A TEN-WEEK STOIC PRACTICE INTENSIVE
Askesis
The honours programme in Stoic practice.
For people who know the philosophy and want to train it until it survives contact with ordinary pressure.
The next cohort is not open. Join the waitlist to hear when it is ready.
THE STOIC 4885 SYSTEM
4 · 8 · 8 · 5
SKILL GROUPS
SKILLS
PRINCIPLES
METHODS
A curriculum for turning Stoic ideas into trainable practice.
KNOWING IS NOT TRAINING
The ideas can be clear. The practice can still be thin.
Stoicism is easy to agree with when nothing is at stake. Askesis is built for the harder problem: practising agency, emotional steadiness, social judgement and clear thought when your habits would rather take over.
This is not a promise to eliminate difficulty. It is a structured way to rehearse how you meet it.
THE STOIC 4885 SYSTEM
A complete architecture for practice.
The system organises Stoic praxis into four skill groups, eight essential skills, eight critical principles and five learning methods. It gives the work a map without pretending the map is the practice.
4
Skill Groups
8
Essential Skills
8
Critical Principles
5
Learning Methods
Four skill groups. Eight essential skills.
Each group contains two specific capacities to train. The categories tell you where the work sits; the skills tell you what to practise.
Agency
01 Eliminate Cravings
02 Follow Values
Emotional
03 Resetting Frames
04 Navigating Negativity
Social
05 Handling Insults
06 Right Speech
Wisdom
07 Concentration
08 Clarity of Thought
Eight critical principles.
These are the original curriculum labels from Jon’s workshop. They organise reflection and rehearsal; they are not clinical claims.
01
Illusory World
02
External Enslavement
03
Internal Good
04
Irrational Pain
05
Psychological Immune System
06
The Gap Theory
07
Virtue is Primary
08
Stoic Training
Five learning methods.
The methods are there to make the curriculum retrievable, revisitable and usable, rather than merely familiar.
01
Retrieval Practice
02
Spacing
03
Interleaving
04
Reflection
05
Generation
Watch Jon’s original 4885 workshop
THE CURRENT WORKING DESIGN
Ten weeks. One practice.
Askesis is being designed as a pre-recorded curriculum with a live practice wrapper. The structure below is a working design, not a current offer, and may change before a future cohort opens.
10
planned weeks
Recorded spine
A curriculum you can return to between live sessions.
Live wrapper
Workshops for rehearsal, questions and feedback.
Small pods
Planned groups of three or four for recorded check-ins.
01
Learn
Work through the recorded curriculum and retrieve the ideas from memory.
02
Rehearse
Practise in live workshops where the material can be questioned and corrected.
03
Apply
Use the skills in ordinary life, then bring the friction back to the group.
04
Build
Complete an application project rather than a passive quiz.
05
Continue
Leave with a step-down plan so the practice does not end with the cohort.
Practice needs apparatus.
The working toolkit draws on exercises used in the original programme. The final selection may change.
01
Morning Check-In
02
Evening Review
03
Triple Column
04
Expressive Writing
05
Ride the Wave
06
Practice-day Tracking
07
Application Project
08
Post-cohort Step-down
A NOTE FROM JON
I could explain Stoicism more cleanly than I could practise it.
I built Askesis because I kept running into the gap between knowing and doing in my own life. I knew the arguments. That did not mean the philosophy was available when I was tired, irritated or under pressure.
The 4885 system grew from treating Stoicism as a curriculum of trainable skills, then asking which learning methods would help the ideas remain available when they were actually needed.
I am not outside that work looking in. I’m still doing it too.
Askesis is intended to be the most demanding programme in The Stoic Handbook. It is for people who want structure, live practice and honest feedback, not another folder of ideas.
Jon Brooks · Founder, The Stoic Handbook
INVESTMENT AND FIT
A small cohort, by design.
The current design assumes 15–18 people and a working first-cohort price of £1,500. Neither is final, and there is nothing to buy today.
15–18
planned cohort size
£1,500
working first-cohort price
2–3
planned cohorts per year
Likely a fit if…
01 You already know the basics of Stoicism.
02 You want a practice structure, not more inspiration.
03 You can make steady time for ten weeks.
04 You value a small group and direct feedback.
Probably not if…
01 You want a quick fix or a guaranteed outcome.
02 You only want self-paced content.
03 You need therapy, diagnosis or medical treatment.
04 You cannot practise between sessions.
Askesis is educational training in Stoic practice. It is not therapy, diagnosis or medical treatment, and it is not a substitute for professional care.
QUESTIONS BEFORE THERE IS AN OFFER
What can be said now.
Askesis remains parked. These answers describe the current design base, not an open enrolment.
ASKESIS
Train the philosophy until it is available when you need it.
The next cohort is not open, and no date has been set.
Joining the waitlist does not enrol you or reserve a place. Unsubscribe at any time.