Ocupation: Author
Life: b. 1952
Many tribal peoples consider illness to be one of the most reliable sources of revelation. Many of the practices that traditional religions impose upon seekers-abstinence, isolation, stillness-are practices that illness imposes upon us, so it is in a sense a cocoon that allows revelation to unfold.
Topics: Practice, Cocoons, Isolation, Reliable Sources
My body has taught me many things, all of them filled with soul: how to dance and make love, mourn and make music; now it is teaching me how to heal. I am learning to heed the shifting currents of my body-the subtle changes in temperature, muscle tension, thought and mood-the way a sailor rides the wind by reading the ripples on the water.
Topics: Reading, Teaching, Wind
I often felt better as soon as I swallowed my vitamin C, long before it had time to take effect. Medical researchers call it 'placebo effect'; I prefer to call it magic, for it occurs when something - a pill or a word - is imbued with power and meaning, and so it becomes effective. That is alchemy.
Topics: Placebo Effect, Long, Magic, Alchemy, Placebo
By the time writing was invented, the Greeks and Egyptians had already learned to extract opium from poppies to facilitate sleep.
source: - Kat Duff (2014). “The Secret Life of Sleep”, p.84, Oneworld Publications
Topics: Sleep, Writing, Greek