Interview with State of Belief | jaymichaelson.net

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

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Interview with State of Belief

“State_of_Belief_062020”. Released: 2013.

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Recent Articles

The Age of Antinomianism

Dec 10th, 2025 in Both/And
Psychedelics and Spirituality: A Primer

Dec 3rd, 2025 in ARC
Ghosts in the Machine

Dec 3rd, 2025 in Both/And
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
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Academic @ emory @harvard
Journalist @jdforward @arc.magazine.jcdc
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Polling shows most Americans oppose what ICE is do

Polling shows most Americans oppose what ICE is doing. But it's up to us to keep this story alive. Here are four things you can do to help do so.

Videos and more information at jaymichaelson.substack.com .

There have been plenty of "takes" on the shooting

There have been plenty of "takes" on the shooting of Renee Good. Instead of yet another of those, I wanted to focus on what must happen now and how you can play a role.

Online now at jaymichaelson.substack.com

I've been saving this meme for the right moment, a

I've been saving this meme for the right moment, and now is obviously the right moment.

This hit TV show about hunky hockey players broke

This hit TV show about hunky hockey players broke my cynical gay heart. And, to my surprise, it awoke memories of an entire life I used to live, but had since quite forgotten.

Read more at jaymichaelson.substack.com

#heatedrivalry @rachelreidwrites #booktok @jacob.tierney @heatedrivalrycrave

If you journaled or otherwise recorded what you we

If you journaled or otherwise recorded what you were most worried about a year ago, how much of it came to pass? And what happened that you never would have predicted?

For me, the point is not to evaluate whether things are worse or better than expected (they are both), but to notice that they diverged from expectations in ways that are interesting, revealing, and grounding. In a zone flooded with excrement, it’s almost a kind of raft.

Up now at jaymichaelson.substack.com

Thoughts on sacred work, in this week of cultural

Thoughts on sacred work, in this week of cultural rest. #kahlilgibran

It was a hard year -- and not coincidentally, a gr

It was a hard year -- and not coincidentally, a great one for art that provided refuge.

My idiosyncratic Best-Of list, now up at jaymichaelson.substack.com .

The Sydney attack was both antisemitic and anti-Is

The Sydney attack was both antisemitic and anti-Israel in nature; it punished innocent Jews for Israel’s perceived sins, as if attendees at a Chabad Hanukkah celebration are culpable for (or even supported) the war in Gaza.

But once again, precision is needed. Some pundits and Jewish leaders – Bret Stephens, David Frum, Deborah Lipstadt – have rushed in to insist that this attack is what people mean by “Globalize the Intifada,” the infamous cri de coeur of some Palestinian protesters.

Not likely. In fact, ISIS and Hamas loathe one another – so much so that there was even a conspiracy theory among Gazans that ISIS was secretly being supported by Israel and the United States, in part because it prioritized the fight against Syria over the fight against Israel. ISIS also opposes Palestinian nationalism (and thus the Intifada) because they seek to unite the entire Muslim world in a single umma governed by Islamic Law (and by their own clerics). ISIS has no interest in the Intifada, globalized or otherwise. Nor, of course, does an ISIS-affiliating terrorist care what American campus activists or mayor-elect have to say.

The takeaway: Don’t believe anyone who says that a terrorist attack confirms their prior beliefs.

Read more at forward.com
@jdforward

Prescient words from the late Rob Reiner. (Source

Prescient words from the late Rob Reiner.

(Source: an interview I conducted with him last year -- https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/rob-reiner-christian-nationalism-trump-documentary-1234969196/ )

#robreiner
@robreinerofficial

I love the new TV show "Pluribus" -- and I'm not a

I love the new TV show "Pluribus" -- and I'm not alone; the show just became the most-streamed in Apple TV history. As it happens, it's largely about the dream of enlightenment and universal, shared consciousness -- and how that conflicts with humanism and some key religious values.

So naturally, I took a deep dive at
jaymichaelson.substack.com

@plur1busappletv @pluribusappletv #pluribus @pluribus

This week in the newsletter, I get to share with y

This week in the newsletter, I get to share with you all a longtime obsession of mine: the hard-to-pronounce word "antinomianism."

Antinomianism says: the written law says one thing, but often the conscience, the soul, the spirit says something else. And to honor that calling is, itself, the sacred act. Breaking the law can be holy.

And it is found on the left and the right -- especially in the age of Trump.

Read more at jaymichaelson.substack.com

Very happy to share another video from the Psyched

Very happy to share another video from the Psychedelics & Monotheistic Traditions symposium at Harvard Law School. Here is a clip of the panel of six contemporary Jewish psychedelic practitioners, featuring @zackamenetz of @shefa_flow talking about how psychedelic practice may replace some of the traditions lost to history. The full link in in my bio.

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.

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