I am not a healer. I have seen three healers work: as they began, the engine in each of them went into high rpm, their energies whirring with activation; they used spiritual power, and the changes produced were immediate and palpable. Although I believe that we each have some degree of capacity for healing and … Read more
A tangent is something that touches. Stephen’s comment on the previous blogpost touched the theme integrating body, mind, and soul with spirit. Stephen referred to shamanism, a topic worth pursuing. For all its errors, shamanism sometimes has intuitions that are worth re-theorizing, in other words, worth transplanting into a more philosophically and religiously satisfying garden. … Read more
The conclusion of Descartes’ Error by Antonio Damascio reveals the mind of a humanist neuroscientist who nobly struggles to affirm soul and spirit while holding to the view that these higher realities are products of the mind, which is a product of the brain. “Mind comes from the brain.” (251) “The mind as a function … Read more
Antonio Damascio is one of the top neuroscientists whose work directly touches on philosophical questions, and his clear and elegant writing is seasoned with relevant references to the arts. His blockbuster 1994 book, Descartes’ Error, explains that if the parts of our brain that support reason were not neurologically connected to the parts of … Read more
Palomar Observatory Religion teaches hope for everlasting life, but current scientific cosmology seems to deprive that hope of material support. In The Last Three Minutes, Paul Davies first observes how speculative it is for astrophysics to extrapolate from present trends to a handful of possible scenarios about the “end of the universe,” but then he … Read more
Reggio Emilia preschool piazza (common space) It’s generally a good idea to get to know and learn from people you want to teach before you try to teach them anything. Here’s something huge that I just learned from Howard Gardner, who has probably reached more people with a message about the importance of truth, beauty, … Read more
Reggio Emilia preschool piazza (common space) It’s generally a good idea to get to know and learn from people you want to teach before you try to teach them anything. Here’s something huge that I just learned from Howard Gardner, who has probably reached more people with a message about the importance of truth, beauty, … Read more
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) 1909 When perspectives clash, we do well to keep three dimensions in mind: affirming our common humanity, trying to understand our differences, and cherishing the unique personality of every individual. To disparage the notion of a common humanity (since it is so differently conceived from one culture to another) and to overlook … Read more
Freud provides another example of keen psychological observations mixed with needlessly anti-religious philosophy. He challenges the religious idea, found in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” While Freud approved of altruism in certain circumstances, he saw the generalized call to “love your neighbor as yourself” as … Read more