Our online and in-person meditation retreats teach you how to tap into profound joy and wellbeing on demand.
Our retreats fill up quickly and past retreats have sold out. Sign up for retreat information to get started now.
What Past Students Are Saying
Upcoming Meditation Retreats
- Jan 25–Feb 1 · In-Person Retreat — Mount Madonna Center (2 hours south of San Francisco). Sold out!
- Feb 6– 13 · Online Full-Time Retreat
- Feb 20–27 · In-Person Retreat — Kripalu Center For Yoga & Health (near New York City & Boston, MA)
- March 5–15 • Online Work-Compatible Retreat
- April 2–9 • In-Person Retreat — Zephyr Point (Lake Tahoe, Nevada, USA)
- July 11–18 • In-Person Retreat — Blue Spirit Retreat Center (Costa Rica)
- August 28–September 4 • In-Person Retreat — Kripalu Center For Yoga & Health (near New York City & Boston, MA)
- November 8–15 • In-Person Retreat — Zephyr Point (Lake Tahoe, Nevada, USA)
This page will be updated as more dates are confirmed.
What do you teach?
Our team has had our minds blown by jhanas & think they should be practiced more widely by both beginning and seasoned meditators alike.
What are the jhanas?
- Extraordinarily pleasurable and non-addictive altered states you can learn to enter on demand with meditation practice
- The “opposite of an anxiety loop”. A positive feedback loop between attention and pleasure, leading to greater physiological & neural response
- A method to tap into an innate sense of inner wellbeing that enables inner psychological work
For years, the existence of jhanas has been an “open secret” in some communities of serious meditators. Modern research at Harvard, McGill, and others are validating their existence. Our track record suggests these states can be learned more easily than people believe.
“The jhanas may be the single most important thing on the planet right now. You may think it’s superintelligence or longevity. That’s nothing without wellbeing.”
— Google Deepmind Strategic Advisor
“This is absolutely amazing. The fact that you can build a feedback reward mechanism with dopamine from just sitting down is unbelievable. This is a secret nobody is talking about, and I’ve never felt anything like it. I’m so grateful; I’m a better and happier person.”
– Francisco Lorrain, CTO of Topsort, Former Head of Engineering at Groupon
Results
- About two thirds of our retreat participants have self-reported experiencing a jhana
- For those who experienced a jhana
- Over 60% say it’s the best thing that’s happened in 6 months or more
- 10% say it’s the best thing that’s happened in their lifetime
- 85% of participants rated the program a 9 or a 10 when asked “how likely would you be to recommend this experience to a friend”
Investment
All our online retreats cost $1,695, with the option to pay in full or in four monthly payments of ~$424. In-person retreats vary by venue and room type, but prices typically start around $4,000. Payment plans are also available for in-person retreats.
We have a limited number of scholarships available — just let us know when you save your spot.
Meditation Retreat Programs and Schedule
Online full-time format:
This retreat works best if you treat it as an entirely off-grid experience, maintaining silence whenever possible. You will meditate for 6–10 hours a day (including individual and group sits). Our core live sessions run from 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM Pacific Time (with a suggested practice window of 7:00 AM – 10:00 PM). For participants in Europe, we offer a schedule from 9:00 AM – 7:00 PM CET. While all lectures are recorded for flexibility, this online retreat works best for time zones in the Americas, Europe, and Africa. For Asian and other time zones, email us to discuss before booking.
The following times are a rough guide for reference, and we will confirm the final programming with each cohort before the start:
Online work-compatible format:
We will have full retreat days on both weekends (requiring time off on each Friday). We’ll pair this ~1.5 hours of practice before and after your workday during the week. Please join if you’re excited, open minded, and happy to try something a bit different. Learn meditation conducive to jhanas without taking too much time off work!
The following times are a rough guide for reference, and we will confirm the final programming with each cohort before the start:
In-person retreats:
The daily schedule runs from 7AM to 8PM. For more details of what to expect, check out our blog.
Teaching principles
- Engineers, not Dharma Teachers: We’re focused on sharing practical meditation guidance as efficiently as possible, tracking our results, and using every tool we think appropriate for the job. We are not teaching Buddhist Dharma or metaphysics.
- Experimentation, not Dogma: There is no one correct way to learn a skill. We aim to provide you with the context and ideas you need to run your own experiments. We’re inspired by various meditation traditions, breathwork, and our own EEG research.
- Community of Peers: We think experience sharing is a valuable part of the learning process, and at times will structure group discussion instead of traditional lecture or instruction.
Instruction
Participants are expected to join from an environment that allows them to embrace not speaking for the duration of the retreat. Traditionally, silence and sensory reduction in meditation retreats have been instrumental in teaching these states. We ask participants find a way to create these conditions from wherever they’re joining.
We’ll be teaching a secular interpretation of the jhanas inspired by several contemplative traditions (e.g. TWIM, Kemma/Brasington, Thanissaro/Burbea) and western psychology. These traditions focus on making meditation consistently enjoyable, and we’re especially excited to teach these states to meditators who haven’t experienced them before.
Curriculum
Our meditation retreats offer an immersive introduction to jhana practice through a carefully structured program of group teachings, individual guidance, and solo meditation. Throughout the week, you'll have one-on-one sessions with experienced facilitators who help you develop and refine your practice. The curriculum progresses from foundational techniques and safety principles through deeper states of collectedness, with group sessions covering topics like forgiveness meditation, social practices, and advanced jhana states. Between formal sessions, you'll have dedicated time for solo practice and assigned readings. You'll also have access to a library of case studies to support your learning. The retreat culminates in integration sessions that prepare you to maintain your practice going forward. We continue experimenting with our formats, so your retreat may include variations or additional offerings beyond what's listed here.
How You May Benefit
- Unlock the ability to enter into temporary altered states of peace and joy described by many as the best experience of their year
- Experience firsthand how access to altered, joyful states can lead to a felt sense of abundance that makes it easier to let go of reactive habits and cultivate virtuous qualities
- Boost your baseline wellbeing with a sense of fundamental okay-ness that comes from periodically entering into unprecedentedly grateful or relaxed states
- Master your attention, not through fixation & effort, but relaxation and finesse, so that you can enter flow inside and outside of meditation
- Discover how in the right headspace, it’s possible to spot and then permanently adjust mental habits that lead to personality & psychological growth
- Cultivate mastery by activating joy and peace in daily life while walking, off-the-cushion, and in everyday conditions
- Generate more progress in less time by blending insights from multiple meditation traditions, Western positive psychology, and engineering design principles
- Discover that altered states on-demand are just the beginning — deeper insights into your own nervous system await; we’ll leave you with ideas to explore next after the course
- A community of practice with other curious, technically-minded explorers
“Why would I have a second piece of chocolate cake when I know I can beat that by 100x in 10 minutes with my eyes closed?”
— Nick Cammarata, AI Safety Researcher & former founder
Is Our Meditation Retreat For You?
A few groups that have benefitted so far:
- Engineers and tech operators who believe meditation or psychedelics can be transformative, but find it challenging to sift through vastly different teachers and techniques.
- Execs and founders who have realized their moment-to-moment mental habits determine wellbeing and performance, and are ready to learn technical relaxation techniques.
- Experienced meditators with a 30+ minute regular practice who have not yet learned to have deterministically blissful experiences when they sit.
This program may not be for you if:
- Buddhist metaphysics is a requirement for your meditation. We’re happy to refer out to teachings that are compatible with this view. We emphasize how these practices can fit into your life with an attitude of flexibility and pragmatism.
- You don’t want to commit ~7-10 days (or two weekends) to meditating ~6+ hours a day.
- You’ve recently experienced trauma or mental health challenges that you think may have a serious adverse impact on your emotional state during the retreat. We’re here — join us when the time is right! You can learn more about our policy and screening process here.
“This experience was the best thing that’s happened to me this year. I had no idea how enjoyable meditation could be.”
– Ruby Yu, founder of YC-backed 10 Lives, formerly at UCSF & Harvard
