Inner space: The power of solitude

When Tom Darling told his friends he planned to spend 10 days in silent meditation with a group of strangers, they joked that he was joining a cult. But the experience – gruelling and profound – offered an extraordinary antidote to the modern world

Monday, 15 June 2009

The moment the question is asked, the smiles and jokes we've been passing between us in our corner of the room quickly fall away. Around us, the hubbub of 40 men eating and talking only amplifies our silence.

Opposite me, the man called Ian, who I've known for around a quarter of an hour now, glances down at the bowl of soup in front of him. "I've worked all over the world," he says. He begins to load his spoon with another mouthful, but that's as far as he gets. "Right now, though, I'm between jobs." He raises his head and pushes back his glasses. I catch his eye as he tries to look between myself and the man sitting next to me. "You know, just taking some time out for a while."

It's early March 2009. All over the world recession has taken hold. The British economy is undergoing what analysts and politicians call "readjustments". House prices are falling, unemployment is rising; the only green shoots to be seen are out here in the countryside – but they're really just evidence of the impending spring. Where we are, near the English-Welsh border, just a few miles from Hereford, there is at least the sense that the winter may at last be drawing to a close. 

More details on The Independent UK newspaper