I’m a writer, researcher, historian of ideas and practical philosopher.

You can email me at jules@philosophyforlife.org

I currently run the Challenging Psychedelic Experiences project, an NGO which produces research on bad trips, post-trip difficulties and what helps people deal with them. We produced our first paper in January 2023 and have subsequently published ground-breaking peer-reviewed papers on post-psychedelic difficulties and what helps people recover. You can find out more here. Our research has been featured on NBC News, The Atlantic, Vice, the Joe Rogan Podcast, SAMHA in the US, The UK House of Commons, the Rand Corporation and at conferences including Breaking Convention and Psychedelic Science.

My first book, Philosophy for Life and Other Dangerous Situations (2012), explored how people are rediscovering ancient Greek and Roman philosophies and how Greek philosophy (partiularly Stoicism) inspired Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). It’s since been published in 27 countries and was a Times book of the year in the UK. My second book, The Art of Losing Control, explored how people find ecstatic experiences in modern western culture. It was published in the UK in May 2017, and in the US in September 2017, and has also been published in Holland, Spain, Russia and Italy and other countries. In 2019 I published a little book on ayahuasca tourism, called Holiday From the Self. In 2020, I co-edited with Dr Tim Read a book on spiritual emergencies called Breaking Open: Finding a Way Through Spiritual Emergency.

Research

For over a decade I worked as a researcher, fellow and then honorary research fellow at the Centre for the History of Emotions, Queen Mary University of London. I researched the history, philosophy and psychology of well-being, and how different cultures define and seek human flourishing. I wrote this report for the World Health Organisation on cultures of well-being.

My research on philosophy clubs has been funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. I’m also involved in the Modern Stoicism and Stoic Week project , which has received press coverage everywhere from Newsweek to the New York Times, and has helped to instigate the revival of Stoic philosophy in modern culture. I co-organized the first Stoicon, in San Diego 2010, and two subsequent Stoicons in London. I also contributed to the Stoicism Today essay collections.

One of my projects is researching spiritual emergencies (a term coined by Stanislav and Christina Grof for moments of spiritual awakening which involve temporary psychosis), and I co-edited a 2020 book on that called Breaking Open: Finding a Way Through Spiritual Emergencies.

Work with organisations and individuals

I have taught workshops and given talks on emotions, well-being, transcendence and flourishing, which combine ideas from wisdom traditions with insights from modern psychotherapy. I’ve taught philosophy courses at organisations including Arsenal FC , Saracens rugby club, the Civil Service, HMP Low Moss prison, Netflix and Mind.

Media work

I have talked about philosophy on BBC 2’s Newsnight, the Culture Show, on BBC Radio 3 and 4, RTE-1 and ABC Australia; and am a BBC New Generation Thinker. I also co-presented a podcast for Audible. I’ve written for publications including the Financial Times, The Times, Aeon, the Guardian, the Spectator and WIRED. I’ve spoken at events including the Month of Philosophy in Amsterdam, the Hay-On-Wye festival, the Galway Arts Festival,, Latitude, Burning Man, Wilderness, Bestival, the School of Life, the Sunday Assembly, the British Museum and the RSA.

In the 2010s, for a decade, I helped to run the London Philosophy Club, which has grown to become the biggest philosophy club in the world, with over 11,000 members.

Click here to visit my YouTube channel, which features videos of many of my talks and interviews.

Click here to read my essays on Aeon.

Click here to read my essays on Medium.

Click here to watch my TEDX talk, ‘How philosophy saved my life’.

Click here to listen to a Radio 4 programme I made on Aristotle’s idea of flourishing and how it influences modern politics.

Click here to listen to the Radio 4 series, My Life As A Philosopher, which I co-wrote and co-presented.