About the Founder

When you wait for the right time,you can wait a lifetime.

– Julian

My name is Julian.

I believe life truly gets interesting when you pause.

When you have the courage to see what’s really there.

Whether that’s within yourself or in your connections with others.

Curiosity is my compass. Growth is how I move.

My mission: to bring you back, in one hour, to what truly matters to you.

The dream

As a commercial pilot for Transavia and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, I flew passengers around the world for over a decade.

A true childhood dream.

My entire life, I have worked toward my dream of becoming an airline transport pilot.

Julian van der Wouden in pilot uniform — A young pup feeling brave after three months of learning to fly by sight in Portugal

Flight school days — Twin-engine training in a Piper Seneca, the final 20 hours of practical training

I made it through countless selection rounds, exams, and applications. It was hard work, but my childhood dream came true.

The halt

After ten years in the cockpit, a medical condition brought my work as a pilot to a halt.

It was only later that it became clear what this moment truly set in motion.

Sometimes life has plans for us that are greater than what we would have chosen ourselves.

Becoming a pilot requires a tremendous investment of time, money, and dedication to pass a rigorous selection process.

The market for commercial pilots in the Netherlands is small, and opportunities are limited. Yet I did realize that dream.

Just graduated from flight school — Just 20, newly graduated, and thinking I was the man: ready for my dream job

But life is so often what happens to you while you are making other plans.

Not everything can be planned.

Sometimes it’s about going with the flow, adapting, and trusting that something beautiful will come your way.

The documentary

On a warm summer evening, I read an interview with a Dutch philosopher and writer. One of the questions was, "What event has made the biggest impression on you?"

Her answer struck me: she described lying in a coffin for thirty minutes in South Korea as an intense confrontation with herself and what she was living for.

I was fascinated and immediately watched the broadcast that evening. What I saw stayed with me.

If such an experience impacted me as a viewer, it must be even more intense for a participant.

In the past, I had thought about confronting myself and my own mortality more directly to appreciate life more. But the idea seemed so absurd that I let it go.

Until I saw that documentary¹.

It really existed.

Another day at the office: sunrise over Greenland during the Calgary-Amsterdam flight.

The view from above

Being a pilot gave me a unique perspective on the world.

What a privilege it was to see the world from above!

Ten years of looking down

I saw the endless tundra of Canada, the gigantic lakes of the United States and the vast Sahara in Africa.

Then came the surreal, immense icy world of Greenland, with its rugged snow-capped peaks and pristine glaciers.

Green irrigated fields in Libya’s Sahara Desert

Snow-capped peaks and glaciers stretching to the horizon

Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, from the air

The Bahamas en route to Havana, Cuba, seen from the flight deck window

Blue oceans and islands seen through the flight deck window

Sunset over Aruba, seen from the flight deck before departure for Bonaire

Northern Lights above the instrument panel of the flight deck

Seen from above, Greenland’s immense glacial landscape stretches to the horizon. Thunderstorms create a spectacular light show in the dark, with flashes of lightning every few seconds. In between lie hours upon hours of no-man’s-land.

Oceans, paradise islands, national parks and major cities passed beneath the cockpit. I was fortunate to witness the most breathtaking sunsets, sunrises and the rise of planets, sometimes all in one long flight.

Then there was the Milky Way against a crystal-clear starry sky, and the magnificent Northern Lights: a vivid green dance across the dark Arctic night.

These views added color to my life and filled me with wonder.

It has always been my experience that as soon as you physically distance yourself from your familiar surroundings, you can gain a refreshing and clear perspective on life.

What's more, by zooming out and taking a step back, you can paradoxically experience a deep sense of connection.

The Hague and Scheveningen seen through the flight deck windows

KLM ground crew sees off the last flight of the season

The view from the cockpit², high in the sky, never gets old.

You look down at the earth.

It puts things into perspective.

Especially when you consider that this same ‘big’ Earth is hurtling at an unimaginable speed through an infinitely vast, expanding universe that is largely unknown to us.

It makes you humble. It inspires gratitude. You feel part of something greater and it evokes a sense of wonder.

Following the aircraft ahead while on our way to our home base, Amsterdam Schiphol, at sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean.

South Korea

I knew right away that I wanted to experience that coffin meditation for myself. My last flight, this time as a passenger, in the final days of my career as a pilot took me to South Korea.

It was an experience that changed the course of my life.

I know that a six-hour seminar, culminating in a direct encounter with mortality, is not for everyone.³

Understandably.

That’s why, after years of experimenting and perfecting it (believe me, that even involved 6 real coffins), I’ve made the experience as accessible as possible, so you can experience it digitally.