Oli Sykes lived with monks in Brazil as a form of spiritual “rehab”, after sinking into depression amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Oli Sykes
The Bring Me The Horizon frontman has revealed he spent a period of around a month at a monastery with his Brazilian model wife, Alissa Salls, and "found himself" after being in a "very dark place".
Speaking to The Sun newspaper's Bizarre column, the 'Ludens' rocker - who previously entered rehab in 2014, but for a Ketamine addiction - said: “For a while I just went into a very dark place, a place that I’ve been in before, but it was the start of a beautiful thing finding myself again.
“I think everyone experienced some level of this during lockdown. Even the most positive of people can’t hide from the fact that these are very dark times.
“It was depression for me, for sure, but that worst kind of depression where it’s not like you’re feeling sad but where you’re feeling nothing at all. You’re really just out of touch with your own emotions.
“A couple of hours from where Alissa’s family lives there’s actually an ashram, a Hare Krishna ashram, and they invited us to go and stay there.
“So for the best part of a month we went and lived on an ashram, without all our devices and disconnected and basically lived as if we were Hare Krishna for a month.
“We woke up at five in the morning and prayed to Krishna and sang and danced, to just connect with who we are.
“And these people are just the happiest people in the world, these monks, you go and meet them and they’re the most positive and spiritual people, and I just thought, I want a piece of that. I want to see what it’s like.”
The pair were able to completely switch off from the world, while Oli admitted he needed help with “emotional issues” and “dependency on being a musician”.
The 34-year-old singer continued: “It was like a rehab to be honest. I went to rehab a few years ago for drugs.
“But when I came here it was a detox, but from everything … emotional issues, dependency on devices, dependency on being a musician.
“I just learned how to be still and wake up and think I’ve got nothing to do today and that’s absolutely fine.”
Bring Me The Horizon's lyrics have often mocked religion and on the band's most recent chart-topping EP, 'POST HUMAN: SURVIVAL HORROR', Oli sings: "God is a s******* and we're his rejects", on the track 'Dear Diary,'.
However, since his spiritual experience at the ashram, the 'Happy Song' hitmaker is embracing elements of religion and thinks it's important to "believe in something higher and bigger than yourself".
He added: “There were definitely a lot of questions I had for myself when I was there.
“I almost felt bad because I thought, if the main guru knew some of the songs I sing about God, would they want me here? I spoke to the guru and I voiced these concerns.
“I said to him I really like your principles and the way you look at stuff. They believe you’re serving God, so whatever comes your way will happen, you should just be happy and blessed by it and not always wanting more.
“I said I really like that concept and I could use that in my life to be happier.
“It’s the organised system of religion I have a problem with, the way it divides people.
“But now on a spiritual level I think it’s really important to believe in something higher and bigger than yourself.”
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