No one should have to do this alone.
Making spirituality practical with science, stories, & community.
I explore science, spirituality, consciousness, the transpersonal, and more weird stuff in my book: Order here, or wherever books are sold.
** Catch me on twitter @monasobhaniphd, Instagram @monasobhani_phd, or my website **
#WomanLifeFreedom
This week’s newsletter was supposed to be a continuation of the series I’ve been writing on the Dark Night/Phoenix Era (here, here, here), and specifically about some of the tensions and challenges that arise when you adopt a spiritual or non-physicalist worldview when you live in Western culture. But it didn’t feel right. I couldn’t get to a place of writing from my own experience, so it’s not quite ready to be sent out.
Instead, I have exciting news about expanding this platform — well, I’m excited — to bring you more on the intersection of science & spirituality!
Two and a half years ago, journalist and writer Erica Rex handed off the Brave New World of Psychedelic Science Substack to me, and I began by writing about the new (and so exciting!) research on psychedelics. As a neuroscientist, I was blown away and wanted to share the findings in an easy-to-understand way. At the same time, I was undergoing a spiritual awakening (which I wrote about in my book, Proof of Spiritual Phenomena), so I began writing about the part of psychedelics that many people ignore: the transpersonal/emergent phenomena that can happen when you’re on a trip.
This is part of a larger problem in Western culture, where we ignore things that we are uncomfortable with, that we can’t explain, and that go against the mainstream physicalist worldview. To put it lightly, this is lame and needs to change. In the meantime, though, more people than ever are having spiritual awakenings because of the increase in contemplative practices and the Psychedelic Renaissance. Unfortunately, these deaths/rebirths are happening in a secular and unprepared society, and many are floundering (hi, that’s definitely been me!).
No one should have to do this alone. No one should feel any shame about it.
I’ve met so many wonderful scientists, scholars, and other types of rationalists on similar journeys. We have all struggled and suffered through these transformations with little help, scraping together various healing and support resources. Many of us have tried a wide variety of healing modalities (e.g. psychotherapy, past life regression, sound healing, Emotional Freedom Technique, energy healing, etc), but I have long wondered about the science behind each of these. How much evidence is there? Does any of it work? What kind of support works best for people going through these transformations? Like, seriously, what do we need to know and do to help this kind of self-transformation settle in? To help spirituality be more practical?
I want to help change this. We can make spirituality practical with science, stories, & community.
Here’s what I’m doing. I’m expanding the paid subscription because I realized that I much prefer spending my time translating what I’ve learned and experienced into something useful for other people, but I won’t be able to do exactly what I want if I need to turn my attention away to work on other things. If I didn’t have to do paid subscriptions, I wouldn’t. I’ll keep trying to win the lottery or find a Medici-level patron, but until then, paid subscriptions it is.
PAID + FREE: I will still write one main piece per month for everyone.
PAID + OCCASIONALLY FREE: More written pieces on easy-to-understand summaries of the science behind emergent phenomena, the effects they have on people, and healing/integration methods. (**This is the laborious research work that takes a ton of time to do well)
Mix of PAID + FREE: Podcast. Stories from scientists, scholars, Wall Street bankers, and other rationalists about their emergent phenomena and transformations, as well as the methods they used to get through it.
PAID: Monthly virtual meet-ups (e.g. art night, book club, crying together – whatever!)
PAID: Occasional in-person meet-ups (I will host a few in LA; you can host one wherever you are — if you’re interested, let me know!)
PAID: Subscriber chat where we can commiserate or applaud our tenacity.
**NOTE: The platform offerings will evolve over time because I can’t launch everything at once, but will also include webinars and workshops. **
To celebrate the launch, enjoy 20% off your first year of subscription until July 1st!
I’m so excited to meet and connect with more of you and hear your experiences. I also can’t wait to share the tools that have been helpful on the journey, as well as the science behind all these phenomena and tools — I’m so sick of hearing the word ‘woo-woo.’ It’s condescending and inaccurate, and it’s time to abolish it.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your consideration of supporting this work that has come from many nights crying on the bathroom floor. ❤️ If you feel compelled to share it with others for whom it might resonate — or maybe buy a gift subscription or two! — I would be so grateful. Stay tuned!
Within the United States, much of emergent spirituality and psychedelic self-discovery gets stuck into a pernicious cycle of selfishness. The gravitational pull of materialism, the desire for things, is so powerful and overwhelming that people either self-isolate from society or they simply "sell-out." The real mantra of the hippie generation is "Peace, Love, Happiness"... and extreme selfishness- a reality clearly embodied by the political decisions of our parents' generation.
So what's the solution?
In college I met a monk who gave me a copy of the Bhagavad Gita. It was a version of the Gita that has commentary from A. C. Bhaktivedanta, the founder of the the Hare Krishna movement. I'm not a Hare Krishna and I don't even like calling myself 'spiritual' because of how hand-wavy it sounds, but while going through the book I came across a single line that has always stayed with me:
Compassion for the eternal soul is self-realization.
Based on the Upanishads, the eternal soul is the Universe itself; our consciousness a manifestation of that same soul. From the Isa Upanishad there is the quote "See all beings in your own self and your self in all beings".
The core problem is spirituality without purpose. And I believe that true self realization manifests itself through acts of compassion. Compassion is the glue that holds it together- not just words but real acts of love and compassion- feeding, healing, caring, sheltering.
There may be many pathways to learning the lessons of psychedelics through even decades old stories that we all know quite well. I'm curious if you see Mary Poppins as I do? ... and in addition, how many other stories are so overtly pointing towards these experiences under the `umbrella` of traditional theatre or film? ... Alice in Wonderland obviously? ... and others?
https://polyphonic.substack.com/p/bridging-reality-and-fantasy-the