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Hi Chris, Welcome! I’m inspired by what you wrote about approaching Kabbalah more as an academic study. That feels very grounded to me.
I think spiritual study can easily become a matter of accepting ideas, whereas I’m much more interested in treating as an experiment: staying open, observing carefully, and refusing to confuse belief with direct experience. In that sense, we’re each working with an incredibly sophisticated instrument—our own mind, body, and consciousness.
What especially resonates with me is the combination of objectivity and openness: studying seriously, while also being willing to discover that some of our prior assumptions about reality may be incomplete or simply wrong. I think that kind of exploratory mindset is a beautiful way to approach this.
So glad to discover someone else inspired by such a diversity of thinkers, including Professor Jiang Xueqin. 🥹 I also really related to what you wrote about questioning your role as a software developer as AI began changing the landscape. I’m currently studying AI, machine learning, and data science, so that intersection between technology, meaning, and philosophy is very much on my mind too.
Hi everyone, I’m Michael Brewer. I’ve spent much of my life exploring questions of wisdom, consciousness, spirituality, and how we can understand ourselves and the world more deeply. My background is in journalism, and I’m currently studying artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data science. I came to Kabbalah after years of exploring different traditions and approaches to wisdom, and I’m hoping this course will help me deepen my understanding of the spiritual dimension of life and perhaps move beyond some of the limitations of the intellect.
If you’d like to know more about my background and what brought me here, here’s the longer version:
I think I’ve been fascinated by wisdom for as long as I can remember. I’ve been fortunate to have enough space in my life to devote a great deal of time and energy to grappling with deep questions about consciousness, humanity, and what it means to live well. That journey has taken me through many different traditions and perspectives, and over time I’ve reached a point where I seem to find wisdom almost everywhere.
My own practice has become something I call “Intellectual Yoga,” somewhat akin to Jnana Yoga. It has been deeply influenced by Jiddu Krishnamurti and his exploration of whether the intellect can become aware of—and ultimately move beyond—its own limitations. I’ve also been influenced by Sadhguru, and at different points in my life I explored the Zeitgeist Movement and the Venus Project quite deeply.
My academic background is in journalism, and I’m currently studying artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data science. So I tend to approach spiritual questions with both an intuitive and an analytical mind.
One of the more immediate influences that brought me to Kabbalah has been Professor Jiang Xueqin. I’ve followed his lectures and podcast appearances for some time, and I’ve been struck by the fact that someone with such a deeply intellectual and analytical approach to the world repeatedly points toward Kabbalah when conversations turn to the deeper problems confronting humanity and to questions of meaning, hope, and how we should live. I had already felt an intuitive attraction to Kabbalah, but hearing him speak about it strengthened my desire to explore it seriously for myself.
I’m coming into this course with an open mind. More than anything, I hope Kabbalah can help me deepen my relationship with what I would call the spiritual dimension of existence. I’ve had glimpses of that dimension through meditation, breathwork, and other experiences, but I’m interested in discovering whether there is a more systematic and profound way of engaging with it.
I’m also curious about whether this study can help further liberate the intellect from its own limitations. In my experience, gaining wisdom has often meant becoming less confined by habitual ways of thinking and more capable of meeting life directly and intelligently. I would love for this course to challenge me in that way—to expand my understanding while also pointing toward something that exists beyond understanding alone.
I’m looking forward to learning alongside all of you.