Programs and Retreats

10 Day Silent Meditation Intensive

“Silence is the greatest teacher.”

The 10 day silent meditation-only retreat at the Samadhi Center is an opportunity for you to surrender deep into presence. Participants are guided to move from techniques and conditioned forms of meditation to direct inquiry into their true nature.

Daniel will be providing daily teachings and pointers, as well as occasional guided meditation. It is assumed that by signing up for this retreat you have some meditation experience. At these intensive retreats one learns to move beyond the bodily tendency to seek comfort and avoid pain, and the egoic mind’s habit to maintain control. One must have a willingness to move beyond one’s comfort zone into the unknown. Check out the the retreat schedule here.It is

Those who want to attend this retreat must be committed to attend for the entire 10 days. We will be offering short (15 minute) one-on-one interviews every second day with Daniel. The one on one interviews are to help those who have questions with meditation and self inquiry or issues arising in their practice and are only by request (there will be a sign-up sheet). Interviews will be in a cabin outside of the main building so as not to disturb the silence.

A daily vegan breakfast and lunch are included. Dinner is tea and fruit only.

Suggested Donation: $1000* Food included.

In the spirit of the ancient traditions, in order to preserve the purity of the dharma, The Samadhi Center does not operate to make a profit. We have many hard costs for these retreats including food, accommodations, cooking, cleaning, support staff, and the ongoing cost of maintaining the Center. We endeavor to make the dharma available and accessible to all and will never turn away someone who sincerely wants to realize their true nature. If you feel a genuine call to this retreat but need financial help please let us know when you apply.

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3 Day Weekend Self Inquiry Intensives

The self inquiry process at the Samadhi Center has been evolving over many years. This is the most direct way I know of to create the conditions for awakening to happen. It is in alignment with the self inquiry of Ramana Maharshi, various Zen traditions, and owes a great debt to the Charles Berner self inquiry method as well as the dyad techniques used in modern psychology. This self inquiry method creates conditions of no escape for the ego structure. Working continuously from early morning to late at night, participants alternate roles in dyads (groups of two), where one person is a witness and the other engages in deep inner investigation to realize their true nature. Check out the sample schedule for details. More about dyads.

When we turn attention toward the Self, at first what we see is the false self. The deepest conditioned patterns (samskaras) within the unconscious come up to be purified (witnessed without identification or reaction). The facilitators use various tools and techniques to point participants beyond the conditioned mind towards a direct experience of their true nature.

We can’t make awakening happen with the conditioned mind, but we can put in place the conditions to make it more likely, through surrender and continuous presence. Upon awakening there is a flip such that the sense of “I” goes from being identified with a character, to an unlimited “I”.  This flip is called Kensho in Zen (the word Kensho means seeing essence), Prajna Paramita in Mahayana Buddhism. In Western traditions the terms gnosis or apophaticism refer to the realization of our true or divine nature. Kensho is not a experience or state (such as we might experience doing psychedelics, and it cannot be induced by any means). It is simply the revealing of the truth of who we are through direct inquiry. The truth does not come and go…. it just IS.

Enrollment is on a first come first served basis.

Recommended donation: $850.00 per person. In the spirit of the ancient traditions, in order to preserve the purity of the dharma, The Samadhi Center does not operate to make a profit. We have many hard costs for these retreats including food, accommodations, cooking, cleaning, support staff, and the ongoing cost of maintaining the Center. We endeavor to make the dharma available and accessible to all and will never turn away someone who sincerely wants to realize their true nature. If you feel a genuine call to this retreat but need financial help please let us know when you apply.

Facilitators: Daniel Schmidt, Lilla Balint, Attila Kalo

3 Day Self Inquiry Intensive Dates (arrival is between 11AM and 1PM on the arrival date, departure is 2PM on the departure date):

Check out this video on How Self Inquiry Works.

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IAM 9 day retreats 

After 15 years of doing meditation retreats and experimentation we have put together the best tools we have available for awakening and the realization of Samadhi. The synergies between the components of the new IAM retreats are a significant step forward in the meditation world for those who want to realize Samadhi as a permanent stage of one’s evolution.

This is a retreat for one who is serious on the path of awakening/enlightenment. We’ve taken the best elements from a variety of different modalities together to custom-build this retreat to help facilitate Samadhi and to free oneself of samskaras (conditioned patterns)which bring about identification with the false sense of “I”. Some elements in the schedule include:

• Self-inquiry: a well-tested methodology using the dyad modality to stimulate a direct experience of your true nature.
• Noble Silence: The container of silence is a time tested way to orient towards the inner worlds and to avoid activating the conditioned thinking mind.
• Group Process: There is much value in sharing and learning what others are experiencing on the path, and there is a specific time in the retreat where you will be able to receive clarification and guidance in any areas.
• Meditation: Every day we have five hours of meditation. This is the foundational practice for realizing your true nature. Meditation and self inquiry are eventually realized to be a singular process of stripping away of illusion.
• Iboga Microdosing: Iboga has been used for thousands of years in the spiritual traditions of Africa as a way to connect to spirit. Iboga is unique in the world of entheogens and may be the perfect meditation tool; it helps to show us the conditioned patterns of the mind and its activities from a place of awareness as we become more conscious of the deeper levels of mind (the samskaras). Iboga can synergize with your inner energy to help heal mind/body imbalances, neurological disorders and other health issues. It creates optimal conditions for deep purification and rewiring. Participants will be under the supervision of Lilla who is trained in the Bwiti tradition (of Gabon) as an Iboga provider.

In addition, there will be sound healing, breath work (“Elemental Awakening” breathwork facilitated by John Cross), ecstatic dance, and an opportunity for all-night meditation to enter deeper states of meditative absorption. There is also an opportunity to experience the God Molecule, which offers a chance for the deepest letting go and the possibility to “die before you die”.

The retreat has been designed to lead to an experience of the state Samadhi, and we offer the insights and integration tools essential for the deep rewiring and purification of the self structure so that Samadhi becomes a permanent stage of development.

Check out a sample schedule

These retreats are limited to a maximum of 16 participants so that the ATW team can provide individual attention. These retreats are not for spiritual tourists or for those seeking some result or benefit in the external world. They are not something to add to your bank of spiritual “experiences”, but are for those at a certain point in the soul’s journey when one is ready to wake up from the illusion of the limited self and realize one’s true nature beyond name and form, and to learn to live a life guided by the spiritual heart.

* In the spirit of the ancient traditions, in order to preserve the purity of the dharma, The Samadhi Center does not operate to make a profit. We have many hard costs for these retreats including food, accommodations, cooking, cleaning, support staff, and the ongoing cost of maintaining the Center. We endeavor to make the dharma available and accessible to all and will never turn away someone who sincerely wants to realize their true nature. If you feel a genuine call to this retreat but need financial help please let Jenn know when you apply.

Refund policy: If a retreat gets cancelled because of a mandatory lockdown we will provide a100% refund. In the event you need to cancel your attendance at an IAM retreat, we will provide a 100% refund if we are able to fill the space. We typically need a t least 2 weeks notice to be able to fill a space.

** Please note that starting in 2023 the I.A.M. retreats will be 9 days long