Andrew Holecek: Stop, Drop, and Be Held in the Dark
Sounds True: Insights at the Edge
Tami Simon
4.6 • 1.9K Ratings
🗓️ 26 May 2026
⏱️ 67 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
What if the most transformative practice available to us requires nothing but complete darkness? Tami Simon speaks with interdisciplinary scholar and Tibetan Buddhist practitioner Andrew Holecek—author of Total Eclipse of the Mind—about the ancient practice of dark retreat: what happens to the mind when all light is removed, why it's been called "meditation times a thousand," and how to bring its power into everyday life.
This conversation offers genuine transmission—not just concepts about awakening, but the palpable presence of realized teachers exploring the growing edge of spiritual understanding together. Originally aired on Sounds True One.
This episode is sponsored by Omega Institute, a global gathering hub for lifelong learning and spiritual exploration. Located in upstate New York’s beautiful Hudson Valley, Omega offers weekend workshops, special events, rest and rejuvenation retreats, professional trainings, online learning, and more. Discover what calls to you at eomega.org/true.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Sounds True Podcast Network. |
| 0:08.3 | Now, you know, Andrew, as I was reading total eclipse of the mind, I have to say I fell in love with the dark. |
| 0:17.2 | And I pulled out of my closet a mindful that I was like, okay, I don't want to just keep |
| 0:26.1 | reading about this. I want to get into it. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, my guest |
| 0:35.1 | is Andrew Holichick. Andrew Holichick is, first of all, a friend. He's someone I admire. |
| 0:41.4 | He's an interdisciplinary scholar practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism and other non-dual wisdom |
| 0:48.6 | traditions, who has a terrific gift at making deep-end esoteric teachings accessible and practical, |
| 0:59.1 | including Tibetan Buddhist teachings on the bardo, the passage between life and death, |
| 1:06.0 | teachings on sleep and dream yoga, how we can actually do spiritual practice while we're sleeping. |
| 1:13.8 | And the practice of dark retreat, full immersion in darkness, which is what we're going to be |
| 1:21.1 | talking about today. |
| 1:22.6 | He's the author of the new Sounds True book, Total Eclipse of the Mind, |
| 1:28.3 | Unleashing the Power of Darkness for Creativity, Healing, and Transformation. |
| 1:35.3 | Friends, stay with us. |
| 1:43.3 | Andrew, welcome. |
| 1:47.5 | It's such a delight, really. |
| 1:49.0 | Every time I hang with you, I just so look forward to it. |
| 1:51.6 | Thank you for the opportunity. |
| 1:53.1 | You've been a meditator for 50 years. |
| 1:56.6 | You completed the traditional Tibetan three-year retreat, no easy feat. |
| 2:03.1 | You've explored psychedelics, and yet this is what you write at the beginning of total eclipse of the mind. |
| 2:10.5 | Nothing compares to my experience of dark retreat. |
... |
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