your insight to the tribe.

love

[Yawning Man]

Having said all that, I prefer trying to bring transcendental mindfulness into the cultural model i'm in. That is, hanging out in Aus (mainly), and integrating realities of natural/spiritual/other ecologies into my collective social experience. It is hard, there are so many distractions, demonic impules, and depressing energies lurking the shadows of our culture.

So let me see if i understand you. You try and remain mindful during your normal daily life that you are of the earth and incorportate that into the way you see other people, react with them and the like? Yet, you're overcome by the culture that people have developed? e.g How we have so distanced ourselves from nature.

I think we need to heal the collective, we are pack animals, and we are the pack. Resonating socially (and ~spiritually~) with profound humans has been probably the best meditation that has helped me on my journey so far. I'm not sure if deserting it 'all' would be that great for me, personally.

This is something i am working on. My interactions with people. I am still pretyy shy in large groups (one on one usually ok). I would love to be a part of a group meditation session. Above anything i would say our connection with each other is essential in this life, we are so similair but we let trivial shit build up to the point we're pointing weapons at one another. It's fucked.

Could you elaborate on this bit "Resonating socially (and spiritually) with profound humans has been probably the best mediatation that has helped me on my journey so far".

I find daily meditation to be empowering.

If you feel that being alone is for you, I honour the devotion, but just ask that you eventually bring back your insight to the tribe.

Yeah, i really need to start meditating lol. And believe me i would love to be able to bring back some ideas/lessons that people could apply. Anything i learn about myself could apply to anyone, as i said, we aren't that different really.

Great post telepathogen, i really get the impression that your journey is a genuine and optimistic one! Good on you.

cheers

[ThunderIdeal]

epic post gerbil.

[drugo]

Hey Yawning man,

Sorry for my response tardiness. For some reason I didn't notice your response. I was traveling at the time though which could explain something.

So let me see if i understand you. You try and remain mindful during your normal daily life that you are of the earth and incorporate that into the way you see other people, react with them and the like? Yet, you're overcome by the culture that people have developed? e.g How we have so distanced ourselves from nature.

 

Yeah pretty much. I find that I'm learning all sorts of great stuff, especially on a conceptual level, but the greatest challenge in this regard seems to be the process of embodying, or downloading, this great stuff into a kind of 'unconscious' second nature. Conceptually understanding and appreciating things seems to be only the first step. Becoming the concepts, so your actions and stories (inc. realities) speak and manifest the concepts is another matter. For example, a racist person may read a whole heap of literature on the deconstruction of race, social construction, identity, imperialism etc and logically, or conceptually, agree and understand that racism is a bag of turd. But, they will undoubtedly continue to react and interpret situations in a racist manner, for a while. It takes time to move the "unconscious", or deeply embedded habits and orientations, of oneself. When we consider this logic in light of certain mystical realities, for example, the development of a monistic and animistic world/cosmic view (everything is one, no ultimate good and evil, society and nature are the same thing but only differ by degree rather than kind), the challenge becomes much more arduous and difficult. Having said all this, meditation techniques mixed with ASC tools, such as entheogens, used wisely can offer sophisticated methods for healing pathologies, including those like racism, anxiety, fear... and to therefore assist in developing consciousness. This includes developing these changes as kinds of embodied awareness, not simply conceptual gymnastics or knowing things, but attaining knowledge in a way which you don't necessarily need to "think" about it anymore as your being is participating in the knowledge in "real-time", if you know what I mean. Intellectually grasping and being/living ideas are two intimately related but different things. Tukanoan Indians (ayahuasca, or yaje, lovers), see the former to be hierarchically below, and subservient to, being in the world, the latter.

So yeah, as you kind of mentioned, I guess I'm living life in our technocratic individualised consumer society trying to incorporate and download wiser ways of being in the world, whilst not abandoning the nest I was raised in. A constant process of negotiating difference and change.

In response to the second part. Yeah, i think for sure we, as westerns, have tended to distance ourself from nature. Or perhaps, "nature", or non-homosapien life, has distanced itself from a part of "nature", that is "culture", because the humans have gone a little loopy. Amerindian Indians see society as the same as nature, as I alluded to earlier, separating the two by degree. Animals, humans and spirits are understood as "humans" that wear different "clothes", or apparati for operating in the world. To quote Viveiros de Castro "If western multiculturalism is relativism as public policy, then Amerindian perspectivist shamanism is multinaturalism as cosmic politics".

Could you elaborate on this bit "Resonating socially (and spiritually) with profound humans has been probably the best meditation that has helped me on my journey so far".

 

I simply mean that by hanging out with other people, the self seems to hang out with itself in deeper ways. But, without interpreting that as narcissistic through a conflation of the self-other paradox. "Resonating socially (and spiritually)", simply meant participating in life through and with other people. Similar to as Socrates once hailed, "choose your friends wisely to help cultivate virtue in your life". Books are great, but there is a classic story unfolding right now, constantly updating, writing and rewriting itself onto the freshest pages of existence.

with love

Edited March 17, 2010 by telepathogen

[Yawning Man]

I wonder if change is real, or if things are exactly the way they need to be. I had an experience that we really are just one conciousness, and the being here on earth is essential to the greater scheme of things. Even shit like war, hatred and racism are essential.

You mentioned no ultimate good or evil, i'd agree with that, except everything that happens is beneficial to everything. Even me writing this is of the utmost importance. It's impossible for something to be wrong. Wrong doesn't exist. Say, a person isn't going to do something that makes their life harder. Everything that happens is exactly what needs to happen. I wonder if god knows it's god. Or is there just beings connected to each other, that when you look from a distance, forms a physical shape.

Anyway, as a result of this experiece i now look at life/existence as being perfect. It always has been, it always will be. Being born, dying is just energy being converted and a new and slightly different way for the universe to look at itself. Kinda sounds like rehashed ideas. Haha, it was the briefest of moments but it let an eternity of knowledge into my brain. LOL, i know i'm leaving out some really good points and stuff, i've just mentioned ideas and shit without going into too much detail or explaining them more thouroughly. Sorry about that. It's fucking exciting though. You know Telepathogen, it was like everything was 'downloaded' into my 'unconcious second nature' which feels like an entire step forward for myself. Or like parts of myself were reset and the default outlook has been changed.

Coolest of all was everything that i realised at that moment, somewhere in existence there was another being/entitie/god whatever, that was happy i had this experience. A connection, an understanding that for that moment who i was didn't exist, and that i had always existed, in different forms, but was no different from anything else that exists.

peace

[incognito]

i take my hat of to you gerbs, the idea of camping alone at night scares the bejesus out of me!!

i used to be terrified of the dark until i was around 15. like...TERRIFIED. definately felt that there was alot of thing out there very interested in me lol

alot better with it now, but yeah sometimes when im doing nightshift my mind can definately turn on me, especially when clients have reported paranormal activity and staff tell me ghost stories of the place. so totally overwhelming.

camping at night by myself i dunno whether id be able to sleep, my mind would construct all kinds of terrors.

but as fr solitude, i really need it, at times. im often happiest all by myself.totally therapeutic for me to be all alone for atime. id go nuts if it was constant social interaction. god time to process the hoards of input u get on a daily basis.

however u can go a bit fruity and lose valuable social interraction skills when it comes to unhealthy isolation.

[Foton]

I was talking to someone about Buddhism once, and this person spoke of a friend of his who though Buddhism was just a man sitting on a mountain somewhere are that it did not do anything for society. Im not of that mind at all! I think it is of great use for society to have people meditating.

Do it Yawning Man, it will be good for us all... Maybe =P

[botanika]

When I was younger I would often go away for a week by myself and loved it. I would take my 4wd, guitar, camera, board, sketchbook, camping gear and just drive wherever I felt like going. Sometimes people would ask me 'who are you going with?' and look in disbelief when Id say myself but it was exactly what I wanted. Just wanted to get away from everything and be totally free, especially as I was living downtown Sydney at the time. If I lived in the counbtry I wouldnt have the need for solitude so much. I could usually only last a week and then Id crave the city again. Some herb on hand made it easier to spend time on your own. I suspect my travels would have been different without it. I would spend a couple of weekends going out to pubs and clubs and then off into the bush for solitude...they help balance each other out.

I haven't done anything like that though in 7 years but am coming back to australia next week and plan on doing the exact same thing. My wife and son are back overseas so Im renting a car and going walkabout. I can't bloody wait. Some of my friends can't understand...they are like 'why dont you come to Sydney earlier and hang out, you can crash at my place'...but my mind and soul are already on a lonely beach somewhere...

We're really lucky in australia - its not hard to find solitude, actually sometimes it can be too easy to find.

[hutch]

You could always go out and find yourself a sponsor and do a circumnavigation in a yacht just like "our Jess"...I would love to feel the isolation of beings thousands of klms from anyone..Imagine a moonless, star filled night in the middle of the Indian ocean...and your all by yourself...Its brilliant here in the bush but it would be just awesome at sea..you could always be the first to sail around the world with know other food source than shrooms...

Anyone want to come with me

Hutch

[Yawning Man]

Big up Botanika. You sound similair to me apart from liking the city. I don't understand the attitude of people towards others wanting space/to be alone. It's scary i think. Humans are pack animals, but i think we've evolved beyond that. It's farily complex i think, as it's just as much culture and psychology as it is biology or whatever. But there's even a stigma on people who want to be alone. 'Angry loners' and that sorta shit. That's the sort of mentality that i dont like in people and seek to avoid. People are so afriad to stray from the heard.

Anyway, Hutch, not a bad idea man. Except being cooped up in a boat would do my head in haha. I need to be able to walk around, occupy myself and the like. But i think you should do it man. I reckon you'd be rewarded a lot and would get a lot out of an experience like that.

@ Foton - Refer to post #15 for my response haha. Well what you said all sorta ties in with my beliefs in god and all that shit, but i wont get into it any further.

cheers

[santiago]

i too would be scared at night, i plan to go soon just for a 18 hour walk which will involve solo overnight sleep. so far i have everything i need to carry except a little 2 person tent.

it is reported that young aboriginal men as a passage of manhood went "walkabout", sometimes up to 1000km without modern navigational aid. so this is the general psychological need right, via self sustainable survival can one truly know what it is to be an alpha man, releasing the restrictions of the mind to match up with the capabilities of the body so we are withoud doubt awarded true manhood.

maybe its not strange the ol solitude thingy.

Edited June 19, 2010 by santiago

[Grimm]

What it does seem to do is give you this incredible belief in yourself. You can only rely on you to survive (physically and mentally). I've never done it in the wilderness, only indoors. Based on walks/camping trips, the outdoors is more friendly than inside a building (or cave for that matter). You have no choice but to face yourself when you're alone and miles from anything.

The hermits or great spiritual masters always had to return so civilization. I used to think that solitude was the answer, as in it was the way to enlightenment or similar. Now I can see that's only half of it. The whole process seems to be self-realization. When you're in a building, home-like surroundings, near a shop or anybody, there's the knowing that you can always run for help. When cut off from your own species, you have no choice but to turn inwards... hopefully all of this makes sense. This is how I see it anyway. I've never been in the position of being ultimately isolated though.

Definitely something good to come out of it.

Reminds me of Cast Away.

[Arrowsmith]

I've drifted away from many friends over the past few years as I realized I was being someone who isn't myself when I was around certain people... I know it doesn't really qualify as solitude, but not being "on" for a week, then a month, then a year, you really start to know yourself, and begin tracing unhealthy thought patterns back to some of the people who helped to imprint them on you (including yourself).

Glad I found this thread, made me reflect on that period of time.

[dbbard]

Hope it is not a re-post

http://www.hermitary.com/

Cheers

[synchromesh]

Arrowsmith - Outgrowing people is a good reminder of the importance of solitude. Without any moments by ourselves, how would we ever really know who we are? And without ever knowing who we really are, how could we ever sustain a meaningful relationship with anybody?

Just some more thoughts to ponder I guess...

dbbard - Thanks, that looks like a great site.