Water Has No Need of Opposites | jaymichaelson.net

Jay Michaelson is an award-winning journalist, meditation teacher, podcast host, and author of ten books.

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Water Has No Need of Opposites

Thursday, February 22nd, 2018 | Multimedia, Performance

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Recent Articles

Psychedelics in Monotheistic Traditions: Between Sacramental Practice and Legal Recognition

Nov 26th, 2025 in Harvard Bill of Health
Universalizing Personal Experience into Cultural Critique

Nov 26th, 2025 in Both/And
Peter Thiel’s Surprisingly Simple Antichrist

Nov 19th, 2025 in ARC
3 ½ Things You Haven’t Yet Read About the Epstein Files

Nov 19th, 2025 in Both/And
Religion with a lower-case r

Nov 13th, 2025 in Both/And
more...

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Academic @ emory @harvard
Journalist @jdforward @arc.magazine.jcdc
Writer Speaker Rabbi Dad
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I've been experiencing writer's block over the las

I've been experiencing writer's block over the last few months, wondering how and whether to write my next book, given AI's prominence and increasing capacity.

Perhaps AI's greatest teaching to us is that we, like it, lack a distinct self that stands apart from the vast net of causes and conditions. Perhaps we are more like it than we care to believe.

Read more at jaymichaelson.substack.com

Thank you, Tom Stoppard. You got so many right wor

Thank you, Tom Stoppard. You got so many right words in the right order, and you have nudged the world (and mine in particular) more than a little.

For @harvardlaw 's @petrieflom center, I wrote up

For @harvardlaw 's @petrieflom center, I wrote up a report out from last spring's historic symposium on psychedelics in monotheistic traditions.

It was a remarkable event, featuring presentations by 42 legal scholars, scholars of religion, practicing lawyers, and psychedelic practitioners, a unique combination, especially in light of the continued legal prohibitions in place. It was attended by more than 500 people in person and online, and videos of most presentations are now available online.

A link to the writeup is in my bio, or you can search the title to find it.

I've led and attended dozens of silent meditation

I've led and attended dozens of silent meditation retreats. Here, I share three time-tested tips for how to make the most of it.

Speaking of which, I'll be one of the teachers at the Adamah meditation retreat later this month... find out more at adamah.org/meditation .

Happy #thanksgiving despite it all #wsmerwin

Happy #thanksgiving despite it all

#wsmerwin

I went for a catchy title on this one, a meditatio

I went for a catchy title on this one, a meditation on some oft-reposted words by @rayneincorporated .

Up now at jaymichaelson.substack.com

This is one of the wisest posts I've ever read. It

This is one of the wisest posts I've ever read. It's so simple, and yet so non-understood by folks across the political spectrum. One's own experience -- alienation, faith, joy, disgust, anxiety, meaning, meaninglessness -- may not say anything about "culture" or the world "these days." It may just be your experience.

I'd like to carve this tweet in stone and make it into a monument to epistemic humility.

I took a deep dive into Peter Thiel's recent lectu

I took a deep dive into Peter Thiel's recent lectures on the Antichrist, compared them with the Biblical text he references, and came up with some surprising discoveries.

Thiel repeated his previously stated view that the ultimate Antichrist will arise in the form of a one-world government: “‘One world or not’ in a sense is the same as the question ‘antichrist or Armageddon,’” he said, “so in one sense, it’s completely the same question.” And anyone who helps to bring it about by warning of some looming disaster are lower case–a antichrists as well; candidates included climate activist Greta Thunberg, AI doomer Eliezer Yudkowsky, and venture capitalist (and Trump backer) Marc Andreessen.

The core of Thiel’s conception of the Antichrist is taken from philosopher Carl Schmitt, who joined the Nazis before World War II in order to oppose socialism, which he thought would bring about “the satanic unification of the world,” in the words of Schmitt scholar Wolfgang Palaver.

Read more at arcmag.org

The lead story coming out of the 20,000 documents

The lead story coming out of the 20,000 documents from the Epstein estate is that Donald Trump is personally implicated by the world’s most infamous sex trafficker, who says he “knew about the girls” and that Epstein could “take him down” if he wanted.

But there are other revelations as well that haven’t gotten as much attention, and that also relate to the subjects of my own work: the intersections of politics and religion, spirituality, ethics.

This week in Both/And, I focus on three of them: the confusion about the moral core of the scandal; how MAGA supporters have correctly understood it; and how deep the betrayal really is, now that one of MAGA’s principle architects is revealed to be thoroughly implicated.

Read more at jaymichaelson.substack.com

#epstein

Timely words from #marktwain , wouldn't you say?

Timely words from #marktwain , wouldn't you say?

For the last two years, I've been part of a smart

For the last two years, I've been part of a smart and diverse team at Emory University's Center for Psychedelics and Spirituality. I'm happy to say that one of the initiatives I'm most involved in, a collection of projects studying #psychedelics and religious communities, now has an official website and will be formally launching at the American Academy of Religion conference this weekend, with the release of preliminary data from three studies.

The 'Mosaic' initiative looks at a constellation of related questions: how religious communities view psychedelics, what spiritual/ existential/ religious/ theological psychedelic experiences look like for people of diverse religious backgrounds (hint: they vary widely), and how to provide culturally-competent care to psychedelic experiencers, who may often be struggling with how to integrate those experiences into their lives and worldviews. The project, and ECPS as a whole, brings together research psychologists, clinicians, humanities scholars, clergy, and spiritual care practitioners.

You can read about our current and planned projects at the link in bio to https://psychedelics.emory.edu/mosaic

@emoryuniversity @emoryhealthcare

In the reactionary ideological imaginaire, there i

In the reactionary ideological imaginaire, there is a binary choice between traditional values on the one hand, and anarchy & anomie on the other. If ‘traditional’ Christianity is displaced (even though it is actually a quite new form of Protestant fundamentalism), if gender roles are changed, then all hell breaks loose.

Like many conservative views, my main reaction to this is puzzlement. Because it is obviously and demonstrably false — and yet, maybe 100 million Americans believe it.

I experience this myself. I have all kinds of meaning in my life. I meditate, I practice psychedelic spirituality, my weeks and months are shaped by the Jewish year. I find meaning in opposing fascism, with the limited tools I possess. I’m very #blessed to be able to do meaningful work in journalism like this on the one hand, psychedelic humanities on the other. I’m insanely passionate about music and film; beauty moves me to tears, and I still go out a lot. I’m part of several remarkable communities of people I respect and love. And I’m a rabbi who loves my weird community of Jewish neo-pagans, BuJus, social justice warriors, and both/anders. I even wrote the first draft of this post while sandwiched between my husband and daughter on an airplane. The meaning crisis is not part of my personal subjective experience.

So why hasn't "religion with a lower-case r" caught on more widely? Read more at jaymichaelson.substack.com

The first snowfall of the season has fallen where

The first snowfall of the season has fallen where I live. This is an excerpt of a longer poem by the much-missed @andreagibson .

Come spend five days in silence with me and my gif

Come spend five days in silence with me and my gifted co-teachers this December. You know you need it. I sure do. Use code JAY10 when you register for 10% off.

BTW this retreat is offered with no program fee -- teachers are paid by donation only.

@adamah_org

I want to make a plea for longer-term, less reacti

I want to make a plea for longer-term, less reactive political discourse. Obviously, it’s hard to resist the Roy Cohn/Steve Bannon tactic of flooding the zone with shit every five minutes. There are outrages everywhere. But this week’s election result could inspire us to keep focus on longer term trends and threats, rather than the outrage of the day (or hour). This is a dark and uncertain time, but it is not a story whose end has been written.

Read more at jaymichaelson.substack.com

It's like she's describing 2025 instead of 1940.

It's like she's describing 2025 instead of 1940.

#hannaharendt

It is possible to disagree with a candidate about

It is possible to disagree with a candidate about Israel/Palestine but still vote for them, because there are so many more important issues, like defending NYC from authoritarianism, enabling working people to live in the city, and offering hope in this dark time.

Read more in @jdforward - forward.com .

There are, of course, many kinds of anger, many ex

There are, of course, many kinds of anger, many experiences of it, many ways in which it can help or harm. Some anger is merely irritation or impatience, but the rage I feel in response to that illegal, inaccurate, and hateful USDA notice may be different. Perhaps it is “righteous indignation.” Perhaps it motivates me to take action, donate money, write articles, and vote for candidates who might reduce the amount of hate in our politics, rather than increase it.

But even in the latter case, I often experience anger as corrosive. Here is how 25 years of meditation practice has helped me work with it without tuning out.

Read more at jaymichaelson.substack.com

I think about this often. #szymborska

I think about this often.

#szymborska

Tonight, at @newyorkinsight and online: Working Sk

Tonight, at @newyorkinsight and online: Working Skillfully with Queer Rage

Once again, queer communities in America are being attacked, lied about, and scapegoated by a regime driven by religious extremism. When we turn to the teachings of the Dharma, we find conflicting messages about how to work with the rage, fear, and hurt that naturally arises in response. Tonight we’ll explore different approaches to anger, in particular. One school of thought holds that anger is always bad: it is dosa, one of the three poisons that are the root of all negative states. Thus while we do not judge ourselves for feeling anger, we do work to lessen it. However, another school of thought (most recently given voice by Lama Rod Owens and others) holds that anger can be good, generative, and empowering. Rather than choose one of these approaches or try to make them agree with one another, we’ll explore how each of them resonate with our own experience and with the practice of engaged Buddhism in the context of the 21st century polycrisis.

Freely offered, by donation.
Link in bio to register.

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