Let’s put something to bed: no, most “white people,”* you are not indigenous. The term “indigenous” in modern usage refers to groups that are the original inhabitants of a region and have experienced historical marginalization, displacement, or oppression, often due to colonization by external powers. These populations possess distinct cultural, linguistic, and social traditions that…
Read more
It’s strange how often our lives seem like a dream—or a nightmare—that we’re somehow wide awake in but powerless to change. I keep having this reoccurring dream, and it’s like some deep part of me is throwing up a flare, saying, “Wake up; there’s more to see.” The dream always starts the same. I pull…
Read more
“Touch of Grey” by the Grateful Dead carries a profound resonance with those who have endured hardship yet find resilience in moving forward. It is a theme that echoes powerfully in This Is How It Feels to Heal, where survival becomes both a choice and a practice. As someone who once lived much of a…
Read more
In the cool haze of morning light, I’m walking. Not to anywhere particular, just walking. Shoes hitting the dirt like a steady rhythm, beating out the thoughts rattling through my brain. There’s something about this world, this time, that feels so caught up in its own demise. Like it’s rushing toward some inevitable end, but…
Read more
A 130-Year Perspective Let’s take a moment to put on our “geological time glasses”—the kind that make a century look like the blink of an eye. Now, as we gaze through these lenses, the 130 years of climate records we hold so dear suddenly look like a teeny, tiny speck in the grand, sprawling timeline…
Read more
With the completion of The Healing Pathways facilitator and companion manuals, I am cleaning out my notes used along the way. Below, is a transcript of a conversation I had with David Boothe in 2001. I was in Cali, Colombia where I had just finished the final version of This is How it Feels to…
Read more
Perhaps my biggest inspiration for changing the way I perceive the world during the early days of my long illness was Lujan Matus’ book, The Art of Stalking Parallel Perception and Shadows in the Twilight: Conversations with a Shaman. Recently, Lujan was interviewed on a podcast, where he discussed the ethical use of animal totems…
Read more
Jerry Garcia, renowned as the frontman and lead guitarist for the Grateful Dead, remains a towering figure in American music. Despite his profound impact, discussions about the greatest guitarists in rock history often overlook Garcia. This oversight can be attributed to his unique approach to music, the niche the Grateful Dead carved within the music…
Read more
The Block Universe theory, rooted in the rich soil of physics and philosophical thought, challenges our traditional understanding of time. Stemming from Einstein’s revolutionary theories of relativity, this intriguing concept suggests that time isn’t the flowing river we perceive; instead, it argues that past, present, and future coexist simultaneously in a four-dimensional spacetime continuum. This…
Read more
The notion of a “race war” represents a deeply entrenched societal issue, informed by a complex history of racial and cultural divisions that manifest in both overt conflicts and subtler forms of societal segregation. My journey through the academic realms of the Antebellum South, the Civil War at the University of Georgia, Islamic civilizations at…
Read more