You’ve probably taken courses, read the books, even sat through intensive retreats.
In the moment, you feel clear, open, inspired.
Then life happens:
• A conflict with your partner.
• A hard conversation at work.
Under pressure, the familiar spiral of self-doubt and anxiety appears.
This happens because lots of programs hand you techniques, but not a way to integrate them or move skills between contexts.
TIAMAT-X is built as an ecology of practices so skills transfer between exercises (and into your real life) until transformation lives in you…
What You’ll Learn
TIAMAT-X provides a training ground for deep personal change that sticks. The curriculum is rooted in the ecology of practices developed by Ethan Hsieh and John Vervaeke over the past decade.
Participants move through:
Introduction to DIME
Dip your toes into four domains of practices, in a ritual context of serious play, and learn how they operate together to profound effect.
Socratic Imaginal Self-Reflection, Dialectic-into-Dialogos and Socratic Search Space
Be guided through the John Vervaeke flagship practices specifically designed to develop rationality and cultivate virtue in fellowship with others.
TIAMAT Tier 1: Awaken to Structures
Most people can't see the patterns running them.
They react without noticing. Choose without awareness. Justify without reflection.
Tier 1 explores the foundations of attention, identity, and meaning-making. Empower your metacognition through mindful dialogue, embodied presence, imaginal mindfulness, and self-reflective practices that reveal your deeper patterns.
TIAMAT Tier 2: Anagoge Through Dynamics
Projections. Judgments. Unmet expectations.
They hijack your nervous system before your rational mind catches up.
Tier 2 teaches you to safely encounter the parts of yourself you avoid, project, or distort. Through precise inner work and relational practice, learn to integrate shadow material into character and agency, developing existential resilience by expanding your capacity for choice and connection.
Throughout both tiers, you will:
• Train awareness that’s stable, flexible, and focused (even when you’re stressed or under pressure)
• Develop embodied self-regulation in real time (not just in hindsight)
• Cultivate deeper emotional honesty (and relational skill) so you can stay present with others when it matters.
• Transform insight into sustained, integrated action (instead of short-lived “retreat highs”)
If you would like to know more about how TIAMAT works in practice, 5ToMidnight is holding a series of events, Q&As and workshops over the coming months. Sign up for their newsletter here.
Course Curriculum
31st Jan: Context and Intention-Setting
Set the frame for the course: why meaning, wisdom, and skillful action matter now. We’ll clarify your aims, introduce principles of 4E cognition (embodied, embedded, enactive, extended), and align expectations with TIAMAT’s practice loops. You’ll learn the history of TIAMAT and how the course is framed to better orient yourself over the coming months.
14th Feb to 25th Apr: Module 1 - Introduction to DIME
DIME weaves four complementary domains—Dialogical, Imaginal, Mindfulness and Embodiment—into one practice ecology. Over four practice sessions you’ll experience dialogue cultivates insight, embodiment anchors regulation, and imaginal work expands possibility without fantasy. These practice sessions lay the foundation for the in-person containers where we will focus on the interplay between domains more in-depth.
9th May: Framing Lecture - The Spiritual Ego
We unpack the “spiritual ego”—how to ego plays an important part in personal transformation —and learn to shift from self-as-thing to self-as-process. This will provide the conceptual framing for Tier 1 in-person.
13th May to 30th May: Module 2 - Self-as-Process
We'll meet in-person for Tier 1: Awakening to Structures! Across three days, you’ll learn structures that help articulate our experience as well as how to reorient them toward wisdom cultivation. Note: Tier 1 is non-residential.
13th Jun: Framing Lecture - Shadow, Aspiration and Virtue
This lecture reframes the common notion of “shadow work” and connects it to aspiration (north-star aims), and virtue (reliable character). This will be the conceptual framing for Tier 2 in-person and Dialectic-into-Dialogos (DID): a dialogical virtue cultivation practice.
27th Jun to 25th Aug: Module 3 - Dynamics of Being
We'll meet again in-person for Tier 2! We'll shift from structures to dynamics: projections, personal narratives, shared emotions, finite transcendence (going beyond within limits), and agency transformation. You’ll practice catching projections in flight, editing lived stories, co-regulating meaning with others, and harnessing constraints to grow capacity. We will be building skills, developing capacity and integrating across five days of ritual practice. Note: Tier 2 is residential, food and accommodation will be provided.
29th Aug to 10 Oct: Module 4 - Being-in-the-World
Philosophy helps when it links big ideas to lived problems. Tie everything together to take the practice into daily life. We’ll sense-make the entire trajectory up to this point and work in fellowship to cultivate ongoing transformation and relationship. Socratic Search Space (an evolution of Dialectic-into-Dialogos) holds that tension. Four participants gather around one person’s challenge, translate it into a dilemma, and share the load.
Post-Program: Program Close, Integration, Transfer and Next Steps
Upon completing the program, you'll receive a TIAMAT Tier 2 Practitioner Certification. Should there be mutual acknowledgement of capacity and interest, 5ToMidnight will invite you to participate in Tier 3 in the following months. After completing Tier 3, participants can enroll in the SPIRE program for facilitation training to eventually run TIAMAT programs.
FAQ:
Is this like the other courses and retreats I've tried?
No. TIAMAT-X is a training cohort, not a content course. You're not consuming material, you're developing capacity through repeated practice with a stable group over 8 months. The ecology of practices is designed specifically for exaptation (skill transfer across contexts), which is why the work sticks.
Why is John Vervaeke involved, and how much will I interact with him?
This is John's first cohort-based training program. His work has evolved in recent years to focus considerably more on the non-propositional e.g., the imaginal in rationality, embodiment as inherent to dialogue, etc. Therefore it is necessary to supplement the online courses with an in-person course to prevent falling into a performative contradiction i.e., talking about the importance of embodiment from a screen. John will lead/co-lead specific online sessions alongside Ethan Hsieh and Taylor Barratt. You'll also work directly with John at both in-person retreats: the non-residential Tier 1 retreat in the Netherlands (May 2026) and the residential Tier 2 retreat in Czechia (August 2026).
Do I need prior experience with meditation or contemplative practices?
Familiarity helps but isn't required. The course is scaffolded to be progressive from beginner to advanced levels. What matters is your willingness to train, reflect, and engage dialogically with peers and teachers. If you've followed John's work and feel the call to practice rather than just study, you're ready.
Is this therapy?
No. TIAMAT-X is participatory group development. This is training (challenging by design) where safety comes from developing skill, not from creating a "safe space" free of challenge.