After ingesting mescaline, Aldous Huxley wrote that he saw “a bunch of flowers shining with their own inner light and all but quivering under the pressure of the significance with which they were charged”. In The Doors of Perception (1954), he describes, as many psychonauts do, the world becoming alive under the influence of psychedelics.…
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Being passionate and enthusiastic about psychedelics – or even evangelical about them – can sometimes lead to seeing their influence everywhere. When you spend a lot of time thinking about these substances, as well as using them, it’s as if the world becomes more psychedelic; nature becomes more alive, and you imagine how things would…
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In a blog post from a couple of years ago, I described my first experience with high ventilation breathwork – a form known as Psychedelic Breath, based on the principles of Holotropic Breathwork, developed by the Czech psychiatrist and LSD researcher Stan Grof. In that post, I also detailed some of the research on high…
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Yoga nidra (or yogic sleep) is a technique for inducing a state of consciousness between waking and sleeping. I often use it when I’m sleep-deprived, either as a way to (hopefully) have a nap, or at least to feel more rested, which can happen without needing to sleep. Research is also emerging on the benefits…
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I recently rewatched Arrival (2016, Denis Villeneuve), adapted from Ted Chiang’s novella Story of Your Life, having first watched it five years ago. My experience, based on what I can remember, was different this time around. There were some elements I understood and appreciated more, whereas others somewhat stood out as weak points. On second…
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