Hi,

I’m Tim Cools.

A conscious entrepreneur, mindfulness teacher and leadership coach. I’m passionate about helping you to change your mind and to excel in who you are!

In a nutshell

Self-taught software-developer since the age of 10 years old, started working professionally in the software industry at the age of 18 years old.
I took first time Psilocybin mushrooms at the age of 15 after reading Plants of the Gods from the local library. The eye-opening book sparked a passion for research and experiments with all kind of psychoactive plants and substances.
I’ve been supporting friends, and strangers, under the influence of psychedelics and other psychoactive substances for over 2 decades.
Started my Mindfulness practice in 2010 to allow myself to have more control over my inner world, thoughts and emotions.
I intentionally been using psychedelics specific for personal development and growth since 2011. Meanwhile, I have experienced the profound impact of Ayahuasca, Psilocybin, Iboga and various other plant medicine and psychedelics inducing life-changing experiences and insights.

More…

Founder of psychedelicexperience.net, an online platform to facilitate global healing and personal growth through safe and responsible use of plant medicines and transformative psychedelic treatments.
Been through a few years of physical illness and emotional hardship, which exponentially accelerated my self-awareness and personal-growth.
Through this hardship, I found my purpose, my calling to help people on the path of self-developement.
After discovering the power of coaching, I retrained as a coach in 2018. Soon after I started coaching myself. Now a certified life-coach, with a specialization in existential coaching.
Since 2018 I attended various courses on the psychedelic guiding and integration.
Certified mindfulness teacher and graduated as a Mindfulness MBSR Level 2 Teacher with Mindful Academy International, an International Provider of Training Excellence.

Learn more about ways we can work together

Read on to hear the full story…

Life seemed easy, for a while

I was always drawn to technology and science. I rolled into software development as a 10-year-old because I liked to solve abstract puzzles. As a child, the amount of electronics I pulled apart were countless.

At the age of 18 I had taught myself enough to start working as a professional software developer. Meanwhile, I was getting my bachelor’s in an evening program, because you never know whether you’ll need the paper one day in your life.

When I was around 27, I started as a self-employed consultant. I started to take up leading roles as a team-lead and software architect at various companies and in challenging projects. And I was also involved with founding a couple of start-ups, most of which failed fast or died slowly.

Life seemed easy, for a while. I was living a carefree life. Making good money, a lot of long-distance travelling, snowboarding, diving, and a lot of partying around the world.

In 2010, I took part in my first Mindfulness course, learning to cope with some difficult emotions. I was a bit sceptical at first to be honest, but it was validated by science, so why not give it a try? My practice developed slow but steadily, the benefits weren’t spectacular initially, but noticeable enough to encourage me to start practising daily.

The need for purpose

Meanwhile, I started to feel more and more dissatisfied with the work environments I found myself in, and the financial systems they work within. Working for companies with the main purpose of generating financial gain for shareholders couldn’t make me happy any more. I wanted to work with companies which had a higher purpose. Slowly things started to change, I was getting more careful with the companies I got involved with. And starting to prefer companies with a bigger purpose, over the companies who pay more.

I learned the importance of having a purpose in my life. I wasn’t sure yet what it was, but it felt more and more important to spend my time on meaningful projects.

While backpacking in Colombia in 2015 I was introduced to Ayahuasca. Ayahuasca is a psychedelic tea, brewed by indigenous tribes in the Amazon. I had had quite some experience with psychedelics before, but this experience turned my world upside down.

A mystical experience.

The experience gave me the feeling of being in touch with a higher intelligence or consciousness. A feeling I will never forget. While having the most loving and joyful moments of my life. The experience made me very aware of some habits that were not serving me and helped me to leave them behind.

The suffering

After a trip to Africa in late 2015, I started to notice strange physical symptoms in my body. It started very gradually. Over the course of two years I started to become sick more often. In the beginning of 2018 the problems became much worse. The sickness became worse. For over 8 months I had the feeling of a stomach bug at least half of the time. I started to become really worried and went to visit more and more doctors. They all concluded, even though I could hardly do anything any more, that I was fine because their tests didn’t show anything. From that summer I could only work half-time, sharing my time between work, my bed, and the sofa. Until I tested positive for a parasite. At first, it was a relief. With the help of strong medicine, I was able to eradicate the parasite.

Unfortunately, the problems of fatigue relapses after being exposed to mild (physical) stress remained. After a series of doctor’s visits, I received the diagnosis of Post-Infectious Fatigue Syndrome. A chronic diagnosis, from which less than 10% fully recover, something that probably stay for a lifetime. Even individuals who claim to have recovered are unable to resume pre-illness activity levels. It was a hard reality to swallow. I had to stop working, as pushing my limits only made the situation worse. With my limited mental capabilities, I started to research and implement everything I could do to improve my health situation.

Acceptance

I spent months in my bed and on my sofa. Just me, my thoughts, emotions and pain in my body. This is when I took a deep dive into my Mindfulness practice, and started to apply acceptance in all aspects of life.

Everything I thought defined me was falling apart.

I had severe pain in my belly and other parts of the body. So I learned to accept physical pain in my body and surprisingly found out that pain is perceived much less when you accept it.

I was so drained of energy, that I could hardly leave the house for months. So I became much more aware of my limits and I accepted that I had decreased health and fitness; perhaps for the rest of my life.

My mind shut down and I was not able to continue software development or anything else cognitively challenging. So, I accepted that my cognitive capabilities were not there any more and would maybe never come back.

Being self-employed doesn’t give much financial security where I live, so I had to accept that the financial consequences of going through this were going to be enormous. Especially since my insurance doesn’t believe I’m (mostly) unable to work.

I learned to cry again, something I hadn’t done since I was a child. While diving deeper into my meditation practice, I also learned to observe and feel emotions. How I can allow them to be without being caught up in them.

I thought about death, and sometimes I even wished for it, as it seemed more peaceful than the suffering I was going through. But I learned to accept that both suffering and death are inevitable one day.

I started to see the suffering and pain in other people, pain I’m sometimes involved with. And I learned that sometimes, the only thing we can do, is to accept that each of us has their own journey. Although we can support people, we can’t take their pain away or carry the pain for them.

I realized that the joy and love I felt during my ayahuasca experience was always there in the present moment. No matter which unpleasant emotions, thoughts, or circumstances we find ourselves in, we can learn to find this joy and love in the present moment.

I learned that I still was there, even though everything I thought I was made of, travelling, work, sport, money, was mostly gone.

I learned to accept and love life, just as it is in the present moment, without the need to be different.

The now

But I’m grateful for what I’ve been through, I’ve learned to accept life as it is. It also forced me to focus on what really matters in life.

I have finally found my purpose

My purpose is to teach professionals and leaders how to change their mind, by using cutting-edge scientifically validated tools and practices like mindfulness and psychedelics.

I support you and your team to: