Psychology
essay
Philosophy of religion
Reckoning with compassion
After an abuse scandal destroyed my Buddhist community, I had to reconsider what it means to live an ethically attuned life
Jessica Locke
video
Sports and games
The brutality and beauty of the West African martial art of ‘dambe’
15 minutes
essay
Religion
Buddhist missionaries
Buddhist monks have mostly escaped the label of proselytisers, but they’ll still spread the word to those who seek them out
Brooke Schedneck
video
Art
A mindbending trip that summons the forgotten women of surrealism
17 minutes
video
Rituals and celebrations
In a Mongolian wind burial, a body falls on land before getting swept up to the heavens
6 minutes
video
History of technology
A rare glimpse inside a samurai sword workshop, where ritual meets mastery
24 minutes
essay
Consciousness and altered states
Pivotal mental states
Spiritual highs and mental breakdowns are both products of the same evolved brain system granting us the power to transform
Ari Brouwer
essay
Spirituality
Where the rivers meet
Pilgrims have long sought in India’s holiest city an antidote to the modern West, but Varanasi is more dream than reality
Manini Sheker
essay
Stories and literature
The divine Dante
At 700, Dante’s Divine Comedy is as modern as ever – a lesson in spiritual intelligence that makes us better at being alive
Mark Vernon
video
Subcultures
In a remote town near Area 51, UFO believers and locals contemplate the beyond
12 minutes
essay
Stories and literature
The four-fold imagination
William Blake saw angels and ghosts and the Hallelujah sunrise, even on the darkest day. We need to foster his state of mind
Mark Vernon
video
Rituals and celebrations
How a village’s first totem pole ceremony in a century sparked a spiritual awakening
16 minutes
idea
Meaning and the good life
Philosophy cannot resolve the question ‘How should we live?’
David Ellis
video
Spirituality
A modern shepherd tending his flock looks for spiritual resonance in age-old work
10 minutes
idea
Consciousness and altered states
How chasing solar eclipses opened me up to the awe of living
Kate Russo
idea
Spirituality
What is the soul if not a better version of ourselves?
John Cottingham
essay
Philosophy of religion
Perennial philosophy
Aldous Huxley argued that all religions in the world were underpinned by universal beliefs and experiences. Was he right?
Jules Evans
essay
Sex and sexuality
Anti-climax
Coitus reservatus is an ancient technique promising bliss and longevity. Does orgasm data back up these tantric ideas?
Peter von Ziegesar
video
Rituals and celebrations
Are mushrooms, shamans and ancient rituals at the root of the Santa Claus story?
7 minutes
video
Consciousness and altered states
How a scientific attempt to demystify Buddhist meditation yielded astounding results
7 minutes
essay
Philosophy of mind
The problem of mindfulness
Mindfulness promotes itself as value-neutral but it is loaded with (troubling) assumptions about the self and the cosmos
Sahanika Ratnayake
video
Spirituality
What does pilgrimage mean in an age of instant communication and high-speed travel?
14 minutes
essay
Stories and literature
Sweetness and strangeness
In our image-saturated, over-sped world, we are losing the imaginative power to create and find meaning through metaphor
Heather Altfeld & Rebecca Diggs
essay
History of ideas
Against disenchantment
The move away from myth and toward reason is an ancient human impulse. But must enchantment be the enemy of enlightenment?
Jason Josephson Storm