Articles - SAND

Scientists believe that mysterious dark matter is key to forming galaxies in the cosmos. Now, a recent series of bizarre findings threatens to undermine everything we think we know.

Microglia: a new target in the brain for depression?

By Donna Jackson Nakazawa

More than a decade ago, I was diagnosed with a string of autoimmune diseases

A New Opening in the Heart

By Eric Baret

To watch a show with the Hridaya, the open mind, the open heart, can bring us closer to truth than yoga

Dark Energy: Why Tinker with Gravity?

By Ethan Siegel

Of the 2 trillion galaxies contained within our observable Universe, 94% are already forever beyond our reach

Astronomers Spot 'Missing Link' Black Hole

By Reuters

Scientists have detected a mid-size black hole - considered the "missing link" in the understanding of these celestial brutes

What If We Treated Death Like Birth?

By Jane Whitlock

We would play shower games like ‘I will remember you every time I …’ We would prepare a death ‘nursery.’ There’d be a great playlist.

Time Flow and Infinite Precision Numbers

By Natalie Wolchover

The laws of physics imply that the passage of time is an illusion. To avoid this conclusion, we might have to rethink the reality of infinitely precise numbers.

Emotion in Tantra

By Eric Baret

Emotions are at the core of tantric teachings

It's Time to Stop Avoiding Death

By David Cates

You can’t have the life you want without letting go of the life you have

Extinction and the Revolution of Love

By Charles Eisenstein

Contrary to its self-conception, Extinction Rebellion is not actually about climate change.

Everything is Ecstasy

By Jack Kerouac

We just don’t know it because of our thinking-minds.

Does Consciousness have a Function?

By Ryota Kanai

Contents of consciousness are the results of active reconstruction of the reality.

The Spiritual Teachings of COVID-19

By Stephan Bodian

Human life as we’ve known it has ground to a halt, and we’re faced with an unprecedented crisis—and an unprecedented opportunity.

Tantra and Yoga

By Eric Baret

What is Tantra? What is Yoga?

How Far is the Edge of the Universe?

By Ethan Siegel

If you were to go as far out into space as you can imagine, what would you encounter?

The Coronation

By Charles Eisenstein

Now that the rope has snapped, do we tie its ends back together?

Marcelo Gleiser: The Mystery of Knowing

By Shawn Radcliffe

One of the great unsolved problems of modern physics is coming up with a theory of everything

A Math Limerick

By Science and Nonduality

Today we let go and be nerds...

Forging a New World: Life in the Times of COVID-19

By the Fetzer Memorial Trust

A message from our sponsor

The Return of the Black Madonna

By Matthew Fox

A Sign of Our Times or How the Black Madonna Is Shaking Us Up for the Twenty-First Century

A Trail on the Ground

By Francis Weller

Uncertainty has come into our homes and found its way into each of our lives.

Coronavirus—During This Time,
Let us Act with Love

By Thomas Hübl

The first question is always “Who am I in relation to the current situation?”

Dark Matter and Antimatter

By Carly Minsky

A Link Between Dark Matter and Antimatter Could Be Why the Universe Exists

This is Not a Poem

By Fred LaMotte

Just a murmur whose poor thoughts won't reach the edge of the page.

Landmark Computer Science Proof Cascades Through Physics and Math

By Kevin Hartnett

A new proof in computer science also has implications for researchers in quantum mechanics and pure mathematics

Tantra vs Vedanta

By Eric Baret

Could you explain the difference between Tantra, Vedanta and Kashmir Shaivism?

RNA Modifies DNA

By Louise Lerner

A surprise discovery shakes up our understanding of gene expression

"Pandemic" a poem

By Lynn Ungar

What if you thought of it as the Jews consider the Sabbath—the most sacred of times?

Breakthrough in Nuclear Electric Resonance

By University of New South Wales

Engineers crack 58-year-old puzzle on way to quantum breakthrough

The Meaning and Destiny of Western Culture

By Bernardo Kastrup

Nondualism and idealism aren’t purely Eastern insights, but the metaphysical and spiritual root of the West as well

Is Information the Fifth Form of Matter?

By Philip Perry

There is no dark matter. Instead, information has mass, physicist says

There is No Doer

By Eric Baret

What do you mean when you say there's nothing to be done?

There's a Giant Mystery Hiding Inside Every Atom in the Universe

By Rafi Letzter

No one really knows what happens inside an atom.

Tranquility

By J. Krishnamurti

It was a powerful motor and well tuned; it took the hills easily, without a stutter, and the pick-up was excellent.

The Scam of Nonduality: Why I Left Teaching and Why I’m Coming Back

By Scott Kiloby

I grew up with trauma followed by 20 years of addiction to drugs and alcohol.

Human Bias

By Ethan Siegel

Quantum Physics is Fine, Human Bias About Reality is the Real Problem

Quantum Gravity Could Reverse Cause and Effect

By Stephanie Pappas

Any theory of quantum gravity is going to have to grapple with some weird time stuff.

The Poetry of the World

By Shawn Radcliffe

“Some of his poems are as if he’s consoling God for what’s happened to his creation”

Even Large Molecules Can Behave Like Waves

By Shawn Radcliffe

You wouldn’t find baseballs entangled in such a way that hitting one affects another miles away.

Perception and the Mystery of the Unknown

If you are seeking true Reality, since Reality is All, it must be here, now.

No Time To Lose

By Joanna Macy

We’re in collapse now, but it doesn’t have to be a total collapse.

Could the Universe be Curved, not Flat?

By Eleonora Di Valentino

In a curved universe, no matter which direction you travel in, you will end up at the starting point

Become the Possessor of Awareness

By Hafiz

You who are not yet aware, become the possessor of awareness.

DMT: "It's like dreaming with your eyes open"

By Aristos Georgiou

Scientists discover psychedelic DMT creates waking dream state in brain

What is Tantra?

By Imma Ramos - The British Museum

Exhibition curator Imma Ramos explains how this radical South Asian philosophy has been opening up new ways of seeing the world for 1,500 years.

Take Off Your Spiritual Mask

I am in love with this blessed mess of our humanity, more than ever.

Three Methods for Working with Chaos

By Pema Chödrön

Times of chaos and challenge can be the most spiritually powerful…

A New Type of Signal in the Human Brain

By Mike McRae

Scientists have discovered a unique form of cell messaging occurring in the human brain that's not been seen before.

Medicine of the Real

By Chameli Ardagh

What a kindness she showers upon me, not letting me skip any steps, or leave not even one stone unturned.

What is Tantra?

By Éric Baret

For me it is irrelevant, but let’s say for the Kashmirian tradition, as far as my teacher expressed…

2000 atoms in two places at once

By University of Vienna

The new study demonstrates a bizarre quantum effect at never-before-seen scales

A Poem for my Daughter

By Teddy Macker

It seems we have made pain some kind of mistake, like having it is somehow wrong.

No Dark Energy?

By Yonsei University

New evidence shows that the key assumption made in the discovery of dark energy is in error

Death: The End of Self-Improvement

By Joan Tollifson

This book celebrates the great stripping process of aging, dying and spiritual awakening.

What If There Were No Future?

By Peter Russell

Some Overlooked Consequences of Accelerating Change

The Path of Unbecoming

By Maya Luna

It's okay not to have New Year's resolutions

A Fifth Force of Nature

By Mike McKrae

Physicists See Hints of X17, an Elusive Particle That Could Be a New Force of Nature

Why Materialism is a Dead-End

How misunderstanding matter has led us astray

What is Truth?

By Éric Baret

Seeking is an expression of truth, it’s not a way. Yoga does not bring us to truth, truth expresses itself through yoga.

The Real Scandal of the Birth of God

By Kaitlyn Hardy Shetler

Sometimes I wonder if Mary breastfed Jesus. if she cried out when he bit her

In Honor of Ram Dass
1931–2019

I am not this body. I am in this body, and this is part of my incarnation and I honor it but that isn’t who I am.

Physics is Pointing Inexorably to Mind

So-called “information realism” has some surprising implications

Quantum physics study suggests objective reality doesn’t exist

By Alessandro Fedrizzi and Massimiliano Proietti

Observers are powerful players in the quantum world.

Earth as Goddess

By Thanissara

A conversation with African healer and guide Baba Mandaza Augustine Kademwa

Quarks: Basic Building Block or Quantum Illusion?

By Shawn Radcliffe

A new model suggests that these subatomic particles may not be so fundamental after all.

The Four Essential Points of Letting Go in the Bardo

By Pema Khandro Rinpoche

It’s when we lose the illusion of control—when we’re most vulnerable and exposed—that we can discover the creative potential of our lives.

Rumi Was Once a Twelve-Year-Old Refugee

By Pouria Montazeri

Little do Rumi Western admirers know, he was once a twelve-year-old refugee when his family emigrated from Balkh (modern day Afghanistan).

Are the Past and Future Real? The Physics and Philosophy of Time

By Elizabeth Fernandez

What is happening right now? Is your “now” the same as my “now”?

We are in the Death Phase Now: Do Not Run Away

By Jessica Hesser

Fear is raging, systems and structures are crumbling, much is being undone.

The World is our Field of Practice

By On Being

Krista Tippett and Rev. angel Kyodo williams touch upon some of the richest themes of the zeitgeist

The Cosmic Web

By Becky Ferreira

Galaxies can move with each other across huge distances, and against the predictions of basic cosmological models.

Taste Your Life Now

By Ellen Emmet

There is a kind of thinking which keeps life separate from herself

Neutrinos Lead to Unexpected Discovery in Basic Math

By Natalie Wolchover

Three physicists wanted to calculate how neutrinos change. They ended up discovering an unexpected relationship between some of the most ubiquitous objects in math.

A Humbling Path

You will be humbled. Oh yes. Brought to your knees. Many, many times.

Hope is an Escape

By Eric Baret

Hunter of Phoenix, no one can be. So take back your trap, for here, wind is all you’ll ever catch.

The Kiss we have Always Wanted

The revelation of Being Here while residing in a human body is infinite.

Real-Life Schrödinger’s Cats Probe the Boundary of the Quantum World

By Philip Ball

Recent experiments have put relatively large objects into quantum states, illuminating the processes by which the ordinary world emerges out of the quantum one.

To Walk in Beauty

By Keith Salmon

Living in harmony with the rhythms and interrelationships of the Natural World is essential

An important quantum algorithm may actually be a property of nature

By Emerging Technology from the arXiv

Evidence that quantum searches are an ordinary feature of electron behavior may explain the genetic code, one of the greatest puzzles in biology.

Come Solstice Come

By Rainer Maria Rilke

All will come again into its strength: the fields undivided, the waters undammed,

Mysterious Quantum Rule Reconstructed From Scratch

By Philip Ball

The Born rule, which connects the math of quantum theory to the outcomes of experiments, has been derived from simpler physical principles.

The Goddess of Never Not Broken

By Julie JC Peters

You know that feeling when you have just gone through a breakup, or lost your job, and everything is terrible and terrifying and you don’t know what to do...

After SAND

Can we love when we grieve? Can we love when we are in pain? Can we love when our home is burning?

In the Presence of the One, We Are All Yellow-Faced

By Pouria Montazeri

Ever since the tender age, I’ve had this passionate love affair with the aspen trees

Politics, Activism and Awakening

By Joan Tollifson

Politics is usually a hot-button subject, one that can trigger bitter arguments, end marriages,

The Impossible Predicament of Being Alive

By Robyn Lynn

The impossible predicament of being alive, the great wound that will not heal.

Quantum Trajectory Theory

By Philip Ball

A recent test has confirmed the predictions of quantum trajectory theory, which describes what happens during the long-mysterious “collapse” of a quantum system.

David Bohm, Implicate Order and Holomovement

David Bohm was one of the most distinguished theoretical physicists of his generation, and a fearless challenger of scientific orthodoxy.

The Mother Mantra, the Ancient Shamanic Yoga of Nonduality

By Selene Calloni Williams

Tradition and secret practices of mystical marriage and reawakening

A Net of Gems

By Keith Salmon

We are born with a yearning to find our place

When in the Soul of the Serene Disciple

By Thomas Merton

With no more Fathers to imitate, Poverty is a success

What are intermediate-mass black holes?

By Jake Parks

We've detected puny, stellar-mass black holes. And we've detected giant, supermassive black holes. But what about those in the middle?

Wabi-Sabi: The Japanese Art of Impermanence

By Shawn Radcliffe

Often in our world of mass-produced goods and machine-like cities, we strive for perfection,

Embracing the Flame of Longing

By Mirabai Starr

The Tragedy of Science and a Way Out

By David Paul Gontar

Illness as Companion

By John O'Donohue

We never value or even see some things in our lives until we are just about to lose them.

Intimate Relationship as a Spiritual Crucible

By John Welwood

Living with someone we love, with all the joys and challenges, is one of the best ways…

The Geography Of Sorrow

By Francis Weller

On Navigating Our Losses: Interview by Tim McKee

What Climate Collapse Asks of Us - Part III

By Bayo Akomolafe

The way isn’t forward, it’s awkward

A Mathematical Model Unlocks the Secrets of Vision

By Kevin Hartnett

Mathematicians and neuroscientists have created the first anatomically accurate model that explains how vision is possible.

We Can Still Be Crazy

By Pema Chödrön

We may think meditation will improve us, but it’s really about accepting ourselves as we are right now.

Alone to All One

The delicate dance between loneliness, solitude and communion

What Climate Collapse Asks of Us - Part II

By Bayo Akomolafe

How we see the problem is part of the problem

Parā

By Christian de Vietri

I praise the Supreme Goddess Parā, the Illuminative Insight Intelligence Force of Consciousness

Tandava the Cosmic Dance

By Daniel Odier

Tandava means totality. It means the path is absolutely non-dual, because we integrate everything and we don't refuse any aspect of the human being

How Science and Nonduality Helped My Recovery from Brain Injury

What Climate Collapse Asks of Us - Part I

By Bayo Akomolafe

In this (very, very) long essay, Bayo Akomolafe investigates the work and contributions of “postactivism” in our unique times

Go to the Limits of Your Longing

By Rainer Maria Rilke

God speaks to each of us as he makes us, then walks with us silently out of the night.

Consciousness in the Many-Worlds Interpretation

By Philip Ball

The idea that the universe splits into multiple realities with every measurement has become an increasingly popular proposed solution to the mysteries of quantum mechanics.

A Liturgy of Light

By John O'Donohue

When suffering comes, we feel panic and fear. Frightened, we want to hide.

On the Mystery of Being

Contemporary Insights on the Convergence of Science and Spirituality

Can Neuroscience Understand Free Will?

By Brian Gallagher

“Of course we do. We have no choice.”

Bypassing Spiritual Bypass: Re-Association as a Spiritual Practice

By Brent Morton

The purpose of therapy is to help the client acknowledge, experience, and bear reality

White holes: Do black holes have mirror images?

By Bill Andrews

These black hole opposites would spew energy, be impossible to enter, and might even answer some of the universe’s fundamental questions.

Spiritual Traditions Fail the Global Crisis - Part II

By Kavita Byrd

Why Our Spiritual Traditions Have Failed to Respond to the Global Crises – And How We Can Change That Now

Sometimes a Wild God

By Tom Hirons

Sometimes a wild god comes to the table. He is awkward and does not know the ways

Cultivating Equanimity In Uncertain Times

By Miranda Macpherson

Once you begin to taste the freedom of your true nature and are no longer bound by your ego identifications, your way of being can become significantly more graceful.

He Invented a Surgery and Cured Himself

By Ryan Prior

This college dropout was bedridden for 11 years.

Spiritual Traditions Fail the Global Crises - Part I

By Kavita Byrd

Why Our Spiritual Traditions Have Failed to Respond to the Global Crises – And How We Can Change That Now

A secular way

By Emer Gentway

Can one understand nonduality without naming it?

The Universe Is Expanding Faster Than Expected

By Shawn Radcliffe

Discrepancies in measures of expansion may point to new physics

Grief is Healing in Motion

By Toko-pa Turner

Grief is the response to a broken bond of belonging

Pause for a Moment

Don’t try and be “spiritual.” Don’t seek any particular state or feeling.

What the World Really Needs

By Shakti Caterina Maggi

What seems to be your inner reality and what is apparently happening out there in the world is actually one thing.

Quantum Darwinism: Moving From the Quantum to the Classical World

By Shawn Radcliffe

The “fittest” quantum properties make the most copies of themselves.

On Spiritual Bypassing and Relationship

By John Welwood

Spiritual bypassing is a term I coined to describe a process I saw happening in the Buddhist community I was in, and also in myself.

Sex, Zen, and Poetry:
The Life of Ikkyu Sojun

By Chris Kincaid

Ikkyu Sojun decided to be true to himself and that meant regular trips to brothels

Adventures in Frequency

By Peta Morton

Multi-dimensional Cymatics with David Schiermeyer

The Gospel of the Beloved Companion

By David Lorimer

This book is the first translation into English of what purports to be the complete Gospel of Mary Magdalene.

Mindful Thoughts for Stargazers

By Shawn Radcliffe

Astronomer and Ex-Zen Monk Mark Westmoquette's Book Review

Unending Love

By Rabindranath Tagore

I seem to have loved you in numberless forms, numberless times…

"I Am Lion": A New Film Explores Consciousness and Sentience

By Marc Bekoff

An interview with award-winning filmmakers about their fascinating documentary.

The Gentle Art of Blessing

By Pierre Pradervand

Gentleness is a state of consciousness.

Is Reality Real? How Evolution Blinds us to the Truth About the World

We assume our senses see reality as it is—but that could be just an evolved illusion obscuring the true workings of quantum theory and consciousness

Trauma as a Pathway to Spiritual Surrender

By Shawn Radcliffe

Trauma and spirituality share a profound connection, according to psychologist Peter Levine.

When the Mind is Quiet, it Shall Know Love

By J. Krishnamurti

Life is relationship, living is relationship, yet very little attention is given to the question. What is your relationship with another?

Love Language: The Inter-Spiritual Heart of the Mystics

By Mirabai Starr

For decades I was conditioned to believe that to engage a mature spiritual life I needed to “pick one tradition and go deep,”

The Practice of Gestation

By Beverly Lanzetta

The contemplative spirituality of via feminina begins with the practice of gestation.

What are primordial black holes?

By Alison Klesman

Birthed in the first second after the Big Bang, these as-yet-unseen objects could offer answers to astronomers’ outstanding questions.

Relationship is the Fundamental Truth

By Rabindranath Tagore

Light as the radiant energy of creation started the ring-dance of atoms

Mental Inner Game: Mind—Opening Frames for Peace and Creativity

By Alexandra Sheren

“You can not open your heart, it is already open. It is the mind that is closed, and which must open to the heart.”

Integrating the Shadow in Awakening

The striving for spiritual attainment while excluding the personal dimension of life, is often a big error on the path of spiritual inquiry.

When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer

By Walt Whitman

When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me, When I was shown the charts and diagrams

Physicists count sound particles with quantum microphone

By Stanford University

Stanford physicists have developed a "quantum microphone" so sensitive that it can measure individual particles of sound

Consciousness is Intrinsic in the Universe

By Paul Mulliner

It’s easy, during our everyday life in the world, to forget how extravagantly remarkable a human being actually is.

If music breathes new life into old blood...play on!

By John Stuart Reid

Testing a 2,500-year old hypothesis

Past and Future Have Different Probabilities

Arrow of time points forward in quantum systems

Why Scurry About Looking for the Truth?

By Lao-Tsu

It vibrates in every thing and every not-thing, right off the tip of your nose.

Can Humans Directly Observe the Quantum World? Part V

By William C. Bushell Ph.D. and Maureen Seaberg

New human multisensory integration model for its exploration.

A Legacy for Dark Times: Becoming a Balm for All Wounds

By Vera de Chalambert

Some of the greatest nondual insights about the human condition were offered to our world in no ancient scroll

4,000 Exoplanets Mapped in NASA Stunning Video

In less than 30 years, humanity has discovered more than 4,000 exoplanets

The Living Edge of Surrender & Why You Don’t Need to Amputate your Ego to Find Enlightenment

By Lori Ann Lothian

Entering into that territory where the practices that have sustained us no longer can guide us in the terrain we are in.

The First-Ever Photo of Quantum Entanglement!

By Fiona MacDonald

In an incredible first, scientists have captured the world's first actual photo of quantum entanglement

A Little Doodle from SAND19 Italy

By Riccardo Manzotti

Chris Field's presentation viewed by Riccardo Manzotti

Can Humans Directly Observe the Quantum World? Part IV

By William C. Bushell Ph.D. and Maureen Seaberg

Could crossmodal senses be one key to unlock the true nature of physics?

Mystical Experience: The True Language Of Religion And Of Feminism?

By Matthew Fox

In feminist theology therefore, the issue is not about exchanging pronouns but about another way of thinking of transcendence.

Star Stuff

By Shawn Radcliffe

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin on the Mystery of Stars

Can Humans Directly Observe the Quantum World? Part III

By William C. Bushell Ph.D. and Maureen Seaberg

Why adept meditators would be invaluable to studies

Things Don't Happen for a Reason

By Maya Luna

Life doesn’t need a reason For happening It simply blooms forth

The Ego and the Universe

By Maria Popova

Alan Watts on Becoming Who You Really Are

Can Humans Directly Observe the Quantum World? Part II

By William C. Bushell Ph.D. and Maureen Seaberg

It would be useful to add adept perceivers to the studies.

Quantum Physics as a Spiritual Path

By Paul Levy

The universe is dreaming us up and we are all dreaming our lives into being.

Can Humans Directly Observe the Quantum World? Part I

By William C. Bushell Ph.D. and Maureen Seaberg

Some of physics' remaining secrets may actually relent through the human senses.

Leonardo da Vinci’s Notebooks Available Online

By Shawn Radcliffe

The true extent of da Vinci’s Renaissance mind is captured in the surviving notebooks...

Guidepost of Silent Illumination

By Master Hongzhi

Silent and serene, forgetting words, bright clarity appears before you.

A Planetary Sense of Love

By Krista Tippett in On Being

Astronomer Natalie Batalha embodies a planetary sense of what “love” is and means.

When Is Sex a Spiritual Practice?

Recognizing that our bodies and our sexuality are sacred is a good way to begin undoing the split between sex and spirit...

The Poor Joke

By Wei Wu Wei

Bondage is being dependent, tied up, limited. On, to, by, what?

In Everything...

By Joan Tollifson

The leaves of the cottonwood tree across the street...

This Little-Known Quantum Rule Makes Our Existence Possible

By Ethan Siegel

It's not only a big deal; it's the biggest deal of all.

One Must Dance Naked

By Fred LaMotte

You wear your silence as a black silk gown, woven infinitesimal, every thread a letter of your lover's name.

Scientists Map the Wood Wide Web

By Shawn Radcliffe

Underneath the ground exists a vast “social network” that connects trees and other plants to each other.

Every Act a Ceremony

By Charles Eisenstein

Every word a prayer. Every walk a pilgrimage. Every place a shrine.

Only One Question

By Eric Baret

All questions can be reduced to one question.

Solving the Vacuum Catastrophe

By Shawn Radcliffe

Quantum field theory has made some incredibly accurate predictions about the universe, but it has also made some of the worst.

The Path of Reality

By Nathalie Delay

The path of reality is not a path, for it is an exploration of life in all that it is...

Quantum Biology: Photosynthesis - An Interview with Chris Fields

Q: How do quantum phenomena take part in photosynthesis and why is it important?

Can the Effects of Trauma Pass Down Generations?

By Shawn Radcliffe

New research shows that the physical effects of trauma can be passed down to children and even to grandchildren

The Cosmic Dance

By Sunil Mehrotra

On dark summer nights, away from city lights, I love to stargaze and imagine that I am dancing with the stars.

Nondual Evolution

By Jose Diez Faixat

During recent decades, the apparently solid view of the mechanistic and materialistic world has started to show alarming cracks.

Nonduality and Mindfulness — Two Great Traditions that Go Great Together

In the context of American spiritual practice nondual traditions and mindfulness traditions appear to be in sharp contrast.

The Profound Activity of Questioning

By Eric Baret

Asking a question is being the most active you can be. It means being humble. Humility is the most active attitude.

We are not our brain: How to break the spell of the neurosciences

By Riccardo Manzotti

What are we? A soul? An immaterial mind? A flow of energy? Are we our bodies or neural patterns in our brains?

Trees have a Regular "Heartbeat"

By Shawn Radcliffe

New research now suggests that trees may have a “heartbeat” that pumps water from their roots.

Multiple Realities Can Happily Co-Exist, Suggests Study

By Shawn Radcliffe

Two realities can exist at the same time, at least in the quantum world, suggests a new study.

Transe Learning: A New Transpersonal Methodology

By P. L. Lattuada

In order to understand Transe Learning, we start by thinking about the object of our research. The transpersonal methodology has the object of Self-realization, but what is the Self?

Waking from the Meme Dream

By Susan Blackmore

Wake up! Wake up! Errrr, ummmm, grrrrggr, Oh yes, I’m awake now. Wow, that was a weird dream.

Brain Biases Prevent Action on Climate Change … But Can Help, Too

By Shawn Radcliffe

Climate change is one of the biggest and toughest problems facing human society. Unless the rise in average global temperates is stopped soon

Far Right or Far Left, It’s Exactly the Same

By Eric Baret

I have this concern about what is happening in the world. If we take nonduality really seriously, it seems like we are not concerned about the exterior.

OUR LADY. OUR FRIEND.

We stand on sacred ground today. Perhaps even more sacred than yesterday’s ground.

Raising a New Generation of Super-Children

By Peta Morton

In a leafy, seemingly conventional corner of suburban Essex in southeast England ordinary children are learning in the most extraordinary of ways.

Let the Moon Be Free – Conversations on Kashmiri Tantra

By Eric Baret

Shaped and sustained by the nondual tradition of Kashmir Shivaism, Eric Baret’s words take us back to the simple observation of our felt sense of emotion and, ultimately, to pure listening.

The Pilgrimage of “Who Am I?”

A short conversation with Brazilian author Paolo Coelho

Thoughts on Addiction and a Contemplative Life

By Richard Simonelli

The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous says that alcohol is “cunning, baffling and powerful” in its cause of the disease of alcoholism.

Healing Your Belly Could Also Heal Your Brain

By Shawn Radcliffe

There are many things that affect our mental health, from work-related stress to past traumas to whether or not we meditate each day.

Review of “Wild Mercy” by Mirabai Starr

By Maggie Caffery

Mirabai Starr’s new book, reviewed by Maggie Caffery

We Need Courage, Not Hope, To Face Climate Change

By Kate Marvel

In the current political climate, audiences want to be told that everything will be all right in the end.

‘Art of Life’ Award Winning Documentary

A documentary about the art of living outside of conventions in deep integrity with one's essence

I Have Tried In My Way To Be Free

By Philip Marvin

His first album came out in 1967 when I was a very impressionable young teenager in the midst of the so-called “summer of love” of that year.

In Spirit: Photography and Metaphysics, Reflection of the Self

By Mariette Raina

It was in the first half of the 19th century that photography was born, an invention that would revolutionize the world of image, and by extension, representation. Today, the camera has become current currency.

You Shouldn’t Try to Pigeonhole Quantum Physics

By Tom Siegfried

Just when you thought quantum physics couldn’t get any weirder, it violates the pigeonhole principle.

Realizing the Transpersonal Self

By Paul Mulliner

If we take a focus of attention inward regularly, we can realize intuitively that our conscious awareness, rather than being separate from the world as it seems to be, exists as a field of consciousness everywhere in all space.

One Strange Rock Documentary Offers Much Wonder and a Little Bit of Strange

By Shawn Radcliffe

When it comes to creating documentaries about the grandeur of the Earth, “strange” is a difficult bar to reach.

Effortless Being

By Peter Russell

Behind all our endeavors lies the desire to feel good—to be happy, feel content, relaxed, and at ease. No one wants to be in pain or to suffer unnecessarily.

An Interview with SAND Founders Maurizio and Zaya Benazzo

New Dimensions Radio has generously agreed to let us repost this podcast from 2013. It introduces Maurizio and Zaya to those of you who may not know them, and tells the story of the early days of the SAND conference ten years ago.

The Energetic Field of Om Namah Shivaya

By Rodney Birney MD

The chant Om Namah Shivaya is a love song, to ourselves. A love song we sing to our own deepest inner nature. In this song we recognize that we are the source, like a hologram, a piece of god that also represents the whole.

The Nature of Experience

By Rupert Spira

There is one fundamental presumption upon which our world culture is founded. This basic presumption states that experience is divided into two essential elements – a subject and an object – joined together by an act of knowing, feeling or perceiving.

Events In a Far Galaxy Modify Your DNA

By Stephen Battersby

Billions of years ago, an iron nucleus forged in another galaxy was flung into space at close to the…

The Gentle Art of Blessing

By Pierre Pradervand

On awakening, bless this day, for it is already full of unseen good which your blessings will call forth;…

Spirituality and Heavy Metal? Oh Yes!

By Chris Grosso

Look deeper. Look deeper at your mala, your skateboard, your yoga mat. Look deeper at your records,…

This Sacred Game Has Been Rigged Against Us

By Scott Kiloby

The word “spirituality” has caused a lot of suffering over the centuries. Moral self-righteousness is often tagging along side that word.

Near-Death Experiences are Real: A Rebuttal

By Lynn K. Russell

Just as artists are driven to create, scientists need to prove that something is as it seems. Their mantra is, don’t tell me, show me through repeated tests that arrive at the same results every time.

Binaural Beats

By Alexandra Sheren

These days people have lost their connection with many powerful elements of energy and nature, sound being one of them—as a means of healing and brain entertainment.

Sojourns in the Parallel World

By Denise Levertov

We live our lives of human passions, cruelties, dreams, concepts, crimes and the exercise of virtue in and beside a world devoid of our preoccupations...

Black Holes and the Arrow of Time

By Shawn Radcliffe

In our everyday life, time flows in one direction—forward. When you put a frozen pizza in the hot oven, the pizza heats up. When you hit a baseball, it flies over the wall (if you’re having a good day at bat). When you knock a coffee mug off a table...

Exhausting the Mind

By Jean Klein

Question: When we say that we must come to the end of the mind, that we must exhaust the mind, is it a necessary process, something which must happen, or is it possible to have an insight without the mind being exhausted?

The Foundation of World Peace

By Rupert Spira

I have to confess that I was a little taken aback at breakfast this morning when Ellen and I sat down, and Zaya and Maurizio came to sit down with us.

The Holographic Principle

By Donald D. Hoffman

The most famous case study in science, prior to Freud, was published in 1728 in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society by the English surgeon William Cheselden, who attended Newton in his final illness.

What Can We Learn from Our Own Technology

By Tom Bunzel

Our own deeply held beliefs and definitions of technology are impeding us from evolving consciously…

On Grace and Polemics

By Chris Castle

I am a seeker who feels he has arrived, in that, these days, I both intellectually and feeling-wise, experience a oneness that is a great joy and comfort

Is Your Shaman Sketchy? Sham Shamans

By Kristen Eykel

Shamanism is, by its very nature, a little on the dark side.

The Wound of Love

By Maya Luna

Today I gave up on healing my trauma

It’s Time to Allow Vibration to Have its Way

By Greg Sipp

For well over a century, scientists have been wrestling with what quantum mechanics has been revealing to us about fundamental reality

The Hardest Problem: Decoding the puzzle of human consciousness

By Susan Blackmore

Might we humans be the only species on this planet to be truly conscious?

Book Review: The Fellowship of the River, by Joseph Tafur

As far as I know, this is a first: a book about ayahuasca and plant medicine and shamanism...

The Neurobiology of Love

By Shawn Radcliffe

For anyone who has watched a friend fall in love, Nietzsche’s words from Thus Spoke Zarathustra might…

The Tao of Jazz

By Peter Jezard

Music is created from energetic patterns of tonal and rhythmic interval. It is the ratio of these intervals…

The Secrets of Ramanujan’s Garden

What is the source of scientific inspiration?

Everything is Self

By Nick Roach

Many great masters have said “Everything is Self,” and this phrase is repeated regularly during spiritual…

The World Beneath Your Feet Is Teeming With Life

By Shawn Radcliffe

Beneath your feet lies an enormous subterranean biosphere of bacteria and other forms of life, surviving…

The True Mirror – A Reflection of our True Nature

What’s wrong with mirrors? Most people know that they are backwards, reversing left and right sides,…

Can the Future Affect Our Decisions in the Present?

By Shawn Radcliffe

In physics, time exists but it has no preferred direction.

Robert Lanza: Consciousness Is the Key to Understanding Reality

By Shawn Radcliffe

In order to understand the true nature of reality, science must first recognize the importance of consciousness, says Dr. Robert Lanza, a stem-cell biologist whose work has earned him high acclaim.

Math Has its Own Brain Region

By Josh Hrala

How did great mathematicians like Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein make the leap from understanding basic mathematical concepts to answering fundamental questions about the Universe?

The Brain-Heart Connection: Emotions, Feelings and Health

By Shawn Radcliffe

The heart is essential to our life, pumping oxygenated blood throughout our body. But it’s also the…

Truth Will Set You Free: Time Does Not Exist

When we ask ourselves why we think time exists, most of us would say: because we see everything changing, always.

Art & Spirit in Mathematics: The Lessons of Japanese Temple Geometry (part I)

By Newcomb Greenleaf

Imagine for a moment being in a church where mathematics groups meet regularly to solve geometry problems…

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According to Ervin Laszlo, the coherence of the atom and the galaxies is the same coherence that keeps living cells together, cooperating to form life.

New Theory Says We Are All Multiple Personalities of a Cosmic Consciousness

By Shawn Radcliffe

From the comfortable seat of our bodies (and built-in brains), it’s easy to think that consciousness…

It Didn’t Start With You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are

By Mark Wolynn

A well-documented feature of trauma, one familiar to many, is our inability to articulate what happens to us.

The Science of Happiness: Why complaining is literally killing you

By Steven Parton

Sometimes in life, all the experience and knowledge simmering around in that ol’ consciousness of ours...

Why Believe in Rebirth?

By Dr. Jeffery D. Long

In a now famous conversation between Carl Sagan and the Dalai Lama, Sagan, a scientist and renowned…

The Paradox of Free Will

By Peter Russell

One of my earliest ventures into philosophy, back in high school, concerned the question of “free will versus determinism.”

Illusions and the Mind’s Reality

When it comes to the world around us, what we perceive is not always what is actually there.

The Bread Crumb Trail of Inherited Family Trauma

Although we might believe that our suffering is a private affair, this haunting, background agony could…

Sadness Without an Object

By Eric Baret

Sadness is one of the deepest emotions and it must be kept without an object.

Nondualism: A Brief History of a Timeless Concept

Many traditions and mystics talk about nondualism. But what is nondualism, and how have people—from different religions in different parts of the word—described this concept over time?

If Everything is Consciousness, is Everything Conscious?

By Rick Archer

At this year's conference I'll be moderating a discussion between Bernardo Kastrup and physicist Christopher…

You Must Die to Live

Awakening is not a walk in the park. It is a ride through hell.

The Divine Mother Durga

By Laura Amazzone and M.A.

Durga is a Goddess of Strength and Justice who brings compassion, peace, calm and order to the chaos, destruction and conflict in any situation.

Why I Quit Ayahuasca Shamanism After 11 Years and 1,000 Ceremonies

By Tina “Kat” Courtney

I’m alive because of Ayahuasca. I am connected, soulful, expanded, and spilling over with self-love, mostly because of the blessing of attending around 1,000 sacred plant ceremonies.

The Historic Einstein-Tagore Meeting: Is Truth Independent of us?

By Shawn Radcliffe

It was on the edge of Berlin on July 14, 1930, that science and spirituality came together in one of the most intellectually stimulating conversations in history

Non-dual Kashmir Shaivism – The Science of Ultimate Reality (Part III)

As the process of manifestation (involution of Ultimate Reality into becoming the physical Universe) begins, the tattvas (principles, states of consciousness) that logically appear first are those of what is called the Pure Creation and pure knowledge.

You Are Not Your Thoughts

By Shawn Radcliffe

In the quest for our true identity, what could be more authentic than our own thoughts?…

Where will I find you?

image by Android Jones Where will I find you? Where will I find you, my friend? In an accusing forest…

Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu...

Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu, Buddhist, Sufi, or Zen. Not any religion or cultural system.…

The Flow of Time in a Timeless Universe

By Shawn Radcliffe

If you were to stand outside the universe—outside both space and time—and look at your life, you would see your birth, your death and every moment in between laid out as distinct points.

Non-dual Kashmir Shaivism – The Science of Ultimate Reality (Part II)

An extraordinary and profound personal experience illustrates the tenet that the Model of Manifestation describes both the Universe – and a human being.

Inclusion of Consciousness May Solve 100-year-old Physics Problem

By Ben Werner

Quantum physics tells us that the state of a subatomic particle can only be known when the state of the particle is measured

Embracing Existential Loneliness and Waking Up To Non-dual Aloneness

By Nic Higham

At 3:03 a.m. on August 8, 1983, I was born into isolation—I spent the first two weeks of my life in an incubator,

Non-dual Kashmir Shaivism – The Science of Ultimate Reality (Part I)

Kashmir Shaivism encompasses a vast territory of wisdom and knowledge about the universe and a human…

Tantra and the West

By Dr. Sthaneshwar Timalsina

Tantra in the Western imagination stands for exotic and orgasmic rituals coming from India and Tibet that blend sex and meditation.

The Ego Cannot Love

By Eric Baret

Love, we can’t talk about because it is what is. It isn’t an objective experience, it’s what is here at every moment, except when I pretend to love or when I want to be loved.

Science Pointing to Nonduality

By Mark Gober

Most of my life was spent as a materialist. I regarded physical matter as the basis of reality. From matter emerged biological organisms such as humans, which developed brains, and out of the brain emerged consciousness.

How Does an Awakened Person Perceive the World?

By David Loy

Obviously, that’s an important question for nondualists including Advaitins and Buddhists.

The Holographic Future: From Science Fiction to Reality

Since childhood I have been fascinated by holograms. The reason was the science fiction movie Star Wars and in 1984 I watched it for the first time.

Modern Physics is Stagnating, Not in Crisis

By Shawn Radcliffe

Over the past century, the total number of physicists has grown exponentially, as has the number of…

Being Love Rather Than Searching For It

By Dorothy Hunt

We may be longing for love but afraid of love, afraid of being seen to be flawed, unworthy, unlovable; we may fiercely guard our separation.

One Simple Question: What is Energy?

By Israel Erez

It was 18 months ago that I stumbled upon a short video on YouTube talking about the basics of Quantum Field Theory.

Science and the Existence of Ether

The existence of an ether – an all-pervading medium composed of a subtler kind of matter – has been taught by mystic philosophers throughout the ages.

Falsifiability: How to Distinguish Between Science and Nonscience

By Sean Carroll

In a world where scientific theories often sound bizarre and counter to everyday intuition, and where a wide variety of...

Van Gogh's Turbulent Mind Captured Turbulence

Scientists have discovered a distinct turbulent fluid pattern, surprisingly close to Kolmogorov’s equation, hidden in many of Van Gogh’s paintings.

Idealism and Emergent Spacetime

By Bernardo Kastrup

Scientific American recently published a very interesting essay by philosopher Susan Schneider. It offers an argument against panpsychism—

Do We Actually Experience the Flow of Time?

Time is a contentious topic in physics. Some physicists, such as Julian Barbour, argue that it doesn’t even exist. Others, such as Carlo Rovelli, hold that it arises as a secondary effect of deeper quantum processes.

Lovemaking and Altered States of Consciousness

By Shawn Radcliffe

People have tried many ways to alter their consciousness — meditation, psychedelic mushrooms, LSD, rituals…

Can Humans See Magnetic Fields?

From Aristotle on, we have been conditioned to believe we have only five senses, even after science has established that we could have thousands.

The Spirituality of Science

By Lynn K. Russell

Quantum particles, the foundation of the universe, are like naughty children playing catch me if you can with scientists in a game with no rules.

Nondual Psychotherapy

By Chuck Hillig and Chuck Hillig

Although I’ve been an ardent devotee of Ramana Maharshi since 1970, I’ve also worked as a state-licensed psychotherapist in California since 1978.

Consciousness isn't a Mystery—Matter is.

By Galen Strawson

It is precisely science that makes the key point shine most brightly: the point that there is a fundamental respect in which ultimate intrinsic nature of the stuff of the universe is unknown to us — except insofar as it is consciousness.

How Can Wholeness Be In Crisis? Inquiring into the Human Predicament

By Terry Patten

The most radical understanding of reality points first to radical wholeness, to the prior unity of all opposites and conditional experiences.

Emotions as Energy Flow and Information

By Matt Licata

There is such a deeply rooted belief that we must do something with intense surges of feeling and emotion as they wash through: understand them, determine their cause, link them to some life circumstance or person, transform them, transmute them...

Consciousness Expanded by Psilocybin

Psychedelic drugs alter consciousness in a profound and novel way that increases the breadth and fluency of cognition. However, until recently, scientists were unable to offer an explanation for how the brain was altered to account for these effects.

The Dalai Lama and the Atlas of Emotions

Emotions are tricky entities. They confuse the mind and disturb perception, isolating an individual in a private sense of reality. So what to do with them?

The Dakini Speaks

By Jennifer Welwood

My friends, let’s grow up. Let’s stop pretending we don’t know the deal here.

Sex Chromosomes Aren’t the Whole Story

By Shawn Radcliffe

For almost 100 years, children have been taught in school that the anatomical sex of a baby is determined by the X and Y chromosomes, also known as the sex chromosomes — XY is male and XX is female.

The Myth of Enlightenment

By Jinen Jason Shulman

There is a pervasive myth about enlightenment which, although repeated by many spiritual teachers, has its origins in a view of spirituality that arises from the misconceptions of the unhealed ego.

When the Ground Falls

By Jeff Foster

A relationship ends unexpectedly, success turns to failure overnight, a loved one dies, you receive a diagnosis out of the blue, and you suddenly feel a profound groundlessness, a deep uncertainty, the sense that your world is spinning out of control.

Don't Follow your Feelings

By Gail Brenner

I know what it’s like to live a life driven by emotion, and believe me, it won’t make you happy.

Maha Ati

By H.H. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

The everyday practice is simply to develop a complete acceptance and openness to all situations and emotions, and to all people, experiencing everything totally without mental reservations and blockages, so that one never withdraws or centralizes into...

Emotions Shape Our Physical Reality

By Shawn Radcliffe

In recent years scientists have been exploring the effects that stress and emotions have on our cells — in particular, on our chromosomes and mitochondrial DNA.

The Fish, the Net and the Water

By Mauro Bergonzi

Once the fish said to the turtle: “I have heard about a huge thing that is called ‘the ocean.’ Does it really exist?

The Greatest Contradiction of Common Sense

This essay is about a shocking contradiction in our common sense about the nature of reality; a contradiction that you are probably totally unaware of. Becoming aware of this contradiction has the potential to change your life.

Where Does Pain Exist in the Mind?

By Shawn Radcliffe

We live in a reality generated by our brain. From the euphoria of falling in love to the beauty of a newly blossomed flower, what we experience with our senses is a representation of the world, not the world itself.

Through the Lens of Perception

By Shawn Radcliffe

In recent years scientists have been exploring the effects that stress and emotions have on our cells — in particular, on our chromosomes and mitochondrial DNA.

Epigenetics: What Are We Really Handing Down to Our Children?

With new discoveries in epigenetics now making headlines, many of us are asking an important question: What are my children really inheriting? Can my baggage, the unfinished business I don’t deal with, pass on to my kids?

Homeostasis, Feelings, and the Rise of Culture

By Shawn Radcliffe

When people talk about the evolution and development of all that makes humans “unique,” one thing that often gets overlooked is our feelings.

An Examination of Ethics and Spiritual Teaching

By Rick Archer

It’s a safe bet that everyone reading this article has read accounts of spiritual teachers engaging in questionable behavior. Many of you may have been on the receiving end of such behavior.

Krishnamurti on Love

The demand to be safe in a relationship inevitably breeds sorrow and fear. The seeking for security invites insecurity.

The Mind of Plants: Thinking the Unthinkable

By Monica Gagliano

Across all species, individuals thrive in complex ecological systems, which they rarely have complete knowledge of.

Infective Heredity: You Are Not Who You Think You Are

By Shawn Radcliffe

According to Charles Darwin, you are the product of your biological mother and father, just as they were the product of their biological mother and father, and so on back to the earliest days of humans and to all the species that came before.

The Myth of Good and Bad Emotions

By June Gruber

One idea in the study of emotion and its impact on psychological health is overdue for retirement: that negative emotions (like sadness or fear) are inherently bad or maladaptive for our psychological well-being, and positive emotions (like happiness...

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In Honor of Ram Dass
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