The Neurophysiology of the Trance State and Our Concept of a Three-Tiered Cosmos

Throughout the world, Shamanic vision journeys display a similar pattern that cannot be accounted by communication or migration. By Robert Ornstein, PhD, Sally Mallam, and Doug Keefe, PhDContributing Writers Clottes and Lewis-Williams point out that although shamanic cultures are very different from one another, there are remarkable similarities that point to a basic human universal: the way the human … Continue reading The Neurophysiology of the Trance State and Our Concept of a Three-Tiered Cosmos

Defense against Infectious Diseases

At least 21 million extra lives were saved due to the accelerated progress resulting from the efforts of the Millennium Development Goals between 2000 and 2015 in child mortality and malaria, maternal mortality, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. By Margaret A. Caudill-Slosberg, MD, PhD, MPHContributing Writer At least 21 million extra lives were saved due to the … Continue reading Defense against Infectious Diseases

Our Hominid Predecessors

Hominid facial reconstruction, Smithsonian Institution Humans are a problem-solving animal. We evolve both physically and mentally in response to challenges, which enables us to move beyond our inheritance β€” to consciously evolve. Throughout our history, innovations and solutions have been linked to religious ideas. β€œAs the problems and challenges facing humankind have changed, so have … Continue reading Our Hominid Predecessors

Growing Food in the Desert

Unlike many global problems today, the drinking water shortage has clear solutions. Most of the world’s fresh water use is not for drinking, but for agricultureβ€”perhaps as much as 80%–making agriculture the most promising focus for water conservation. The world’s most fertile agricultural region, the Central Valley of California, best exemplifies the problems of agricultural … Continue reading Growing Food in the Desert

The Way Forward

Unlocking the full potential of education demands more than just imparting knowledge. In an ever-changing world, it requires nurturing analytical thinking, curiosity, and self-awareness in every child. By Kathleen Mazor, EdD, MSContributing Writer How do we teach analytical and creative thinking? How do we instill curiosity and a desire for lifelong learning? How do we … Continue reading The Way Forward

Ideas that Shaped Our Modern World

Humans are a problem-solving animal. We evolve both physically and mentally in response to challenges, which enables us to move beyond our inheritance β€” to consciously evolve. Throughout our history, innovations and solutions have been linked to our search for transcendence. The desire to cultivate a sense of the transcendent began the moment we became … Continue reading Ideas that Shaped Our Modern World

Our Moral Endowment

Our Moral Endowment Humans evolved with innate abilities that help us live together in diverse groups. Studies show that infants are born with a foundational appreciation of the minds of others. From a very early age, babies begin to demonstrate innate cooperative and helpful tendencies, a capacity to tell kindness from cruelty, a rudimentary sense … Continue reading Our Moral Endowment

The First Stories

β€œThe world we experience as β€˜out there’ is actually a reconstruction of reality that is built inside our heads. It’s an act of creation by the storytelling brain.”― Will Storr, The Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human and How to Tell Them Better By Sally MallamContributing Writer Paleolithic people had stories to tell. … Continue reading The First Stories

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

The Matter with Things

Featured Book The Matter with Things Iain McGilchrist Richard Gault reviews The Matter with Things, published by Perspectiva Press in 2021. It is Iain McGilchrist’s magnum opus, the product of ten years’ work and the culmination of his varied careers as a neuroscientist, literary scholar, philosopher and psychiatrist. His core argument is that we need to move … Continue reading The Matter with Things