It has come to my attention that although I write all the time about religion, philosophy, spirituality, psychology, consciousness, culture, the paranormal, and other idea-based subjects, my own position on any or all of them generally comes off as obscure. ITEM: My friend Kim Paffenroth, the religion scholar and zombie horror author, has characterized me…
Category: Psychology & Consciousness
Be Careful What You Daydream; Big Brother May Be Watching
Despite the fact that I’ve thought the rash of new research into daydreaming and imagination over the past several years is really cool, this newest article definitely triggers my Creep Out/Dystopian Warning meter: Time out boosts brains The Sydney Morning Herald, August 2, 2010 New research shows some types of optimistic daydreaming are productive, improve…
Is abstract thought just piggybacking on the physical body?
According to some new psychological research into the nature of metaphors, “much of what we think of as abstract reasoning is in fact a sometimes awkward piggybacking onto the mental tools we have developed to govern our body’s interactions with its physical environment. Put another way, metaphors reveal the extent to which we think with…
The Evolution of Consciousness and the Alchemy of Language
Some years ago I started telling the students in my literature and writing classes that language has an alchemical power. I usually do this when we’re studying poetry, although I have applied the idea to prose as well. This always necessitates a pause to offer a brief explanation of the word “alchemy.” Then, once that’s…
The sadness of America and the need for a new consciousness
A couple of months ago I began catching wind of a new documentary film titled What a Way to Go: Life at the End of Empire. It sounded intriguing so I started reading pretty much everything I could find about it on the Internet. At this point, having informed myself as much as I can…
Adventures in nocturnal assault
In the early and mid-1990s, beginning immediately after my graduation from college, I began to suffer from a recurring experience of sleep paralysis. If you’re not familiar with this phenomenon, click the link just given or do a Web search. There’s plenty of detailed information available. The link above will take you to an article…