Category: Ethics
Blog: Plant Medicine: Moving Between Worlds
By Sebastian Segovia
In 2005 I turned eighteen. My parents were getting divorced. We were about to lose our house with the bank and I was finishing high school and starting university. I was beginning to experiment with alcohol and recreational drugs. That is when my mom decided to take me to an Ayahuasca ceremony as my birthday present. This was the moment my world open to the sacred world of plant medicine.
I first studied plant medicine with the Kofan tribe of Putumayo, in Colombia. We have had an ancient tradition of plant medicine in our country for centuries, and this indigenous community was the first to share ayahuasca openly with non-native people, long before the plant became mainstream. Taita Querubín Queta Alvarado—108 years old now—was the first shaman (“Taita” in Spanish) I received yagé (ayahuasca) from. His lineage made it possible for ayahuasca to travel all over the world back then, and it was from his hands that this medicine touched my heart for the very first time.
Podcast: Episode 86: Rev. Cameron Trimble: Progressive Christianity and Spiritual Leadership
On this episode, Laura interviews Rev. Cameron Trimble – author, pilot, CEO, and Co-founder of Convergence, an international church consultancy. Cameron is part of a progressive movement in Christianity and spiritual leadership and on this episode she talks with Laura about her activism and the importance of diversity in spiritual movements. In her over 25 years as an out queer woman minister, she reflects on the changes she’s seen in the Christian church and offers her view of the future.
Podcast: Episode 78: Lisa Broderick: All the Time in the World
Description: On this episode of the Sacred Stream Radio Podcast, Laura Chandler speaks with author, senior executive, and founder of the non-profit Police 2 Peace, Lisa Broderick. Lisa is an accomplished senior executive whose career has been defined by understanding how technology impacts society and changes behavior. She teaches that life is about constant change, in which energy and matter are the basis of transformation. Her passion lies in helping others with little or no scientific or spiritual training master their innate abilities with practices designed to improve their lives, their relationships, and the world.
Article: Sustaining Enlightened Activity in Difficult Times
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
The theme we are going to speak about today is enlightened activity and the courage and dedication that it takes to sustain it.
It has taken courage for each of you to set out on the path toward consciousness in general and the path of Depth Hypnosis in particular. As a client it takes courage and dedication to look deeply at the issues that create obstacles in your life. And as a practitioner, it takes courage to step into the deep levels of integrity that are required to meet another person in the place where they are suffering.
Blog: Standing with Standing Rock
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D. and Laura Chandler
The brutality that has occurred at Standing Rock for so many months now reminds us of a history steeped in broken promises, outright lies, theft, and genocide. This is not new, yet it persists in new ways. When indigenous peoples lost their lands over and over again to the insatiable European appetite, a precedent was set; one that held nothing and no one sacred. Now history is repeating itself in North Dakota where the Sioux Nation is making another brave stand in the face of overwhelming force. But this time it is not just the Sioux who have gathered to protest and defend what is sacred.
Blog: Integrity in the Face of Hate, Separatism, Exclusion
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
This week has been difficult for many people who are concerned about the resurgence of hate crimes and the general mood of separatism and exclusion that seems to have taken hold across the country. The U.S. is not the only country where this kind of separatism has occurred. The Brexit vote in the United Kingdom was fueled by the same fear and rejection of those who are different. And this is not the only time in history where there has been a strong surge of nationalist ideology driven by hatred of those who are seen as “other.”
Article: The Eightfold Path as an Ethical Compass in the Therapeutic Environment
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
Ethics is generally defined as a process of determining right and wrong conduct or as the study of morality. In many traditions, both sacred and secular, there is an effort to come up with a set of principles to govern behavior. In many traditions, there is an emphasis on “what bad thing will happen if you don’t do the right thing.” The motivator to good behavior is fear. This is an effective method of crowd control when the luxury of understanding personal motivation and intention cannot be understood on a case-by-case basis. But it falls short in creating conditions under which people can learn how to truly trust their motivation and intention in making decisions regarding their conduct.
Article: Buddhism, Ethics, and Psychology
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D. and Laura Chandler
The idea that there is a connection between Buddhism, in particular mindfulness practice that is derived from the principles of the Eightfold Path, and psychology, is not new. There are numerous books, research studies, and even college courses on the subject.
Many prominent psychologists, theorists, and scholars have cited the relevance of Buddhism. Leading Buddhist scholar and professor at Columbia University, Robert Thurman, in his book Infinite Life, suggests that Buddhism is the original psychology. Most recently, cognitive psychology has given the most attention to the study of Buddhism, mindfulness practice, and meditation. Yet, interest in these subjects dates back to the origins of the field.
Article: Quack Like a Duck
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
Hypnotherapy is an ancient art. The Ebers Papyrus from 3000 BCE describes the way it was used as a “sleep cure” to help with a variety of ailments in ancient Egypt. In Greece, hypnosis was used to treat soldiers returning from war who were suffering from the effects of being exposed to the trauma of the battlefield.
More recently, Western Europeans became exposed to the art of hypnotherapy through their colonization of other countries with ancient healing traditions that contained hypnosis as a treatment option.
Article: Hypnosis: The Secular Sacrament
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
I often think of hypnosis as a secular sacrament. At first glance, “secular sacrament” appears to be an oxymoron. How can something sacred, and therefore traditionally a part of the religious community within a society, be the same thing as something secular, and therefore a part of the political and socioeconomic community of a society? This chapter will show how hypnosis functions as a secular sacrament, yet remains outside of the trappings of the larger cultural and social realities.