*Because I’m giving my parts a break from potential attack, I won’t be posting this on social media and we have disabled comments on this post. For those who want to discuss this post- and many other controversial topics- we have a safe forum for unpacking these...
In some of my latest writings, we’ve been examining some of the shadows of spirituality, including how our wellness, yoga, and spirituality circles got hijacked by QAnon. Many previously helpful wellness influencers went down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories...
By special request from a number of readers, let's unpack some New Age teachings regarding money. One frustrated reader who asked me to write about this said, "I can't tell you how many times I've heard from a coach or healer that if I just commit or pray or...
The other day on Facebook, I crowdsourced answers to the question- "What is a spiritual person?" Part of why I asked is because I went through a phase a few years back where I was DONE with "spiritual people." I was going through a rough time, feeling repetitively...
My family always does some sort of Thanksgiving ritual, a practice of counting our blessings, expressing our gratitude, giving thanks to God and each other for the bounty in our lives. In spite of my painful awareness that the Pilgrims and Indians fairy tale I was...
I grew up in the Methodist church, with three ministers in my family, so I was literally raised on the religious version of spiritual bypassing. About half of the healthy, normal human emotions were judged as “unspiritual” by my mother (in the name of the church)....
I was listening to spiritual teacher Tosha Silver's call this morning. She said that she wept at Biden's acceptance speech when she saw someone in the audience holding a sign that said, "The People Chose Empathy." It made me realize that this election really was...
The votes for the 2020 US Presidential election are still being counted, but what is already obvious is that something close to 50% of the country is still voting for an unapologetically racist, white supremacist candidate. The hashtags have quit trending, but the...
In case you're curious, I appeared on the Conspirituality podcast this week, talking about how the New Age and far right-wing conspiracy theories wound up in an awkward, racist, and dangerous marriage. (My interview is the last part of a 2 hr 15 min podcast. Listen...
Some of you are asking me to clarify how seemingly benign "love and light" New Age belief systems could possibly be damaging, especially to BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and disabled folks. So let's unpack a few common New Age teachings (that I tried on years ago like a new...
After reading all of your comments all week, just so I can try to make sense of what's happening here in this community, I feel like I need to make a few distinctions about my understanding about some core spiritual teachings around compassion. First, I'm...
I can't stop pondering why so many of the challenges we're facing as a culture right now revolve around the breath. COVID is a disease that threatens our breathing. West Coast wildfires right now and recent horrific fires in Australia and the Amazon are making it...
As I’m trapped in my house because the air quality where I live in the Bay Area is incompatible with life, as I’m sheltered in place for six months and gave up all summer travel because I want to be a responsible community member and don’t want to hurt anyone who...
This is a time of hard choices in uncertain times. Should you go to the hospital if you get short of breath, or should you ride it out at home? Should you let your kid endure the potential damage of remote learning, or should you let your child go to in-person...
When I decided to rewrite 2/3 of my classic bestseller Mind Over Medicine a year ago so I could update much of the science, add new tools for healing and transformation, and entirely modify the Six Steps To Healing Yourself based on my deeper understanding of how...
Lots of people are having a rough time right now, and it’s no wonder. There is a strong link between social isolation and trauma, and when so much radical change is upon us, it’s natural that our “stuff” will bubble up. When we do not have the routines of daily...