What happens if you remain silent for 7 days? Insight meditation: what happens if you remain silent for seven days in a row? Uses silence - trains willpower

Communication is an integral feature of all living things. Without this most important component of life, everything that we see in front of us every day would not exist. However, verbal communication, that is, through sounds and words, is characteristic only of highly developed organisms, including people.

Can you imagine your life without language? Most likely not, because for us this is, perhaps, the main means of survival. The need for communication among people is second only to physiological needs; it is not for nothing that we are the only living creature on the planet that is called social. A person outside of society loses his essence, loses his main skills. Surely each of us has wondered what would happen if we were silent for 7 days. What will happen in our physiology and psyche?

Why do you need a week's silence?

Many theories of meditation talk about the miraculous effect of silence on a person’s physical and mental well-being. If you remain silent for 7 days, a person is cleansed from the inside. Without external emotions, which sometimes prevent true feelings from finding a way out, a person reaches a new level of development of his consciousness. At the same time, silence must be strictly observed, otherwise there will be no effect, and all sacrifices from the loss of verbal communication will be meaningless.

Of course, sometimes silence is a necessary physiological phenomenon, for example, after surgery on the vocal cords or with a severe sore throat. However, in this case, absolute silence is not necessary.

Be silent for 7 days, what is the result?

From a purely physiological perspective, you will not feel any visible changes. There may be some slight discomfort, but it will go away soon. It is much more interesting what will happen to the internal component of a person, to his state of mind.

A week's silence is primarily a psychological test, when a person is deprived of his usual communication with others. At first, this causes anxiety and internal disharmony, but the unpleasant sensations are soon replaced by the realization that communication with others is being replaced by much more important communication - a conversation with oneself. Thoughts become clear, bright, almost real, a person learns to organize them and listen to them. And the last stage of the seven-day meditation is enlightenment, a feeling of harmony with oneself and everything that is around.

Is it worth going for it?

The effect of silence for 7 days is much stronger than one might imagine. However, to achieve this result, you need to change your lifestyle for the duration of such an experiment. You need to immerse yourself in a calm environment, meditate and listen to relaxing music. Not such big sacrifices for the sake of enriching your soul, right?

Similar week-long meditations are held in temples and health centers around the world, but most of them are concentrated in Asian countries, where meditation originated as a method of self-knowledge and communication with oneself. Should everyone try this? Most likely no. Not everyone can withstand such a test, and not everyone needs it. We ourselves have the right to choose our own path of self-improvement and self-knowledge, and there are more than enough of them. Look for yourself, work on yourself, this makes life more interesting and brighter!

To enter the school of philosophers of Pythagoras (6-5 centuries BC), the candidate had to remain silent for 5 years. People went into the forests and mountains - to harmonize with the world or go crazy.

A week of silence in our conditions is hardly possible: to accomplish vital things you will have to go out into the world where you need to utter words in order to be understood.

But if there is a hero who can endure seven days of silence, then what will happen to him?

Answers from a psychological point of view

Absolutely - you don’t need to tell a psychologist or psychotherapist about the desire to stay in the silence of your own voice for several days. This is acceptable and adequate for people who exhibit deviations from the psychological norm (silence here is therapy), but for healthy and outwardly successful people it does not seem to be the best idea.

A living example: Eastern monks (some of them work in health centers for tourists) practice meditation combined with seven days of silence. During this period, a person’s soul is cleansed of the dirt of society, and a kind of enlightenment, catharsis occurs.

The desire to master the technique of silence speaks of internal conflicts. There are inconsistencies in the soul: problems with the world, fatigue from useless or stupid conversations, etc. Sometimes they do this for “fun”: to look at the reaction of friends, to laugh internally.

A living example: remember the movie “Rush Hour”? Agent Lee “does not speak” English and remains silent to all remarks, even unflattering ones. His African-American partner decides that his Chinese colleague does not speak the language and takes liberties in communication. And Lee knows English, he just doesn’t like to “talk about trifles.”

In some cases, a seven-week silence can be regarded as a social experiment: to feel like a mute person, to feel the problems faced by people who cannot speak.

From the point of view of loved ones, acquaintances, strangers

Silence will be perceived as deviant behavior: acquaintances and strangers will “disturb” the silent person, ask questions, and in some cases, shout and make trouble. Voluntary retreat into silence should be preceded by a conversation with the people around you. This will allow you to avoid excesses and soften the already difficult condition at the time of the vow.

If a person is silent for 7 days and does not eat, what happens to him?

If you remain silent, you will learn a lot of interesting things. Especially if you didn’t warn your loved ones about your vow. Out loud, those around him will express all the guesses in his arsenal: from sweet and funny remarks and jokes to aggressive remarks and insults.

The combination of silence with a hunger strike suggests two scenarios:

• or are you crazy
• or practice Eastern philosophy.

The absence of a voice cleanses the soul of vanity, the absence of food brings one closer to a state of euphoria (in Buddhism this concept of nirvana or enlightenment is called differently in different techniques). The essence is the same everywhere - to cleanse yourself.

Fact! – Got sick

Ill - physically or mentally (society usually chooses the second option). They will try to send you to a doctor, they will conduct a dialogue with you through notes, they will ask you to show your throat and, most likely, they will wrap you in a scarf, having previously coated you with warming ointment. And then they call the doctor.

The voice really disappears with sore throat, flu, etc. diseases. However, whispers remain and no one forbids the patient to express himself on paper. Vocalists sometimes tear their vocal cords, which leads to the same results as loss of voice due to acute respiratory infections, etc.

A living example: the heroine of M. Shishkin’s book “Venus’ Hair” named Bella was a singer. She caught a cold, and the doctor told the girl that she might lose her voice forever. To preserve it, it was necessary to remain silent for several days, without uttering a single sound. The vocalist of the group wrote notes to maintain communication at home. Bella experienced particular difficulty when she wanted to quarrel with someone.

Exactly! - Offended

“I won’t say another word!” - and a stream of verbal garbage covers you. Sound familiar? And some (due to their special mental makeup) keep their promises. That is, in the morning you had a fight, for example, with your other half, and in the evening she does not speak to you. And he doesn’t speak tomorrow, and for another 6 days after that.

It takes as long as the offended person is silent to understand where the mistake was and what the root of the disorder is. This maintains peace in the family: as we have already said, you won’t be able to quarrel through notes, and it’s simply not possible to harbor anger for a whole week.

Thus, the conflict, which could have erupted into a scandal, will come to naught. So you will understand that petty quarrels are not worth the attention that is given to them under normal circumstances.

Uses silence - trains willpower!

This is a rarer option, but effective. The will is trained on what is least achievable. In the age of sound technology, it is not just difficult to remain silent - it is almost impossible. Even if you lock yourself at home, you will receive calls from telecom operators, work colleagues, debt collectors and several other people who urgently need to talk to you.

In order to resist and not utter a word, you will have to strain the entire volume of volitional qualities that are revealed. Do the results require such sacrifices? He who keeps his word becomes calmer, more philosophical, he does not go into conflict, because he knows: the resentment that was given time to “cool down” goes away without a trace.

If he is silent, then he goes on strike!

This case is more typical for children, of course. Although it’s hard to imagine a child who managed to remain silent all week.

A living example: a child did not speak until he was 5 years old, at all. The doctors argued: “Everything is normal, he just doesn’t want to.” The boy’s mother pestered him with questions and requests to talk, to which one day the little philosophical man replied: “Leave me alone.” This was his first word.

The same situation, but longer, is present in the lives of those accused of a crime and prisoners from whom assistance in the investigation is required.

A living example is the Miranda rule: “anything you say can be used against you.” As a result, we get a silent person opposing the system.

Photo of a person before and after 7 days of silence

External changes will be a reflection of internal transformation. We mentioned enlightenment and catharsis - those who have reached this state have a special look and usually soft facial features. They become more friendly and look happy.

Video on YouTube “If you remain silent for 7 days, what will happen?”

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How to live if you remain silent not for 7 days, but for the rest of your life?

Mute people spend their entire lives in silence; the rest, in one way or another, use verbal means of communication. By losing one feeling or one ability (in this case, the voice), we acquire another feeling and another ability (here individually: talents are revealed, deep reflection appears, skills to understand people are developed, i.e. there is empathy, etc.) .

People deprived of speech

In the book by Vladimir Serkin (psychologist, professor, doctor of science) “Freedom of the Shaman” (an earlier version is “The Laughter of the Shaman”), the researcher goes to the taiga, where he meets a hermit - a man who lived in cities back in the 80s. Renunciation of the world was a conscious act, and the story is real: it happened to Vladimir Serkin himself and revealed a lot to him.

The shaman was silent because there was no one to talk to: he looked at the sky, stars, snow, he hunted, collected herbs and berries, and meditated. And there was no need for speech. When meeting people, he resorted to verbal communication, but in an unusual way: the one who asked the question had to wait several minutes or hours to receive an answer. Sometimes the Shaman answered the next day.

People were offended and felt disrespected, and then joined the culture of silence - they noticed the beauty of the world, its bustle, recorded changes in their own souls, looked closely at loved ones and saw in them what was hidden from view under the mask of empty chatter.

What happens if you put water in your mouth and remain silent for 7 days?

Do you know the answer? It lies on the surface... How many days can a person live without water? – Exactly a week, and that’s 7 days! So what will happen?

Guess for yourself...

In some religions, a vow of silence is common. In Buddhism, this is Vipassana, or so-called “insight meditation.” During the ritual, it is customary not to speak to anyone, including yourself, for seven days. True Buddhists try to associate a vow of silence with their stay in the temple, the so-called retreat, and everyone who has passed the test describes their own feelings in their own way. Everyone can find out from their own experience what will happen if you remain silent for 7 days.

In Buddhism, silence is closely related to breathing - prana. When starting to speak, a person inhales a larger volume of air. In ancient times in India there lived mystics who called themselves “munis”. These people took a vow of eternal silence, thanks to which they lived for several centuries.

What happens if you remain silent for 7 days while at home?

During the seven-day silence, anapanasati meditation, or “observation of the breath,” is practiced. Here it is very important to fulfill the vows of Buddhist monks - such as abstaining from the destruction of living beings, from improper sexual behavior and other similar acts. Those gathered for the retreat do not smoke, do not take drugs, or wear cosmetics. For those who are not ready for such steps, Buddhists advise trying to take Vipassana at home, warning loved ones about it. During this period, you should stop using electronic devices, in particular, mobile phones and tablets, and not send or receive messages. Few representatives of the modern generation are capable of this.

How to remain silent - in a group or alone?

From the reviews of those who have successfully completed Vipassana, you can find out that some felt awe and extraordinary peace on the first day. Those who undergo the test in the monastery do not feel lonely, as they are in groups of forty to sixty or more people. Wake-up is at 4 a.m., lights out at 9 p.m. But the mountain air allows you to get a great night's sleep! Instructions are carried out periodically, and the monk’s voice is the only thing heard in the temple these days. As a rule, participants in the procedure are given tasks in the form of ascending and descending numerous steps for additional hardening of spirit and body.

Almost everyone who participated in the trial noted that they had a sore throat the morning after the retreat began. On the third day, the pain mysteriously disappeared, and by the end of the test the person was completely healthy.

On the second or third day, many people had thoughts about death, their own insignificance and self-forgetfulness. There are people sitting around, but tactile contact is also unacceptable. On the fourth day, many experienced ill will towards others, apathy, laziness, and some were overcome by sensual desires. And everyone thought about the Universe. On the sixth day, consciousness awakened to life, and the end of the vow was felt.

After seven days of silence, everything around seemed frail, my own voice seemed incredibly strange, and I felt a desire to constantly talk to the people around me about anything. If you did not break the rules, then the test of silence was successful, and you are ready to move on to the next stage of spiritual development.

Dreams Come True.

Perhaps, it is with this phrase that I want to start a post about my experience of attending the retreat.

But first, a little about dreams. Let me briefly say that I developed a desire to travel back in my university years, when I first came across interesting travel posts on Alex’s LiveJournal.

Alex described all his travels very beautifully and colorfully. And the incredible photographs were amazing. But at that moment, my own framework, limiting beliefs and too narrow picture of the world did not allow me to take off and go on an independent journey.

Numerous books, trainings, work in Alex’s team and a joint project with my father to sell carpentry courses through YouTube gave me the opportunity to realize my dream and come to live in Thailand on the beautiful island of Koh Samui.

I have been on this wonderful island for more than three weeks now, where I met many interesting people.

7 days of silence

One of the stages of personal and, perhaps, even more spiritual development was visiting a retreat. It is my impressions after it that will be discussed in this article.

The retreat is a seven-day silent meditation that takes place every month from the 1st to the 7th at the Dipaphavan meditation center.

It all starts the day before. We were all gathered together, registration took place, we handed over valuables and everyone chose a job.

We were briefed, our questions were answered, and there was a rule of silence in the evening.

The beds were not the most comfortable - a flat board and a wooden pillow. In fact, instead of a pillow there is a wooden block with a recess for the head.

The first night went quite easily, in the morning everyone woke up together to the sound of the gong at 4:30 and went to wash. I will modestly keep silent about showers. The guys just didn't have them. Instead of showers there was a long concrete container with water, on the edge of which there were buckets. In general, wash as you want.

Our schedule consisted of 30-minute meditations, lectures by the cheerful monk Tan Hubert, walking meditations, yoga once a day in the morning, and meal breaks.

Thoughts about death

It turned out that it was easiest to remain silent. The most difficult day for me was the second day.

This morning I woke up with a terrible headache, sore throat, cough and severe runny nose.

To tell the truth, I thought I wouldn't live to see the next day. And I didn’t want to think about the fact that I needed to spend another 6 whole days at the retreat.

All day long, during meditation, thoughts of death entered my head. We were taught to observe our thoughts, body, breathing.

And I did pretty well. I spent the whole day watching pictures of my own death. It seemed to me that in the morning I would not hear the gong or simply would not be able to get out of bed. That they would call an ambulance and take me to the hospital, and I would lie there.

In other pictures, I simply didn’t live to see the morning. And this continued throughout the day. From 4:30 am to 21:00 pm.

Miraculous healing

In practice, everything turned out to be completely different. My thoughts were far from reality, and the next day all that was left of my illness was an annoying runny nose, which forced me to carry napkins with me all the time.

As they explained to me later, it was a cleaning. And, as it turned out in the end, many people began to have various unpleasant health stories on the second or third day, which then miraculously went away.

Anger and resentment burn us from the inside

The second test for me was a conflict with one of the organizers. It was not so much a conflict as a caustic remark on his part. Since I allowed myself to take a little nap during the free meditations on the 5th day, I was warned that if I was “loafing” even once more, I could pack up my things and go home.

This sounded quite rude and there was no way to answer, since we were forbidden to talk. Plus it was really my fault.

You know, in life it often happens that we are hurt by the words of other people and anger, resentment, and rage arise inside. We do not let go of these feelings, but pack them even deeper, and instead of working through them, we go to friends, to the cinema, or find any other thing to do.

But the negativity remained inside.

And so I didn’t have the opportunity to forget about these feelings. I had to go through seven circles of hell into which we plunge ourselves.

During my meditations, I observed how a feeling of anger arose in me at the sight of this person.

My mind came up with a dozen nicknames for this guy, from harmless to very humiliating.

I also came up with several plans for revenge and what I would say about him and about him when I was allowed to talk.

Moment of remorse

I saw it all, I lived it all. After two days of such soul-searching, I was able to let go of all the negativity towards this person and forgive him.

I even felt grateful to him, because he helped me see the mistakes that I had regularly stepped on throughout my life.

It became a great realization for me that we destroy ourselves from the inside. We ourselves lead to problems in relationships with loved ones, with health, and with society as a whole.

Many of us don't know how to forgive. Or they do not completely let go of such situations and then carry this burden all their lives.

Learn to forgive and treat the actions of other people and events in your life without judgment. Accept what happens to you and take it as lessons. And then your life will be much easier and simpler.

Grades, Labels, and Judgments

Another lesson for me was that first impressions of people can be extremely deceptive.

There were over 40 participants at the retreat. We all knew each other by sight. We saw each other every day, but no one knew each other by name and did not hear voices.

Some were nice, some were neutral, and some were annoying.

Here I was again faced with the fact that I had certain assessments of people. I liked some people, but others were, on the contrary, unlikable.

During these 7 days a certain impression was created about people...

Which, as it turns out, was completely wrong. All the guys turned out to be very interesting, positive and amazing people.

This is another lesson I learned from the retreat. There is no need to put your own labels on people. Each person is unique, and each has their own role in this world.

We must accept people as they are. After all, any value judgment is just a game of our mind that has nothing to do with reality.

Write in the comments what you learned from this article and whether you want to go on a retreat. Also, if you have questions, add me as a friend on VKontakte, I will be happy to answer them.

Peace and calm mind to everyone :)

Denis Primachenko

What if you imagine that you will be silent for 7 days. Scientists have conducted such experiments, and we will try to find out what observations were made.

Psychologists' opinion

A psychotherapist or psychologists believe that this option brings benefits to a person, protecting him from vanity.

The consequences of this silence

The vow of silence is more useful for the human soul, internal cleansing occurs, enlightenment, you will see the world from the other side. You will become calmer, you will be able to hear and understand yourself and those around you.

How your appearance changes in a week

External changes were obvious - a warm look, happy and friendly facial features. Having lost the ability to speak, we acquire new feelings for us, the physical abilities to see, hear and understand awaken in us. Previously we did not attach any importance to this.

What is the practice of silence?

If you experience discomfort, try being silent for one day. Let the load be gradual for you. Your first changes will not happen immediately, but then the world around you will sparkle with new colors for you. The practice of silence helps to align our actions, words and thoughts. Those who pass this test constantly practice a week of silence in the future.

How to keep yourself busy or distracted?

Read fiction, do yoga, meditation, relaxing gymnastic exercises. Or just take a walk in the fresh air in a square or in a pine forest away from crowds of people.

The result of the experiment

The practice of silence is very different from our life; by learning to hear silence, we become closer to it. Having changed, we learn to weigh our words and hear others, we are able to accept ourselves, the world and those around us. It is important in our lives to learn to understand each other.

Seven days of silence may be the beginning of an exciting new life for some. By deciding to try, you do not lose anything, but get to know yourself better. Thanks to 7 days of silence, you will be able to concentrate on your inner feelings and understand problems that you had never thought about before.