Global Brains & Singularities: Cadell Last & Michael Garfield Debate The Technopocalypse

Cadell Last is an evolutionary anthropologist at the Global Brain Institute and producer of the PBS Digital Studios series The Advanced Apes. We discussed the possibility that our entire planet is waking up as a single super-intelligent organism, and the consequences – both light and dark – for both humankind and the whole biosphere…

Endgame of an Era

As a civilization we are in the throes of living out an “endgame.” This is not the endgame of our species or any similar dire situation – but the endgame of an era.

Meditation Stimulates Long-Lasting Brain Changes

The effects gained from meditation continue to affect brain function for a long time after meditation is over, according to new research.

Are Minds Confined to Brains?

Materialism is the doctrine that only matter is real. Hence minds are in
brains, and mental activity is nothing but brain activity. This
assumption conflicts with our own experience. When we look at a
blackbird, we see a blackbird; we do not experience complex electrical
changes in our brains. But most of us accept the mind-within-the-brain
theory.

Self As City, City As Self

This year at Burning Man's Entheon Village, I gave a talk on how evolutionary biology, developmental psychology, philosophy, architecture, and art challenge our constructed categories of "individual" and "collective," pointing us toward a new understanding of the self as a multitude and our communities as living, sentient beings.  (Transcript of the talk with links to audio and video…)

Imaginal Hygiene

Imaginal hygiene is the inner art of self-managing the imagination, to defend it from forces that compromise, pollute, and sterilize it, and to cultivate those that illuminate and nourish it. Knowledge of this is essential to the story of human survival into the 21st century.

Living in the Infosphere

The new, pervasive communications media have pushed us into what mystics have called the etheric realms. Without proper tools and preparation, we can become trapped in a maze of electronically magnified addictions and fears. We must call upon the protector archetypes as we embark on our cyber-shamanic initiation.

The Brain on Jazz

New scientific findings shed light on the fascinating neurological effects of jazz on the human brain.

Soul Projections

Current research is supporting the phenomenon known as out-of-body experiences. Here are a few techniques to try it out yourself.

Henry Thoreau’s “Secret”

[Daemonic Dispatches] • "He prays for it, and so he gets it." No, that isn't a line from The Secret. It's a line from Henry Thoreau, just nine words of the over six million he penned in his extraordinary journal. In many ways those nine words encompass Thoreau's central thought and discovery. Despite his distaste for fortune-finding, Thoreau had an uncanny aptitude for discovering treasure.