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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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Recent Articles

Lessons for the Psychedelic Movement from the LGBTQ Equality Movement

Aug 30th, 2024 in Both/And
How Rabbi Michael Lerner merged spirituality and social justice and influenced a generation of progressives

Aug 30th, 2024 in Forward
Don’t Take Your Thoughts So Seriously!

Aug 21st, 2024 in Both/And
American Jews’ traumatized responses to antisemitism and anti-Zionism are hurting our children

Aug 15th, 2024 in Forward
Weird: A Sympathetic Reappraisal

Aug 13th, 2024 in Both/And
more...

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Censor the textbooks to keep kids "safe." But don'

Censor the textbooks to keep kids "safe." But don't ban AR-15s to keep kids safe.

For my first piece @msnbc dot com, I took a look a

For my first piece @msnbc dot com, I took a look at the most obvious way to fight back against Elon Musk's weaponization of xTwitter -- and why no one's done it yet. Link in bio.

In the newsletter this week: In everyday life, t

In the newsletter this week:

In everyday life, the “direct path” is about re-accessing sacred, sublime mindstates and experiences that happened in the past — now. This is a process of “small moments, many times,” as some Tibetan Buddhist traditions teach, an act of active remembering in which the perspective of the peak experience is re-experienced in the present moment. As the title of this newsletter suggests, it’s a kind of mysticism for normies.

In my case, as an Enneagram 7, I have a deep reservoir of such experiences to call upon. In jhana meditation, on long vipassana meditation retreats, on psychedelics, in ecstatic Jewish and earth-based practices, in intense somatic-energetic work, and even, once in a while, at peak moments in life, I have been fortunate to experience what sometimes gets described as mysticism. These are some of the most joyful and generative experiences of my life. I’m amazed that so few people seem that interested in them, but if you’ve read this far, I’m guessing you might be.

jaymichaelson.substack.com

Thinking about loss and the fragility of life toda

Thinking about loss and the fragility of life today.

Mourning the passing, and celebrating the life, of

Mourning the passing, and celebrating the life, of Rabbi Michael Lerner.

In @jdforward today. Link in bio.

I've finally had the chance to reflect on recent s

I've finally had the chance to reflect on recent setbacks in the #psychedelic 'renaissance' and some of the lessons I learned being part of an earlier movement for social change. In the newsletter this week - jaymichaelson.substack.com .

This is, without doubt, the most relatable cartoon

This is, without doubt, the most relatable cartoon I've seen in my entire life. I have had exactly this thought, in exactly this context, in exactly the same posture. It me. Sigh.

Hi friends -- I've been on vacation for the last l

Hi friends -- I've been on vacation for the last little while, taking a break from work, writing, and so on. But I am, as the kids say, back on my bullshit. I've been wanting to get more attention paid to Republican NC gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson, so here's an attempt to that in @rollingstone .

--
[Excerpt]

Robinson hasn’t just made one or two cringey remarks. Prior to winning public office, he built his name on being an internet troll, especially on Facebook. He has spread lunatic conspiracy theories about Jews, like claiming that Jewish people created Black Panther “to pull the shekels out of your Schvartze [the Yiddish N-word] pockets” and that the Holocaust is being exaggerated for political purposes. “There is a REASON the liberal media fills the airwaves with programs about the NAZI and the ‘6 million Jews’ they murdered,” Robinson wrote in 2018, scare quotes included. He has said the “New World Order” is Satanic, along with the Olympics and Beyonce, while spouting the most vile, despicable things about gay people this side of the Westboro Baptist Church.

He has quoted Hitler approvingly, threatened trans people with arrest “or whatever we’ve got to do to you” for using gender-appropriate bathrooms, mocked Asian accents, denigrated Muslims, denigrated women (“I absolutely want to go back to the America where women couldn’t vote,” he said in 2020), denigrated Parkland shooting survivors, called Michelle Obama a man, and said that mass shootings are payback for abortion (“When you spill that innocent blood, that blood is going to come back as a stain on you and it’s going to come home to roost.”)

I've been working on this one for awhile. It is so

I've been working on this one for awhile. It is so painful watching the way my community's traumatized reactions are traumatizing our children. We have to do better. In @jdforward - link in bio.

The circles do not cross. The mind cannot zone.

The circles do not cross. The mind cannot zone.

...in which I, a self-identifying weird person, re

...in which I, a self-identifying weird person, reaffirm the applicability of the word #weird to certain politicians who insist that they are not weird, and thus are very weird. In the newsletter today @ jaymichaelson.substack.com .

Tonight is the Jewish holiday of Tisha B'Av. Tradi

Tonight is the Jewish holiday of Tisha B'Av. Traditionally the saddest day of the Jewish calendar, it commemorates the destruction of the temples in Jerusalem. The Sabbatean heresy, however, changed this fast day to a feast day, because redemption is available here and now.

In my short story "The Enlightenment of Rabbi Yosef of Chernobyl," I imagine a Tisha B'Av sermon given two hundred years ago by a Sabbatean rabbi in Jerusalem. Here's a short excerpt from the audiobook.

@ayinpress #sabbataizevi #kabbalah

Dear politicians, Please stop exploiting Jewish f

Dear politicians,
Please stop exploiting Jewish fear for political gain.
Thank you,
A Rabbi

(Link in bio)

Why I'm breathing a sigh of relief that we don't h

Why I'm breathing a sigh of relief that we don't have to spend the next three months in a stew of antisemitism and argumentation over American Jewish identity. New in @jdforward

Brilliant. I'm thinking of going back to quote-mem

Brilliant. I'm thinking of going back to quote-memes for a bit We'll see. #carljung

Living in a polycrisis is hard. But if you take a

Living in a polycrisis is hard. But if you take a minute to reflect on it, I think you'll find that you've grown wiser as a result. Here's an invitation -- this week in the newsletter, jaymichaelson.substack.com .

Why are some American Jews anxious about a possibl

Why are some American Jews anxious about a possible Josh Shapiro VP candidacy? Here's me on @cnn answering that question... (Date: August 3, 2024)

I've felt this way since the Tea Party days.

I've felt this way since the Tea Party days.

The weird brew of right-wing tech elitism and righ

The weird brew of right-wing tech elitism and right-wing Christian Nationalism can be confusing. I took a long, deep dive into this very 2024 blend of ideological certainties. The result is up this week in the newsletter - jaymichaelson.substack.com .

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