Background on Solitary Confinement

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The Results of Solitary Confinement

Author

Keywords

Researchers have found that when prisoners are placed in solitary confinement with little human contact and minimal sensory stimulation, severe psychological and physical issues often ensue: depressio...

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The Most Radical Discipline

Author

Dallas Willard

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Scripture

Matthew 26:38-42

Solitude is the most radical of the disciplines for life in the spirit. In penal institutions, solitary confinement is used to break the strongest of wills. It is capable of this because it excludes i...

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Transformation in the Heartbreak Hotel

Author

Howard and Phyllis Rutledge

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It was on November 28, 1965, that fighter pilot Howard Rutledge’s plane was shot down right into the hands of the North Vietnam Army. Quickly he was shuttled to the “Heartbreak Hotel,” one of the noto...

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Any social science study will tell you

Author

Bryan C. Loritts

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 133:1 , 1 Samuel 18:1-4 , Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, Luke 5:18-20 , Luke 5:18-20 , Psalm 133:1

Any social science study will tell you relationships are key to happiness and well-being. But there’s more. Friendship isn’t just an elective in the course of life, it’s required. In my line of work I...

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An Expert in Biblical Trivia

Author

Leonard Sweet

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 118:8, Ezra 7:21, 2 Timothy 3:16-17, Romans 15:4, Isaiah 55:11, Hebrews 4:12-13, 2 Peter 1:19-21, Matthew 4:4, Matthew 24:35

The prince of Grenada, an heir to the Spanish crown, was sentenced to life in solitary confinement in Madrid’s ancient prison. The dreadful, dirty, and dreary nature of the place earned it the name, “...

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Flourishing Faith in Persecuted Places

Author

Tom Nelson

Keywords

Scripture

Daniel 6:16-23, Jeremiah 29:4-7, Genesis 39:20-23, Acts 16:25-34, Matthew 5:10-12 , Psalm 23:4

On Christmas Eve in Tehran, house-church pastor Farshid Fatah and his family were awakened to the frightening sounds of the Iranian security police pounding at their door. After the police searched hi...

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One Person’s (Jose) Experience with Leprosy

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Leprosy

Jose’s body had suffered much damage from leprosy by the time he traveled from Puerto Rico to our leprosy hospital in Louisiana for treatment. By then, research had proved that leprosy does its damage...

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Miracles in Mozambique

Author

John Piper

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During the 1960s the Lord raised up an indigenous leader in the church in Mozambique named Martinho Campos. The story of his ministry, Life Out of Death in Mozambique, is a remarkable testimony to God...

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A Day Away

Author

Elton Trueblood

Keywords

Retreat

One rare but powerful item of discipline is the requirement that the recruit of the company undertake a personal experience of solitude at least once a month. This is patterned consciously on the expe...

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The Effects of Light Deprivation

Author

Joan Chittister

Keywords

Scripture

2 Corinthians 4:6, Ephesians 5:8, Isaiah 9:2, Psalm 27:1, John 1:5

Psychologists tell us that one of the most difficult conditions a person can be forced to bear is light deprivation. Darkness, in fact, is often used in military captivity or penal institutions to bre...

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Isolation in Japan

Author

Brian Fikkert and Kelly M. Kapic

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Researchers have found that more than half a million people in Japan stay at home for at least six months at a time without having any contact with the outside world.

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True Relating is Born of Solitude

Author

Sue Monk Kidd

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I sit in a bright-lit June meadow at the Abbey of Gethsemani, a Trappist monastery in Kentucky. It is early afternoon, and I have been here since morning in what can only be described as an uneasy sol...

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The Poor in Spirit at an Oregon State Correctional Institution

Author

A. J. Swoboda & Nijay K. Gupta

Keywords

In June 2024, I (A. J.) had the opportunity to visit the Oregon State Correctional Institution in Salem, Oregon, to meet with a group of inmates who had read one of my recent books. The experience was...

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Any Worse Company

Author

Brennan Manning

Keywords

The story is often told of a man who made an appointment with the famous psychologist Carl Jung to get help for chronic depression. Jung told him to reduce his fourteen-hour workday to eight, go direc...

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This Place is Enough

Author

Jenny Odell

Keywords

Scripture

Hebrews 10:24-25, 1 Thessalonians 5:11, 1 John 4:11-12, Philippians 4:11-13, 1 Timothy 6:6-8

A simple refusal motivates my argument: refusal to believe that the present time and place, and the people who are here with us, are somehow not enough. Platforms such as Facebook and Instagram act li...

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The Snake in the Cell

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 41:10, 1 John 4:18, 2 Timothy 1:7, Proverbs 29:25, Psalm 34:4

John O’Donahue, in his book, Walking in Wonder, shares a story from India that is thousands of years old, but just as relevant today as it was back then. It’s about a man who was forced to spend a nig...

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A Call Towards Solitude

Author

Henri J. M. Nouwen

Keywords

In this short excerpt from a journal entry by the late priest Henri Nouwen, the author describes the need to make a significant change to his life during a very difficult period in his ministry. Nouwe...

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The Topography of Discipline

Author

David Brooks

Keywords

Wilderness

In the wilderness, life is stripped of distractions. It is quiet. The topography demands discipline, simplicity, and fierce attention. Solitude in the wilderness makes irrelevant all the people-pleasi...

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Paul in Prison

Author

Andrew M. Davis

Keywords

Scripture

Acts 24:27, Acts 16:25, Romans 5:3-5, 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, Acts 24:26-27, Philippians 4:11-13

Roman imprisonments were brutal. There was no concern for prisoner comfort, no plan for meals or for medical care, and no concern for a just and speedy trial. Paul’s imprisonment in Caesarea went on f...

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Your Cell Will Teach You Everything

Author

Thomas Merton

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 46:10, 1 Kings 19:9-18, Matthew 5:5-15, Daniel 3:19-27, Exodus 13:21-22, Mark 1:35-39, Luke 5:16, Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, Genesis 32:24-30, Psalm 62:1, Hosea 2:14, Habakkuk 2:1, 1 Samuel 3:1-10, Isaiah 26:3

A certain brother went to Abbot Moses in Scete, and asked him for a good word. And the Elder said to him: Go, sit in your cell and your cell will teach you everything. An elder said: The monk’s ce...

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The Bible a Great Comfort

Author

Andy Cook

Keywords

Scripture

2 Timothy 3:16-17, Romans 15:4, Isaiah 55:11, Hebrews 4:12-13, 2 Peter 1:19-21, Matthew 4:4, Matthew 24:35, Isaiah 41:8-10, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, Psalm 46:, Genesis 37:12-36, 1 Samuel 19:, 1 Samuel 20:, 2 Corinthians 11:23-30, 2 Corinthians 4:17, Acts 21:27-36

For seven years, Terry Anderson was held as a hostage of Shiite Muslim fundamentalists. The former reporter for the Associated Press had been taken captive and held as a political prisoner, and for se...

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Solitude has a Learning Curve

Author

Mike Cosper

Keywords

In his excellent book, Recapturing the Wonder: Transcendent Faith in a Disenchanted World , Mike Cosper explains the value in persevering through the difficult realities of practicing solitude. ...

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The Two Conflicting Instincts with Shame

Author

Heather Davis Nelson

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 3:7-8, Proverbs 28:13, 1 John 1:7-9, James 5:16, Galatians 6:1-2

Shame has two conflicting instincts. It needs to isolate and hide, and it needs a community in which to be transparent. Hiding, of course, usually wins. It is the easier and more natural of the two. B...

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The Lie that Held Him Captive

Author

Craig Groeschel

Keywords

When legendary magician Harry Houdini came into a town to do his show, he often went to the local jail, gathering a crowd of people along the way. To get buzz going about his upcoming performance, he ...

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Loneliness and Terror

Author

Nabeelah Jaffer

Keywords

In a popular essay for the online magazine Aeon, Nabeelah Jaffer elaborates on a theme found in the philosopher Hannah Arendt’s work, that is the connection between loneliness and terror: ‘Loneliness...

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Rather be Shocked than Alone with their Thoughts

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

2 Corinthians 10:5, Ecclesiastes 5:1-2, Mark 6:31, Psalm 46:10, Isaiah 30:15, Philippians 4:8

In a study conducted by Timothy Wilson, a social psychologist at the University of Virginia, researchers discovered what most of us already know: people do not like to be left alone with their own tho...

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The Guise of Connection

Author

Jay Y. Kim

Keywords

Scripture

Proverbs 18:1, John 13:34-35, Hebrews 10:24-25, 1 Thessalonians 5:11, Colossians 3:16

As the speed and choices of the digital age send us hurling toward impatience and shallowness, they culminate in its most damaging consequence: isolation. Social media, in particular, lures us in unde...

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Withdrawing to a Lonely Place

Author

Richard J. Foster

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 14:13, Matthew 4:1-11, Luke 6:12, Matthew 14:23, Mark 1:35, Mark 6:31, Luke 5:16, Matthew 17:1-9, Matthew 26:36-46

In the midst of an exceedingly busy ministry Jesus made a habit of withdrawing to “a lonely place apart” (Matt. 14:13; see also Matt. 4:1-11, Luke 6:12, Matt. 14:23, Mark 1:35, Mark 6:31, Luke 5:16, M...

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No Exit

Author

Edmund P. Clowney

Keywords

Hell

In his play No Exit, Jean-Paul Sartre gives his own vision of hell. Two women and a man, doomed to perdition, enter a room that seems to threaten no torment. But they are sentenced to remain together ...

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Alone Together

Author

Jay Y. Kim

Keywords

Scripture

Proverbs 18:24, Romans 12:9-12, Hebrews 10:24-25, Galatians 3:2, John 13:34-35, 1 Thessalonians 5:11, Proverbs 27:17, Proverbs 18:1

In this excerpt from Jay Y. Kim’s book, Analog Church , the author shares about an experience at a local restaurant after being convicted of his own smartphone use at home, keeping him from being p...

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