Are Online Retreats as Good as In-Person?
We’re often asked about the differences between our in-person retreats, held at our dedicated locations, and our flexible online retreats, which allow you to choose your own environment. In this post, we’ll compare and contrast the two types of retreats, including how the results compare, so you can choose which is best for you.
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Both online and in-person retreats report similar numbers of participants experiencing the jhanas and likelihood of recommending the retreat to a friend.
In-person retreats offer a full-service experience with lodging and meals planned for you, while online retreats offer flexibility and ability to fully personalize your environment.
Both offer the same great instruction, office hours, and opportunities for peer-to-peer sharing.
Note: Our in-person retreats are all full-time, whereas the flexible, online retreats offer both full-time and work-compatible options. Here we’ll focus on comparing the full-time options. In a future post, we will dive into the full-time vs. work-compatible options for online retreats.
Same Great Results
At Jhourney, we obsess over results. The two metrics we track most closely on retreat are: 1) the percentage of attendees entering the jhanas and 2) the likelihood of participants recommending the retreat to a friend.
People often expect lower results from online retreats compared to in-person ones, but this isn't the case. We’ve seen similar results across both online and in-person retreats.
Our in-person retreats report slightly higher experience of the jhanas, whereas the online retreats report slightly higher percentages of people who would recommend the retreat to a friend. However, these differences are marginal, are within the margin of error, and therefore likely due to random variance.
Why are the results so similar? We suspect it comes down to the instruction— both retreats receive similar instruction, opportunities for office hours, peer-to-peer sharing, and more.
In a sense, you discover jhanas in the privacy of your own mind so the quality of instruction and your environment matters more than whether other participants are physically located next to you. Learning jhanas in-person vs. online may be like eating a meal at the park, at your own dinner table, or at a friend’s house – the core eating experience is the same!
Why might people be more likely to recommend our online retreats to a friend? It’s hard to isolate a single factor, but we think it’s easy to underestimate the value of online flexibility and ability to refine your environment.
So if the probability of learning jhana is the same and satisfaction is even a bit higher online, which is right for you?
Join at Our Location
Our in-person retreats are ideal if you want a full-service, white-glove experience. Simply show up and everything is taken care of for you, including lodging and meals, in addition to our instruction and group meditation sessions. This allows you to fully disconnect and focus on your practice without any distractions. The difference compared to flexible online retreats, where you choose your own location, is in the environment – not in the instruction itself.
A few quotes from prior in-person participants:
“My peak experience was discovering unbounded compassion for self in a way that no other therapy/coaching or no amount of positive affirmations have landed”
“The exercises most mornings and the guided meditations were great. I just can't believe that every [non-Jhourney] meditation teacher doesn't do exercises to help train technique. Also, the experiment framework is incredible.”
“Thank you all for this once-in-a-lifetime experience. I can see, feel, and appreciate the amount of thought, intention, reflection, and research that came into the methodology and practice.”
Choose Your Own Location
Our online retreats are perfect if you prioritize flexibility, ease of joining, or control over your experience. You can create your ideal environment, whether that means sleeping in your own bed, eating the meals you prefer, or booking lodging like an Airbnb in a location that suits you.
If you choose to stay at home, you save on the hassle and cost of travel and accommodations. Alternatively, you can invest those savings to create your own retreat environment. We’ve had attendees prepare themselves lodging and meals across the full spectrum from basic to luxurious.
Once you're on retreat, you'll receive the same teaching, but you may find practicing in your own environment can offer benefits compared to a group setting. Online retreats give you more control over your schedule, allowing you to choose meal times and accommodate different time zones.
Online retreats also offer one more thing in-person retreats can’t: they may be better practice at integrating meditation into your daily life. Our goal at Jhourney is to leave you with the ability to reliably access the jhanas because meditators who use these altered states on a regular basis find it life-changing. Online retreats may give you a leg up in using jhanas to become the person you aspire to be by helping you integrate it in your life.
A few quotes from prior online participants:
“It exceeded expectations :) It was incredible how much the practice changed my mind and my life in just 8 days, and from home.”
“Felt so deeply supported and cared for by the facilitator team”
“One of the most valuable things to me is how about half a lifetime of tension was released from my body this week!”
Seize the Moment
Ultimately, what matters is doing what works best for you and your schedule.
All of our retreats offer the same great instruction, office hours, peer-to-peer discussions, instructor feedback, and safety protocols to ensure an amazing experience. They follow similar schedules, with group sits and instruction in the morning, solo and silent group sits in the afternoon, and evening group sits and instructions to close the day.
Feel free to reach out to us at retreats@jhourney.io with any questions. We hope to see you on retreat soon!
