Community
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Take a seat: the long table is an antidote to loneliness
While some consider the long, shared dining table outdated or inconvenient, it is actually a powerful social tool
by Antone Martinho-Truswell
Transcendent experience
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To thrive, children need to experience awe – and you can help
Alongside love, sleep and play, awe is precious for children. There are small, everyday ways to make it a part of their lives
by Artemisia O’bi & Fan Yang
Transcendent experience
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Do you find the 21st century overstimulating? Try ‘longstorming’
As the treadmill of life speeds up, sublime outdoor spaces help us tap into timescales that are longer, slower, planetary
by Vincent Ialenti
Gender
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There is nothing new about gender fluidity and nonconformity
From Mesopotamia and ancient Greece to precolonial India and medieval London, gender has always been more than a binary
by Chris Wheatley
Emerging therapies
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Could dreams during anaesthesia help to heal life’s trauma?
Scientists are studying the dreamlike states produced by anaesthesia – and their potential benefits for people with PTSD
by Shayla Love
Spirituality and religion
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A monk showed me that spirituality needs more space in medicine
As a doctor, I’ve seen how brain diseases can become entwined with spiritual pain. Who is responsible for addressing it?
by Michael P H Stanley
Music
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Ancient Greek ideas of attunement can breathe new life into music
In Athenian philosophy, attunement is important not only in music, but also for moods, attitudes and states of mind
by John Bagby
Altered states
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William James was right about our strange inner experiences
Rather than Freud’s cynicism or Jung’s enthusiasm, we need an inquisitive approach to unusual forms of consciousness
by David Yaden
Transcendent experience
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Our days are both rough and slippery. Hope brings traction
I want to defend and buoy hope – it’s a fragile, quirky thing, but it has the power to help us act in the face of finitude
by John Lysaker
Spirituality and religion
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UFO belief is a modern outlet for ancient spiritual yearnings
Even when it’s not explicitly religious, belief in alien visitors resembles our oldest ways of making sense of the world
by Francesco Dimitri
Altered states
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The small pleasures in life can produce moments of rapture
Rapture is a delight that turns us both towards the object of attention and towards oneself, resulting in a sense of freedom
by Christopher Hamilton
Dissociation and detachment
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The therapeutic potential, and addictive lure, of losing yourself
In ketamine therapy and other contexts, dissociation is seen as an unwanted side-effect. But what if there’s more to it?
by Shayla Love