Moods that seem to hijack your day before you have time to think.
Habits you know aren’t good for you, yet feel strangely inevitable.
A sense of flatness or disengagement that no amount of “self-care” quite resolves.
Or moments of joy and clarity (during play or flow) that feel deeply real, but hard to sustain.
Most people try to address these experiences piecemeal.
Managing symptoms, chasing peak moments, or pushing through with willpower…without understanding how or why they work, making integration difficult.
What’s missing is a coherent model of the mind: one that explains emotion, motivation, suffering, and joy as part of a single process.
This course invites you into that model…
What if you’re not seeing the world, but only your best guess about it?
In cognitive neuroscience, we’re now beginning to realize that the world you're perceiving (your experience of yourself and others) is not you decoding information from out there.
Instead, your brain is constantly guessing what will happen next (based on the kinds of belief networks you've installed) and on the kind of evidence you've come into contact with.
And it's those predictions that you're experiencing with the whole of yourself: mentally, physically, emotionally.
Thus, a different belief matrix will produce a different reality, which changes a huge amount of what it means to be us…and how to be and live well.
And it's a liberating fact, because what it tells you is that your experience isn't an illusion, neither are you just watching reality pass by.
This opens an opportunity for us to think seriously and critically about the stories we tell about ourselves…because they really do matter.
It's transformational in the sense that we may not even be able to imagine what it’s like on this side of the fence, but we can be encouraged that there's another way to structure our model such that the thing that shines forth is the beauty and the purity of this reality.
Knowing that is powerful…but knowing that and cultivating the kinds of practices that help augment that system to hit the right notes is critical.
Course Description
The aim of this course is to be more transformational than informational.
Rather than starting from a kind of phenomenon that we know is good for mental health (like humility) we're going to start from here:
What are you, such that humility has some sort of impact on you?
And then we think about what these things are and how to do them.
This way, you can receive the teaching straighter, because you will not only know what it’s doing, but also why it works.
At the end of the day, we don't say completely new things:
We bump right into old wisdom traditions…but as soon as we bump into the wisdom tradition, we say why it works.
And what's so exciting about it is that this is living research…it’s unfolding in real time.
John and Mark are at the forefront of that research, and this will be the first comprehensive course on that topic.
Expect the classes to change between the structure that we have now and the day that we deploy them, because they'll be updated by whatever evidence is coming out, including research from that day or even from that week.
FAQ
Are these courses like other online philosophy or spirituality courses?
Not exactly. These courses are not designed as content dumps or self-help programs. They are structured learning journeys that integrate philosophy, cognitive science, history, and spirituality to cultivate deeper understanding, clearer sense-making, and existential relevance, not hacks or techniques.
Do I need prior background in philosophy, cognitive science, or religion?
No formal background is required. The courses are carefully scaffolded and assume curiosity rather than expertise. If you’re willing to read attentively, reflect seriously, and sit with difficult questions, you’ll be able to engage the material meaningfully.
Are these courses practical, or purely theoretical?
They are intellectually rigorous, but never merely abstract. Each course is oriented toward how ideas shape perception, meaning, identity, and lived experience. While these are not “how-to” programs, they are a conceptual foundation for practice, transformation, and orientation in life.
Is this therapy or spiritual direction?
No. These courses are educational and philosophical in nature. They may be personally challenging and transformative, but they are not therapy, pastoral counseling, or clinical intervention. Growth here comes through understanding, dialogue, and reflection.
How much time should I expect to commit?
Most courses are designed to be manageable alongside work or study. Expect time for watching lectures, doing assigned readings (where applicable), and reflective integration. The depth you get out of the course will largely reflect the care you bring to it.
Are these courses connected to one another, or can I take them independently?
Each course stands on its own, but they are also part of a larger, coherent intellectual and pedagogical arc across The Lectern. Many learners find that taking multiple courses deepens understanding as ideas recur, evolve, and interconnect across contexts.
Will this challenge my beliefs?
Possibly. These courses do not aim to persuade you toward a particular ideology or worldview, but they do invite you to examine assumptions, inherited frameworks, and habitual ways of making meaning. Challenge here is a feature, not a flaw.