Medicine, culture, travel, food, healing, and human stories from the archive.
Healing and curing are often used as if they were interchangeable, yet they arise from very different philosophical traditions. In Western biomedicine, curing usually means the elimination or control of…
Psychosocial Stress, Inflammation, and Atherosclerosis: An Anthropological Reflection That most feared of outcomes— the heart attack , or acute myocardial infarction (AMI)—rarely occurs out of the blue. From a biomedical…
Suriname is a small country on the northern coast of South America, bordered by Guyana to the west, French Guiana to the east, and Brazil to the south. Its population…
The River Beneath the Numbers Psychosocial Stress, Inflammation, and the Anthropology of Disease Still Water / Hidden Flow The heart appears still—like water in the Everglades. But beneath, unseen currents…
“To travel is to feel.” — Fernando Pessoa I went to Pinecrest today, though it no longer exists. Not in the way that towns exist—with a centre, a rhythm, a…
“Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment; Cleverness is mere opinion, bewilderment is intuition.” — Rumi I have spent much of my professional life moving between worlds—London, Melbourne, Miami, and the…
What Did the Medicine Man Say? “Humility is not thinking less of oneself; it is thinking of oneself less.” — Ancient teaching often repeated among Indigenous elders It took me…
LIFE IS FULL OF UNEXPECTED PLEASURES Today was one such .. not that i did any thing more special than my usual work with the Indigenous people .. but a…
Spiritual Materialism: Cross-Tradition Comparison Handout Core Question Across Traditions Is spirituality being used to dissolve the ego—or to sanctify it? 1. Tibetan Buddhism Key voice: Chögyam Trungpa Risk Turning meditation,…
Spiritual materialism is a concept introduced and most clearly articulated by the Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chögyam Trungpa , especially in his book Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism . At its core,…
HAPPY SPRING IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE FIRST DAY OF THE MONTH OF MEHR IN IRAN AND ALSO The Mehregan Festival, or the Persian Festival of Autumn, is an ancient celebration…
Tonight is the Full Moon of April 2021. I joined on line to a philosophical/spiritual discussion by a leading Guru from South India. Normally his talks are entertaining but this…
IN 2008, On an Air Asia flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Siem Reap, Cambodia, I met MCY who would become my closest friend in Asia. We shared/continue to share…
on 29th december 2020, the last full moon of the decade appears and as the Indians call it the winter moon or the moon that brings the winter.. I received…
Poem for a New Morning of Love…written in Yangon in Myanmar… It is time to go, dear friends Someone or other is waiting.. Where was that? Is there a table…
NOTES FROM ITAPIRUBA, ESTADO DA SANTA CATARINA, BRASIL. FIRST IN ENGLISH, DEPOIS EM PORTUGUES Writing this in the cosmopolitan city of Sao Paulo, the third biggest city in the planet,…
My name is Sudah, Su in Pali, I am told, signifies that which is good, and in many languages, this name is associated with Food, for which I am very…
Globalization will not eradicate Prejudices Competence, Efficiency and Education will! Or Why we need Israel to train security agents worldwide. Rainy end of October day. 0730 AM. Steady drizzle. Not…
Friday, 1 June 2007 A young Arab French girl with a visible bulging belly and her hair dyed blonde serves me a glass of house wine. As happens in the…