The room is open, and it's free.
This is a practice community for people who have done serious inner work and still carry a quiet sense that something fundamental isn’t settled inside. People who intuitively feel there is an end to that, and are willing to go all the way. Many of us also find ourselves between two camps: too rational for the mystics, too mystical for the rationalists. Here there is room for both. Existential Safety is being written in the open on Substack, and the practice is being shaped here, with the people who come in.
Join the room on SkoolNot ready to come in? Read the first two chapters by email first.
What's happening in the room right now
Read the finished chapters
The book is being written in the open on Substack, among other writing: existential attachment, the core wound and the core knot, and what the traditions have always worked with. Read on your phone or in your inbox, and say in the comments what lands and what doesn't.
Read on Substack →Sit with the app
The Deeply Safe app lets you hear your own heartbeat while you sit. A chest strap, a bell, your heart. Free on iPhone and Android. Tell me what happens when you sit with it.
Get the app →Read the practice chapters as they're written
Chapters 6 to 10 are the SEER path: settling, exposure, extinction, release. I have the material and the practice, and I'm writing them now. What I need from you is simple: tell me what is clear, what makes sense, and what helps when you sit with it. I post a chapter and the question it's trying to answer, we sit with it live, and your feedback shapes the next version.
Come in →What you get, week by week
A small group of practitioners, therapists and serious meditators working the same territory. This is the rhythm.
The live sit, and the talk after
We sit together, with a bell at the start and the end. Then half an hour of talk: what happened, where you are stuck, and my answer as a clinician and as someone who has sat for thirty years. Recorded the same day, for the people the hour doesn’t suit.
One question
I post one question, often the one the current chapter is trying to answer, and people write what actually happened on the cushion, without dressing it up. Ten minutes to read, ten to write. This is where the quiet members live, and the ones in other time zones.
The practice chapters, written with you
A chapter goes up, the sit is about it, the question is about it, and what you tell me shapes the rewrite. Chapters 6 to 10, the SEER path, published on Substack and worked through here.
An open hour on the framework
Bring anything: a passage from the book, the theory, a stretch of your own practice that doesn’t fit the map. Recorded, like everything else.
Every recording stays available. If you’re quiet by nature, the recordings and the reading are the product; nobody is required to post. And when the room is big enough to want it, a morning cup of tea with whoever is awake, hosted by one of you.
Who this room is for
People who take science seriously and have still had experiences in meditation that science has no good words for yet. Here, the deep end of practice can be talked about openly, in plain language, and with curiosity about what is going on underneath. The Deeply Safe framework is one perspective on that, and it has been more useful to me than anything else I’ve found, but this isn’t a room that has all the answers. We are curious about whatever works.
This is for you if
- You have done serious inner work, therapy, retreat, years of sitting, and something underneath still doesn’t feel settled.
- You want to say what actually happens when you sit, the strange parts included, and think it through with people who won’t flinch either way.
- You would rather test a framework against your own experience than be told it is true.
- You are a practitioner, a therapist or a meditator who wants company in this territory.
Probably not for you if
- You are looking for a quick fix, or a technique that works in a week.
- You want a teacher with all the answers. I have a map and a practice, and I am still asking.
- You need therapy right now. This room can sit alongside therapy, but it isn’t one, and it won’t replace it.
- You have never meditated. You are welcome to read along, but the room assumes you already sit.
"I've been teaching yoga for fifteen years and practicing longer than that. This is the first time someone has described what I'm actually working with underneath — not a technique, but the territory itself." David · yoga teacher · Berlin
A word about where I am
I'm a clinical psychologist, and I'm stepping away from my practice to do this full time. I've worked with this material for more than ten years, in my own sitting and with clients, and it has been more helpful than anything else I've found. I want to build an international community around it, and I'd rather build it with people than present it to them finished.
My wife is Brazilian, so we live part of the year in Norway and part in Brazil, and we homeschool our two children. I mention it so you know who's in the room with you: a working clinician and a father, with one live hour a week that I will keep.
Six questions people ask
Is this therapy?
No. I'm a psychologist and I bring that to the room, but this is a practice community: a framework, guided practices, a live sit, and other people working the same ground. If you need therapy, get therapy. This can sit alongside it.
Is it really free?
Yes. There's no card and no trial clock.
What does writing it alongside the room mean in practice?
I post a practice chapter and the question it's trying to answer. We sit with it live. People say what was clear, what made sense and what helped, in the feed or in the sit. I rewrite. I write every word; the feedback decides what stays.
When is the sit, and what if I can't make it?
One evening a week at 18:00 Oslo time. Every sit is recorded and posted the same day, and the weekly question in the feed is there for anyone the hour doesn't suit. The day is announced in the room.
Is it you personally?
Yes. I hold every sit, I answer in the feed, and I write every word of the chapters. That is the point of keeping it small.
What if I'm quiet and never post?
Then you'll use it the way most members will: the recordings, the chapters, and reading along. Posting is welcome and never required.
Come in while it's being built
The chapters, the app and the live sit are there now. The practice chapters are being written, and your feedback on them is what I'm asking for.
Join the room on SkoolFree. Leave whenever you like.