Are you ready to change your perspective? — In the movie, The Matrix, the protagonist, Neo, intuits that something isn’t quite right about the world. His life feels off to him, though he has no idea why. Spoiler alert. In truth, Neo is living in a computer simulation created by advanced artificial intelligence, and his body is stored…

What makes it so emotionally charged? — The Lion King is a Disney classic, as I’m sure you know. And part of what makes it so good is that it’s relatable. Simba’s journey is really all of our journeys. That’s what makes for a good story — that we can see ourselves, in all our glorious ridiculousness…

It is both completely obvious and impossibly esoteric. — On March 13, 2013, almost 10 years ago to this day, my life changed forever. There wasn’t anything particularly interesting about this moment. It had happened a million times before. An ex and I had been traveling for months and we were re-hashing one of those pointless kinds of arguments…

It could be simpler than you think. There was once a young man whose life was not going smoothly. He was beset by numerous physical and psychological ailments. He was a failed painter. He had dropped out of Harvard Medical School. …

This is both terrifying and empowering to realize. — Fate and destiny are interesting concepts. Their mere existence as words speaks to how out of control life can feel — and, as a consequence, how powerless we can feel. When we think of fate and destiny, we often think of forces greater than our own moving the pieces on…

Fear is not the enemy you think it is. You often wish your fears didn’t exist, don’t you? They all too frequently stand, like terrifying monsters, in the way of getting what you want, don’t they? Your fears stop you from talking to your crush. They stop you from pursuing…

They both have their uses. — The head and the heart: two aspects of our being that are quite confusing. “Be rational,” someone might say when you’ve been blinded by the love of a new romance. “Follow your heart,” someone else might say when you’re considering changing careers. But, do you know when it’s useful to…

It’s filled me with so much hope. — If you’ve ever eaten a magic mushroom, taken LSD, or been under the influence of another psychedelic, you know how they can change your mind. And not just because they make you experience wild hallucinations. An amazing and mysterious property of psychedelics is that they can have lasting impacts. …

I went on a 7-day ayahuasca retreat to find out. — In May 2022, I didn’t meet nine perfect strangers but 20 of them. We had all signed up for a retreat in Costa Rica where we would drink an ancient, indigenous, plant-based medicine called ayahuasca. For most of us, it was our first time — myself included. In retrospect, it…