How to Calm Yourself in Seconds Jay Michaelson | jaymichaelson.net

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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How to Calm Yourself in Seconds Jay Michaelson

“How to Calm Yourself in Seconds Jay Michaelson”.

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Recent Articles

When it comes to Israel/Palestine, everyone is sure that everyone else is a bigot

May 13th, 2026 in Forward
Claude and I Talk About Waterslides and Ego Death

May 5th, 2026 in Both/And
Making Sense of Psychedelics After April 18

Apr 29th, 2026 in Both/And
How Candace Owens Learned Antisemitic Conspiracy Theories from an Orthodox Rabbi

Apr 21st, 2026 in ARC
F—k the Jews: The Recipe of Antisemitism, from Roald Dahl to the Manosphere

Apr 17th, 2026 in Both/And
more...

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Academic @ emory @harvard
Journalist jaymichaelson.substack.com & @jdforward
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Do psychedelics make us better people, or not? Thi

Do psychedelics make us better people, or not? This is actually a set of several questions that are worth disaggregating:

First, does psychedelic experience generally soften hard beliefs about the world or oneself, leading to both personal growth and the openness to questioning deeply-held views? Does wonder (i.e. the peak experience) make you wonder (about one’s deeply-held beliefs and identities)?

Second, does psychedelic experience sometimes/often/always cause pro-social traits like empathy, generosity, and kindness?

And finally, those personal qualities lead to a basically liberal or radical politics? Not in the details; those will always vary. But in general, do peak experiences, and the changes in character that they may bring about, lead people to adopt some version of Richard Rorty’s axiom that cruelty is the worst thing we do?

Answers at jaymichaelson.substack.com

One of the most fun conversations I've had this ye

One of the most fun conversations I've had this year: unpacking the Kabbalistic and esoteric symbolism in the songs of David Bowie.

Link to full video in bio and at maggioreonbowie.com

In my young adulthood, I, like many neo-Romantics,

In my young adulthood, I, like many neo-Romantics, thought that Western society was too enamored of reason -- too technocratic, too patriarchal, insufficiently infused with ecstasy. Now, as unreason sweeps the world, I have the opposite view.

#goya

I've worked in the psychedelics field for several

I've worked in the psychedelics field for several years, and my personal history with these compounds goes back several decades.

In the wake of the disorienting, remarkable executive order issued on April 18, I wrote a long-form analysis of how we got to this point, and what progressive-minded people should watch for moving forward.

Up now at jaymichaelson.substack.com .

Jacob Frank: The weird truth... and the weirder an

Jacob Frank: The weird truth... and the weirder antisemitic conspiracy theories.

Watch the whole video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFLLMgODGiI

#jacobfrank #frankism #candaceowens

I've loved these sentences for almost twenty years

I've loved these sentences for almost twenty years.

Candace Owens's conspiracy theories are weird, eve

Candace Owens's conspiracy theories are weird, even by the standards of conspiracy theories.

How she learned them is even weirder.

This week in jaymichaelson.substack.com .

"F the Jews” is a chant gleefully shouted by sever

"F the Jews” is a chant gleefully shouted by several of the subjects of Louis Theroux’s documentary, second-tier ‘manosphere’ influencers who are enormously popular with teenage boys online, and who helped put Donald Trump in the oval office.. It’s as if the masks suddenly come off.

But, having just watched the play Giant, about Roald Dahl, it was also quite familiar; their adolescent glee at shouting what they really feel instantly reminded of the smile on Dahl’s face when he did his disastrous interview. And then I noticed that the same patterns I observed in this 20th century literary giant were also present in these 21st century influences.

I wrote about it this week at jaymichaelson.substack.com

Telos or non-telos? All Consciousness or none? I d

Telos or non-telos? All Consciousness or none? I don't know.

It's very weird being part of the American Jewish

It's very weird being part of the American Jewish community right now. With the Epstein Files release and the Iran war, it seems like we're watching the largest spike in antisemitism in at least half a century. But the institutions who focus on these things seem completely oblivious, or silent, or both.

In @jdforward this week, I analyze this precarious moment and what might be done to respond to it.

Come join us at @newyorkinsight on Saturday April1

Come join us at @newyorkinsight on Saturday April18th, in person or online, for a half day retreat on queer sexuality in a Buddhist perspective. It's a chance to meditate, discuss, inquire, and connect with your fellow queer dharma practitioners -- register at nyimc.org or using the QR code here.

Spent a lot of time with #WilliamJames these last

Spent a lot of time with #WilliamJames these last few days at the Psychedelics Intersections conference at @harvard . This question captures one conundrum really well.

This week, I’m sharing a short guided meditation f

This week, I’m sharing a short guided meditation for *gestures broadly at everything.*

Often, meditation is used as an escape — a refuge. And honestly, that is fine. In this practice, though, the invitation is to use the lens of mindfulness to explore feelings you might be resisting (for good reason) and give them a moment to be seen. I find it to be of great help in times like these.

I hope you will as well.

Democrats have a “genocide” problem. And they need

Democrats have a “genocide” problem. And they need to face it directly.

Polls have shown that somewhere between 72% and 77% of Democrats believe that Israel committed genocide in Gaza. But a significant percentage disagree, with some — particularly American Jews — alleging that the charge itself is evidence of antisemitic bias.

No answer is without its costs. To answer “no” is a deal-breaker for progressives — “disqualifying,” in the words of online commentator Matt Bernstein. Yet to answer “yes” is disqualifying for many centrists. And to say “it’s complicated” — as potential presidential contender Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky and congressional candidate Scott Wiener of California have tried recently — doesn’t please anybody.

Behold, the Democrats’ circular firing squad.

Read more at MS.NOW -- link in bio.

Adrienne Rich on the meaning she finds in Jewishne

Adrienne Rich on the meaning she finds in Jewishness:

There is something more to Jewishness than food, humor, a turn of phrase, a gesture of the hands... That's why I want to speak to you now. To say: no person, trying to take responsibility for her or his identity, should have to be so alone. There must be those among whom we can sit down and weep, and still be counted as warriors. (I make up this strange, angry packet for you, threaded with love.)

I think you thought there was no such place for you, and perhaps there was none then, and perhaps there is none now, but we will have to make it, we who want an end to suffering, who want to change the laws of history.

The Manosphere is an antinomian movement. It arose

The Manosphere is an antinomian movement. It arose in response to feminism and, most recently, #MeToo, which can be seen as an assertion of legal power against the privilege of men. But it is obviously not new. For centuries, men had legal and thus a kind of moral authority to oppress women.

Yet in the twentieth century, that legal authority started to shift. Increasingly, men’s liberty to do whatever they wanted to women began to be constrained by law. And so the manosphere rebels, pretending they’ve discovered something new when really it is the recovery of something quite old: men’s freedom from legal and moral constraints, especially regarding women but also regarding amassing wealth and power.

Read more at jaymichaelson.substack.com

In the context of the #meaningcrisis and reactiona

In the context of the #meaningcrisis and reactionary responses to it, I find the observance of Passover, and the Passover Seder in particular, to be a much-needed antidote to disorientation on one hand, and oppressive traditionalism on the other.

Fittingly, for a holiday obsessed with the number four, I explore this in four ways — if you like, the Four Cups of Meaning that can be part of the Passover Seder.

Read more at forward.com

@jdforward

Honestly, this #auden poem is just eerie to read r

Honestly, this #auden poem is just eerie to read right now. Sometimes history doesn't just rhyme.

Marc Andreessen, one of the most influential 'inte

Marc Andreessen, one of the most influential 'intellectuals' in Silicon Valley, has said that introspection is a bad thing. How can someone so brilliant also be so dumb?

To these oligarch-intellectuals, becoming a captain of industry means one is qualified to effectively rule the human race, as if excellence along one vector of optimization implies excellence in all of them.

Up now at jaymichaelson.substack.com

This quote is absolute perfection. Thanks @donshe

This quote is absolute perfection.

Thanks @donsheweynyc for sharing it earlier.

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