Understanding the Qur’an

“Speak to everyone in accordance with his degree of understanding” is a dictum of Muhammad. Traditionally it is understood that there are seven levels of understanding possible in the passages of the Qur’an. By Hafeez Diwan and Sally MallamContributing Writers The Qur’an’s major goal then was to provide contemporary guidance to those who wished to live an exemplary life, … Continuer la lecture de →

The Science of Storytelling

“Stories are actually a form of technology. They are tools that were designed by our ancestors to alleviate depression, reduce anxiety, kindle creativity, spark courage and meet a variety of other psychological challenges of being human.” ― Angus Fletcher, Wonderworks By Sally MallamContributing Writer The brain, it seems, does not make much of a distinction … Continuer la lecture de →

Guns, Germs, and Steel: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

Featured Book Guns, Germs, and Steel The Fates of Human Societies Jared DiamondPaperback edition 1999 Geographical and ecological advantages, not differences in people, gave Eurasians a head start on the rest of the world. At the time of colonization, the Europeans had a food production system in place that produced enough surplus to allow large … Continuer la lecture de →

Risk, Gambling, and Financialization

The New York Stock Exchange trading floor in 2009. It has become even more obvious that the primary objective of finance is not to benefit people and firms through loans to help cash-flow and capital investment, but to extract value by means of myriads of new financial instruments. By George KasabovContributing Writer Since 1950, the … Continuer la lecture de →

Who Provides Care

While we tend to think of medical professionals as the providers of health care, in reality the vast majority of all care is provided by people for themselves and their families. By David Sobel, MD, MPHContributing Writer While we tend to think of medical professionals as the providers of health care, in reality the vast … Continuer la lecture de →

God 4.0

Featured Book God 4.0 On the Nature of Higher Consciousness and the Experience Called “God” Robert Ornstein with Sally M. OrnsteinPaperback edition 2021 Review by Denise WinnContributing Writer “What is needed, now, is a new view, to reassess and reform the concept of God. It is the experience of going beyond the norm to achieve insight … Continuer la lecture de →

Best Known Gospels

It is important to remember that the vast majority of the audiences at the time were illiterate and used to an oral tradition where stories, like the tales of Homer, were retold, shaped and re-shaped for specific audiences in a way that suited local circumstances, concerns, and beliefs. We would thus expect the “Good News” … Continuer la lecture de →

Connecting with the Spirit World

Prehistoric Aboriginal painting of Mini Spirits – Wikicommons Many images were likely created as part of a ritual that took place in the caves in which our ancestors re-created and re-worked their out-of-body visions. By Robert Ornstein, PhD, Sally Mallam, and Doug Keefe, PhDContributing Writers In their book, Art and Human Development, Constance Milbrath and Cynthia Lightfoot cite anthropologist Abbé Henri … Continuer la lecture de →

Moral and Social Reform

Muhammad was convinced that social reform must be founded on a new spiritual solution, or it would remain superficial. Here are a few examples of the changes he instigated. By Hafeez Diwan and Sally MallamContributing Writers Muhammad and his Believers were pushed into conflict with the Quraysh, when desperation forced some believers to send out a ghazu raid to disrupt … Continuer la lecture de →

Homo Sapiens: The Hominid Survivor

From our beginnings in Africa, the story of human evolution is emerging as one of making contact and connecting. The DNA of the remains of a boy found near Ballito Bay in KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa has shed new light on the transition from archaic to modern humans. The boy, of hunter-gatherer descent, lived in … Continuer la lecture de →

Out of Africa

What drove the first migration out of Africa, and what does that tell us about our evolution? Somewhere between 80,000 and 50,000 years ago, a single human migration out of Africa became the forebears of all non-Africans. What drove this first migration and what does that tell us about our evolution? In 1967 a team … Continuer la lecture de →

Socrates (470–399 BCE)

Socrates, the Founder of Western Philosophy, did not document his teachings. All that is known about him comes from the accounts of others: mainly the philosopher Plato and the historian Xenophon, who were both his pupils. By Sally MallamContributing Writer Karl Jaspers writes in The Great Philosophers, Vol. 1, “His mission was only to search in the company of men, … Continuer la lecture de →