Six-week paired inquiry

What the Hell Is This?

This ordinary moment is more astonishing than anything we could say about it. More full than full. Completely alive. Completely present and in plain sight. Utterly, magnificently unresolved.

Next intake 8 March – 18 April 2027

Course fee €180. VAT added in the EU where required.

Places Registration open

Request a place

Our first intake brings together 20 people, 19 October – 29 November 2026.

The ordinary way

Everything seems to be what it is

This is my life. This is what happened. This is the problem. This is the person who caused it.

This is what I need. This is what I'm afraid will happen. This is who I am. This is the world I'm living in.

It doesn't seem like a description.

It seems like reality.

And we live inside its implications.

Something extraordinarily rich and alive has been compressed into something apparently known.

Person. Problem. Past. Future. Me. World.

Useful resolutions.

But when the resolution is taken for the actuality, there seems to be nowhere else to go.

The past really happened. The future really is coming. The problem really is the problem. I really am the one it is happening to.

And this is the world in which we suffer.

What happens if we look?

The opening

What happens if we look?

Not try to change it.

Not find a better explanation.

Look.

Something rather extraordinary begins to happen.

What seemed finished opens.

Not into vagueness.

Into more.

More specificity. More intimacy. More meaning. More life.

The person is still this person. The worry is still this worry. The room is still this room.

But none of them are quite as finished as they seemed.

What the Hell Is This? is about learning that knack.

The workshop

Six weeks of looking

What the Hell Is This? is a six-week paired inquiry.

We begin with very ordinary things and learn how to look beyond the first convincing resolution.

Then we bring the same looking to increasingly consequential territory.

Meaning and worry. Here, seeing and knowing. Memory and time. Other people. The apparent continuity of things. The whole world that seems to be here.

Not to arrive at another explanation.

To look.

The practice

Two knacks

Learning to look

Something is already completely here. The knack is to become interested enough to look, and to keep looking when you think you know what it is.

Learning to listen

In the paired inquiry, your partner listens for the moment when looking has become explanation and stopped.

They don't correct you or give you another answer. They return you to the looking.

Then you swap.

Six weeks

Where we go

1. The complete seeming

We begin with ordinary things.

2. Meaning and implication

We bring the looking to worry and situations that seem already understood.

3. Here, seeing and knowing

Where is here? What is seeing? What is knowing?

4. Continuity and time

The same room. The same person. Yesterday. Tomorrow.

5. A world appears

Place, history, other people, possibility and meaning.

6. Ordinary life

The looking comes back to the situations in which certainty and difficulty actually arise.

Learn the knack.

Why six weeks?

Make the looking available in your life

The point is not to have an interesting glimpse.

It is to learn the knack well enough that it becomes available in your life.

When something seems completely obvious.

When you're frightened.

When you're certain what someone else means.

When the future seems fixed.

When the same old problem is back.

Look.

How it works

The basic structure

A new part each Monday

The workshop runs through six weekly releases.

Audio and written material

Each week includes an audio orientation, written material and a precise inquiry.

Your own looking

You work with the inquiry during the week and bring it into ordinary life.

Paired inquiry

You meet your dyad partner at a time that works for both of you and practise both looking and listening.

Email support

You can email me during the six weeks with questions arising directly from the work.

Yours to keep

The audio and written material are downloadable and remain yours afterwards.

Your partner

Come with someone or find someone here

You do not need a partner before registering.

You can come with someone you already know or use the private participant directory to contact other participants before the course begins.

I do not assign partners.

A group of three can also work where necessary.

If you cannot find a suitable partner before the course begins, your payment will be refunded in full.

Keep looking together.

After the six weeks

Keep looking together

After completing the workshop, you can choose to join the WTHIT alumni dyad list.

This gives you a way to find other people who have learned the same form of looking and listening and want to continue.

With each intake, that group grows.

Who it is for

Curiosity matters more than experience

You do not need previous experience.

You may be completely new to this or have spent years with meditation, retreats, Dzogchen, Advaita, contemporary non-duality or Peter Brown's work.

What matters is that you are interested enough to look and willing to work carefully with another person.

March 2027 intake

8 March – 18 April 2027

Length: Six weeks
Release day: Monday
First release: 8 March 2027
Final week: 12–18 April 2027
Course fee: €180. VAT added in the EU where required.
Places: Registration open
Concessions: A limited number are available on request

Completing the form requests a place. I will email you with payment details and confirm your place once payment has been received.

Request a place

Practical questions

Before you register

Do I need previous experience?

No. You can come completely new to this or after previous work with me. What matters is your willingness to look and take part properly.

Do I need to bring a partner?

No. You can register with someone you already know or use the private participant directory before the course begins. A group of three can also work where necessary. If you cannot find a suitable partner before the course begins, your payment will be refunded in full.

Are there live group meetings?

No. The workshop is delivered through six weekly releases, paired inquiry and email support.

How is this different from This Radiant Space?

This Radiant Space is a broader live exploration. What the Hell Is This? is a six-week training in a specific form of looking and listening, with most of the work done through your own inquiry and the work you do with your partner. There are no live group meetings.

How much time should I allow?

Enough time each week to listen to the audio, read the material, meet your partner and continue with the inquiry during ordinary life. The paired meeting is only part of the work.

Do I keep the material?

Yes. The audio and PDFs are downloadable and remain yours after the workshop ends.

What happens after the workshop?

After completing the six weeks, you can choose to join the WTHIT alumni dyad list and contact other graduates who want to continue practising the same form of looking and listening.

What is the refund policy?

Course payments are normally non-refundable. If you do not already have a partner and cannot find a suitable one before the course begins, your payment will be refunded in full. A place may also be transferred once to a later intake if the request is made before Part One is released.

What does email support include?

You can email me about questions that arise directly from the workshop and the inquiry during the six weeks. A limited number of separate 45-minute sessions are also available for €90, plus VAT where applicable in the EU, if something needs more sustained attention.