A theodicy is an attempt to justify or defend the Omni-God (an all-powerful, all-loving, all-knowing god), given the fact of evil in the world. The evil in the world is of two kinds: human-caused evil and natural evil. These refer, respectively, to the sometimes atrocious and abhorrent suffering that people cause to other people or…
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One of my favourite lessons from the late spiritual teacher Ram Dass relates to his relationship with his neuroses. Based on Ram Dass’ character – who he was as a person, and how he presented himself to others – one might assume that he was untroubled by negative habitual thought patterns. But in his talks,…
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It might be assumed that the problems of mental health overdiagnosis and self-diagnosis culture would only serve to promote more openness around mental health (despite the fact they sometimes pathologise normal and understandable distress). However, the backlash against these intertwined phenomena has resulted in increased cynicism and scepticism towards a general culture of emotional openness.…
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Many members of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) may not be aware that the organisation’s founder, Bill Wilson, was an advocate of LSD. This may seem like a strange fact, given that for AA members, achieving ‘sobriety’ tends to mean total abstinence not just from alcohol but all mind-altering substances. However, Wilson – based on his own…
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I previously wrote about how we can think of psychedelics as trickster chemicals, based on how their effects often align with the attributes of the trickster archetype. This is not meant to replace other terms for psychedelics, such as entheogen or medicine, but merely supplement them. But there are other unique and common effects that…
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