Category: Thinking with Somebody Else’s Head

It's been justified and rationalized for centuries, and the arguments to support it vary from scientific to downright insane. Although universally doncemned, subtle forms of it still crop up in all modern societies. Skin color, sex, what you put on your head or to cover your face are still fair game for prejudice. Today on

Their constitution stands as a model of what a nation should strive to be. Their economy dominates the economic agenda around the world. Their cultural output is vastly influential - whether you're watching Baywatch re-runs from a hut in Burkina Faso, or subscribing to a new season at the Met. America. What's gone so wrong?

It's like something directly out of one of those B movies from the '50s. Radiant energy transmitters. Implosion/vortex machines. Cold fusion energy. But a lot of this is already a reality. Yes, there's a lot going on in the search for alternative energy. And a whole lot more going on as to why we don't

They've been used for centuries as doorways to mystical experiences and new levels of consciousness. They've been injested to help escape the seemingly insupportable problems of everyday life. They've been tacitly encouraged by governments to assuage the misery of underpaid factory workers. Can there be any new dimensions to consider regarding drugs? Today on Thinking

Ask them about what's important to them and they'll parry your enthusiasm with a nonchalant shrug and a mumbled, "I don't know." You can predict it ... somewhere between kid-dom and adolescence, your child stops asking inquisitive questions and starts acting like everything you care about and they used to care about is now completely

Its tantalizing memory of a lost golden age of uninterrupted peace and happiness infuses the oral and written traditions of all peoples on Earth. Poets, mystics and monks have labored to keep the spark alive inside the human soul. When we think with these heads, the idea that we're evolving becomes patently ridiculous. In fact,

I remember my college roommate couldn't sleep for a week after watching The Exorcist. We all have friends who messed around with ouija boards, don't we? My neighbour used to receive visits from recently departed loved ones in her dreams. There is a wealth of theological knowledge on the presence and influence of spirits in

It was Freud who first opened to us the rich and complex world of the human psyche. There've been many additions since - some of it useful, like Jung's association of ideas, some of it next to useless, like Skinner's insistence that we can be programmed like pigeons. Now through the work of Norberto Keppe,

Millions were killed senselessly in the Middle Ages. They couldn't vote for decades. Their bodies sell everything from perfume to piston rings. They're our mothers and sisters, bosses and colleagues. And maybe soon, presidents. They've caused wars, and yet are the biggest champions of peace. And talking about their pathology can get you in some