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

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Books
- The Secret that is not a Secret:Ten Heretical Tales
  
  The Heresy of Jacob Frank:From Jewish Messianism to Esoteric Myth
  
  Enlightenment by Trial and ErrorTen years on the Slippery Slopes of Jewish Spirtuality, Postmodern Buddhism, and Other Mystical Heresies
  
  The Gate of TearsSadness and the Spiritual Path
  
  Evolving DharmaMeditation, Buddhism, and the Next Generation of Enlightenment
  
  Redefining Religious LibertyThe Covert Campaign Against Civil Rights
  
  God vs Gay?The Religious Case for Equality
  
  Everything is GodThe Radical Path of Nondual Judaism
  
  Another Word for SkyPoems
  
  God in your BodyKabbalah, Mindfulness, and Embodied Spiritual Practice
  
  isHeretical Jewish Blessings and Poems
  
  AnthologiesAnthologies featuring Jay Michaelson
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- Spirituality/Meditation
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Recent Articles

Meditation and Psychedelics: Between Mental Health and Spiritual Awakening

Nov 27th, 2024 in Both/And
We can be thankful this year — and Jewish wisdom can help

Nov 27th, 2024 in Forward
Trans Journalist Imara Jones: ‘There’s Something Wrong With the Character of This Country’

Nov 20th, 2024 in Rolling Stone
Declining the Invitation

Nov 20th, 2024 in Both/And
Trump plans to fire thousands of government workers — but it won’t be easy

Nov 18th, 2024 in MSNBC
more...

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In the newsletter this week: learning to decline t

In the newsletter this week: learning to decline the invitation to distraction and doomscrolling.

jaymichaelson.substack.com

For real. It is totally astonishing, the capacity

For real. It is totally astonishing, the capacity of the human mind for denial. And the total lack of perspective. And the disinterest in any discussion of it. And so on.

In @jdforward this week, I take a rabbinic approac

In @jdforward this week, I take a rabbinic approach to pundits who use the election result to confirm their prior opinions.

https://forward.com/opinion/676075/against-interpretation-trump-election-victory/

Honored to have the lead story on msnbc.com right

Honored to have the lead story on msnbc.com right now. I even have some mildly good news: Trump faces an uphill legal battle in his plan to fire 50,000 civil service workers, and I'm not sure he'll win it. @msnbc

Link to story: https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-fire-federal-workers-project-2025-schedule-f-rcna180393

"[Dad humor] is not self-indulgence, it is self-pr

"[Dad humor] is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation and that is an act of political warfare."

In response to an unprecedented (for me) amount of

In response to an unprecedented (for me) amount of media misinformation and hate, I've tried in this article to push the reset button, start from scratch, and make the case for the basic understanding of and respect for #trans lives. In @rollingstone today -- https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/trans-people-science-facts-trump-1235168833/

One last election take -- or at least, the last I'

One last election take -- or at least, the last I'll be offering. In the newsletter this week - jaymichaelson.substack.com .

I need this on auto-reply to the several hundred p

I need this on auto-reply to the several hundred people who have taken time out of their day to email, text, mention, and message me over the last few days. The scientific understanding of gender, like most fields, can be complex. But it's also backed by half a century of data and thousands of lives positively transformed. However, you don't need a PhD or MD -- just get to know a parent of a trans kid, or a trans person, so that you're basing your opinions on evidence rather than something else.

You've probably read enough election takes by now.

You've probably read enough election takes by now. But I promise, this one is different -- because it contains is a small glimmer of hope. Up now in @rollingstone .

The latest album by The Cure has been the soundtra

The latest album by The Cure has been the soundtrack for these past few days, and reminds me of another time when I felt like an outsider in my own country.

"Already, I was also aware that my politics, my entire worldview, was at odds with mainstream America. In 1980s Florida, people were patriotic, religious, and conservative. Everyone, including me, made fun of gay people – Reagan’s press secretary made jokes about AIDS while his administration did nothing to find a cure for it."

Up now in @jdforward

Here's a reminder.

Here's a reminder.

If you're feeling shock and surprise at how this c

If you're feeling shock and surprise at how this could happen, this piece is meant to offer some consolation.

Up now at jaymichaelson.substack.com

For the last two days, I've been obsessed with thi

For the last two days, I've been obsessed with this story that I reported on in 2019: how the Trump administration tried to add a question to the census asking about citizenship. After a whole lot of lying by the administration, the truth came out that this was intended to intimidate Hispanics (the term used in the census) from participating. That, in turn, would lead to congressional redistricting that favored "Non-Hispanic whites."

No one remembers this story today. It's never mentioned in the lists of Bad Things About Trump. And yet, it was an outrageous scandal -- stopped in the eleventh hour by the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision (made before Amy Coney Barrett joined).

Whatever happens tomorrow, this story is a symbol for me. All the ingredients of the 2024 election were already there: xenophobia, manipulation, rampant dishonesty -- and an almost pathological amnesia on the part of large swaths of the American public about what Trump did when he was in office.

I am hopeful that Trump and his minions have said the quiet part out loud too many times -- about women, about Puerto Rico, about immigrants, about so many of us -- and that enough reasonable moderates and centrists will join with liberals and progressives to vote for decency and democracy.

Because I, and many of us, remember.

Blessed be to all those marking tonight. The veil

Blessed be to all those marking tonight. The veil between the living and the dead is thin. In many ways.

Re-upping this piece in case you know anyone to fo

Re-upping this piece in case you know anyone to forward it to. Link in bio. @jdforward

Today in the newsletter: ten tools to survive the

Today in the newsletter: ten tools to survive the next seven days with your sanity intact.

jaymichaelson.substack.com

#mindfulness #meditation #anxiety #mysticism_in_life

It's probably true that the word "fascism" is too

It's probably true that the word "fascism" is too broad and hyperbolic to be of political use. Analytically, though, the MAGA movement does have most (though not all) of the characteristics of it. Fascism doesn't mean Auschwitz. It means authoritarian, anti-democratic ethno-nationalism led by a demagogue who stokes rage among the dominant group and scapegoats out-groups for the dominant group's economic and other suffering. To people in that group, it may look just like conservatism.

"Maybe a more productive way to see this rally is

"Maybe a more productive way to see this rally is as a taste of the world to come, to paraphrase a rabbinic term. Is this ultra-nationalist, often Christian Nationalist, world of rage, resentment, and scapegoating the America we want to live in? Are any other values — Israel, tax cuts, less regulation — really worth this devil’s bargain? Let’s not be in denial: the MAGA movement is serious about these things. It’s not just campaign rhetoric. Look closely at this rally. Is this the world you want to live in?"

@jdforward

Admittedly, this headline probably conforms to Bet

Admittedly, this headline probably conforms to Betteridge's Law. But I couldn't help it. New today in @jdforward .

Two weeks, in fact.

Two weeks, in fact.

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