If Alfred Hitchcock is the ‘master of suspense’, then I think we can call filmmaker Brian Yuzna the ‘master of disgust’ (or at least, one of the masters in this subtype of horror). Born in 1949, the American director and producer is best known for his work in the science fiction and horror genres, most…
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In an earlier post on remembering dreams, I described recalling some adventurous and awe-inspiring dreams I had in the past, which got me thinking about how I often feel that these sorts of dreams are better than reality. Alongside this is the feeling of not wanting to wake up – to just continue the dream…
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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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When watching street debates with the vegan activists Earthling Ed and Joey Carbstrong, it becomes apparent to me that one of the biggest barriers that they (and other activists) face is personality differences. This is because certain personality traits shape our receptivity to veganism. There are indeed general cognitive biases that can make some people…
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One night last week, as I was falling asleep, in my head I told myself – as I’ve done before – I don’t want to have weird or bad dreams, I want to have fun dreams. I’ve done this as my intention before going to sleep, as I’ve kind of convinced myself that this intention-setting does…
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