Essays on freedom and personal fulfilment by Chris Barclay
Halfway down the rabbit hole of a recent psychedelic experience, I encountered the fable of the Scorpion and the Frog. What I always thought was a simple morality tale suddenly took on new meaning as a powerful metaphor for my own contradictions and possibility of self-integration. Through this mystical experience, I have come to see […]
Continue ReadingIn 1960, counter-culture icon Timothy Leary went to Mexico and took psychedelic mushrooms, inspiring him to launch the Harvard Psilocybin Project. He and other psychologists believed these mind-altering substances offered access to higher states of consciousness, and a personal connection to the divine. Leary was profoundly changed by his psychedelic experiences and famously exhorted disaffected […]
Continue ReadingThere’s a big fat girl made out of sunshine and she’s rolling all over me. I’m sitting in the garden, teeth chattering, knees knocking, in the swelter of Thai midday. A floor fan hums quietly behind me on the patio. I don’t feel hot, but am dripping with sweat. I reach for a face towel […]
Continue ReadingJeep has a catchy new slogan: “The things we make, make us.” I’m not sure how much the Jeep people intended us to read into their ad, but its message invites us to consider a lot more than just the benefits of owning one of their vehicles. While the technology we create can make our […]
Continue ReadingThe other day I watched a 4-D ultrasound of our soon-to-be born baby girl. If you’ve never seen one of these video scans, they are way beyond the grainy black & white images of last decade’s techology. During the exam, I could see her yawn, smile and suck her thumb in blocky, slow-mo, baby claymation. […]
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