Welcome to Ik Ben Ik

Whether you’re here by some strange quirk of fate in an apparent accident or coincidence – or more likely out of curiosity or recommendation – this oddly titled course about being me will almost certainly need more explanation before signing up.

Body, Mind and Spirit

The first thing you will notice is we are not merely an online course. In fact, we want to buck that trend and make this journey a physical experience for you, as well as cerebral and potentially spiritual.

It may sound old-school, but we want you to hold the coursebook in your hands, smell the pages, write with a pen, make mistakes and correct them, to ponder and experience the ideas and exercises away from a screen.

We have also opted out of the current move towards AI – Nothing in this course is generated from large language learning models. The ideas and processes, exercises and summaries are all originated from discussions and collaborations with and between real people in real time.  

Finally, we want to emphasise that this course is not going to make you a better person… but what it will do is help us all be better at being truly ourselves.

Here are some basics to start with:

What can I expect from the course?

  • You will receive a beautifully crafted Workbook/Journal and related materials along with online support (the documents are also printable in a PDF format)
  • The course is made of three modules – Our Story. Our Being. Our Becoming.
  • Each module has two parts – Thinking and Doing *
  • The course is accompanied by a recommended reading list (which acts as a bibliography and reference material)
  • There are no set rules or criteria for how to complete the course, other than enjoy it and don’t give up
  • Contact and Q & A with general assistance with the coursework.
See an excerpt from the Our Story module

What else will I need?

  • You may wish to use a personal notebook/sketchbook (ideally pocket sized) to accompany the course, so you can record your thoughts and emotions, ideas and dreams etc when away from your home
  • Coloured pencils for your Ik Ben Ik course Workbook/Journal

*Thinking – the ‘thoughts and ideas’ that are meant to challenge, evoke and inform us.
Doing – the practical exercise designed to help reveal and visualise our true selves

Anything else?

Well, it would be helpful to consider the following values…

The curiosity to always seek understanding

The honesty with the truth of who we are

The humility to accept the darkness of who we are or could be

The gratefulness to embrace the light and shade of who we are and choose to be

Embrace the journey of becoming who we truly are.

Purchase Options

The Ik Ben Ik Course Workbook 1.0 (also printable PDF download)

One-off Payment – €249.00
(30% concession for students, with ID)

Coming Soon!

Subscription Option to include:

Regular Ik Ben IK newsletters, articles, access to online forum and additional materials + early access to audio/visual content

We have tried to make the first iteration (1.0) of the Ik Ben Ik course both affordable and accessible to just about anybody interested in the self-discovery journey, with extra concessions for students and those in low-income households (contact us to learn more).

(When you join us on this first iteration of the course, you will be entitled to a 30% discount should you wish to purchase any future upgrades or editions.)

Ready to embrace the journey?

The Ik Ben Ik course will be ready very soon.
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Exert from Module One – Our Story (Thinking)

The Story of Everything

Does coming from Amsterdam or Seoul, Baghdad or Bermuda, make a difference to how we perceive the world and ourselves? Most of us would say, of course it does. The saying it takes a village to raise a child, and in turn, it takes somewhere to become the person we are.

Whether it’s a bottle of vintage wine, or the apples in our supermarket trolley, the car we are considering buying, or the phone in our pocket – how often do we consider their story?

What are the materials or ingredients involved? Whose hands have they passed through? Everything has an origin story and a journey to our encounter with it. Their very existence is a marvel; let alone the story they could tell us. And what about our journey to now?  

For some people, every purchase they make includes at least some understanding of the story of that product. This is especially true if we bring an ecological, economic or aesthetic eye to our decisions. Sometimes we’ll have a partisan view, for a brand or a team, a political party even. How often have we looked at the story of the party or politicians we prefer?

The story of everything is rooted in truth-seeking, in understanding that all things exist with a journey to now. If we can know the truth of that motor vehicle, we would consider the twenty thousand or more parts that go into its assembly, where and how each component is made and by whom; all those plastics, minerals and metals coming together, the processes they have gone through, and so on to almost incomprehensible proportions. We can only imagine the truth of that thing we call a car. The same is true for our food, our clothes, and everything we utilise or encounter. The truth of a person is no different.

Of course, we are not omniscient beings; our limitations as mere mortals for conscious knowledge means we can never fully know the story of everything, or perhaps fully understand anything, including ourselves, at least in our lifetime.

What we can do, however, is become conscious of the story of things and the people we encounter in everyday life. We might recognise that they and we are much more fascinating and wonderful than we or anyone could imagine too. The very pen that we write with has a story all its own. And yes, so do all of us.

Perhaps in our unconsciousness, we can know the whole story of ourselves….

(For more, please access the course)

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