Anxiety can feel like a relentless storm inside us - unpredictable, overwhelming, and exhausting. If you’ve ever found yourself caught in its grip, you know how deeply it can affect your daily life. But what if there was a way to gently calm that storm, to reconnect with a deeper sense of peace and balance? That’s where healing anxiety shamanically comes in. Drawing from ancient traditions and spiritual practices, shamanic healing offers a path to soothe anxiety and restore h

The trolley problem is a thought experiment designed to force a choice between two ethical frameworks. We are now living inside versions of the trolley problem so large, so complex, and so morally consequential that the original thought experiment looks almost quaint by comparison. The trolleys are real. The people on the tracks are real. And we - individually, collectively, politically - are standing next to the lever. The question is no longer theoretical. How do we choose?

Fear seems woven into the air we breathe right now. Whether it arrives through the news, through the weight of climate grief, through uncertainty in our communities, or through something quieter and harder to name, many of us are walking through the world feeling unsettled in our very bones. I want to talk about that honestly, and to offer some ways through.

The relationship between panpsychism and shamanic animism is more complicated and more interesting than simple agreement. As someone who works in both worlds, studying physics and consciousness philosophically while practicing shamanism, I'm fascinated by where these views converge, where they diverge, and what each might learn from the other.

Ten years of shamanic practice taught me something wellness culture won't tell you: You don't heal by avoiding your pain. You heal by going directly into it. There's a sanitised version of spirituality that's sold in wellness culture: light, love, positive vibes only. Manifest your dreams. Raise your vibration. Connect with your spirit guides who'll tell you you're special and destined for greatness. That's not the shamanic path I've walked.

If Aristotle, who thought more carefully about political leadership than almost anyone in the history of Western philosophy, were somehow dropped into our current political landscape, what would he make of it? My honest answer: I think he'd be appalled. But not for the reasons you might expect. He wouldn't be appalled by the technology, the scale, or the complexity. He'd be appalled by something much more fundamental. He'd be appalled by what we've stopped asking. Let me expl

When we talk about shadow work, it often feels like stepping into a dark forest. It’s a journey inward, where we meet parts of ourselves we might usually avoid. But what if I told you that this path, though challenging, is also deeply healing and transformative? Shamanic shadow work offers a unique way to explore these hidden aspects of ourselves with compassion and ancient wisdom. Together, let’s walk through this process gently, with open hearts and curious minds.

There is a particular quality of light in the English countryside in early morning. Not dramatic. Not the kind of light that announces itself. Just a slow, quiet arrival: pale gold coming over the fields, catching the dew on the grass, making the hedgerows look as though they've been very carefully painted by someone who had all the time in the world. I walk in it most mornings. And most mornings, without fail, something in me that had quietly tightened overnight simply rele

Here's the thing about play that the serious-faced approach to life tends to miss: it works. Not as a performance. Not as a technique. But genuine, absorbed, uninhibited play - the kind where you forget to monitor yourself, where you're not thinking about how you look, where time does something strange and you surface surprised to find an hour has passed - that state is where some of the most important human experiences happen. Insight. Connection. Creativity. Healing.

Here's something that surprised me about shamanic practice: it didn't give me cosmic purpose. It didn't reveal that everything happens for a reason. It didn't show me a grand plan I'm meant to fulfill. What it did was show me how to create meaning in a universe that offers none. This sounds bleak. It's not. It's actually profoundly liberating. Let me explain what I mean by distinguishing two things that often get confused: meaning and purpose.

I need to say something that might make some people uncomfortable: therapy culture has convinced us that if we're unhappy, unfulfilled, or struggling with life, the solution is to heal our psychological wounds. Process our trauma. Reframe our thoughts. Develop better coping strategies. But sometimes, maybe more often than we want to admit, the problem isn't that we're broken. It's that our lives lack meaning, purpose, or connection to something larger than ourselves. Therapy

The path of shamanic practice can feel deeply personal and transformative, yet it is rarely meant to be walked alone. Finding a community that shares your spiritual interests and supports your growth can change the way you experience your journey. Shamanic communities offer connection, learning, and healing that extend beyond individual practice. This post explores why connecting with a shamanic community matters and how it can enrich your path.

Niels Bohr, one of the founders of quantum mechanics, faced a problem: Light behaves like a wave in some experiments and like a particle in others. These descriptions seem contradictory. So which is light really? His answer, the principle of complementarity, was radical: Light is both. Wave and particle aren't contradictor, but they're complementary descriptions that are both necessary and both valid. I think this framework is what we need for thinking about science and spiri

Connecting with spirit guides can open new paths of insight, support, and personal growth. Many people sense these spiritual allies but struggle to build clear, trusting relationships with them. This post offers practical advice to help you deepen your connection, recognise genuine guidance, and work confidently with your spirit guides.

Here's a question that makes most neuroscientists uncomfortable: What if the brain doesn't produce consciousness? What if the brain is more like a receiver or transmitter? More like a radio tuning into a signal rather than generating the music? What I'm suggesting is that the dominant assumption, that brains produce consciousness the way livers produce bile, is an assumption, not an established fact. And there's an alternative that deserves serious consideration.

The Spring Equinox marks a powerful moment in the year when day and night balance perfectly. This natural event signals a time of renewal, growth, and fresh starts. Many cultures and traditions honour this day as a chance to plant seeds, both literal and metaphorical, that will grow throughout the coming months. By working with the seasonal energies of the Spring Equinox, you can set clear intentions and invite positive change into your life.

As both a researcher at the University of Cambridge and a shamanic practitioner, I find myself living at the intersection of two worlds that many consider incompatible. On one hand, I engage daily with the rigorous methods of scientific inquiry, such as plasma physics, quantum entanglement, and the empirical pursuit of knowledge. On the other, I work with ancient wisdom traditions, ways of knowing that don't fit neatly into rationalist frameworks. Is rationalism sufficient fo

Philosophers call it 'the hard problem of consciousness': How does subjective experience arise from objective physical processes? How do you get the felt quality of seeing red from neurons firing? Why is there 'something it's like' to be conscious rather than everything just happening in the dark? From the outside, it seems genuinely hard, perhaps impossible to solve. From the inside, it looks less like an intractable puzzle and more like a category error. Let me explain what

Spiritual seekers often look for ways to deepen their connection to the divine and enrich their personal beliefs. Modern shamanic practices offer unique tools that can complement and enhance traditional religious and spiritual paths. These practices, rooted in ancient wisdom yet adapted for today’s world, provide experiences that foster healing, insight, and a stronger sense of unity with the world around us.

There is a paradox at the heart of modern life. We have more access to information than any generation in human history. Within seconds, we can consult the collected knowledge of civilisations, read the findings of peer-reviewed science, examine primary sources that once required years of archival research to locate. The sum total of human understanding sits, quite literally, in the palm of our hands. And yet, by almost every meaningful measure, our reasoning appears to be wo