10 Deep Dives You May Have Missed on Medium
Deep Dives, Vol. IV: Bacterial God, climate grief, yoga philosophy, psychedelic healing, the Hedonic Treadmill, spiritual vegetarianism and more. Add these recent stories to your reading list. You’ll be glad you did!
Bacteria Is An Immortal, Living God, by Indi Samarajiva
“Bacteria is a living god. One planet-spanning being — immortal, creative, and powerful. Bacteria were the first life, they created the conditions for life, and they maintain life to this day. In a very biological sense, God is real, but it’s not an old man in a flowing beard. God is bacteria. Their pronouns are they/them.”
He’s not kidding. This is not a metaphor. This will change the way you see all life on earth.
Fire on Water, by Jennifer Tarnacki
“The dance in the bones, the wildfire in the soul. Out of the womb of dark silent grief it came. At first, a howl. A howling of Earth’s lungs, the howling of coyote in my lungs. The unconquerable shout at the midnight hour. One thing left to do, rise up, stomp our feet on the dust of the wasteland, dance the dance of freedom, and call in the rain.”
Put this exquisitely poetic story into the hands of anyone you know who doesn’t quite “get” climate change. This is not a political rant or any kind of scientific treatise. This is your heart bursting raw against the ground. This is howling grief for the loss of everything, the murder of the earth, the death of Nature at the hands of Humanity. Feel it now. Let grief transform you. Share this story far and wide while there’s still time.
What is Yoga? From Ancient Sources to Modern Times, by Erika Burkhalter
“Yoga is old. And yoga is new. It is impossible to look back at any point in time and say, ‘that’s yoga.’ It is a living, breathing tradition with roots and wings.”
There’s way more to yoga than you probably realize. Get the big picture in this deep dive by Erika Burkhalter, who “teaches yoga philosophy for Loyola Marymount University’s extension program and has traveled within India seven times to study yoga, to see the ancient sites, for graduate school study, and to take her yoga students on retreats to see the land where yoga originated.”
Can psychedelics heal the world?, by Marc Gunther
“This story… is not about how psychedelics can heal the mind. It’s about how they can heal the world.”
Science has begun to explore the curative role of psychedelics like LSD, psilocybin, and MDMA in treating mental illness. And that’s terrific. But Marc Gunther argues the potential of these psychoactive chemicals is much greater. They could bring Humanity together. They could reunite us with Nature. They could help us find the will to solve global problems like climate change and poverty.
Transcendence Through Negation: Insights from the apophatic method, by Vasuman Ravichandran
“…the apophatic approach to transcendence differs significantly from an atheistic denial. Where the modern-day atheist epitomizes rationality and reason as the only true means of knowledge and dismisses anything that isn’t backed by material evidence, the apotheist hints at a state that is beyond the reach of reason, using means that are replete with apparent contradictions and inconsistencies.”
If you’re a fan of my work, you know I’m all about the “apparent contradictions and inconsistencies” path to truth… I never knew it had a name!
The Illusion Behind the Pursuit of Happiness: How to escape the Hedonic Treadmill of life, by Mathushah.S
“The Hedonic Treadmill theory… refers to people’s general tendency to return to a set level of happiness despite life’s ups and downs. In other words, the concept of happiness is so fleeting, it will make you end up where you started, just like on a treadmill. It is like you are moving, but you are not.”
The treadmill is taking you nowhere. Try “fruitful monotony” instead.
Taming our world: How uncertainty, beliefs and psychedelics can create and destroy depression, by Gabrielle Reason
“…an array of pathological beliefs about the world become so tightly held that they can no longer be influenced and modulated by sensory input. Depressive thinking becomes entrenched and even self-reinforcing, self-selecting to bias sensory input, such as believing you are a burden to loved ones who want nothing more than to care for you.”
Here’s another deep dive into the curative powers of psychedelics, in this case, specifically regarding depression. Here, we not only see that psychedelics work to heal minds; we catch a glimpse of how they do it. It’s more than simply chemicals affecting our brains. It’s our brains wholly constructing our identity, our experience of our selves and the world around us, and psychedelics remaking us (and our world) from the ground up.
How To Live in a Meaningless World Where Your Existence Doesn’t Matter, by Prakhar Verma
“In existentialism, if there are no rules to abide by, no purpose to follow, and no authority to answer to, it’s up to us to create our purpose and figure out how to live.”
Here’s an upbeat, concise primer on exactly how to do that.
Becoming Vegetarian Was a Spiritual Decision, by Allison J. van Tilborgh
“I no longer felt I could hide behind the wall of ‘it’s impractical’ or ‘animals were meant to serve humans.’ In fact, animals were created before and with humans, according to the Jewish tradition. We did not come to earth to kill, steal, and destroy. We were created to connect with Creation.”
Not every vegetarian is a hippie animal rights activist. For some, like Allison J. van Tilborgh (and me, now in my 36th meat-free year), the necessity of compassion toward animals, compelling a decision to not eat them, comes as an unsolicited, inconvenient, yet undeniable discovery made along the spiritual path. And spiritual truths, once seen, can’t be ignored.
The Mindboggling Power of an Empty Mind — A Thought(less) Experiment, by Whys Profit
“In this experiment, you’ll learn what the mind is and why it needs to be empty. To receive the full effects, read slowly and visualize each idea. Tune out from distractions and use the coolest device in the universe — your imagination.”
Discover firsthand the difference between mind and consciousness. This brief thought-experiment will change how you experience yourself and reality.
