You know how all of the chatter about “the recovery” during the past couple of years has sounded like pure propaganda when held up against real economic life on the ground for real people in the United States? You know how that kind of talk has all hinged on how the big corporations are doing,…
The other mind-body connection: Food and psychological health
For the past several decades, the term mind-body connection has been used to refer to the idea, familiar in both the world of alternative health care and the world of “positive thinking,” that our thoughts and emotions can exert a powerful effect on our physical health. I’ve personally verified and validated this to an extent…
Saying goodbye to the “God particle”?
Well, crap. Not even a month ago the news was this: “God particle: Existence to be confirmed by 2012” — Physicists directing research through the Large Hadron Collider at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) have announced that the existence of the sub-atomic “God particle” will be decided by the end of 2012. For many…
NASA says aliens may destroy earth over global warming. NASA says nothing of the kind.
Here’s a regrettable object lesson in the necessity of maintaining a properly skeptical attitude in today’s hype-prone mass media society, even in the face of the coolest headlines ever: Word recently surfaced of a new report from NASA that sounds like something from a science fiction film. It started on August 18 in, of all…
Beware: UFOs can blow a hole in your reality
In Daimonic Reality, Patrick Harpur eloquently describes the surreal, dreamlike feeling that almost always pervades paranormal experiences, including UFO encounters. He also dwells at some length on the implications for our understanding of reality itself. Although the same level of philosophical focus isn’t evident in a recent article about UFO encounters from the Union newspaper…
Rhode Island School of Design now requiring incoming freshmen to read H.P. Lovecraft
Is it really possible that a modern-day American college has actively taken steps to transform the experience and education they offer their students into an overtly Lovecraftian affair? Why, yes, it is, much to my jaw-dropped astonishment and delight. Cue the sound of stars aligning. First, the wide-scope background: As reported by The New York…
High food prices and global societal collapse: US researchers warn of a link
If anyone still wants to question or deny whether the era of peaking fossil fuels, along with the epic government-backed financial swindles of the past few decades, will have — is currently having — distinct real-world impacts of a severely disruptive nature, please note the emphasis on the role of biofuels and government deregulation of…
International Consciousness Research Labs: “Strengthening the foundations of science by reclaiming its spiritual heritage”
The world continues to get more fascinating as our global economic calamities, political instabilities, societal disruptions, and cultural meltdowns are paralleled in lockstep by philosophical, scientific, and technological developments of a profoundly exciting and forward-looking nature. Case in point: The International Consciousness Research Laboratories, or ICRL, “an international, interdisciplinary, and inter-generational consortium of some 75…
Celebrating Lovecraft’s birthday and Ligotti’s un-birthday
It’s still August 20 in my time zone as I type these words, so it’s not too late for me to send out this year’s Lovecraftian birthday acknowledgment into the cyber-ether. Thus: Happy Birthday, Howard, wherever you are or are not. If it’s the former, if you really are somewhere, then I know you’re eternally…
In praise of horror movie music, from Bernard Hermann to Goblin to Ennio Morricone to John Carpenter
A recent engaging article from the Guardian pings on a number of my most cherished horror film themes and composers by examining the contributions of, among others, Bernard Hermann, Howard Shore, John Carpenter, Goblin, and Ennio Morricone, and by invoking the cinematic legacy of such directors as Dario Argento, Umberto Lenzi, Tobe Hooper, John Carpenter, and William Friedkin.