In the search for alternative forms of healing, people may want to turn to what is seen as a more natural, human, holistic, and deeper form of healing – namely, shamanism. Shamanism can, quite broadly, be defined as a tradition of religious specialists who act as mediators with spirits and the spirit realm. Through the…
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I recently came across the term hagioptasia, coined by musician Daniel Laidler. It refers to a fleeting sense of significance and specialness, which eludes explanation. Laidler describes this experience, and how it’s a core part of nostalgia, in a blog post published last December. He challenges the commonplace notion that nostalgia is merely a sentimental…
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In The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (1912), the sociologist Émile Durkheim argues that religion has its origin in a feeling he calls collective effervescence. This refers to the heightened feeling of energy, euphoria, harmony, and unity that arises when we’re engaged in certain group activities, rituals, and ceremonies. This was a feeling that…
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Seconds (1966) is a sci-fi psychological thriller directed by John Frankenheimer. In my eyes, it’s a perfectly made film, and I found it to be a fascinating exploration of several existential themes: identity, choice, desire, fantasy, regret, eternal youth, and the wish to start life again. (The philosopher Slavoj Žižek analyses Seconds in his 2006 documentary…
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In the natural world, there are more than 200 psilocybin mushroom species (most of these belong to the genera Psilocybe, but psilocybin-producing mushrooms also belong to genera such as Copelandia, Inocybe, and Panaeolus). There are also many different strains, or varieties, of psilocybin mushroom species. Most of these strains belong to the species Psilocybe cubensis.…
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