Alan Watts Academy
Alan Watts
Practical Non-Duality
The Hague (NL) ~ Lisbon (PT) ~ Alentejo (PT)
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Awakening with Alan Watts
Watts' philosophy in 8 Quotes
“You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at itself”
Making Ego Awakening
Normal Again
Non-Duality and ego awakening are a little tricky to grasp, because you can't get it in the way you normally learn things or abilities. It's paradoxical.
Awakening is not a mechanical process, but that doesn't mean you have to be vague and abstract when you explain non-duality.
We explain non-duality as if it were a mechanical process. And, once someone gets it like that, we take a final step – we zoom in on why it's not mechanical – which usually results in ego awakening.
The works of Alan Watts (and some of his friends) have proven, again and again, to be the most effective tool in this process of using the mind against the ego.
It's no rocket science: Ego awakening often already happens after a few days of total immersion in the subject.
We're committed to developing all sorts of products and services, based on the works of Alan Watts, that make ego awakening normal again.
“After awakening... there is nothing left but to have a good laugh!”
~ Alan Watts
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Free Introduction Workshops
Would you like to get a taste of our course and program content?
In our introduction workshop, we'll explain:
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The basics of non-duality according to Alan Watts
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How ego awakening links to happiness and decision-making
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How practical non-duality differs from other approaches
The introduction workshop takes 1.5 hours. It's free and only requires registration due to limited seating.
Fundamentals Course
(coming soon)
Non-duality seems like a wide ranging topic. Yet, upon a closer look, it's absolutely no rocket science.
It's pretty much a finite set of topics you need to (really, really) understand well. When you do, you're also quite likely to experience ego awakening.
"If you say you understand me but you don't feel it, I'd argue that you don't really understand me"
~ Alan Watts
We're currently recording our live teachings that capture all the main concepts in our fundamentals course. Supported by many quotes, audio fragments and even visual diagrams.
Our "Fundamentals Course" will be available from April 18, 2026. It comes with free access to weekly Q&A sessions.
This course will provide a solid framework for our integration retreats, intensives and (eventually) co-lives.
Explainers
What is Non-Duality?
Video 1: "How the brain creates an ego"
Video 2: "How to make up your mind about non-duality"
The Evidence
Is there any hard evidence that the thinker in our head – the ego – isn't real?
Well, is there any evidence that the you who you think you are is real?
The answer to either question is: No.
If you live by the principles of science, you wouldn't just assume the ego is real, only because it feels like it.
You'd investigate it. Especially since your position on this matter greatly affects your decisions, ranging from those about self-development to some of the most ordinary every-day decisions.
Ego Awakening
If the ego is indeed a distorted lens of your (self)perception - one with short term benefits but long term problems – than you might want to get rid of it.
This is usually called 'ego awakening'. It has nothing to do with abilities to explore higher dimensions or other supernatural skills.
Ego awakening is just a waking up from a hypnotic thought-pattern that is making it more difficult to follow your intuition – the path of who you're naturally inclined to be.
Video 3: "Undoing the ego habit – thinking more vs less"
“The feeling that we call “I” is an illusion.
Taking oneself to be the thinker of one’s thought is a delusion that produces nearly every kind of human conflict and unhappiness.”
~ Sam Harris, neuroscientist
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Video 4: "The Awakening roadmap"
How to.. use the mind for Ego Awakening?
Ego awakening can be achieved in many ways. While paths can be enhanced with all sorts of practices or substances, the main distinction is: Silencing the mind vs Using the mind.
As the ego is a product of excessive conceptual thinking, depriving the mind from conceptual stimulus – by long meditations – can break the egoic thought pattern.
Instead, for those individuals in which the tendency to think is too strong to go back to it's origin, the only way out is by turning conceptual thinking against itself.
Which path is best for you, depends on your personality and the culture – the conditioning – you grew up in.
The Awakening Process
Live Retreats
We'll start our renewed 1-week integration retreats in the Fall of 2026 in Europe. These retreats builds on the content in the fundamentals course. More information will follow this Spring. Leave your details if you like to receive an update about it.
Designed for Ego Awakening
Very few tools help you regain the egoless perspective on a frequent basis ~ with personal feedback ~ without interrupting every-day life ~ while being affordable ~ with fun. We do.
Focus the Mind on Mind
Rather than trying to silence your mind, we focus your conceptual thinking mind exclusively on itself until your perception of this conceptual self shifts.
Down-to-Earth
We refrain from spiritual dogma and semantic bypassing games of conflating the absolute and relative perspective. Just radically honest, playful blind spotting.
Frequent repetition
Regain the non-egoic perspective several times a week with personal feedback instead of long stretches between costly, holiday-requiring retreats.
Small groups
Ask many questions in a small setting and receive personal feedback instead of having to compete for attention and add a challenge of large audiences watching you.
We host guru-free ego awakening programs based on the work of Alan Watts & Friends. Using the mind to get past the identification with mind. And humor. Like Watts.
“Without effort you will never reach it, with effort nobody has ever reached it. You will need great effort, and only then there comes a moment when effort becomes futile.
If you can surrender, surrender; do not ask how. If you ask how then you are not meant to surrender yet. You are asking for a method, so then follow method. Either you will succeed or you will fail: both are good. Through both you will reach.”
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~ Osho (about ego awakening)
Other Options
Book: Considering Non-Duality
There are various arguments for and against non-duality to be found throughout books about this topic. Throughout the years, we've collected several from fields such as neuroscience, quantum physics, psychology and etymology – often retrieved from the works of Alan Watts. In 2022, these were published in the book "Making up your mind about waking up your mind" (hard copy + e-book). In 2024, a shorter and simplified version was published as "Considering Non-Duality" (e-book only).
Private consults and retreats
At various stages of the ego awakening process, especially towards the initial awakening, it can be helpful to have a private session in which the entire dialogue is tailored around your blind spots. The benefit of private sessions is that we can refer back to previous sessions and workshops – point out your inconsistencies on a meta level – which can't be done in our group workshops.If you're visiting from outside the area, we recommend to get in touch with us as we can reserve your workshop spots as well as guarantee availability of private sessions during your stay. We don't offer accommodation, but we can make suggestions for any budget, making it a tailored private retreat.
“After awakening, you soon discover that you are able to continue with ordinary activities — to work and make decisions as ever, though somehow this is less of a drag. …
In the words of a Chinese Zen master: nothing is left at this moment but to have a good laugh.”
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~ Alan Watts
About Ego Awakening with the works of Alan Watts
Even after 50+ years, the works of Alan Watts are still very much alive.
You might be one of the many people who enjoy his lectures, youtube shorts or his books. But do you really get it?
"If you believe you understand what I say, but just can't feel it, then it means you haven't understood what I said" ~ Alan Watts
Since 2017, we've been assisting people in turning their understanding of Alan Watts into a felt experience called: Ego Awakening.
We help you use the mind to get past the mind; concepts to get past conceptual thinking. With dialectics, diagrams and whatever it takes to get you past the paradox.
We don't offer a spiritual lifestyle with meditations, mindfulness, yoga, mantras, prayer, a vegetarian diet, etc. This is a yin, or feminine, approach.
While this certainly works for some, it didn't work for Alan Watts. Nor does it work for anyone else with a strong inclination to use the mind.
Using the mind to overcome identification with mind is the yang, or masculine, approach of Alan Watts – an approach without much popular spirituality.
This path entails a temporary change in attitude from the wandering of the ordinary mind into a consistent exploration (and adoption) of all the practical implications of the non-dual philosophy: Practical Non-Duality.
“If you got the message,
hang up the phone.”
~ Alan Watts
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