New Age happens when one controls their mind with their heart so much that they try to make their mind work like their heart does.
New Age cults happen when one gives their mind's power over to their heart, and then also gives that power over to another.
Alchemy’s metaphorical language and concrete practices offer a way to re-imagine inner life and the process of psychological growth. Its arcane symbols, various stages and operations, and mysterious hermetic philosophies invite us to stand between the worlds of spirit and matter, to bridge conscious and unconscious.
Reality is something much bigger than our ordinary senses are capable of perceiving, and learning to be in relationship with it requires us to enter the imaginal realm. Mysticism, magic, and animist frameworks are ways of doing that, so I write a lot about those topics.
my go-to definition, that comfortably dismisses much the nonsense that often gets caught up in ‘woo’, is “experiences that cannot be articulated by the part of the mind that can only understand experiences by articulating them”
1/ In the mid-2010s my metaphysics nearly broke. A Bay Area VC friend introduced me & other nerds to an “energy healer.” Reaction: yeah, ok. “Energy” did not have a place in our scientific ontologies.
chakras in the west is funny because you have so many disbelievers who have no experience with it and so many professed believers who also have no investment, knowledge, or experience with it
If you’re looking for a good entry point into woo land, I recommend this book as a practical way to investigate the territory for yourself. It makes no big claims about reality. It just gives you some linguistic games to play that highlight the boundaries of the simulation. https://t.co/gRRXdX3E6Y