I woke, as I often do, hours before dawn. This time, however, something felt different. An initial sense of inner expansion quickly took a turn and in just seconds I was filled first with a[...]

Without warning the headphones go silent, replaced by a profound, absolute stillness. It is otherworldly. But then, all of this is and has been for hours now. Just as abruptly comes a brilliant white light[...]

What if we saw our suffering the way the mystics do - as an inner opening to something transcendent, as a whispered urging from God? The Sufi mystic, Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi, told his followers, "What[...]

In 2007 I was invited by a Lakota to undergo a guided vision quest in New Mexico's mountains. We carefully hunted the saplings that would serve as four-corners staffs, bundled and tied the prayer flags,[...]

Not long after I turned 13, I found myself living with my father on the 11th floor of a Virginia apartment 20 minutes from downtown Washington, D.C. One morning, shortly before departing for his secretive[...]

Searching for peace, happiness, truth, God, meaning, I spent years exploring a variety of religious, spiritual, metaphysical, and alternative teachings. One by one, however, each failed me due to their various inventor-inspired rites, rituals, teachers,[...]

Spirituality is often dismissed as the domain of fantasists, the reasoning being that if one can't touch, smell, hear, taste, see or think it, it's of no tangible benefit to those occupied by the 'real[...]

Like most, I've experienced my share of suffering. Also like most, I turned to the usual suspects for help: psychoanalysis, drugs (legal and not-so-legal), sex, money, adventure, career, family, and so on. Some of[...]

Because we spend our lives driven by thought, it can be terribly difficult for even the tiniest snippet of Truth to edge its way into our consciousness. Without such Truths, the inner journey lacks legs.[...]