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Harnessing the Power of the Dark Moon: Embracing Absence and Void Energy
The Dark Moon often slips under the radar in discussions about lunar phases. Unlike the bright, glowing Full Moon or the waxing crescent that signals growth, the Dark Moon represents a time of absence and void energy. This phase invites us to pause, reflect, and work with the unseen forces that shape our inner world. Understanding how to harness the power of the Dark Moon can open new pathways for personal growth, healing, and transformation. The Dark Moon barely visible in t
Kathy Postelle Rixon
2 days ago3 min read
What a Flat EEG Does and Doesn't Mean
A reader told me I hadn’t been clear enough about something: a cardiac arrest is not the same as brain death. They were right, and I’d rather be corrected in public than be wrong in private. So here is what we know, and what it means for things I’ve said before.
Kathy Postelle Rixon
2 days ago3 min read
What Your Recurring Dream or Nightmare Might Actually Be Asking For
Almost everyone I work with who has a recurring nightmare has already tried to outthink it. They've written it down, looked up what the house or the water or the teeth are supposed to mean, mentioned it to a therapist in passing, and moved on because there wasn't time to stay with it. And still it comes back. Same shape, same feeling, sometimes years apart, as though it's been waiting for you to actually turn around and look at it.
Kathy Postelle Rixon
Oct 264 min read
Subjective Doesn't Mean Unscientific
Think about pain. You can’t see it on a scan. Your doctor asks you to rate it from one to ten, and whole drug trials are built on your answer. Vision researchers ask people whether they can see a faint light. Consciousness research depends on people telling us what they experienced because there is no other way in. If subjective data were banned, large parts of medicine and psychology would shut down by lunchtime.
Kathy Postelle Rixon
Oct 263 min read
Exploring Samhain Through a Shamanic Lens: Thinning Veils and Connecting with Ancestors
Samhain marks a powerful moment in the Celtic calendar when the boundary between the living and the spirit world grows thin. From a shamanic perspective, this festival offers a unique opportunity to engage deeply with ancestors and the unseen realms. Understanding Samhain through this lens reveals rich practices and insights that can enhance spiritual connection and personal growth.
Kathy Postelle Rixon
Oct 183 min read
How Much Evidence Does a Strange Claim Need?
In the last two series, you asked me some hard questions. Is a cardiac arrest the same as brain death? Aren't these reports just subjective? Can they be repeated? What would count as proof? Those are fair questions, and I owe you straight answers. This series is my attempt to give them, and to hold my own claims to the standard I'd hold anyone else's.
Kathy Postelle Rixon
Oct 184 min read
Stuck for Years, Then One Shamanic Session Changed Everything
I want to tell you about a pattern I've seen often enough that I can describe it without naming any one person because it belongs to many people, not one. It usually starts with someone who has been stuck in the same place for years. Not dramatically stuck. Functionally stuck. They go to work, keep their relationships going, seem fine from the outside. And underneath that, the same wall has been there for a very long time, the same thing that never quite resolves.
Kathy Postelle Rixon
Oct 122 min read
Living With an Unsolved Mystery: Consciousness
In 1995, the philosopher, David Chalmers, gave the deepest problem in this series a name that has stuck: the hard problem of consciousness. The easy problems, by comparison, are the ones that neuroscience is making genuine progress on: how the brain discriminates stimuli, integrates information, produces reportable behaviour.
Kathy Postelle Rixon
Oct 124 min read
How to Know If You Need a Shamanic Practitioner or a Therapist
I get asked the question, 'Do I need a shamanic practitioner or a therapist?' often enough that I want to answer it directly, without steering you toward me as a shamanic practitioner by default. These two kinds of support do different work, and knowing which one fits what you're dealing with right now will save you time.
Kathy Postelle Rixon
Oct 52 min read
Altered States: What Waking Reason Cannot Reach
Ordinary waking consciousness has a habit of presenting itself as the default, the sober baseline against which every other state of mind is measured and usually found lacking. Dreaming is dismissed as noise. Meditative states are dismissed as suggestion. Psychedelic and near-death experiences are dismissed as chemical or neurological malfunctions. The assumption underneath all of these dismissals is rarely argued for directly.
Kathy Postelle Rixon
Oct 54 min read
Grief That Won't Move When Talk Therapy Isn't Enough
Some grief moves the way it's supposed to. It comes in waves, gets talked through, gets understood, and, over time, loosens its grip enough that life has room in it again. And some grief doesn't. You can talk about it for years, understand exactly what happened and why it hurts, be able to narrate the whole thing clearly to a therapist or a friend, and still find it sitting in you exactly where it was on day one, untouched by all that understanding.
Kathy Postelle Rixon
Sep 282 min read
What the Body Knows Before the Mind Does: Embodied Cognition
Michael Polanyi opened a durable line of inquiry in 1966 with a single, deceptively simple observation: we know more than we can tell. A face is recognisable among a thousand others, instantly, though the person recognising it could not write down the precise combination of features that made it identifiable. A skilled cyclist keeps their balance through a continuous set of micro-adjustments they could not consciously describe, let alone teach through verbal instruction alone
Kathy Postelle Rixon
Sep 283 min read
Signs You're Carrying Someone Else's Grief
There's a particular kind of sorrow people bring to me that doesn't quite fit their own story. They can't point to the loss that caused it. It doesn't track with anything that's happened in their own life, at least not obviously. It just sits there, familiar and old, as though it's been there longer than they have.
Kathy Postelle Rixon
Sep 202 min read
Do You Have Free Will or Is It Something You're Given?
A useful way to sharpen the free will question is to stop asking whether it exists at all and start asking a more specific one: how much of what feels like your own choosing was actually installed in you before you were in a position to choose anything?
Kathy Postelle Rixon
Sep 204 min read
I Don't Believe in Any of This, But I Have Anxiety All the Time
I get some version of this sentence often, usually from someone who has already tried the things that are supposed to work. Therapy, maybe. Meditation apps. A good psychiatrist and a prescription that helps some of it, but not all of it. They are not looking for a belief system. They are looking for the anxiety to stop running the show, and they've heard I might be able to help, and they are deeply unconvinced that I can.
Kathy Postelle Rixon
Sep 143 min read
One Thing or Two? Mind, Body, and the Argument That Won't Die
Descartes is usually blamed for a split he did not fully commit to. In the Sixth Meditation, he writes that he is "not merely present in my body as a sailor is present in a ship, but I am very closely joined and, as it were, intermingled with it, so that I and the body form a unit." He even gives the reasoning: if the relationship were merely a pilot observing a vessel, he would perceive bodily damage the way a sailor spots a leak, by inference, rather than actually feeling p
Kathy Postelle Rixon
Sep 144 min read
Finding Modern Shamans in the Digital Age: Embracing Online Shamanic Guidance
In a world buzzing with technology and rapid change, it might seem surprising to think about ancient practices like shamanism finding a place in our digital lives. Yet, here we are, standing at a fascinating crossroads where old wisdom meets new tools. If you’ve ever felt drawn to the idea of spiritual healing, connection with nature, or exploring the unseen realms, you might wonder - how do I find a modern shaman in today’s online world? Let’s explore this together.
Kathy Postelle Rixon
Sep 74 min read
Is Consciousness Just the Brain?
Here is a question that makes a great many scientists uncomfortable: if consciousness is simply what the brain does, what happens to it when the brain stops? Not in a vague, hopeful sense. In a specific, documented, published-in-The-Lancet sense.
Kathy Postelle Rixon
Sep 73 min read
Living the Examined Life
Over the past five weeks, this series has handed over a fairly demanding toolkit. Question the source. Notice the body's signal before the mind talks over it. Treat AI as a tutor rather than an oracle. Separate a sacred text from those who guard it. Ask whose interests a political claim, a news story, or a history book actually serves. Taken together, these are a genuine discipline, and, if practiced without care, they have a way of curdling into something that no longer serv
Kathy Postelle Rixon
Aug 314 min read
Politicians, News, and the Victors Who Wrote History
Of all the categories of information we're asked to evaluate, none is harder than the ones written or spoken by people who have something to gain from our believing them. Politicians want our votes. News organisations, whatever their intentions, operate within business models that reward attention over nuance. And history, the longest running record we have, was for most of its existence written by whoever held the pen, which very often meant whoever had won.
Kathy Postelle Rixon
Aug 244 min read
Discover Modern Shamanism Practices to Transform Your Life
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