If those rules don't creep you out, then I don't know what does: http://www.dhamma.org/en/code.shtml No talking, no outside contact, no other forms of practice. This is not a healthy environment unless you know very well what to expect and are sure you really, really want this. It sounds very cultish to me, even though I do know somebody who goes on Vipassana retreats regularly and seems to benefit a lot. Those retreats are for laypersons, including beginners, but the rules are similar to the most intense meditation periods of monastic buddhist life. Compare that to western zen: There's a small zen temple in my town that will not allow people on 3 day retreats unless they have meditated for a while and know what to expect.

Cults have rules like that to cut you out of your old life, but in this case I think it's a legitimate desire to eliminate ALL distraction. I did one of their retreats many years ago and concluded that the changes in my internal life that could only happen in such an environment.

For example, after a few days my internal monologue petered out and for the first time I realized that a good portion of my mental activity was normally devoted to thinking about things I was going to say later on. Once I was out of the habit of talking all the time, I stopped cooking up little quips and observations about everything and really felt an expansion of non-verbal thinking.

So, although I had my doubts about the place going in, I left feeling that 10 days of intense internal focus was the only possible way to reach the insights I'd had, and that I was glad I'd done it. The months afterwards (while I kept up the practice, before I got "too busy"), were the most contented of my life.

I share your experience.

I've done one of these retreats, it's not a cult, and there are good reasons for those rules being in place. Philosophically I'm much more of a pragmatic dharma person, but if I decide to continue with my practice then I'll do a bunch more Goenka retreats before trying other stuff. If nothing else they're free, and you actually get really good results. I certainly don't agree with all of those rules in my everyday life, but on the retreat itself they are a huge part of the experience.

If you want to know more about the Goenka approach, there are a couple of really good podcasts from Buddhist Geeks:

http://www.buddhistgeeks.com/2007/07/bg-028-entrepregurus-an...

http://www.buddhistgeeks.com/2007/07/bg-029-mass-producing-m...

I think they're pretty much dead on in their analysis.

Vipassana is an _extremely_ powerful technique.. and not without its dangers - especially if you're not used to meditation. Check out http://livingvipassana.blogspot.com for a first hand account of a manic-depressive (bipolar) episode following it.

While no one knows the triggers to these things I would _not_ recommend just jumping in because you thought it'd be cool! Read up, do your research, and do lots of smaller practice before trying.

That'd be my recommendation anyway ;)

hehe... yeah they do look like that at first.

Personally I find that the reasoning behind these rules is very practical. You see, the course is all about understanding what sensations are and the effects that they have in our psyche. So one of the goals is to limit as much as possible all sources of sensations so that you can easily focus on a few and see how the mind reacts to them.