In 1978, an Australian named Paul Narada Alister was wrongly convicted of a terrorist attack and spent 7 years in prison before being pardoned. In his book Bombs, Bliss and Baba, he describes his shock at finding how terrible life was for his fellow prisoners.
Alone in their cells for several hours a day, the isolation made them aloof and mistrustful, causing depression and suicidal tendencies. It also created a desperate need for distraction, leading to drug abuse, casual sex, and gang activity.
At first, Paul Narada Alister found the silence and solitude difficult to deal with too, but after a while he began to find it a blessing. He used the time to reflect, contemplate and to meditate for long periods, and started to experience a new sense of well-being and aliveness.
He developed what he describes as ‘a deep sense of freedom and positivity,’ and found that he was able to function much better in his work at the prison and in his relationships with the other prisoners.
For these reasons he feels that he gained lasting benefits from his years in prison. As he writes, “I no longer avoid solitude or isolation. If anything I look forward to [them] as a time to experience that inner silence which can give me so much bliss…I find silence is golden when experienced as a way to get in touch with my spiritual self.”
British novelist Sara Maitland had a similar experience when she spent six weeks in silence and solitude in a remote cottage on the Isle of Skye. The first thing she was aware of was a heightening of perception.
As she describes it, “By the end of the second week I was feeling everything with an extraordinary degree of intensity.” And later she began to experience a strong sense of oneness with her surroundings, what she describes as “a connection as though my skin had been blown off…I felt absolutely connected to everything.” And these experiences were underpinned by a growing sense of well-being: “Moments of intense happiness, followed by a powerful conviction that the moment was somehow a pure gift.”
Many of us treat quietness and solitude as enemies, to be avoided at all costs. They often make us feel uneasy, generate feelings of boredom, anxiety and even depression. They seem to expose us to a discord inside our own minds. They oblige us to spend time alone with our own thoughts, whose randomness and negativity disturb us.
If you can resist the urge to plunge yourself back into activity, you’ll soon begin to adjust to solitude and silence. You might soon reach a point where you begin to experience their healing effect.
Your agitated mind will start to calm. Your thoughts will start to slow down, and you’ll feel a sense of re-attuning to yourself, as if you’re regaining an authentic sense of identity. You might find yourself beginning to appreciate beauty again, to stop and stare at landscapes or trees or flowers. You might feel a sense of connection – to your own self, and to the world as a whole.
Steve Taylor, Ph.D. is a senior lecturer in psychology at Leeds Beckett University, UK. He is the author of Back to Sanity.
Steve Taylor
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