Parallels are often made between animism (the belief that spirits are everywhere) and panpsychism (the belief that consciousness/mind is everywhere). Indeed, under an animistic belief system, it is possible to think of the term ‘spirit’ as equivalent to ‘mind’, although for the sake of clarity, we can treat the belief in discrete spirits existing in…
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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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Time distortion is one of the classic effects of psychedelics (although I rarely see this mentioned as an expected effect of psychedelics on educational, retreat, and therapy sites). I think that time distortion needs to be discussed more from a harm reduction point of view: many challenging experiences are related to alterations to one’s perception…
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Darkness retreats involve spending a period of time in complete isolation and darkness. People do this for different reasons – to achieve an introspective state, a digital detox, a period of rest, or a spiritual experience. Participants in these retreats stay in rooms equipped with beds, toilets, and showers, which can be tricky to use…
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Integration, in the context of psychedelics, is typically defined as the process of making sense of psychedelic experiences and applying the insights contained therein to one’s everyday life. But how does this definition of integration apply to traumatic psychedelic experiences? For those unfortunate to undergo them, they can make immediate sense (in terms of why…
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