Freelance Writer, Editor & Author
When it comes to the belief in plant spirits, there may be a tendency to exoticise indigenous beliefs and be biased towards them over other religious beliefs one is exposed to or familiar with. This is despite the fact that both types of belief propound supernatural entities. The former belief may seem more trustworthy since… The post Plant Spirits, Amazonianism, and the Tourist Gaze…
The UK experienced an unprecedented heatwave last month, along with the rest of Europe. In the UK, where I am, the heatwave broke June temperature records (peaking at 37.7C), while Germany hit an all-time high of 41.7C. The reality of climate change is that heatwaves like this will become longer, more frequent, and more intense.… The post Psychedelics and Hot Weather: Risks and Harm…
Being passionate and enthusiastic about psychedelics – or even evangelical about them – can sometimes lead to seeing their influence everywhere. When you spend a lot of time thinking about these substances, as well as using them, it’s as if the world becomes more psychedelic; nature becomes more alive, and you imagine how things would… The post Psychedelic Apophenia: Seeing the Influence of…
Home Sweet Home (1982), a television film directed by Mike Leigh, part of the BBC’s Play for Today series, is one of Leigh’s bleakest films. In it, the last of his contributions to this series, Leigh portrays the lives and dysfunctional relationships of three postal workers living on a housing estate in Hitchin, Hertfordshire. I’d… The post Home Sweet Home (1982, Mike Leigh): A Bleak…
I’m a big fan of horror, as well as the subgenre of ‘psychedelic horror’, in which the psychedelic experience or ‘psychedelic’ aesthetic is used to unsettle and terrify viewers. I’m also interested in the future of psychedelic horror: What aspects of the psychedelic experience, or what trippy effects, could be realised on screen that have… The post What is the Future of Psychedelic Horror?…
In a blog post from a couple of years ago, I described my first experience with high ventilation breathwork – a form known as Psychedelic Breath, based on the principles of Holotropic Breathwork, developed by the Czech psychiatrist and LSD researcher Stan Grof. In that post, I also detailed some of the research on high… The post Breathing Your Way to Altered States appeared first on Sam…
Yoga nidra (or yogic sleep) is a technique for inducing a state of consciousness between waking and sleeping. I often use it when I’m sleep-deprived, either as a way to (hopefully) have a nap, or at least to feel more rested, which can happen without needing to sleep. Research is also emerging on the benefits… The post Entering the Hypnagogic State Through Yoga Nidra appeared first on Sam…
I recently rewatched Arrival (2016, Denis Villeneuve), adapted from Ted Chiang’s novella Story of Your Life, having first watched it five years ago. My experience, based on what I can remember, was different this time around. There were some elements I understood and appreciated more, whereas others somewhat stood out as weak points. On second… The post Language and the Perception of Time:…
The embellishment of memories is a widespread phenomenon. Sometimes, the distortion of memory goes beyond embellishment and becomes fabrication: false memories are common, and they can be easily induced. Simply put, memory is prone to distortion. Research shows that human memory is constructive (or reconstructive) rather than purely reproductive; we fill in gaps in memory… The post How Much…
Anemoia, a coinage from the writer John Koenig – author of The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows – refers to a feeling of nostalgia for a time one didn’t live through. I previously wrote about why this feeling arises, namely, by connecting it to Daniel Laidler’s concept of hagioptasia: the tendency to project ‘specialness’ onto certain aspects… The post Nostalgia for a Past Unlived: Anemoia,…