People

"I used to believe that we must choose between science and reason on one hand, and spirituality on the other. Now I consider this a false choice."

"Forget the years; forget distinctions. Leap into the boundless and make it your home."

"The therapist who works with regression must be comfortable with the unknown, willing to follow the client into territory that has no map."

The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.

"We judge the mystical experience not by its veracity, which is unknowable, but by its fruits: does it turn someone’s life in a positive direction?"

"The world came about through a mistake. For he who created it wanted to create it imperishable and immortal. He fell short of attaining his desire."

Let nothing disturb you, let nothing frighten you. All things are passing away: God never changes.

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

"We do not speak of things of which we have no experience, but we bear witness to that which we know."

"Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this Divinity within by controlling nature, external and internal. Do this either by work, or worship, or mental discipline, or philosophy—and be free."

"All life is Yoga. The integrality of the aim demands an integrality of the method, for the whole consciousness must be changed and not merely some part of it."

"The consciousness researcher must be willing to explore anomalous phenomena with the same rigor and open-mindedness applied to any other area of scientific inquiry."

"I don't study to know more, but to ignore less."

In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few.

You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.

"Whatever joy there is in this world, all comes from desiring others to be happy. Whatever suffering there is in this world, all comes from desiring myself to be happy."

"The sciences are being held back by assumptions that have hardened into dogmas, maintained by powerful taboos. The 'scientific worldview' has become a belief system."

"Apart from the cross there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven."

"To dance is to reclaim the joy of living, to overcome the fear of feeling, and to reconnect with the sacredness of life."

The mystical experience is a profoundly meaningful experience that can fundamentally transform how a person understands themselves and the world.

"For the first time in history, we have the contemplative practices of all the world's great wisdom traditions available to us, as well as the scientific tools to study them."

Psychedelics don't just change what you think—they change how the brain thinks.

DMT is not a drug to be taken lightly. It thrusts the individual into the most intense states of consciousness possible.

Without the transpersonal we have no purpose. Without the personal we have no ground.

Psychedelics are not a panacea, but they are powerful tools that, in the right context, can catalyze profound healing.

"The plant kingdom still holds many secrets. We must learn from the peoples who have used them for centuries."

Everyone has a Self, and the Self can heal every part.

"I don't mind saying that after talking with over a thousand people who have had these experiences, it has given me great confidence that there is a life after death."

Your own Self-realization is the greatest service you can render the world.

"God is in all men, but all men are not in God; that is why we suffer."

We're all just walking each other home.

"The ecological crisis is a crisis of perception—we have lost the ability to see ourselves as part of the web of life."

"O God! If I worship You for fear of Hell, burn me in Hell. If I worship You in hope of Paradise, exclude me from Paradise. But if I worship You for Your own sake, grudge me not Your everlasting beauty."

"Consciousness cannot simply be reduced to neural processes, as current scientific thinking holds. It is far more complex and far-reaching."

"Healing happens in the field between people—when we are willing to look at what has been hidden and bring it into the light."

Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know.

"The season of failure is the best time for sowing the seeds of success."

"Though my view is as vast as the sky, my attention to the law of cause and effect is as fine as a grain of flour."

"The images of the unconscious are not empty fantasies. They are the most authentic expression of the soul."

"My religion is to live and die without regret."

"Shamanism is not a belief system. It is based on personal experiments conducted to heal and to get information."

The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me.

"There is a world beyond ours, a world that is far away, nearby, and invisible. And there is where God lives, where the dead live, the spirits and the saints."

"In the culture of my people, the Dagara, we have no word for the supernatural. The closest we come to it is 'nature itself.'"

"The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name."

"All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well."

In the dark night of the soul, bright flows the river of God.

It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.

In the end, just three things matter: how well we have lived, how well we have loved, how well we have learned to let go.

The wound is the place where the Light enters you.

"Every soul has its own unique light, and every light has its own unique task in the restoration of the world."

"My heart has become capable of every form: it is a pasture for gazelles and a convent for Christian monks."

Glance at the sun. See the moon and the stars. Gaze at the beauty of earth's greenings. Now, think.

"Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God."

"The mind is not in the head. It is in the dynamic coupling of brain, body, and world."

Realize deeply that the present moment is all you have. Make the NOW the primary focus of your life.

To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by the ten thousand things.

"Love is the supreme law of the universe, and every act of genuine kindness is a step toward the spiritual evolution of humanity."

"The transformation of education is the most important task of our time, because it is the transformation of human consciousness itself."

"We must learn to be scientists of our own inner experience, not just passive consumers of others' theories about it."

Even when everything seems to indicate that something is impossible, keep working. It will get done and you will see that it was not impossible after all.

Near-death experiences are not evidence for or against the existence of God. They are evidence of something we don't yet understand.

The root of joy is gratefulness. It is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful.

True charity is not merely giving alms—it is the constant exercise of benevolence toward all beings, born from the understanding that we are all brothers in spirit.

"The soul moves toward wholeness. It is drawn toward the complete picture, including what has been excluded."

The goal is to make the benefits of altered states of consciousness available within a framework of good science and evidence.

To be born, to die, to be reborn yet again, and constantly to progress—that is the law.

I share the belief of many of my contemporaries that the spiritual crisis pervading all spheres of life can be remedied only by a change in consciousness.

There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception.

Brahman alone is real; the world is appearance; the self is nothing but Brahman.

Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.

A radical inner transformation and rise to a new level of consciousness might be the only real hope we have in the current global crisis.