Psychedelic experiences can be weird – sometimes extremely weird. Yet, the notion of weirdness is often not the primary focus in the psychedelic renaissance or psychedelic culture. Instead, the focus is often around the therapeutic or spiritual aspects of psychedelic experiences – themes like healing, mental health, personal growth, mystical experiences, etc. This isn’t to…
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From around 2006 to 2008, in my ‘scene kid’ phase, I was listening to a lot of deathcore – a genre combining death metal with metalcore – as a lot of scene kids were. We wanted to hear breakdowns, guttural vocals, and pig squeals (vocals that go “breeeee”). It was part of the cultural zeitgeist.…
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I’ve found it curious that many of the pioneers of Western Buddhism – those who brought Buddhism to the West and helped popularise it – are Jewish. Frank Descher details this phenomenon in his 2017 essay ‘Jewish Converts to Buddhism and the Phenomenon of “Jewish Buddhists” (“JuBus”) in the United States, Germany and Israel’. Rodger Kamenetz,…
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Since I started using Letterboxd (four years ago), an unconscious tendency I developed when watching films is that, throughout the film, I’ll think about what Letterboxd rating I’m going to give it. If the start of the film starts really well and feels unique and perfectly attuned to my sensibilities, then I might think, This…
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Danny Shine, also known as the ‘Social Experimentalist’, runs a YouTube channel where he posts videos of himself out in London with a megaphone, voicing his polemical views. (His more recent content on his channel is recorded monologues on various social, cultural, and philosophical topics.) In public, he’ll interact with passersby or those standing to…
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