By David
Essays
David’s published essays, on this site.
Read the EssaysDavid Verdesi
Engineer of Attention
Media
Conversations on attention, self-knowledge and the patterns that shape a life.
Interviews, films, public talks and published work—from the field research to the work today.
The Work Today
Burn the Illusions: a one-year private relationship built around attention, dialogue, action, feedback and integration.
Explore the One-Year RelationshipExplore by Question
Explore the Archive
Find a conversation, follow a question, or return to an earlier chapter.
Earlier films and conversations document different chapters of David’s work. Their language reflects the period in which they were recorded.
20 results
Event · Past Appearance
Sowing Vitality Retreat
Eros & Thanatos — Longevity and the Art of Living
Fasano Las Piedras · Punta del Este, Uruguay
1–4 October 2026
David Verdesi spoke at Sowing’s longevity gathering in Uruguay, exploring Eros and Thanatos: the desire to live, our relationship with ageing, and the art of living with balance.
Event · Archive
Vajrayana Conference 2016
David Verdesi · The Mind Mandala
Thimphu, Bhutan · 1–3 July 2016
4 parts
At an international gathering of Buddhist scholars, practitioners and researchers, David Verdesi explored the mandala as a way of examining mind, space and our sense of self. Watch the four-part recording on this site.
Short Insight · 29 September 2026
The Axiom
In Depth Psychology (interview with Valentina, Bangkok)
David Verdesi explores explanation, self-knowledge and the role of a teacher in bringing clarity to subjective experience.
Transcript
Short Insight · 30 September 2026
For Love, or With Love?
Doing something for love is not the same as acting with love. A conversation about understanding, feeling and the limits of a partial view.
Short Insight · 3 October 2026
The Practice
What is your practice actually for? David examines purpose, avoidance and the relationship between a stated aim and what we do.
Transcript
Film
Book of Knowledge
A documentary journey into the formative search behind David's work—across culture, spirituality, anthropology, human potential, and the enduring question of transformation.
Film
Superhuman Experience
A documentary series preserving an earlier chapter of David's field research into human potential, attention, discipline, ancient practices, and extraordinary capacities.
Podcast · December 2022
Love, Miracles, Saints, Gurus, and Superhuman Abilities
The Derek Loudermilk Show
A long-form conversation about David's formative journey, comparative traditions, love, and the questions that shaped his earlier field research.
Podcast · April 2023
Superhuman Abilities, Love and the Inner & Outer Environment
The “E” of Real Estate
A conversation about the relationship between the inner human environment, the world around us, self-knowledge, human potential, and love.
Podcast · January 2025
How to Become Superhuman
Strange & Mysterious World
A discussion of human potential, ancient practices, power, ethics, balance, and the limits of pursuing extraordinary capacities.
Q&A · 3 July 2025
What Does Spirituality Even Mean?
David asks participants to define spirituality for themselves, plainly and without poetic language, and examines how esoteric practice can become a pursuit of power.
Key topics: Defining Spirituality · Esoteric Practice · Discernment · Relationship
Q&A · 26 June 2025
Know Your Master
David questions the idea that spiritual practice means staying neutral, and asks participants to identify who or what rules over them and which values they are unwilling to criticise.
Key topics: Commitment · Values · Everyday Life · Spiritual Path
Q&A · 2 February 2025
Spirituality Is Not About Transcendence, but About Repair
Beginning with reported personality changes after heart transplants, David discusses identity, integrating fragmented parts of the self, and the difficulty of helping others without causing harm.
Key topics: Identity · Integration · Repetition · Helping Others
Q&A · 5 January 2025
What Breath, Struggle and Love Teach Us About Transformation
A session that moves from a question about health and breathing practice to aggression, boundaries and love, and the risk that spiritual practice becomes a way of escaping life.
Key topics: Breathwork · Aggression & Boundaries · Escapism · Love
Q&A · 22 December 2024
What Does “Love Is the Answer” Really Mean?
David discusses free will and purpose, inherited desires, the wish to be special, and the place of love and relationship in facing fear and the unknown.
Key topics: Free Will · Purpose · Humility · Love · Relationships
Q&A · 15 December 2024
The Early Bird Myth: When Belief Becomes a Cage
Starting from whether waking early is better, David examines where such beliefs come from and what they are meant to control, then turns to suffering, humble action and the place of tools in practice.
Key topics: Belief Systems · Suffering · Meditation · Tools and Means
Q&A · 8 December 2024
The Importance of Doubt
Recorded by phone during a power outage in Bali, and ending when the battery ran out, this session discusses doubt, discernment and the risk of mistaking self-hypnosis for spiritual understanding.
Key topics: Doubt · Discernment · Meditation · Cultural Perspectives
Q&A · 1 December 2024
Working Through Procrastination and Imperfection
The group discusses procrastination, the examined life and spiritual escapism, before turning to mortality, free will, faith and the fear of living imperfectly.
Key topics: Procrastination · The Examined Life · Mortality · Faith
Q&A · 24 November 2024
The Misconception of Superhuman Abilities
David distinguishes the search for power from spiritual practice, discusses the teacher–student relationship and rigorous training, and returns to health, wealth and relationships as the foundation of the work.
Key topics: Power · Teacher & Student · Spiritual Practice · Horizontal & Vertical Drives
Q&A · 17 November 2024
Is There Such a Thing as Too Spiritual?
David describes three horizontal drives—health, wealth and relationships—and a vertical drive toward transcendence, and discusses psychedelics, the fantasy of control and the place of relationships.
Key topics: Horizontal & Vertical Drives · Psychedelics · Control · Relationships
Follow the Conversation
Some ideas unfold over several parts. Follow each conversation in order.
From explanation and self-knowledge to feeling, understanding and action.
Questions & Answers
Questions that opened larger conversations.
Selected audience questions and David’s responses from earlier recorded sessions.
Q&A ·
What Does Spirituality Even Mean?
Q&A ·
Know Your Master
Q&A ·
What Does “Love Is the Answer” Really Mean?
Articles & Publications
Writing by David and selected published conversations about his work.
By David
The Guide
An introduction to the Human Integration Algorithm™.
Read The GuidePress & Speaking
For interviews, editorial enquiries and speaking invitations, contact David’s office.
In the press · Sowing Vitality Retreat, Uruguay
Advance programme coverage naming David among the speakers at the Sowing Vitality Retreat, Fasano Las Piedras, 1–4 October 2026. Articles in Portuguese; mentions are editorial context, not endorsements.
Short biography
David Verdesi is an Engineer of Attention, Metacognition Architect and creator of the Human Integration Algorithm™. Through Burn the Illusions, he works privately with founders, leaders, couples, families and individuals in a one-year relationship centred on attention, dialogue, action, feedback and integration.
From the Conversation to the Work
These conversations introduce questions that David explores through sustained private work. Burn the Illusions is a one-year private relationship, not a course to complete. To enquire about working with David, begin with the existing application.
David Verdesi
Engineer of Attention
Metacognition Architect
Creator of the Human Integration Algorithm™