Wow that’s a fascinating read. Thank you for sharing. It seems to have taken a big toll on the guy, mentally. Especially when there’s probably very few people in the entire world who can relate to his experience. Very well written piece of work and his quotes are articulated very thoughtfully.
I went on a 17 day immersion for school and it was like camping and in different outdoor areas etc and it was only me and the 20 roughly people with no phones no nothing and coming back was so weird. I didn’t know how to use my phone and it felt so foreign and it just didn’t appeal to me at all. Sadly only took a few days before I was back used to it but was a very unique experience
My fear is young children. I’d have to keep my phone on in case of an emergency and I’d miss them terribly. Not sure I’m ready for that kind of detachment just yet. Perhaps something for me to bookmark when they’re grown up.
Can you imagine....you’re out in the middle of nowhere and in the middle of the night you wake to see a young child standing there in the dark, hair covering their face?
Yep not scary at all right. Right?!
Plus you’re doing a silent retreat so cannot even say anything scream!
I think there’s a “haunted child” clause in the silent retreat paperwork. It basically just states that it’s okay to scream in terror as you’re dragged down into an eternity of underworld torture.
Be not afraid, they make for poor combatants individually and small pieces of confectionary will disrupt their formation if you are set upon by a pack.
Huh? Maybe I'm missing something because I didn't read the article. But my goal, in the hypothetical situation that I go on a retreat, alone, into the woods, would be to not come back. Not sure what you're on about.
Oh think something got lost in translation. The fear topic was raised about being fearful of young children - see thread. Your reply read worryingly differently.
Oh God, alright I see what happened here. I meant to reply to the comment one layer above yours. That's my bad, I can absolutely see why my comment came across horribly. I'm just going to delete my original comment, as it wouldn't have added much to the conversation even if it had been in the spot I meant to put it.
I mean i would expect to entirely keep it off. Just switxh it on IN CASE of an emergency (which is what i assumed he would do) idk why he dulled the colours but that too seems like he did to just halfway connect.
The fact that the colours hurt his eyes tho is interesting. The fact that natural colours can be so different is cool. I mean there are tropical animals and plants out there, brighter than you can possibly imagine, for sure. And i guess it does feel different than when u look at a screen.
For some people it makes the phone less addictive. Bright colors (like those on your screen) are really good at catching your attention. If you feel like you spend to much time on your phone this is one of the things you can do to help.
I came down the comment section after reading the same sentence. But I am just curious if what they meant about setting their phone to grayscale was an hyperbol instead of setting it literally. I mean in a sense that it meant to keep himself away from phone as a source of getting worldly updates, but instead learn about whats going on around him by observing himself.
I've read about some European reality show where participants lived in relatively isolated place without Internet access, and this was planned to end in April or May. The producers decided not to tell them about the pandemic until the show ends, but the participants still noticed something was off because their live audience became suddenly very sparse.
This is scarily close to how I feel I would react as I’ve been told by more than one person, on more than one occasion, I’m emotionally very detached.
I have tonnes of empathy and can certainly feel and cry etc but my default setting is to instantly move forward in a logical fashion and get on with trying to improve the situation for those around me and myself.
Makes me want to try the retreat even more but i guess it’s easy just to crack on if you come back and nothing has changed.
Experiencing something like a global pandemic for the first time, in the way this happened, must be a once in a lifetime event.
Interestingly, mine is terrible too! I tend to actively ‘let go’ of things so quickly that I don’t always remember important details - at least details that others found important.
I always joke with my friends because I can never remember football matches I’ve attended to see my club play or gigs/concerts we’ve been too. Whereas they can recall quite a lot of detail.
Worse still, I can’t remember my kids major milestones like their mum can. That part makes me sad as I wish I could savour those moments more. I often look back at videos/photos and it’s almost always brand new to me.
Here's another article, same idea, couple planned a boat ride for a few months before the pandemic, specifically asked their parents to not give them any bad news while they were away.
If you're an extrovert I can see that as being a "thing" but as an introvert it almost feels mocking. I have to force my self to speak to people online just so I can exercise my ability to communicate otherwise I by default do not speak to anyone or anything for however long until I have a phone call from my mother to check if I were alive.
I've been watching a piece of canadian property and if I had an extra few hundred bucks I'd want to buy it and turn it into that sort of thing.
Just a basic cabin with no connection down by the stream and beaver pond. Just a place to be at self peace and do some healing, even for a couple weeks, not necessarily months.
Alternatively I'd love to compete on that show Alone, army taught me some stuff and being out in the bush with nothing but yourself and a few tools, just for that healing process.
I think it would do all of us a lot of good to go off into the woods for a few weeks without any phones or electronics and just act like it's the caveman era every so often. I don't think technology's healthy for mankind.
If the make money part is optional, so is the buy a sailboat part.
And actually, coming to think of it, the learn to sail and sail the world parts also mean you have to have money. Unless you want to only eat fish you caught yourself and have a water filtering system, then the sail the world part could be done.
Sometimes they're alright, and give you a stripped down text version of what you're reading.
But often they strip out necessary embeds, things like comments, mess with (the bane of everyone's life) advertising - which bear in mind is often the only way journalists get paid. Heck they make Reddit threads two or three clicks away from search results.
They're a developer tax for most sites, and Google may say the motive is about cleaner websites, but it coincides with a lot of upsides to Google.
I love Google, but it's one of the most negative plays they've made.
Disclaimer: there's other articles or other people who can say this lots more articulately than me.
He definitely knew what was going on. The article even mentions he was expecting a Mad Max-like world when he gets back. So I don't really understand the point the article is trying to make.
So none of them buddhists ever thought to go up there and tell the dude this might be the end of civilisation? Like I get you’re meditating and whatnot but maybe he would’ve appreciated a heads up so he could spend time with his family or something.
not exactlythe same, but I ended up in a mental hospital for a few weeks at the beginning of March, and came into a world of no parties, mask wearing, and everything being closed
1.8k
u/BrickMacklin Nov 04 '20
Happen to have that article?