I swear it's not a cult but I totally recommend it! Part 1

For 10 Days I signed up to live like a monk, dedicating my time to learning the 'Goenka' Vipassana method of meditation. 

I'm sitting in a hostel in the Cameron Highlands, Malaysia. It's been 4 days since completing the course yet it's still fresh in my mind.

We are in the constant state of change, and that includes are mental state and outlook on life but I cannot deny that my time spent at Dhamma Malaya has had a profound effect on my thinking and outlook on life. Was I brainwashed? Perhaps I was. I don't think I can ever be unbiased in determining that claim because a successfully brainwashed person will always deny.

My journey begins in Kuala Lumpur while I was working the graveyard shift at a backpacker hostel.
It was a tinder match during late August which led me to enrolling myself in a 10 day silent meditation retreat - the S.N Goenka Vipassana program to be exact. I don't have records of how the conversation was steered towards this particular topic but I can say with 100% certainty that all records of that conversation don't exist any more.

With great enthusiasm I signed up and over the course of about a week, I had sighted the terms, conditions and daily timetable which I would be following during these 10 days. I couldn't find anything mentioning organ donation so I enthusiastically confirmed my admission into the 10 day program which would be held out in a small commune located in the middle of a huge palm oil plantation.

On the 10th of October, I made my way out to Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur to catch the charter bus which would take us 4 hours away straight to the Dhamma Malaya facility.

We arrived at around 2pm after which we were assigned our identification number and then asked to hand in all electronic devices, wallets, food, reading and writing material, as well as our passports.
From this point we were separated into two groups based on gender. Visual and physical barriers separated the men's from the women's side of the camp and from this point on I would never set foot within 10 meters from an actual women until the 10 days had passed.

Assembled in what resembled one the science classrooms from highschool, complete with long wooden benches and stools arranged in front of a large board at the front of the room.  We sat down at our designated seating area and we were told that from now on we would sit facing the back of the room.

Later on that night, we would be assigned our seating number for the meditation hall before officially beginning the course. For the moment we were to take rest in our rooms. I lay on my bed staring at the ceiling with only my thoughts and emotions to keep me company. Every second that passed by felt so raw. There was nothing that I had to do; nothing I could distract myself with or use to pass the time.
This was a taster for what was to come. I potentially had 10 full days of this ahead of me.

This 10 day meditation retreat was beginning to more and more like a prison camp. As the day drew on, the gap between my expectations and reality started to increase rapidly.