ClearPath
John Vervaeke
John Vervaeke

Teaching Assistance Program

Teaching Assistance Program

The challenge

The challenge

The challenge

Many people encounter John’s courses as profound—but solitary. You watch the lectures, feel something important shift, and yet questions linger. Not just conceptual questions, but existential ones: What does this mean for how I live? Why does this idea matter so much to me? What am I actually being called to reconsider?

Many people encounter John’s courses as profound—but solitary. You watch the lectures, feel something important shift, and yet questions linger. Not just conceptual questions, but existential ones: What does this mean for how I live? Why does this idea matter so much to me? What am I actually being called to reconsider?

Many people encounter John’s courses as profound—but solitary. You watch the lectures, feel something important shift, and yet questions linger. Not just conceptual questions, but existential ones: What does this mean for how I live? Why does this idea matter so much to me? What am I actually being called to reconsider?

Ethan Hsieh

Ethan Hsieh

Ethan Hsieh

The Journey

The Journey

The Journey

Most educational spaces don’t know how to hold those questions. They either rush to answers or reduce learning to content consumption. As a result, insight remains unintegrated, and understanding stays abstract.

In the Teaching Assistance Program, learning unfolds as a rhythm rather than a sprint; not by teaching at you, but by learning with you.

Every two weeks, participants:

  • Watch two lectures from a past Lectern course

  • Sit with the material long enough for real questions to emerge

  • Then gather for a two-hour Socratic Salon

The Socratic Salon is not a lecture, debate, or Q&A in the usual sense. It’s a facilitated space where questions are explored together. Participants bring what genuinely matters to them, and through guided questioning, those concerns are clarified, deepened, and sometimes transformed.

Often, the most important question isn’t the one you arrive with—but the one you discover you’ve been living.

What Is a Socratic Salon?

A Socratic Salon is a dialogical practice rooted in the Socratic tradition.

One person makes themselves available to be questioned—but with a crucial difference:
the questioner is also questioned.

This reciprocal inquiry allows:

  • Unarticulated assumptions to surface

  • Intellectual curiosity to deepen into wonder

  • Abstract ideas to touch lived experience

Rather than simply answering questions, the salon amplifies them—bringing participants into a more meaningful relationship with the ideas, with one another, and with themselves. The goal is not agreement or mastery, but clarity, relevance, and transformation.

What Is a Socratic Salon?

A Socratic Salon is a dialogical practice rooted in the Socratic tradition.

One person makes themselves available to be questioned—but with a crucial difference:
the questioner is also questioned.

This reciprocal inquiry allows:

  • Unarticulated assumptions to surface

  • Intellectual curiosity to deepen into wonder

  • Abstract ideas to touch lived experience

Rather than simply answering questions, the salon amplifies them—bringing participants into a more meaningful relationship with the ideas, with one another, and with themselves. The goal is not agreement or mastery, but clarity, relevance, and transformation.

What Is a Socratic Salon?

A Socratic Salon is a dialogical practice rooted in the Socratic tradition.

One person makes themselves available to be questioned—but with a crucial difference:
the questioner is also questioned.

This reciprocal inquiry allows:

  • Unarticulated assumptions to surface

  • Intellectual curiosity to deepen into wonder

  • Abstract ideas to touch lived experience

Rather than simply answering questions, the salon amplifies them—bringing participants into a more meaningful relationship with the ideas, with one another, and with themselves. The goal is not agreement or mastery, but clarity, relevance, and transformation.

We're trying to embody alternative ways of being, beyond the autonomous buffered self.

We're trying to embody alternative ways of being, beyond the autonomous buffered self.

Ethan Hsieh

Ethan Hsieh

We're trying to embody alternative ways of being, beyond the autonomous buffered self.

Ethan Hsieh

Who This Program Is For

The Teaching Assistance Program is for learners who want more than information.

It’s for:

  • People who have taken (or plan to take) Lectern courses and want deeper integration

  • Those drawn to Socratic dialogue, but lacking spaces where it’s practiced well

  • Thinkers, practitioners, and seekers who value shared inquiry over authority

  • Anyone who senses that their questions are not merely intellectual—but personal, existential, and alive

If you’re ready to move from watching lectures to participating in understanding, the Teaching Assistance Program offers a way to learn in dialogue, cultivate insight together, and discover why your questions matter as much as the answers.

Fees

Tuition Fee: 150USD + Einstein & Spinoza’s God Self-Study
Program runs: 22nd March - 3rd May
Online Sessions: Every Sunday, 10am CET

The necessary course material is available alongside all the 2025 courses through the Rewind Pass included in Gamma Membership.

What You’ll Engage With

Across the Teaching Assistance Program, participants work through recordings from all 2025 Lectern courses, including:

Einstein & Spinoza’s God (Mar 22nd- May 3rd)

Explore a non-theistic understanding of the Sacred that bridges science, philosophy, and spirituality—without asking you to abandon rationality or depth.

Realizing the Imaginal (TBA)

Investigate imagination as a genuine way of knowing—one that shapes creativity, meaning, spirituality, and self-making across cultures and traditions.

Seeing God Again for the First Time (TBA)

A multi-course journey that re-situates religion and spirituality within a philosophical and scientific worldview, offering a path toward recovering religio—a felt bond with reality itself.

Rather than rushing through content, TAP invites you to inhabit these courses slowly, with others who are equally committed to understanding what is truly at stake.

What You’ll Engage With

Across the Teaching Assistance Program, participants work through recordings from all 2025 Lectern courses, including:

Einstein & Spinoza’s God (Mar 22nd- May 3rd)

Explore a non-theistic understanding of the Sacred that bridges science, philosophy, and spirituality—without asking you to abandon rationality or depth.

Realizing the Imaginal (TBA)

Investigate imagination as a genuine way of knowing—one that shapes creativity, meaning, spirituality, and self-making across cultures and traditions.

Seeing God Again for the First Time (TBA)

A multi-course journey that re-situates religion and spirituality within a philosophical and scientific worldview, offering a path toward recovering religio—a felt bond with reality itself.

Rather than rushing through content, TAP invites you to inhabit these courses slowly, with others who are equally committed to understanding what is truly at stake.

What You’ll Engage With

Across the Teaching Assistance Program, participants work through recordings from all 2025 Lectern courses, including:

Einstein & Spinoza’s God (Mar 22nd- May 3rd)

Explore a non-theistic understanding of the Sacred that bridges science, philosophy, and spirituality—without asking you to abandon rationality or depth.

Realizing the Imaginal (TBA)

Investigate imagination as a genuine way of knowing—one that shapes creativity, meaning, spirituality, and self-making across cultures and traditions.

Seeing God Again for the First Time (TBA)

A multi-course journey that re-situates religion and spirituality within a philosophical and scientific worldview, offering a path toward recovering religio—a felt bond with reality itself.

Rather than rushing through content, TAP invites you to inhabit these courses slowly, with others who are equally committed to understanding what is truly at stake.

Installments

One-Time

Teaching Assistance Program for Einstein and Spinoza's God

3-month Payment Plan or One-Time Payment (Price is not inclusive of course material. You must purchase the course recordings separately either through Self-study or gain access through membership.)

$50

/month

Live facilitated Socratic Salon every fortnight

Reflective Assignments

Access to the Course Community Channel

Sign up now!

Installments

One-Time

Teaching Assistance Program for Einstein and Spinoza's God

3-month Payment Plan or One-Time Payment (Price is not inclusive of course material. You must purchase the course recordings separately either through Self-study or gain access through membership.)

$50

/month

Live facilitated Socratic Salon every fortnight

Reflective Assignments

Access to the Course Community Channel

Sign up now!

Installments

One-Time

Teaching Assistance Program for Einstein and Spinoza's God

3-month Payment Plan or One-Time Payment (Price is not inclusive of course material. You must purchase the course recordings separately either through Self-study or gain access through membership.)

$50

/month

Live facilitated Socratic Salon every fortnight

Reflective Assignments

Access to the Course Community Channel

Sign up now!

Course Leadership

Ethan Hsieh

Practice Researcher, Transformational Facilitator

Ethan Hsieh is currently undertaking his PhD research integrating performance-training with 4E cognitive science. With an MA in Professional Practice: Theatre and Drama Facilitation, Ethan has designed and delivered transformational community-building programs, retreats and workshops in Asia and Europe through his organization 5ToMidnight. On top of serving as the Platform Manager for The Lectern, Ethan has also co-designed practices with John such as the Socratic Imaginal Self-Reflection and the Socratic Search Space. Ethan currently maintains a private coaching practice and designs bespoke programs for corporate entities, professional athletes and social organizations.

Course Leadership

Ethan Hsieh

Practice Researcher, Transformational Facilitator

Ethan Hsieh is currently undertaking his PhD research integrating performance-training with 4E cognitive science. With an MA in Professional Practice: Theatre and Drama Facilitation, Ethan has designed and delivered transformational community-building programs, retreats and workshops in Asia and Europe through his organization 5ToMidnight. On top of serving as the Platform Manager for The Lectern, Ethan has also co-designed practices with John such as the Socratic Imaginal Self-Reflection and the Socratic Search Space. Ethan currently maintains a private coaching practice and designs bespoke programs for corporate entities, professional athletes and social organizations.

Course Leadership

Ethan Hsieh

Practice Researcher, Transformational Facilitator

Ethan Hsieh is currently undertaking his PhD research integrating performance-training with 4E cognitive science. With an MA in Professional Practice: Theatre and Drama Facilitation, Ethan has designed and delivered transformational community-building programs, retreats and workshops in Asia and Europe through his organization 5ToMidnight. On top of serving as the Platform Manager for The Lectern, Ethan has also co-designed practices with John such as the Socratic Imaginal Self-Reflection and the Socratic Search Space. Ethan currently maintains a private coaching practice and designs bespoke programs for corporate entities, professional athletes and social organizations.

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.

Ready to
fall in love with wisdom?

Ready to
fall in love with wisdom?

Ready to
fall in love with wisdom?

If this resonates, start your own arc. Lectern isn’t about quick fixes. It’s meaningful understanding that transfers into life, one clear concept and well-placed practice at a time.

If this resonates, start your own arc. Lectern isn’t about quick fixes. It’s meaningful understanding that transfers into life, one clear concept and well-placed practice at a time.

If this resonates, start your own arc. Lectern isn’t about quick fixes. It’s meaningful understanding that transfers into life, one clear concept and well-placed practice at a time.