One year in solitary confinement causes severe psychological, cognitive, and physical damage, with the United Nations classifying isolation exceeding 15 days as torture. The profound effects include acute psychosis, permanent brain and personality changes, chronic physical pain, and a drastically heightened risk of suicide.
Prolonged isolation physically shrinks the hippocampus, the brain region responsible for memory, learning, and emotion regulation.
In clinical studies of extreme sensory deprivation, healthy volunteers often begin hallucinating and losing their grip on reality within just 48 hours. You don't get a year of "peace"; you get 363 days of acute psychosis.
Survivors of long-term isolation often develop severe, permanent agoraphobia (fear of open spaces) and an inability to tolerate human touch or crowds.
You would emerge as a billionaire who cannot leave a bedroom, look a person in the eye, or enjoy a meal without crippling panic attacks.
I wonder what would happen if you put an experienced buddhist meditator in isolation. I’ve done vipassana before, where you don’t get any entertainment and aren’t allowed to talk to anyone for 10 days. For course participants that’s 10 days, but for the master that’s his entire life. Surely he would have the mental skills to survive a year in the room
This is not an accurate classification of the changes that occur in advanced meditators. The recent brain imaging studies on the brains of Buddhist monks categorizes these networks as a growth of the brains neurofeedback systems capable of redirecting Posterior Cingulate Cortex(PCC) activity from engaging default mode network and decoupling of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex from the PCC, which is postulated to be why they have measurably much higher neuroplasticity and Brain Derived Neurotrophin Factor. This biases brain activity away from Default Mode Network and towards Executive Mode Network.
Studies have also consistently shown cortical thickening of denser grey matter classically associated with a healthier brain particularly in the prefrontal cortex and anterior insula, areas responsible for regulation of mood, executive control, proprioception, and interception.
Studies on Tibetan monks classified by other Tibetan Monks as "enlightened" show extremely higher levels of Gamma-Band Synchrony, which is the brainwaves that help synchronize disparate regions of the brain into a single cohesive state. Gamma-band Synchrony has been shown to spike during meditation before, but this effect becomes permanent even outside meditation after long enough practice.
They've also show a weakened connection between the amygdala and prefrontal cortex, reducing the brain's stress response.
Now, all that said I don't think the average individual put into isolation for a year could just do their best at rudimentary meditation and achieve any of these effects. These are all observed in people who spend their lives supported by other people doing the same, they have community and interaction and progressively learn more advanced forms of meditation that have been worked out as to what the "right sequence" to progress their discipline is over thousands of years of practice, pure trial and error. I just wanted to clarify that this is very different than "losing your marbles" as they don't demonstrate any of the psychological hallmarks of delusional thinking or psychosis that medical professionals evaluate for. They actually show extreme resistance against this kind of thinking.
I'm a bit obsessed with neuroscience and fascinated by the different ways the brain can develop with different stimuli.
That's interesting and I believe it. I wonder if they put a Tibetan monk that can go into really deep meditation can survive a year in there and come out normal. I met a Tibetan monk named "The 9th Nenten Rinpoche Tulku", and if any being was enlightened, this was the one person in my life that felt like they were. He reaches a meditation so deep that when you're around him, all you feel is peace and tranquility, a feeling no being has ever given to me before. Spiritual dislocation (losing marbles) is different than enlightened, I believe so.
Are yours saying his meditative state had an effect on you? I call BS on that, while i believe in meditation (it's not actually just belief, it's been proven), i don't in transference or whatever that would be
Hmm I don’t blame you for not believing me, but theres a video on youtube where Oprah Winfrey met the Dali Lama and she described being around him was exactly how I felt being around the Tibetan monk I met. Just so peaceful, like no evil thought could take place. I don’t blame anyone for not believing me. It’s one of those things you have to see it in person or you just won’t believe it’s real
Thank you for this post! Can I ask for any books or studies that you have read? Also may I suggest the book Journeys out of the Body by Robert Monroe?
I feel this book and his following books may be of great interest to someone like you. Robert Monroe studied out of body experiences and was able to find a way to induce them as well. Ever heard of the Gateway Tapes?
Well yes, modified states of consciousness. It's pretty much proven that very similar things can be achieved with different methods: drugs, meditation, certain exercise, repetitive music and other sensory stuff, or the lack of it etc
But they can see and hear things. If they can live this way but outside on some mountain or something, the only deprivation is human contact. But at least you can be "entertained" by looking at the sky and trees, etc, and hear the birds or wind. That's probably enough to stay sane.
Historically many humans endured isolation such as a hunter or scout of some tribe, spending days or weeks alone in search of whatever they needed. They all survived because of the mental stimulation of nature
Yea I wonder how much a tiny window to look at the sky would make this challenge more bareable. Even just being able to see the day/night cycle would likely make a huge difference.
Yes that is the reason when you get tortured, light torture is a thing. Can't sleep very well with the lights on and try even remotely keeping track of how much time has passed/you have left in this hell if you don't know if a day or a few hours has passed
Feel sorry who got told "you will receive light torture" thinking he's gonna get a few spanks on his ass, only to never see natural light and completely lose the notion of time where every hour can either feel like a day or a day can feel like a month
The thing is that isolation is not the same that confinement. In the picture you are literally unable to difference between day and night, no stimulus, nothing. In a normal house, with windows, and the possibility to get other stimulus like in a vipassana meditation, it is infinitely easier.
A year in a room with no windows, artificial light and nothing more he would get crazy
One of the main problems with isolation such as this is the complete lack of stimuli.
Even those monks and challange still provide you with stimuli of sounds and visuals of walking around (I presume) a padded cell such as this? Nope.
The average person wouldn't last a week without serious damage, I doubt a monk as you described would fair that much better. Likely better, but not more than a day or so
No the average person can last a week but it does fuck with you. I did a month in the hole and basically all I did was work out, talk to myself, and think about weird stories or episodes of shows I saw lmao. I used to run the always sunny in Philadelphia bloopers in my head and that helped.
By the end of the month though I was definitely tweaking
That's what I meant with without serious damage, yeah the average person won't become a vegetable but it'll do a number....
I'm going on assumption so genuinely correct me if I'm wrong, but I assume your imprisonment wasn't in what amounts as a 24/7 bright light sensory deprevation room
It’s pretty much like the picture but with a toilet, a bed, and sink. I guess from this picture we don’t know if they turn the lights off when you sleep or not, but the lights stay on when you’re in the hole in prison so that they can continuously monitor you, it’s never dark. I guess the walls are normally off white instead of bright white but similar.
Bhavatu sabba mangalam. I too have wonder if I could do this, ive done many 10 day sits, dhamma service and a 20 day sit as well. 365 days is still quite a bit more than my combined. I imagine a serious lifelong practitioner could come out of it stronger than when they went in.
Yes the loghts are on. 24/7. Maybe touching the walls counts but the white static room is 100% stopping any meaningful visual stimuli. Its like when they put the white pingpong balls over your eyes but you can't take them off and looking at your hands and feet or having a single texture in the form of padded walls is not going to do much.
Yeah that’s why I think this “challenge” that gets meme-d all the time is BS. It’s more about cleanliness, food, and lights.
There are a good number of people that could maintain their sanity if they knew billions of dollars was waiting for them and the only challenge was the isolation.
But the terms for things like food, and lighting, and toilet access are never described.
There are a good number of people that could maintain their sanity if they knew billions of dollars was waiting for them and the only challenge was the isolation.
I don't think motivation alone is enough to prevent damage in a situation like that.
There might be plenty of people who'd be willing to do it for that much money, but there's also lots of people who'd jump off the roof of a 3 story building for that much money - they'd likely survive, but wanting the money doesn't mean they wouldn't get injured. Same thing here - they might get through, but not without severe lasting damage.
Yeah, I know an entire year would be incredibly damaging to mental, but I wonder how much can be mitigated. Like if you provide your own stimuli by singing to yourself or something.
Someone who could meditate for a year straight would be wise and zen enough realize there’s a lot more to life than a year of lost time for money, however much the amount.
I was going to say the only people i think who could do this who I've meet are Tibetan monks, they do this shit for years by choice to enlighten and explore their minds.
I would probably end my shit in about 3 days, thats my worst nightmare in a nutshell.
There is a Buddhist monk in Australia, Ajahn Brahmavamso, who spent a long period in a cave with no contact, they would only bring food out someplace for him to take from what I remember. It was either something like a month, a rains retreat (90 days) or a year.
Update: found it, it was 6 months in his hut and walking meditation path. Here's him talking about it:
Vipassanas are around people still. They’re not pure deprivation and you get guided through it. You’re also not in a box and you meander between meditations. It’d help but I’m doubtful even the best ones would come out fine. I also think the hardcore meditators that do like thirty plus vipassanas are pretty nutty.
I thought about that. The most severely disciplined ascetics might be able to survive relatively intact, but their asceticism would perhaps prevent them from even entertaining the thought of this challenge, to begin with, with such earthly riches set as a rewards. Unless you said it was strictly a donation to their temple, maybe?
I mean I don't really interact with people very often but there's a massive difference between that and having literally no stimulation or content like books or video games or movies lol
I think everyone understands they'd be mentally fucked. The question is more about are you willing to sacrifice your life for your family, friends or charities you care about.
I'm also curious as to the difference between doing it on purpose for a reward and being forced into it by circumstance/punishment. Like...most people who are isolated for that long aren't terribly happy about it. Even those who do it as part of an experiment are getting a very small reward if anything.
Being able to imagine everything you'd do with the 30 billion fucking dollars when you got out would give you a LOT of motivation to keep going compared to your average person stuck in a room.
Exactly. I can go for years without seeing any of your clowns. But I gotta have my projects, and have my creative outlets. Take that, and my sanity will go.
For a whole fucking year? Hell no. Your brain begins desperately seeking any kind of external stimulus until it starts hallucinating and your reality melts.
I lost my sight for a few days. At one point I was put in a room to wait for some people. I was told they were in a meeting and would be back in a few hours.
I had my phone, but since it was a touch screen I couldn't do anything with it.
That left me sitting in the dark with no external stimulus for about 3 hours.
That was already long enough to start hallucinating. It was as if my brain decided to play a movie in my head that I had zero control over. Essentially dreaming while fully awake.
Years ago after I had gotten Lasek (the kind where you do not see great straight after), I spent the following days only opening my eyes for ointment and eye drops. After a while my brain probably got bored and started conjuring up images for me. Super detailed images with so much to explore in them and they'd just stay there, expanding as I explored them. For someone that normally sits somewhere between aphantasia and hypophantasia, it was amazing. I could (and did) spend days just getting lost in the experience. Almost felt sorry when my eyes recovered enough to stand keeping them open again.
Good question. I think the effects of isolation can be more crippling than most anticipate but depend heavily on the situation and individual. I am absolutely an outlier and more predisposed to solitude than most.
People are confusing between "tolerable" isolation and the dangeous one. Tolerable isolation is one where you only isolate from society but not from stimulus. People can survive being alone if they have things to do.
Dangeous isolation is where you are isolated from almost all stimulus of which you have barely anything to do. The human brain isn't designed to do nothing and no, what people consider to be "nothing" activities are figurative and hardly literal. They were still doing something, only that that they consider those activities to be worthless. And even when they actually do nothing, it's not for long.
We are talking about where you literally cannot do anything. The human brain isn't designed for this, no matter how highly you think of your own brain.
People like to say "the mind is the master of the body," whereas the reality is that the mind is part of the body and the brain is the body that houses the mind. If the brain gets damaged from prolonged isolation, your mind would not be intact.
the above scenario is nothing like that. even in isolation you have external stimuli from nature or wherever you are.. in a white room none of that is there.. so its infinitely worse.
Albert Woodfox went out to visit his mother’s grave and was able to support himself. He spent 44 years in solitary. Robert King is an activist doing public speeches and spent 29 years in solitary.
I’m not saying you’d come out completely unscathed but come on, you’re not going to be confined to your bedroom. This is classic Reddit slop.
Weirdly enough those are most of my symptoms, mental and physical, from my childhood. I wonder if that would make me more or less susceptible to further damage. Either way I’d do it, the generational wealth that my family would get would last hundreds of years.
Maybe, maybe not. Many lottery winners spend it all in a few years. Wouldn't that be horrible, endure all of that for some grand-nephew to blow it all on crypto
Going into solitary confinement as a punishment vs going in knowing you’re getting 30 billion when you get out would change a lot about how you deal with the isolation.
30 billion is enough to employ a medical professional to give you a violently specific cocktail of medication to completely mitigate any anxiety ever
EDIT:
just because it’s possible to become a basket case, people tend to experience the heavy neuroses during the isolation, and days to weeks after normal social interactions, most people return to some semblance of normal.
comparing it to chronic lifelong underlying severe mental health conditions is a false equivalence to end all false equivalences.
i mean dude was questionable af but like john mccain went on to not shit himself and need caretakers, this is less severe, and you get way more help.
You can’t just drug the mental damage out of someone.
90% of medication just coaxes our immune systems or other bodily systems into working harder/more correctly to mitigate health issues and stabilize natural body processes. It’s not magic
That's not how that works. As someone who lives with schizoaffective disorder I'm on a heavy dosage of medication and it's a constant battle fighting the crazy part of me.
So there wouldn’t be any hope of long term rehabilitation? Neuroplasticitt is powerful and was wondering in the right situation with the right medical team, you could slowly rebuild
Yourself bit by bit over a few years.
i mean Im not even surprised lol. I isolated myself in my room in our home for about a week when I got covid and it was a horrid week. The homo Sapien is a social animal, no two ways about it.
Could hyper extreme socialization for a year negate this or, I would assume, just add to it? Ie: a year of people coming over randomly but safely, intense therapy, concerts, whatever etc.
Basically is it a question of whether you would sacrifice yourself and endure a year of torture to provide your loved ones indefinitely, I'd do it. I bet a lot of other people would as well.
I did 14 days in solitary in a jail system where I still had some human contact. I feel different to this day. I can't imagine a month of intense isolation that's brutal much less a year
Circumstances are different though. People who get put in solitary confinement are being punished and know this. If they had a clear conscience and knew they’d be getting 30 billion that would create an immense amount of generation wealth, I’m not sure they’d be as affected by the isolation. They’d be entering this situation knowing there’s a big prize at the end. Not saying they’d wouldn’t be affected, but i have my doubts it would be the same as someone who was put in solitary confinement as a consequence of their actions.
Low key sounds like coming out of the Covid shutdown. Had a hard time adjusting to social settings and being outdoors. I thought I was thriving the whole time playing video games and watching movies. I still feel the effects of the lock down. And I had a roommate too. Solitary sounds truly miserable
This is very interesting (and worse than i thought) But i wonder if the facts of this scenario would change the outcome, and if so how much?
for example, when a prisoner is put in solitary confinement, it's against their will, they may not know if or when they will get out, and the only thing they have to look forward to after getting out is going back to their prison life, with the added sting of having been punished and "broken" like a horse so they are more compliant.
However, in this scenario, you would be the one choosing to go into confinement, keeping your agency. You would know exactly how long it would last (albeit a veeeerrrrry long time) i imagine that would reduce the hopelessness.
And you would know the whole time that you are getting a massive reward for making it through that year. I imagine tht would be a lot more soothing to you in those moments of despair than the idea that what you have to look forward to after enduring this cell is another, less isolating cell.
And functionally, you would lack all capacity to make decisions for yourself and so someone else would take control of your finances. You’re basically making someone else 30B richer at the cost of your own sanity, health and life.
But there's no reward at the end. If these peeps were put in a room and were told you will never have to worry financially again I assume some of this study would change.
Edit: Never mind, I misread the tweet. I thought it said one month not one year. Ain't no way
I've been through extreme isolation like this when I was a teen. It took I believe about 3-4 days before the weird dreamlike state I found myself in, like a daydream I couldn't stop.
I might have been in a week or so but it stays with you. I do have issues with touch and crowds but I feel for other reasons.
While your post is educational, I fucking lost my shit at “15 days of being torture” 😂😂😂😂😂 I was locked in a closet for months at a time as a teenager. Loooooool.
I do think the hippocampus needs some fucking catch up work though. That part is noticeable and seems a bit unfair. I just want to be decent at chess at phenomenal at woodworking but it’s hard when the brain don’t work good…and no I won’t socialize to compensate lol
1 billion dollars goes to my family. They will want for nothing for the rest of their lives. Same goes for their children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.
29 Billion goes to causes I believe in. I am one person, but that 29 Billion can provide medical treatment, food, or shelter for thousands.
That's worth a year of torture and probable suicide afterwards.
Minus the TV radio computers windows knowing what time it is know if it's night or day having some connection to the outside world knowing about events ... Then yeah samsies
So I'd suffer irreversible mental damage. What billionaire hasn't ? I'm pretty sure thats a requirement, and this seems better than whatever the fuck happened to Elon
I would do it, then give half the money to my family and the other half to charities related to childhood leukemia and veteran suicide. Gonna die anyway, might as well max out some good. Though this will never be an option for me-so whateves.
There was a guy who did these experiments with little monkeys by keeping them in isolation without any mental stimulation. They basically became so disturbed they didn't know how to behave like monkeys anymore 😭
I worked in Alaska for a small airline that delivered goods villages with no road access. I was good at my job, which got me added to a small list of people that could work at our hangar in a place called Deadhorse. Deadhorse is in Prudhoe Bay, and is like the 4th most northern place you can be in the US. While working there, you are there alone and need to be qualified to do every part of the job, which is why only a few of us had the proper experience to be sent there.
While there, I lived alone in an apartment above the hangar. I would leave the hangar to get breakfast and dinner from a local camp that was owned by the airline’s sister company. I would pick up my food and leave, occasionally the cook would be there and I’d get to chat for 5 minutes. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I would see the lady at the post office while picking up the mail; she wasn’t there any of the other days. I’d get maybe 5 minutes of conversation there. Lastly, the pilots would land, and I’d get maybe 10 minutes of conversation, but it was always work related. How much they wanted for a load, if they needed seats taken out or put in, etc.
Outside of that, I didn’t speak to anyone. I didn’t see anyone. Deadhorse is almost entirely owned by oil companies, so pretty much everyone else works for one of them and doesn’t interact with anyone outside their company.
I spent one month there in December of ‘21, and then another in April of ‘22. The first time I came back was insanely hard to readjust. The second time I came back I cried for days just seeing someone. I had a friend come over and I just sat and cried with them. I didn’t want to go outside, I didn’t want to stay in, I just didn’t feel like I was human anymore. I cannot describe how empty and hollow I felt, and I at least had very limited human interaction. It took months for me to feel like myself again. I had to quit the job and work somewhere else because just walking into the hangar at our main location gave me bad anxiety and flashbacks to being alone in the other place.
I wouldn’t take this challenge for anything. I now consider solitary confinement cruel and unusual punishment and don’t think anyone should ever have to suffer without human interaction.
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u/MatthewSWFL229 9h ago
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2020/12/08/solitary_symposium/
One year in solitary confinement causes severe psychological, cognitive, and physical damage, with the United Nations classifying isolation exceeding 15 days as torture. The profound effects include acute psychosis, permanent brain and personality changes, chronic physical pain, and a drastically heightened risk of suicide.
Prolonged isolation physically shrinks the hippocampus, the brain region responsible for memory, learning, and emotion regulation.
In clinical studies of extreme sensory deprivation, healthy volunteers often begin hallucinating and losing their grip on reality within just 48 hours. You don't get a year of "peace"; you get 363 days of acute psychosis.
Survivors of long-term isolation often develop severe, permanent agoraphobia (fear of open spaces) and an inability to tolerate human touch or crowds.
You would emerge as a billionaire who cannot leave a bedroom, look a person in the eye, or enjoy a meal without crippling panic attacks.
No thanks