Freedom is not when you are *allowed* to leave the room. Freedom is when there's no one in between you and the door.

When I did the 7 day retreat, I was allowed to leave. But I felt my freedom had been stripped away from me. Yes, I could have told them I wanted to leave, but I would've had to explain myself, they would've tried to convince me, I would've had to push them until they give me my car keys. It doesn't matter if my freedom was only 15 minutes or an hour away from me taking the decision to leave. The fact of the matter is that there were other people than me in-between myself and my freedom.

Before going there I had been living in my car for a few months. Absolute and total freedom. But it is only after leaving this retreat that I realized my freedom had became my most valuable belonging.