New Ways of Knowing: Nora Bateson, John Vervaeke, Sophie Strand, Jim Rutt, Trish Blain, Jonathan Rowson and Minna Salami

Announcing a new online course starting in December, with tuition from the leading voices in systems change, cognitive science, personal transformation and mythopoetics.

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We are walking out of a past that can no longer sustain us and into a future that is yet to be born. At this moment in history, we're facing multiple overlapping crises in ecology, politics, economics and culture. Runaway AI, political polarisation, geopolitical instability and other problems are all converging at once. Some have called this the 'meta-crisis', and it can feel utterly overwhelming. 

However, the word crisis derives from the Greek krinein, to decide. It’s an inflection point; as much an opportunity as a catastrophe. To grasp that opportunity, we have to open ourselves to the kind of problem the meta-crisis really is. 

What defines our current situation more than anything is its complexity. Whether we're trying to change our political systems, cultures, organisations or even our own minds, we're wrestling with complex systems. They are more than the sum of their parts. They have a life of their own, evolving and changing while we're trying to make sense of them. To thrive in the world today, and find new solutions, we need to develop a new relationship to complexity. Not just to the systems that make up civilisation, but our own inner worlds, and the places where they meet.

Often, the fields that study complexity focus on creating maps, models and theories. And while these are essential, we also need to learn how to embody it; to flow with uncertainty, nuance and paradox. To feel it deep in our bones. That means developing new ways of seeing and being that allow us to truly engage with reality. To find those capacities, we can turn to the cutting edge of cognitive science, complexity theory, systems change and, most importantly, to our own hearts and souls. 

This is the inspiration behind my latest online course, New Ways of Knowing.  It’s a transformational process designed to help you adapt and thrive in an age of crisis and transition. With a faculty of the brightest minds in complexity science, systems change, cognitive science and personal development, it will introduce you to new ways of seeing and being to broaden your perspective. 

What To Expect

Throughout the process, you’ll receive live tuition from the faculty, and have a chance to work in a small group, or pod, of three others. You’ll also be able to try out inner growth practices like IFS (Internal Family Systems) to connect to your inner complexity. If you prefer, you can also choose to do a ‘content only’ version of the course that doesn’t include the live elements.

In the opening two sessions, I’ll introduce some core practices I’ve developed specifically for this process, including a Complexity Tolerance Meditation, Curiosity Journaling and the extensive ‘reading, watching and listening’ list. In week three, facilitator Trish Blain will run an immersive session around The Four Forces, and how we can use it to ‘feel’ multiple perspectives. In the next session, systems theorist Nora Bateson will introduce the concept of ‘systems learning’ and run a workshop to give you a lived experience of how data changes across contexts. 

Professor John Vervaeke will join in week five, exploring how cognitive science can point us toward the essential practices for developing wisdom. In week six, philosopher and chess grandmaster Jonathan Rowson will run a session called ‘Tasting the Metacrisis’ drawing on years of research into the intersection between politics, spirituality and systems change. Author and poet Sophie Strand joins in week seven, exploring how myth is our oldest, and perhaps most effective, way to map complexity.  

Jim Rutt, one of the founders of the Game B movement and Past Chairman of the Santa Fe Institute will join in week eight to host an inquiry into what it takes to build a sustainable systems in the future. Week nine will see author and journalist Minna Salami reveal what happens when systems embed inequalities, and how we can respond in a metamodern way. In the final week, I’ll facilitate a session bringing together all these strands and close the process, while also looking ahead.

How the Course Came About

This course has been a long time coming. After we completed Rebel Wisdom, I took a step back from running my own courses, having run hundreds of sessions for thousands of people. In fact, about 10% of the people on this list have attended one of those courses, including Sensemaking 101. Here’s a snapshot of what people said over the years:

"This course has changed my life in a lot of ways. It has given me a sense of clarity that the way I am and how I am engaging in the world is OK....thank you all so much for your excellent work."

"The overall structure of the course was near perfect. Every topic flowed, and built, upon the other in a way that encouraged growth." 

"Totally impressed with the overall rigour of the course, the breadth and depth of the workbook material, and the delivery of the programme by the facilitators. Consistently heartfelt, vulnerable and engaging."

"I loved the interaction within the lectures, as well as the pod meetings. Our pod decided to meet twice a week when we could because we benefited so much from it."

"Great group, great calls, questions, speakers and interactions. One on one work with the facilitators was especially powerful."

New Ways of Knowing is something new, as well as an evolution of those courses. If you’ve attended one of them, it might make sense that I’m reluctant to refer to it as an online course. It will be highly experiential and immersive, where online courses are often detached and linear. My ambition is always to create a process of personal transformation and learning, bringing together people from across the globe for a shared journey of connection and inquiry.

It is also a kind of continuation of an inquiry that began with a piece I wrote in early 2020 called Lost Ways of Knowing. It was meant to be part of a series, but Covid had other plans. Over the last year I felt drawn to completing it, and then it struck me that it’s something many people could ‘weave together’ through an experience like this instead. 

How it Works

You'll have the choice to decide which of the many practices, theories and materials are most relevant to you, and create your own personalised journey. Every aspect of New Ways of Knowing is designed to be applied directly to your life, work or projects. In this way, the complexity of the world is your teacher, while the faculty and your fellow participants act as guides and inspirations to help you apply what you're learning to real-life situations and problems. 

There are three main ways you'll learn and experiment in New Ways of Knowing. The first is in our live sessions with the faculty, which happen on Wednesdays at 8pm UK time (3pm New York and 12pm Los Angeles). The second is through weekly sessions with your 'pod' of four people, where you'll be given dialogue practices and other techniques to help deepen your inquiry together. The third is the resources, practices, workshops and reading lists you can explore in your own way throughout the process.

The overall format of the course has been designed to enhance and deepen your learning. Our first two sessions will be on 14 and 20 December, and then we'll break for the winter holidays. The idea is to give you time and space to practice, watch or read the material most relevant to you. You'll have access to a curated list of our teachers’ core work, along with simplified explanations of systems theory and complexity science, and an extensive 'reading, watching and listening' list. You’ll also be introduced to some initial practices, including a new Complexity Tolerance meditation, a Curiosity Journal, and a variety of frameworks and theories to help tap into new ways of knowing. Ultimately, this period is about embedding your capacity to gain an intuitive, lived experience of complex systems and the metacrisis.

​When we get return from the break in January, each week will include a live session from one of our teachers. Depending on the teacher, these will either be a guided practice, or Q&A session to give you a chance to delve into aspects of their work most relevant to you. You can use the gallery on the website to see what’s happening week on week.

All sessions will be recorded, and if you prefer to access only these recordings and the full list of resources, you can also sign up for a ‘Content-only’ ticket. If you choose to opt for the whole experience, you’ll have the option to work in a ‘pod’ of four people, where you’ll have weekly dialogue practices based on the subject that week. In the past, pods have to lasting collaborations, and even a marriage and birth! While we can’t promise that, we can say confidently that the pods are a powerful way to deepen your learning and connections.  

By the end of New Ways of Knowing, you will leave with a deeper understanding of how to navigate complexity and the meta-crisis. You will have new orientations and new responses to complex problems, and a set of practices you can use in your life moving forward. Above all, you will have gone on a deep collective inquiry into our shared humanity and the potential of a new world.