Category Archives: Metaphysics

Johnny Appleseed preached Swedenborg????

Posted on April 17, 2011 by Kirsten

That wasn’t in the Disney version! John Chapman (Appleseed’s real name) kept Swedenborg’s “Heaven and Hell” with the Bible in his cookpot hat. Arriving at a house on one of his walkabouts, he would greet the inhabitants: “Will you have … Continue reading →

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Easy to ridicule . . . yeah. I know.

Posted on May 5, 2009 by Kirsten

For the past several days, I’ve been mulling an op-ed piece that ran in last Friday’s Wall Street Journal titled If I Don’t See It, It’s Not There. The piece is written by Steve Salerno, a former Men’s Health editor … Continue reading →

Posted in Metaphysics, Science, Spirituality | Tagged | 2 Comments

So who is driving the bus? Really?

Posted on June 29, 2008 by Kirsten

More evidence that our rational self isn’t really the self that’s in charge: as described in a piece by Robert Lee Hotz in Friday’s Wall Street Journal, research suggests that when we “decide” to do something, we’re not really deciding. … Continue reading →

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Seeing is believing

Posted on January 5, 2007 by Kirsten

At some point in fifth grade, I noticed the blackboard in Mrs. Marshman’s math class was blurry. I mentioned it to my parents, and within a few weeks had been fitted with my first pair of glasses. I didn’t submit … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Health, Metaphysics | 7 Comments

The body electric

Posted on December 29, 2006 by Kirsten

I expected something different from Candace Pert’s latest book, Everything You Need to Know to Feel Go(o)d. For starters, the title’s a bit of a bait to the text’s switch. You aren’t going to find that promised Everything here. In … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Health, Metaphysics, Science | 1 Comment

The way out is up

Posted on December 6, 2006 by Kirsten

Can’t solve a problem on the level at which it were wrought. So. Anyway. This is kind of cool: If human speech is recorded and played backwards, mixed amongst the gibberish at regular intervals can be heard very clear statements. … Continue reading →

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This sort of love, that sort of love

Posted on October 20, 2006 by Kirsten

A lot has been said about writing as an act of creation, so much so that we’ve probably become more jaded than we realize. Articulating experience via language is, after all, so simple a child can do it. And self-proclaimed … Continue reading →

Posted in Metaphysics, Spirituality, Writing | 5 Comments

“Whatever she could lay her hands on”

Posted on April 23, 2006 by Kirsten

I’m fascinated by the idea of transformation: the idea that a person might be born one thing, and then through intention, will, perhaps practice, become something else. If it happens at all, true transformation is exceedingly rare, although to appreciate … Continue reading →

Posted in Life, Metaphysics, Spirituality | 1 Comment

“Secular sermons”

Posted on March 22, 2006 by Kirsten

In the New Statesman, John Gray critiques both Wolpert (Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast–I blogged about that book yesterday) and Daniel C Dennett, Breaking the Spell: religion as a natural phenomenon. Technorati Tags: religion, spirituality, belief

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From ape to . . . theologist

Posted on March 21, 2006 by Kirsten

At the London Times, John Carey reviews Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast: The Evolutionary Origins of Belief, by Lewis Wolpert. Given the growing muscularity of both neuroscience and evolutionary biology, it’s no surprise that some would reduce spirituality to a … Continue reading →

Posted in Metaphysics, Nature, Spirituality | 2 Comments