As we’ve put several of the Mindvalley online courses – or “quests – through our review process (including Superbrain, Super Reading, Lifebook Online, The Habit of Ferocity, Uncompromised Life, The Silva Ultramind System, Becoming Focused and Indistractable, and Be Extraordinary), we would also like to evaluate the platform as a whole. In this Mindvalley review, you’ll learn all there is to know about the online learning platform and whether we recommend it to our readers.
We first reviewed Mindvalley in 2020 and were impressed with what we saw. This review has been updated to reflect the latest changes to the platform as of 2023 – and there have been quite a few. So, did we tumble down the valley of the mind, or did we conquer the valley and achieve true enlightenment? Let’s find out.
Table of Contents
What is Mindvalley?
Mindvalley is an online learning platform established in 2002 by Vishen Lakhiani. With a whopping 10 million students worldwide, it is among the most successful online learning platforms currently operating. The Mindvalley platform also has more than 1,200 expert instructors from all walks of life.
In addition to having a lot of dedicated learners, Mindvalley can also boast another remarkable statistic. Their Quests (a term used for Mindvalley courses) have a 333% better completion rate than the industry average. Obviously, this is not down to pure luck.
Mindvalley uses science-based motivators and systems in all its courses. This is to ensure that every single Quest gives tangible, real-life benefits to the dedicated students.
Unlike most online learning platforms, Mindvalley classes are split into daily lessons of a manageable scope. This helps ensure that Mindvalley students practice daily, and it goes a long way in making the course material stick with you long-term.
Who is behind Mindvalley?
Mindvalley is the creation of Vishen Lakhiani, a Malaysian-born entrepreneur.
In 2001, Lakhiani started his career and moved to the legendary Silicon Valley. There, he became an engineer and eventually a senior leader at a successful startup. However, the highly stressful “work until you collapse” work culture of Silicon Valley led to personal burnout for Vishen. After this, he took up advanced meditation and embarked on a spiritual self-development journey. This journey also ultimately led to the creation of Mindvalley.
These days, Lakhiani is an activist, a speaker, and an acclaimed author. His book, “The Code of The Extraordinary Mind,” is the most acclaimed of his literary works. In 2017, the book took the business world by storm, becoming an Amazon #1 bestseller across all categories, staying at the top spot for five consecutive days.
Vishen Lakhiani has the ultimate life goal of taking human consciousness to the next level. And this lofty idea drives him in everything he does. So, whether he is delivering a keynote in Africa or hosting a class on meditation, Lakhiani always has the big picture in mind. This is also why he is often critical of dated education systems and traditional definitions of success.
What does Mindvalley do?
In broad terms, Mindvalley aims to offer an alternative to traditional education. It is the modern pioneer of so-called transformational education. Let me give you a quick explanation for those unfamiliar with the term.
Transformative Learning Theory was developed by Jack Mezirow, an American sociologist. According to Mezirow, transformative learning concerns useful, deep, and constructive learning. This method of studying is known for bringing about shifts in consciousness or even fundamental changes in one’s worldview.
So, instead of only learning a certain fixed skillset, you will also be advancing yourself spiritually. Or developing your brain plasticity if you prefer more scientific terms.
Mindvalley pioneers transformational education by offering high-quality online courses, live seminars, mentorship programs, and even spirituality apps.
Now that you have an overview of what Mindvalley is about let’s look at how much the courses cost.
How much do Mindvalley courses cost?
Since our first review in 2020, Mindvalley has changed its model from primarily selling access to individual courses (or “quests,” in their terminology) to being (almost) exclusively a subscription-based service, which has its positives and negatives.
Overall, while access to Mindvalley is not the cheapest we’ve seen, they do contain some of the best-produced and high-quality content out of all the platforms we’ve tested. And we’ve evaluated more than a dozen e-learning platforms by now.
Let’s go through the options. You can get access to Mindvalley content in the following ways:
- Mindvalley Masterclasses (free “sampler” courses)
- Mindvalley Membership
- Mindvalley Membership Pro
- Mindvalley for Business (for teams)
- Individual course purchase (available for a few specific courses)
Mindvalley Masterclasses
As Mindvalley seems well aware that it can be a bit of a steep investment to purchase access to their platform, they offer free “Masterclasses” to help give you a better idea of what full access might do for you.
The Masterclasses are short courses – 60-90 minutes – delivered by the Mindvalley quest instructors as a sampler to specific courses, focusing on some of the main transformative ideas that the courses cover.
Here are some of our favorite free Mindvalley Masterclasses:
- How To Read Faster & Read Better Masterclass by Jim Kwik
- Designing Your Masterpiece Life Masterclass by Jon & Missy Butcher
- Becoming a Super Learner Masterclass by Jim Kwik
- Reconstructing Reality Masterclass by Vishen Lakhiani
- The Japanese Art of Healing Your Money Wounds Masterclass by Ken Honda
- The 3 Keys to Transformative Learning Masterclass by Vishen Lakhiani
The Masterclasses are an excellent introduction to the Mindvalley quests, as they give you a taste of what you can expect from a full-length course. After giving these free masterclasses a spin, you should know better whether purchasing full access is the right choice for you or not.
And if you are only looking for some brief pointers on the topic covered in a Masterclass, most of them also stand well on their own.
Mindvalley Membership (previously All Access)
Mindvalley Membership is the new subscription service of Mindvalley. With the membership, you can enroll in all the current and future quests of Mindvalley for a single price. This type of online course subscription service is becoming increasingly popular, with more and more MOOC sites offering them as an alternative to single course purchases.
The cost for membership is $99 per month or $499 if paying for a year upfront (for a monthly cost of $41.60). Note that there are seldom – if ever – any discounts offered with Mindvalley, so there is little point in waiting for a better deal. (The annual price is, however, now $100 less than what Mindvalley charged for “All Access” – Mindvalley Membership used to be called – in 2020.)
Here’s what you get when you pay for Mindvalley Membership:
- Unlimited access to existing and upcoming Mindvalley Quests.
- Coaching sessions with Mindvalley authors.
- Access to Mindvalley University.
- Printable certificates for Mindvalley courses.
- Access to Mindvalley’s quest learning communities
- Access to the new Connections app, helping learners connect with other members outside of the quests through Mindvalley events as well as individual connections
- Little Humans parenting course and community
In fact, the membership gives you access to almost everything that the platform has to offer, with the following exceptions:
- Monthly group coaching with Vishen Lakhiani and guests (requires an upgrade to Mindvalley Membership Pro)
- WildFit and Lifebook Online (as these are partner programs that are not produced in-house by Mindvalley).
- Evercoach programs
- Holobody Certification program
This membership model that you can no longer buy access to most courses individually. This change has both positives and negatives.
On the positive side, we note the following with this model:
- Even if you are just interested in one course, membership means a significant price reduction in most cases – if you sign up for a monthly plan and finish the course within one or two months.
- For those interested in more than one Mindvalley quest – which applies to many interested in personal development as most of the quests are very complementary – Mindvalley Membership ends up being fantastic value-for-money compared with the previous model.
- With new quests with high production value launched frequently, you keep having access to a stream of quality personal development content to keep you engaged.
- Your membership gives you a more holistic perspective. It begins with a personalized assessment to provide you with a longer-term plan for personal development, weaving together the different quests offered on the platform.
- The Connections app will help you connect with others with a similar mindset regarding personal development, which is especially valuable as discussions in individual quest communities tend to be focused on the specific task at hand.
On the negative side, the new model has the following implications:
- It becomes more expensive if you are just interested in a single quest and like taking your time.
- Also, as you no longer buy lifetime access to a course, if you like to revisit a quest later, Membership only lets you access the course material during your membership (apart from what you can download and save locally).
The membership cost is a considerable investment for most learners, but luckily, Mindvalley also offers a generous no-questions-asked trial period of 15 days. So, potential customers can try the service entirely free of risk. There is 100% compensation for people not satisfied with the Mindvalley classes for any reason – and the cancellation process is literally just the press of a button.
Although Mindvalley Membership is not for everyone, given the straightforward trial offer, I suggest that anyone even remotely intrigued by their course offerings give Mindvalley Membership a try.
Mindvalley Membership Pro
For those interested in taking their overall personal development to another level, Mindvalley also offers a “Pro” level of their membership. This includes everything in the normal membership, but also gives you access to two monthly sessions with Vishen Lakhiani and special guests: the Leading Edge group coaching sessions and the Lifelong Shift group embodiment sessions.
Membership Pro is only available on an annual basis and costs $699 (or $199 more than the normal membership).
If you are looking for ongoing support for your development and making a whole of the different strands that you collect through the quests, I would consider this a fairly good investment, as long as you’re able to make use of the monthly sessions regularly.
Mindvalley for Business
Mindvalley also offers a membership for businesses to bring on a whole team to the platform. The standard pricing is straightforward, at $299 per person for teams of 20 or more. For larger companies or particular needs, they also offer customized solutions.
If your company is looking for a performance boost, Mindvalley For Business is an option worth looking into.
Purchasing individual courses
A few Mindvalley courses are still sold individually:
- Lifebook Online – a science-based lifestyle design program. As you know, most successful companies have a mission statement. Well, Lifebook will teach you to write a mission statement for your life. This Mindvalley life assessment will give you clarity and focus for reaching all your personal and professional goals. Lifetime access for $499 (not included in Mindvalley Membership).
- Wildfit – a special Mindvalley Quest for a healthy lifestyle from Eric Edmeades. Wildfit is an innovative masterclass that will transform your relationship with food and fitness. Lifetime access to the course is $899 (not included in Mindvalley Membership).
- Little Humans – a spiritual training program for fresh parents. Little Humans is based on a concept called Transformational Parenting. This practice will help new parents raise their kids to have healthy relationships with both themselves and the world around them. Some of the teachers of Little Humans will already be familiar to fans of Mindvalley. For example, there is an appearance by Jim Kwik, the #1 speed reading expert in the world. Annual membership is $129. Note that this is also included in the Mindvalley Membership.
Review of Mindvalley Quests
Mindvalley Quests are split into six primary categories:
- Mind
- Body
- Soul
- Entrepreneurship
- Career
- Relationships
As you see, Mindvalley offers content that covers most aspects of life – everything from work to parenting. This is the overall idea of the platform – although the number of courses is limited, they are consistently high-quality and should be able to address your personal development holistically.
In Mindvalley’s terminology, their courses are called Quests. Mindvalley Quests follow a different structure than most online courses. The Quests content is spread into daily 10-20 minute bits of reading and video lessons. And the video and reading lessons are also supported by various tasks.
These tasks are critical to your success in this journey. They involve putting everything you learn into practice in real life. And since the classes have been meticulously designed, make sure to do the tasks exactly as requested. Do not skip anything unless it’s indicated that it’s optional, even if some assignments might seem silly at first. No detail is unimportant if you want to reap the maximum benefits of a Mindvalley Quest.
The average daily duration of the lessons is short – which is intentional. This is the optimal daily time for fully absorbing entirely new information. Ever wondered why most TEDx talks last approximately 18 minutes? Coincidence? No. Neuroscience? Yes.
You will also see that some of these tasks involve communicating with your “tribe” – the online community of people following the same quest. You are often asked to share the details of your growth publicly. The Tribe will then give you feedback, answer your questions, and provide an overall “support system” for you.
Why is this system necessary for your progress? You guessed it! Good old neuroscience at work yet again!
While taking Mindvalley Quests, you’ll quickly realize that sharing your goals, motivations, progress, and hurdles is one of the keys to tuning your brain for high performance and fully absorbing the lessons.
Recently, we also reviewed the following Mindvalley Quests in-depth:
- Superbrain by Jim Kwik
- Super Reading by Jim Kwik
- Become Focused and Indistractable
- The 6 Phase Meditation by Vishen Lakhiani
- Lifebook Online by Jon & Missy Butcher
- The Habit of Ferocity by Steven Kotler
- The Uncompromised Life by Marisa Peer
- Be Extraordinary by Vishen Lakhiani
- The Silva Ultramind System by Vishen Lakhiani
- Becoming Focused and Indistractable by Nir Eyal
- Mystic Brain by Dawson Church
- Money EQ by Ken Honda
- Conscious Parenting Mastery by Dr Shefali
- Speak and Inspire by Lisa Nichols
So, if you’d like to learn more about taking a Mindvalley Quest as a student, feel free to check out any of these reviews.
Mindvalley Events
Mindvalley offers more than online programs. The dedicated community of Mindvalley also hosts various workshops, seminars, and talks.
Not only will you be meeting spirituality experts face to face, but the events also offer an excellent networking opportunity. In fact, the seeds of several startups have been sown at various Mindvalley events.
Next, let me give you a quick overview of the most popular Mindvalley events.
Mindvalley University
Mindvalley University is a 21-day yearly event exclusively for All Access students. Mindvalley University is a global campus of transformative learning. The event will host 50+ self-development experts and 100+ inspirational talks and workshops.
Mindvalley Live
Mindvalley Live is a 3-day spiritual self-improvement retreat that hosts only 250 attendees. It is also the only bilingual (Russian, English) Mindvalley event and is said to be the most intimate of all their events.
Mindvalley A-Fest
Mindvalley A-Fest is an invite-only Mindvalley event. A-Fest is a 3-day event connecting inspirational teachers, visionaries, and entrepreneurs. Despite being an exclusive event, everyone can apply for A-Fest.
To give you a taste of what A-Fest is all about, here’s one of Vishen Lakhiani’s talks from Mindvalley A-Fest in Mykonos, Greece.
Mindvalley Mentoring
Mindvalley Mentoring, included in the membership, is a platform offering high-impact coaching from Vishen Lakhiani and his mentors.
At times, you will actually be learning alongside Vishen. This is quite a unique approach to mentoring. One that will give you an intimate view of how a high-performing CEO approaches the act of learning.
Other Mindvalley brands
- Omvana – a top-selling spirituality app in over 30 countries. Omvana is a collection of guided meditations, personal growth speeches, and even hypnoses.
- Soulvana – a collection of in-depth spirituality courses. Soulvana includes courses on meditation, abundance, mindfulness, and spiritual healing. Soulvana also has an All Access service that will let your experience all the current and future content of Soulvana. A yearly subscription currently costs $299.
- Evercoach – a Quest collection developed for coaches. Evercoach includes masterclasses on coaching methodologies, business training, and effective communication. Evercoach is a solid program for individual coaches and businesses selling coaching services.
Mindvalley: The Advantages (Pros)
Consistency of quality
One of the main benefits of Mindvalley is the consistency of its content. Most similar online learning platforms can be hit-or-miss. That is, you will have to do your research before enrolling in a course. Otherwise, you might spend your hard-earned money on materials of questionable quality.
Mindvalley, however, is a textbook example of “quality over quantity”. They do not offer the sheer amount of courses that some other online learning platforms do. But, they make up for it with quality.
All Mindvalley courses come with high production value and are led by industry-leading experts in their fields. This is also one of the prime reasons for Mindvalley Membership offering arguably the best value-for-money collection of online classes.
High levels of usability
Mindvalley gets high marks in all five usability characteristics: it’s effective, efficient, engaging, error-tolerant, and easy to learn. Regarding online learning platforms, usability is arguably as important as the content itself.
And, Mindvalley hits it out of the park with both its mobile and desktop platform.
Very well-structured syllabi
If you have been paying attention, you know Mindvalley Quests has a very high completion rate. This is due to the scientific methods they use when structuring their courses.
And I can confidently say that this system works. The daily bite-sized chunks of lessons and tasks will keep you consistently motivated and engaged. And you will never feel overwhelmed by a large amount of content.
The Tribe community system is another major plus. When taking a Mindvalley Quest, make sure always to share your progress in the community. You will get all the benefits of working with a team without physically being a part of one. Your Tribe will keep you accountable and provide a tremendous motivational boost.
To sum it up, it is very easy to see where the high completion rate of Mindvalley comes from.
Engaged learner community
Of all the online learning platforms I have tested, Mindvalley has by far the best community. All my experiences with people from the Tribe have been great. Throughout my Quests, everyone has been super helpful and supportive. And, we even had a few laughs along the way.
It is no wonder that Mindvalley Events are so popular, this community simply rocks!
Mindvalley: The Disadvantages (Cons)
Relatively small course catalog
“Quality over quantity” can be a bit of a two-edged sword. On the one hand, Mindvalley does not have a course selection as big as, for example, Udemy or Skillshare.
On the other hand, the standards Mindvalley has set for its programs are some of the highest in the industry. So, if you DO find a class on a topic of interest, there are no risks involved regarding the quality of content.
Despite that, I would love to see more courses on Mindvalley on a wider range of topics. Looking at their release schedule, though, I’m optimistic.
Pricing and membership model does not suit all
Mindvalley team has put everything into creating an online learning platform that is a winner on all levels. They offer high usability, highly qualified teachers, and an innovative system of learning.
They are targeting those who take their personal development seriously, and the price reflects this. You get what you pay for, but the steep pricing still makes it an unsuitable platform for some students.
As discussed above, the membership model, while a much better value than individual courses for most students, is not suitable for those who are only interested in a single course and would like lifetime access to the course materials.
Review Conclusion: Is Mindvalley Worth it?
Looks like it’s time to wrap up our Mindvalley review.
So, did we tumble down the valley of the mind or climb out enlightened? Well, I don’t know about enlightenment, but I certainly came out impressed.
Having completed six Mindvalley Quests in full, I can now confidently say that, at least for me personally, Mindvalley is indeed worth the investment. “The Habit of Ferocity” and “Lifebook Online” have both increased my daily productivity immensely. And, the teachings from “Superbrain” and “Super Reading” have doubled my learning skills. My colleague who followed Nir Eyal’s method for Becoming Focused and Indistractable saw considerable and lasting improvements to her daily life. And my other colleague who reviewed Mindvalley’s take on the Silva Ultramind System also found the course useful, even after approaching it as a skeptic.
But, there is a catch.
As you know, Mindvalley Quests are different from your average online video courses. Every day, these classes will acquire your full commitment. So, you need to do every assignment, engage with your Tribe, and be mentally present at all times. Luckily, the Quests are designed not to overwhelm you, so putting your best foot forward will come easy. In fact, you will probably be looking forward to your next lessons and assignments.
Mindvalley also shines in the technical department. Everything is presented in crystal-clear HD, the audio levels are great, and all videos are closed-captioned.
While the membership model is not the best fit for everyone, the best way to learn if the platform is worth the investment is to simply try it out. The no-questions-asked 15-day money-back guarantee is both generous and very easy to use in case you’re not satisfied.
In a nutshell. Mindvalley has fully earned its status as one of the leading online learning platforms. And, I will certainly be embarking on a new Quest in the near future. So, stay tuned!
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