The Experiment of Less

It dawned on me about a meditation retreat that I hadn’t fully understood when I signed up. It is, in essence, an experiment in sensory deprivation.

For a few days, ordinary life is stripped down. Less sleep. Less food. No entertainment. No unnecessary conversation. No music. No adornment. Limited movement. Very little choice.

In some ways, it is a brief experience of monastic life — not because one becomes a monk, but because so many of the things we ordinarily use to comfort, stimulate, distract, and occupy ourselves are deliberately removed.

Suddenly, I found myself thinking: What am I putting myself into? There is even the practical temptation to do it virtually instead. But it would not be the same. Because the point isn’t merely to follow a schedule. The point is to step outside the environment that constantly gives us choices.

What happens when we stop immediately responding to every sensation, preference, impulse, and discomfort? What remains when we take away the things we normally use to make ourselves feel comfortable?

The only way to understand an experience is to actually live it. So for three days, I will allow myself to live with less. And simply observe what is left.

That is the experiment.