Vipassana: A Recovery Guide is a deep-dive into a practice that changed my life—and then sent it into a tailspin.
Drawing on 18 years of meditation, bodywork, and lessons learned the hard way, I’ll explore both the promise and the pitfalls of Vipassana. This isn’t a takedown, but a candid and compassionate look at what happens when powerful practices are over-extended in isolation.
Vipassana is known for its secular accessibility and speed of insight. Things can transform quickly. But it’s also a high-risk, high-reward approach. It drills straight down through the foundations of self, chasing freedom at full tilt. And if you keep drilling without support, the tunnel starts to collapse.
I’m writing for those who pursue awakening only to hit a wall. Those whose practice once felt alive—but now feels stuck, dry, or even regressive. I’ll explore topics that don’t get enough air time: dissociation, bypassing & trauma. And show how they ground us to a halt following the initial breakthroughs.
We don’t need to abandon Vipassana—but we do need to situate it in a wider ecology of practices. One that includes the body. One that integrates emotion, relationship, and nervous system regulation. One that honours complexity instead of flattening it.
Some key ideas I’ll explore:
- How “ignoring the content” backfires.
- How meditation leaves deep-seated tension untouched.
- How emptiness teachings slide into spiritual bypassing.
- How we become skilled at tolerating symptoms, without healing causes.
- Why those blissful, floaty states might actually be dissociative.
- Why Vipassana is a lousy solution to anger, grief and anxiety.
- How sensation-based practice can increase distance from experience.
- How Vipassana reinforces a left-brain, dissecting bias—and what we lose in the process.
- How it ignores the internal relationship between our many, varied parts.
- Why the Three Characteristics are just one way of seeing—and what they miss.
- Why the Vipassana worldview lingers long after we stop practising.
- Why the belief in practicing longer and harder keeps you in the same old cycles.
Then I’ll show you how to rebuild:
- How shaking and somatic practices release deep tension & reactivity.
- How grounding and embodiment create a depth & vitality beyond “the observer.”
- How to stay in the “sweet spot” when confronting intense fear and anxiety.
- How to restore vitality by befriending the body.
- How to supplement awareness with powerful practices of articulation.
- How to accelerate awakening without just meditating harder.
- How to surface and heal dissociation.
- How to spot and resolve bypassing patterns.
- Simple nervous system tools for real-time regulation.
- How to bring this all together into a powerful practice that retains the potency of Vipassana, whilst mitigating the risks.
Why me?
- I’ve practiced for nearly two decades across Vipassana and other traditions.
- As a bodyworker trained in massage and TRE, I can help you understand your nervous system—and why that understanding changes everything.
- I have an unblemished track record of making every mistake under the Sun.
- I didn’t drop out of life to sit in a cave. I co-founded companies, ran ultramarathons, and lived a full, creative, tech-infused life. I care about making practice work in the world.