Paul Gauguin: The Dark Stage of Alchemy by Sam Abelow

Paul Gauguin, throughout his painting career, remained attached to this unconscious relationship with the anima complex, and its corresponding projections. This is evident in the fact that the recovery of his own savage nature and pursuit of a lasting art was dependent on a relationship with Tahitian women.

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Sam Harris and David Benatar Debate Anti-Natalism: Breaking Through the Philosophical Quibble by Sam Abelow

David Benatar is a philosopher and writer who insists that a universe without human beings is better off than one with them. He believes, that because sentient beings can suffer, in varying degrees, it is better that they never lived. Additionally, once living, suicide is, in the majoirty of cases, a moral wrongdoing.This school of thought is known as “Anti-Natalism.” 

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New Age Ridiculousness at Columbia University Program by Sam Abelow

Among his seemingly random meanderings throughout the class, events that took place included, a girl crying to the class for 20 minutes about the very personal death of her grandfather, a loose discussion on the concept of time and how we don’t live in the moment, several aggressive table pounds by the professor, and a couple of phrases that made shallow sense, like “life doesn’t go fast, we go fast”.

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Paul Gauguin: Desire and Immortality by Sam Abelow

Paul Gauguin, a painter of the 1890’s, achieved an immortality through his art. Much of his drive to create was a compulsion in which he sacrificed his well-being to achieve. Yet, the contents of his imagination and intellect live on in the cultural canon of Western art, and his aesthetics propagated a new vision of art, influencing the likes of Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. The psychological power behind such a drive will be explored in this essay, along with much more.

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An Artist’s Case for the Moderation of Technology by Sam Abelow

The excessive technological stimulation causes many of us to ignore the Life which exists in slow and open moments when we are able to absorb each other and the world around us. Recognition of the downtempo pace of a pre-technological existence is a needed counterbalance.

Flashy screens, moving images, endless songs to stream and infinite news stories are all alluring. Widely accessible content, from comedy to calamity, becomes addictive to our minds which are designed for curiosity. Please, in the days after reading this pay attention to your own habits.

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Bon Iver's Esoteric Digital Daydream: 22, A Million by Sam Abelow

Justin Vernon spontaneously materialized, instantly finding a place in the playlists of American and European listeners in 2007, with the release of his album “For Emma, Forever Ago.” Heart wrenching and vulnerable, stripped down and timeless, that first album proved original enough for hipsters and accessible enough for soccer moms.

The mythology around Bon Iver began with that first album: he had broken up with his girlfriend and his band, contracted a serious illness, recovered and retreated to isolation in the woods of Wisconsin. There he hunted for his food and stayed in his father’s cabin.

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A Revival in Motherhood: Viral Video of Home Birth by Sam Abelow

For a long time I have been fascinated with the processes of conception, pregnancy and birth. This interest was sparked when I saw the Business of Being Born. The documentaries overview of the modern history of birthing practices is fascinating and disturbing.

I find the trend towards simplifying, back to a woman's natural, instinctive power, combined with use of breath and mindfulness to be an astonishing revival, rich with everything good about humanity.

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Poem: One Last Photograph by Sam Abelow

She knew that the men, the ones who's souls had been stolen, were coming. But there was no way for her to know what that ending would bring. There was her depth, captured: her amber eyes foresaw something: The fate that a mass mob would impose; a life onto which she would cling.

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Easter: Osiris, Christ and Myths of Transformation by Sam Abelow

The instinct that we must “sacrifice” to have the renewal is a fundamental representation of experience, found in our instinctual psyche. Our ancestors experienced the outside world, and inner world as a continuum. This meant that psychological processes had to be practiced outwardly to encourage consciousness, or rather capability towards sustaining themselves

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The History of Alchemy: From Isaac Newton to Joe Rogan by Sam Abelow

In the ancient past — Egypt for example — there were a class of people who had profound knowledge. Their knowledge came from some much more distant past (before the ice age) and the difference between that knowledge and the type people seek today, is that the ancient knowledge was always infused with what one could call a “spiritual” perspective.

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