Dia de los Meurtos is my annual chance to dance with spirits in the material world
DANNY KENNY — After reverent invocation to the spirits, the samba-like beat pulsates through the snake of flesh coiled in waiting. Slowly it begins stretching, swallowing innocent bystanders and eager collaborators alike in its path.
Aztec warriors rub shoulders with zombie-like creatures, [...]

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“The process of dying, naturally, involves letting go. During full-body relaxation in yoga, called corpse pose, letting go is voluntary.”

GUEST COLUMN: HEATHER GREAVES — Yoga teaches us to journey inside and become an observer, showing us how to be relaxed yet alert.   Through yoga we practice the art of letting go.
The word YOGA can conjure images [...]

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Some refuse to go to work, some refuse to dine out, and almost no one will get married on Friday, the 13th. From The Flood to King Phillip IV of France, we have traced the spiritual origins of this superstition. Click on the 13 questions below.

No one can say for certain when and why Western culture first [...]

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A spiritual retreat turns masochist-ascetic; celebrity Buddhists; Anglicans & Catholics; Thailand’s “Diwali”

Road to Enlightenment: No sweat?
Those who attended the now infamous sweat lodge ceremony of James Arthur Ray (including the three who died) paid $10,000 a head for the experience of being deprived of food and sleep.  Not to mention sweating it out in a [...]

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Celebrities are seekers, too. So who has more soul: Paris Hilton, Madonna, or Kathy Griffin?

Celebrities are just like us — well us if we had a cult-following of “paps” devoted to our sex, lives and videotape. And if we carried around the “ultimate” Black Amex credit card.
But while wealthy stars may have allegedly inherited [...]

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Three ways to move you, me and we from resentments to emotional life, liberty and happiness
GUEST COLUMN: DR. JEANINE AUSTIN — The clients I coach will often tell me that they wish they could quickly and effortlessly shake free of things that have bothered them.
Like an injured athlete who is asked to “walk it off”, [...]

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DAVID RICKEY — The ego exists only to function in relationship to the whole system, and the ego functions best when it is consciously aware of itself as part of a larger system.
Inspiration derives from the word, spirit. But it is the latest breakthroughs in science, not necessarily spirituality, that give us the clearest prism [...]

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A podcast producer blends mindfulness meditation with her love for sound, to create a new process called “Soundwalking”

GUEST COLUMN: VICTORIA FENNER — A few years ago I took the time to deliberately slow down.   Part of this process involved taking a course on “Mindfulness Meditation” based on the writings and theories of Jon Kabat-Zinn. His books: Wherever [...]

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Test your knowledge of Halloween traditions, history and trivia in our first ever interactive Halloween Quiz!
We like to celebrate all souls’ spiritual traditions, SOW-ehn can trick or treat some old souls to some new trivia upon the occasion of Samhain, a.k.a. Halloween. (Spooky ghoulish Mayan-inspired electronica musical accompaniment.)
We believe a little temptation will do you [...]

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A shamanic teacher visualizes her lifelong fear as if it were a dance partner. When she faces him, she discovers that he isn’t so scary after all
GUEST COLUMN: DAWN DANCING OTTER — Lately I have been noticing how the words ‘fear’ and ‘free’ are phonetically mirrored.
I have run from fear in my life, and it has been [...]

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Vatican City: For Sale?
In a recently posted video comedian Sarah Silverman proposed a solution to world hunger: the Pope could sell Vatican City and give the profits to the less fortunate.  Silverman’s idea echoes Morris West’s fictional Ukranian Pope in Shoes of the Fisherman (1963), who had an uncanny Eastern European resemblance to a later pope, John Paul [...]

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An award-winning movie puts fear under observation, terror under surveillance — and reflects both the faces of hate and compassion

BY DANNY KENNY — In Oliver Hirschbiegel’s “Five Minutes of  Heaven”, characters played by Liam Neeson and James Nesbitt deal with universal themes of reconciliation, revenge and forgiveness, set against the backdrop of the Irish conflict.
Through the [...]

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How I learned to forgive my parents for their easy-going, Dr. Spock style of parenting — and grow up
(Ella is using a pen name to protect her family’s privacy).
GUEST COLUMN: ELLA GRANT — Okay, what’s the most unpleasant parent-related memory that you have from your childhood? And what would be the best? If the nastiest [...]

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Practicing medicine without a license: we learned our first and most powerful  meditation technique and psychological skill as kids — while playing house

GUEST COLUMN: VAISHALI LOVE — Have you ever considered that everyone is born knowing how to play?  If we are all born with an instinctive knowledge for something, that wisdom must be pretty [...]

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“If I choose to live, it would be appalling if society killed me. If I choose to die, it is equally appalling if society keeps me alive.”
BY DAVID RICKEY — As the ongoing debate on assisted suicide intensifies it continues to polarize public opinion on the right to choose quality of life, and what constitutes life [...]

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“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” — Dalai Lama
SPECIAL TO SOUL’S CODE: DR. JEANINE AUSTIN — Many of the great spiritual teachers throughout time emphasize the power of love in action, also known as compassion. As a life coach for women, when working with [...]

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Our resident adept of the spiritual secrets of the stars, Cyndi Ingle, tests your knowledge of the tantra mantras of Scarlett, Heather and others
In the 1970s, the now-deceased and disgraced Indian guru, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, began turning baby boomers in the west onto the principles of Tantric sex. And as the word spread, celebrities [...]

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“I had thyroid cancer, and a reiki therapy session that changed my life. Call it a peak experience, call it a spirit guide . . . I’m healed and happy”

ANONYMOUS — Throughout my life, I’ve received many messages from the Spirit World and, as a child, had a spontaneous out-of-body experience. But there is [...]

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A spiritual author argues that the movement that drew its name from the Age of Aquarius is simply about connecting to the God within
GUEST COLUMN: ELAINE MURRAY
New Age Spirituality is all about getting back your power. Not that you ever lost it . . . sometimes you gave it away, misplaced it — or [...]

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It might be about kinky costumes or eye candy for you. For me, it’s a sacred celebration that ”tricks” sweet little kids into “treating” all witches as ”wicked” stereotypes.
DANNY KENNY — Ah, to be an Irish Pagan at Halloween and witness apparently sane, God fearing people, joyously ridiculing a sacred tradition from an ancient  land of culture.
I refer of course to Ireland, those mythical shores that gave [...]

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