Almost all of the medical research with psychedelic drugs to date has been focused on curing diseases and treating illnesses. Little attention has been paid to the reported ability of these remarkable substances to increase human potential, and even less attention has been paid to their reputed ability to significantly enhance all aspects of human pleasure...

I read a quote from Thoreau, and his words stopped me cold: "We are all schoolmasters and the universe is our school house." As Thoreau says, this is everyone's true nature — being a teacher. I don't mean the teacher who stands up in front of a classroom. I mean someone who nurtures and inspires and encourages and guides and challenges...

When Timothy Leary was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer at age seventy-six, he said that he was “thrilled and ecstatic” to hear that he was going die. As much as Leary loved life, he not only accepted death but also embraced it...

The myth of progress tells a story in which everything that came before this moment is useless and obsolete. Many will agree that the idea of progress, which is the ideological underpinning of civilization, is delusional, but still wonder where does it leave us if we...

Psychiatric heretic R. D. Laing wrote, “The condition of alienation, of being asleep, of being unconscious, of being out of one’s mind, is the condition of the normal man.” In Laing’s mind normality is insanity, whereas madness may be a path to “hypersanity.”

Before we can choose productive myths for our lives we must be sure to weed out the bogus myths first. Some of these will be very deeply rooted, and therefore harder to deal with. One of the marks of a bogus myth is that it acts like carrot-and-stick persuasion. So, for example, if we take a look at some political myths, we'll see that...

What if changing the world started with getting to know your neighbors? Cultural creatives are proving it's not just possible—it’s already happening.

Many people are afflicted with catastrophobia — an intense fear of catastrophes. This new word is intended to name a psychological syndrome that causes individuals and societies to think an end is coming soon. Our surface minds are filled with floating images of disaster, guilt, and suffering.

There are increased energies pouring into the Earth and the danger here is that the varied social matrixes in which many people live will flood the mental airwaves with increased images of catastrophes, apocalypse, and perpetual warfare. The Armageddon meme will be likely to work overtime...

Imagine a country in which the very richest people get all the economic gains. They eventually accumulate so much of the nation’s total income and wealth that the middle class no longer has the purchasing power to keep the economy going full speed.

A common thread in recent events is the increased use of the power of the people. After years of people sitting back and saying there was nothing they could do to stop the "powers that be", we are seeing that this was a fallacy.

The Republican crackup threatens the future of the Grand Old Party more profoundly than at any time since the GOP’s eclipse in 1932. The crackup isn’t just Romney the smooth versus Gingrich the bomb-thrower. The underlying conflict...

Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength: "...put our country ahead of politics. ...increase taxes on incomes over $1,000,000. We make this request as loyal citizens who now or in the past earned an income of $1,000,000 per year or more...

If values and morals are to be taught in public schools, what should be taught? Are there universals that are worthy of teaching to all children in our multifaceted, democratic society? There has been considerable debate about which moral values...