This morning on my walk to work I noticed that the demolition of an office building had exposed a church to public view--and not just any church, but Manhattan's first Roman Catholic parish. Drawn by the sight I decided to do a walk-through. The ornamentation, the altars, the markers commemorating the history of building and craft--the place was a vivid reminder of a visual style in some ways alien to life today, but at the same time its direct antecedent.

The blend of sensory richness and spirituality reminded me of this recent article on the goldsmiths of Iraq. Gold as an expression of transformative identity has a long history there, a tradition evident not just in the Bible but in the diffusion of its iconic values throughout the globe. Which is just one more why the plight of Iraq's goldsmiths is so tragic--it's not just that the invasion led to the pillaging of ancient art; Iraq is losing the very artists whose work help gives life meaning.

Even more disturbing--the role of religious conflict in this spiritual implosion. For more on that check out the whole article; for now, a poignant reminder of one family's lost golden age:

For Walid, goldsmithing is more than a business, it is a family tradition too important to abandon.

His grandfather worked on the golden-domed Kadhimiya shrine, where Imam Musa al Kadhim and his grandson, Muhammad Taqi, revered by Shiite Muslims, are said to be buried.

His father made jewelry for the Iraqi royal family.

A faded photograph hanging above Walid's counter shows his father with the portable wooden box he used to display his wares before he opened a store in 1934 in Baghdad's most famous gold bazaar, which fills the winding alleys leading to the shrine. . . .

The jewelry sold in the Kadhimiya district is especially prized by Iraq's majority Shiites, who consider it to be a blessing from the imams buried there.

Before U.S.-led forces invaded the country in 2003, the shopkeepers say, as many as 3,000 Iranians also visited the shrine every day. After offering a prayer to the imams, the pilgrims would join the bustling throngs to shop for gold.

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Last night's powerful windstorm in New York reminds me of this traveling art and jewelry exhibit featuring hurricane-inspired designs--Storm Cycle: An Artist Responds to Hurricane Katrina, which also has as its companion exhibit The Hurricane Brooch Show. 

"I want them to use jewelry-making as a method of artistic commentary," [artist Thomas Mann] said. "In some cultures, jewelry pieces transcend fashion to a large degree by becoming objects of celebration, honor, reflection or spiritual context."

For 30 years, Mann has been involved in the contemporary American craft movement as an artist, gallery owner and teacher. While his work ranges from hammered sterling hearts on delicate chains to hanging installations full of aesthetic and thematic confrontation, he is best known in the international art community for his jewelry. But a jeweler he is not. He is a sculptor, often working on a scale that just happens to be wearable.

For Storm Cycle, he created 20 brooches that attach to larger panels, each one a glimpse into the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. "Markings No. 1" pairs found sheet metal with a photo of a handmade warning sign that reads: "U loot / We shoot." Such markings are a major element of the show, as Mann collected images of graffiti made in the desperate hours after the devastation of New Orleans.

"Markings No. 3" is an interpretation of the grids painted on doors by inspection teams charged with searching ruined buildings for bodies. They used symbols to indicate where teams were from, the date and status of the inspection and the number of bodies recovered. Mann said the count started rising when officials realized how many people had died trapped in their attics.

"That's why those markings are so important to people," Mann said, adding that the brooch element of each piece is meant to give its message reach. "They allow you to take the whole story with you."

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"Take a hit of God instead--do you think you can handle the high?" Turns out this mock Christian come-on in the musical Reefer Madness may have hit on a deeper truth about religious ritual. From Science Daily:

Religious leaders have contended for millennia that burning incense is good for the soul. Now, biologists have learned that it is good for our brains too. An international team of scientists, including researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, describe how burning frankincense (resin from the Boswellia plant) activates poorly understood ion channels in the brain to alleviate anxiety or depression. This suggests that an entirely new class of depression and anxiety drugs might be right under our noses.

"In spite of information stemming from ancient texts, constituents of Bosweilla had not been investigated for psychoactivity," said Raphael Mechoulam, one of the research study's co-authors. "We found that incensole acetate, a Boswellia resin constituent, when tested in mice lowers anxiety and causes antidepressive-like behavior. Apparently, most present day worshipers assume that incense burning has only a symbolic meaning."

Posted by jat at 06:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Just one of the digital collections available on Public Collectors, via the Groundswell Collective.

Every time Philip von Zweck found a Bible in his hotel room, he nicked it. The one pictured above has my favorite caption: "The first wedding I got to perform as a rev."

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Via Yoga Journal, a fascinating look at the Sanghamitra sex workers collective . . .

In Indian mythology, Sanghamitra is the beautiful and wise daughter of Emperor Asoka, and the solitary motivation for his transformation from ruthless despot to a peaceful disciple of Buddhism. Sanghamitra, the providential name chosen by the women, is predestined to signify extraordinary change in their lives, toward a better, brighter future of hope and well-being.

Maya, the President of Sanghamirta, rose and made a speech welcoming those of us gathered in the room. Each office member stood and placed a beautiful purple scarf around our necks.

And how a Westerner ended up teaching yoga in India:

When I asked them if they'd like to try yoga, they giggled and clapped like little girls—perhaps feeling like they were being naughty or breaking a law. Apparently the practice of yoga doesn't make its way past India's deeply-established tradition of sex and discrimination. Unfortunately, the people who could really benefit from its healing and emancipation properties were denied because of their place in society.

I knew yoga's health benefits might not interest them. And since most of the women are Hindi and devotion is an intrinsic part of their culture, I spoke about how we can use our bodies as an expression of our devotion. I explained how each gesture, including the placement of the hand, the expansion of the lungs, and the turn of the spine, is an offering. I told them that yoga practice is a living ritual and an embodied prayer.

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AVN has the story; Erica Campbell's website explains her decision. Two things are particularly interesting: the sense that her charity work (animal rescue) was not enough, and the social network that emerged as she communicated with the men who paid for her pics. An excerpt below; for a different POV, including an intriguing comparison of working in porn with wearing a head scarf, check out this NOW discussion with Nina Hartley.

Here's Erica Campbell:

I love helping people, I love befriending people, I love animal rescue and rehab. I care a GREAT deal for my friends and family and ALWAYS do whatever I can to care for them and make sure that they are ok. For a long time I THOUGHT that I was doing the right thing.....and doing my personal best......well...I was wrong...dead wrong. . . .

The past few years have been very difficult for me. That is no secret to anyone that knows anything about me. I have been working my tail off to support myself, my farm, my rescues, my family, and the list goes on. No matter how hard I worked.....no matter how many people or creatures I helped I STILL had that void inside of my heart and my soul. Connecting with person after person through my site as REAL FRIENDS. I understood the loneliness of the people that I would talk to...because I myself was so lonely. The more I shot...the deeper my darkness got.....the more I understood the pain of others. My friends and my fan. There is ONE common thread to so many of us online here.....the need to be loved, accepted, cared for, the need to have SOMEONE understand you and connect with you. At the end of so many of these emails was that loneliness. SO many men have asked me what they were doing wrong, how to find a special girl like me for THEM. How to fill that "void" in their hearts...in their souls.

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Today's featured jewelry comes to us thanks to TrendHunters, which also spotted the NipTuck app below. It's the OctopusMe tentacle ring, part of an extensive collection of octo-themed offerings. As OctopusMe explains, "The Octopus is a symbol of Transformation and Regeneration."

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Part of the Sheila Satin Collection on Etsy:

Each piece will arrive boxed/pouched, cleaned from negativity, charged in the sun, with a positive affirmation for you to program yourself!

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Via

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"Is that God up there?" - "Felix Fritzl, 5, sees the moon for the first time since leaving the cellar" where his father/grandfather had kept him sheltered since he was born.

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Jan Daniel Cadinot was a famous director of gay porn. The following post appeared on his blog on April 23rd, the day he died of a heart attack:

Dear friends, critics and others,

If you're reading these words I will have put down my camera, switched off the lights, drawn the curtains and taken my final bow. May all the efforts and work of a whole life, the quest for the moment of pure truth in the sublime communion of two beings under the spell of the undefinable desire for the other, inspire those who inherit my heart.

The human being is made such that it only remembers the good and the beautiful, therefore I leave you with a free mind and a head overflowing with a myriad of young men, sometimes strong and vigorous, sometimes fragile and sensitive. All of them gave me these unforgettable moments of their most tender intimacy, moments that only a few really know but which I made in to images to allow you to admire them over and over again.

Never were success or personal fortune my creed. You offered me gratitude, and I thank you for that because I wanted nothing else. Cadinot salutes you. Remember a kindly fellow, an extreme observer given to rages and contradiction but who listened to others and was full of love.

"An erect phallus is a symbol of life, a cross a symbol of death."

Posted by jat at 08:18 AM | Permalink

Back when I was studying for my religion Ph.D., the notion that Americans treated religion like shopping was the stuff of cutting-edge academic books and doctoral dissertations. Now it's just another article in Cosmo.

I am so old.

Next month: What Karl Barth's dialectical yes-and-no says about how far you should go on first dates.

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Pippa Bacca (1975—2008) was an Italian artist who, together with a fellow artist, was hitch-hiking from Milan to the Middle-East to promote WORLD PEACE and trust in other people, while wearing wedding dresses. Arriving in Gebze (TR) on March 31 2008, she went missing, and her sister flew to Turkey to locate her. Her body was discovered in the city on April 11, 2008, and she was formally identified by her sibling, and taken to Istanbul for an autopsy.

More here and at her website, which includes this depiction of Adam and Eve:

Posted by jat at 08:59 AM | Permalink

Taking the culture of personal production one level higher, in this spiritual clay sex kit you create your own instructors.

But if the whole clay thing is too earthy for you, Kama3D provides a comprehensive set of virtual Kama Sutra sexual position sculptures for your spiritual edification.

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Via Journalista, this meditation on meaning from graphic novelist Marjane Satrapi hits on a fundamental truth:

We meet in London. She can’t stand Britain because of the smoking ban. She suggests that we talk in her hotel room because at least she will be able to smoke there. She lives for her cigs, and is quite happy to die for them, she says. “For me smoking is like looking at your soul,” she says in a rasping hybrid accent. “There is something extraordinarily poetic about smoking — from the gesture of holding a cigarette, turning it on, smoking it, the taste of it, the smell of it, I love every-thing about smoking.” She has no truck with the kill-joys who want to stop us doing all the things that we enjoy — simply because it might prolong our life. “Anything that has a relationship with pleasure we reject it. Eating, they talk about cholesterol; making love, they talk about Aids; you talk about smoking, they talk about cancer. It’s a very sick society that rejects pleasure.” She’s working herself up into a climax of disgust. “Why should we live like sick people just to give some fresh meat to the ground? I hope my meat is so rotten no worm in the whole universe will want to come and eat it. I want to be rotten to accept the idea of dying. Every day you live you get one day closer to death. If you are never born you will never die. Giving birth is also giving death.” She smiles, having hit on the solution to combating death.

Video: Cartoon penguins and the Statue of Liberty show kids teach kids how cigarettes are synonymous with freedom in an old advertising cartoon for Kool.

Posted by jat at 10:55 AM | Permalink

This is a series to watch: Naked City's upcoming survey of religious groups whose mission involves working with sex workers of faith--not to convert them from sex work but to serve them where they are. It's a topic about which I have my own rather unconventional thoughts, and perhaps once I get a couple deadlines out of the way I'll post them here.

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Yesterday I dropped by Barnes & Noble to pick up some books for school. As usual I decided to scan through the science section to see if there were any new must-reads.

And that's when I noticed something interesting.

Used to be it was loaded with a mix of hard science (with, you know, math and stuff) and solid popularizations by science journalists. That's still there--well, at least the popularizations--but there's also something else. Books on quantum spirituality, Eastern religion and science, technology and faith, alchemy . . . all from small religious publishers, such as Shambhala Publications.

B&N isn't known for squandering shelf space, so I imagine that this must be what sells. As for what it means of the future of science in America, we'll have to see.

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Well, technically, at his funeral. This story of a son who paid an erotic dancer to perform before the coffin of his 103 year old father reminds me of the following scene from the end of the life of David as depicted in the Book of Kings:

1.1 Now king David was old and stricken in years; and they covered him with clothes, but he got no heat.

2 Wherefore his servants said unto him, Let there be sought for my lord the king a young virgin: and let her stand before the king, and let her cherish him, and let her lie in thy bosom, that my lord the king may get heat.

3 So they sought for a fair damsel throughout all the coasts of Israel, and found Abishag a Shunammite, and brought her to the king.

4 And the damsel was very fair, and cherished the king, and ministered to him: but the king knew her not.

If anyone feels compelled to celebrate a ritual of regeneration at my deathbed or funeral, I would prefer a loop of scenes from Doctor Who.

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Via Defamer and the NY Daily News

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Omphalos is the classical Greek word for "navel." Not coincidentally, the omphalos is also an iconic religious object representing our creation out of chaos--as well as the original name of a modern creationist hypothesis arguing that God created the earth with all the signs of pre-existing age, from geological strata to the belly-button on Adam when God made him from dirt.

Yet pictured above is a genuine miracle: a woman without a belly button. She's evidence of either our imminent posthuman future or a photo-editor getting a bit too enthusiastic with Photoshop's clone tool.

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‘‘My work is a response to all things plastic, black, evil and cheap that don’t give people the chance to explore the power of the body.’’ That tantalizing quote appeared in last Sunday's New York Times feature on Betony Vernon. The article may highlight the "titillating" aspects of Vernon's "erotic ceremonies," but as the writer also notes there's more to the sex than just sex. Her Paradise Found website explains:

"Ritual," "mission," "education," "mystery"--the language of transformation pervades Vernon's work. And it's not just talk: check out the following iconic design, which links the flight of the spirit to bone and flesh:

Besides offering a jewelry line, Paradise Found also doubles as a postmodern mystery faith, with a secret gathering place and rites known only to invited initiates--one more sign that we are living in the midst of a new Renaissance, where art, spirituality and commerce blend into one.

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Via

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Via Postsecret

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Uwe Ommer, "Do It Yourself"

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Congratulations to Mok & Paul at Eyeteeth, which has one of the most informative wedding blog write-ups I've seen, chock full of insight into the religious significance of Thai wedding traditions and a nice image of global spirituality.

Without, thankfully, the traditional Web 1.0 MIDI accompaniment.

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Via

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The church at the Sweden's Icehotel, via AndrewSullivan.com and BLDGBLOG.

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Orpheus went down to Hades in a doomed attempt to rescue his beloved Eurydice. Now we come on down to challenge fate at Plinko. Quoth new Price is Right host Drew Carey in today's New York Times:

"[F]or every single person that makes it onstage, it’s like a Joseph Campbell journey, an everyman plucked from obscurity to attempt a journey, with obstacles placed in their way. And I just want to be a good guy for them, so they can win money. I’m there to help them on their journey."

Of course, the show hasn't always had such a benign view of its mythic significance. When I went there back in the Bob Barker days, Rod Roddy tried to cut off my hand.

Anyway, as the Times article explains, Carey's spiritual reference isn't facetious:

Mr. Carey, 49, said that in the past two years he has undergone a “huge spurt of spiritual growth,” having immersed himself in texts from the Bible to books by Wayne Dyer and Marianne Williamson. The result is a changed attitude about comedy, show business and himself.

“I’ve thought about changing my name, I’ve changed so much,” he said, “If Drew Carey now met Drew Carey from 5 or 10 years ago, I wouldn’t recognize him.”

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It's fair-trade, which means the more Divine Chocolate you eat, the more you help save the world.

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From Jo Longhurst's Twelve Dogs, Twelve Bitches:

My work with the British show Whippet – a dog bred to an ideal standard – focuses particularly on the evolution of the visual image of the Whippet, and the construction of human identity through the shaping of the figure of the dog.

Via It's Nice That

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Drilling for oil in the Great Salt Lake may destroy this piece of conceptual art, "one of the great works of mysticism in the 20th century." Step back and you'll see an a culture clash beyond art versus commerce--while the American norm is toward eternal preservation, the equally sublime Tibetan Buddhist sand mandala is made to be destroyed.

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Just in time from Valentine's Day, Sugah! offers this line of chocolates designed to reflect seven different--and distinctly NSFW--positions from the Kama Sutra. Of course, if you're reading this blog, I'm sure you're only interested in its religious significance:

Tantra is the philosophy of Spirituality, art and science that has eroticism at its core. Like our approach to chocolate, the Tantric approach to life is joyful and sensual.

Chocolate has long been heralded for its aphrodisiacal qualities. Ancient Tantric teachings have long been used to spice up new and old relationships. Take your lovemaking to new heights and treat yourself and your partner to a little something more than some fine chocolate with our tantric tablet collection.

Posted by jat at 01:18 AM | Permalink

Sustainability and spirituality--fossil jewelry has it all:

Our trilobite jewelry was created by taking a mold from actual trilobite fossils. Fossils are worn as amulets to promote longevity, for protection, and to increase spiritual energy. Fossils are symbols of time, eternity, evolution, and represent how nothing in nature is wasted.

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Via Bogoff.com, found through Neatorama, which featured the following super-cool Masonic watch from the 1930s and made the spot-on joke I wish I'd thought of first.

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From a photo series based on children's drawings:

"...The power of a child's imagination is how it delicately refigures memory and real imagery into unreasonable and unexpected expressions and impressions. Children's fantasies spring from flexible interpretations of adult conventions. The challenge of photographically reconstructing these fantasies may reflect Jung's challenge of becoming a father in real life. It is not hard to imagine that he is inspired by the limitless imaginative power of the child playing before his eyes. This makes even more sense in light of Kristeva's comment that the child is the "mythical figure" of the imaginary. The adolescents who play-act for Jung take on the adult forms of their drawn figures, but with adolescent minds, and thus visually realize the fusion of fantasy and reality. These are works that gaze upon the world of adult reason with the pure, unsullied eyes of a child. Balanced between reality and fantasy, the deformed cartoonish world in "Wonderland" sways our values and beliefs."

Via Neatorama

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One of my favorite Socratic dialogues is the Euthydemus, in which Plato explores the link between words and things. One of the limitations of language highlighted in the wordplay of this text is the way that one word can mean different things.

For instance, take the classical Greek verb "porneuo." In English we translate this most directly as "to prostitute", with its most common usage in the passive voice signifying "to engage in prostitution." Yet if we look at the most ubiquitous English cognate--porn--we find that it is rarely if ever used in reference to people classed as prostitutes, either by law or convention, despite the fact that any number of people depicted in pornography are doing so for money. Indeed, depending on the jurisdiction or observer the person depicted in the image need not be engaged in a sexual act at all; mere exposure of certain body parts may suffice.

Then there are other languages in which the word porn has no reference to sex at all--and that's the story behind the picture above. Design blog Eyeteeth explains:

One of the reasons my wife Mok goes by her nickname is that in the U.S. she's sometimes met with snickers when she says her given name: Julaporn.

But in Thailand, the word "porn" has a very different meaning. It's the name of the king's daughter (and technically, no one else is supposed to use it) and means "silk." Often a part of women's names, "porn" is a formal and somewhat antiquated word for a blessing from God. So the name literally refers to the ceremonial silk one would present to monks at a Buddhist temple: prayer silk, if you will.

For a complete explanation of Julaporn's neon sign, check out the rest of this enlightening post!

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Although the righteous folks at Miss Toronto Tourism believe that tarot card reading is too "dark arts" for beauty pageants, the Barbie Tarot reveals that it may be a perfect fit.

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"He was an anarchist and an independent journalist who went to Mexico to document revolution -- and ended up filming his own murder."

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AM New York has a feature on New York designers exploring the theme of peace. Tanya Farah's work--with words for peace in English, Hebrew and Arabic--wasn't illustrated, but it's something for which I'll be on the lookout. Rosena Sammi, designer of the Kismat collection, has this to say about her work:

"When your thoughts and feelings tend towards purity of mind/body, hope, and bliss," she says, "the effect on your life can be profound."

Who knew?

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CNN just posted a story on well-dying, a movement in which individuals seek spiritual renewal by putting themselves through a fake funeral. I'd like to say more about this, but the dreaded deadline doom is crouching at my door. For now, here's a description from the original article:

After solemnly reading their wills, seven perfectly healthy university students climb into caskets in a dimly lit hall.

"I want to give all of you one more day to live, but it's time to be placed into coffins," a man in a black suit says in a resounding voice. "I hope your tired flesh and bodies will be peacefully put to rest."

Workers nail the coffins shut, then sprinkle dirt on top as the lights are switched off and a dirge is played. Muffled sobs can be heard from some of the coffins. About 15 minutes later, they are opened and the five men and two women are "reborn."

The mock funeral, which aims to get participants to map out a better future by reflecting on their past, is part of a new trend in South Korea called "well-dying." The fad is an extension of "well-being," an English phrase adopted into Korean to describe a growing interest in leading healthier, happier lives.

"I felt really, really scared inside the coffin and also thought a lot about my mom," said Lee Hye-jung, a 23-year-old woman studying engineering. "I'll live differently from now on so as not to have any regrets about my life."

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My favorite bit from this story: the argument that being a priest exempts you from airport security searches. Were that the case, I'd be tempted to sign up.

A man dressed as a priest caught at Amsterdam's airport with three kilos of cocaine under his vestments claimed to police that his packages contained "holy sand", Dutch police said.

Police stopped the man at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport as he was transiting on a flight from South America, Robert Van Aapel, a spokesman for the Dutch Royal Military Police told CNN by phone Saturday.

"He refused to be searched saying that he was a religious person and it was not allowed," Van Aapel said.

"However, this is normal procedure so our officers insisted. They asked him again and after the second time they carried out the search and discovered the man had packs strapped to his legs below his priest's clothes. He told us they contained holy sand," he said.

He said the man, who is aged around 40 and a Bolivian national, was arrested Thursday after arriving in to the airport on a flight from Lima, Peru. He was attempting to transit on a flight to Milan when he was apprehended with the cocaine, worth around €105,000 ($155,000).

The Bolivian appeared in court Friday on charges of drug smuggling, Van Aapel said.

Dutch police are trying to establish if the man is a real priest after he claimed to be a senior member of the clergy in the Bolivian capital La Paz, he added.

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This is the featured album (disc?) cover on Sleevage today, and as the prophet Ezekiel would say, it's got wheels within wheels. Beyond the implicit message in the group's ostensibly trademarked name, the package itself is designed to emulate a blister pack of pills. Click through for more pictures.

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Sacred Cut Metal Designs is a multifaith spiritual marketplace with designs that represent a diverse range of spiritual traditions. This informative article from a local paper explains reason for the name: they custom-cut each piece with "holy water and sacred sand"--"customers can request that any refinable liquid, sand or herb that is meaningful to them be used to make their jewelry."

Because the aim is to promote peace and goodwill for all people, Sacred Cut has pieces from a wide range of traditions and beliefs, such as Christian crosses . . .

and Stars of David

and Oms.

But what really sets Sacred Cut apart is the following item, which links the sacred number 7 with a truly divine name:

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Neurospectacle has a rundown on trepanation,

a procedure where a hole is drilled into the skull, exposing the dura mater and brain for either medical (relief of pressure) or mystical (supposed heightened consciousness) purposes. It is likely the oldest procedure in neurosurgery and has been practiced by many ancient peoples all over the world.

Featured links include an animated how-to video (!), an illustrated history of the practice and an account of its modern revival among the extreme-body-mod community.

Although I've long been accused of having a hole in my head, I can't vouch for the procedure's effectiveness.

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Via

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It's Christmas, and that means time for wives everywhere to break out the traditional skull jewelry and excoriate their addled spouses for buying them inappropriate gifts.

(Didn't know that Nicolas Cage--"star of National Treasure II, playing now at a theater near you!"--and his son were producing a comic book? Cage Factor has more on Voodoo Child and the entire line of Virgin Comics, which "hopes to challenge titans Marvel and DC by marketing largely to Asia and infusing the story lines with Eastern mythology." HT: The Beat)

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No, really. In this filmed performance of a recent Electric Arc Radio show, Chocolate Rain's Tay Zonday plays God. TZ also sings "Say No to Nightmares," which is only appropriate, given the recurring "Fear Not" theme in sacred texts.

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Speaking of products imbued with soul, AltReligion has sent over a link to a company that embodies the spirit of the age: Spiritual Water.

"Do you need Jesus in your life? Do you want to have Jesus with you thru the day? Grab a cold Formula J' Spiritual Water bottle, read the prayer, believe in God, believe in yourself and the sky’s the limit…"

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Anton Fahlren, chief designer of Nokia phones:

"I think people think of a product now as more than just a piece of technology in their hands, but a total package of technology and functions, look and feel - they see it as having a soul, if you like," Fahlgren says.

"When you design a product, you learn a lot about the complexity of the technology and what things you have to think about from a design point of view. But, I think, it is very much the artistic side that is important to give soul to the product.

"That is the role of design and it always will be. At the end of the day, what you bring to the table as an electronics designer is that artistic soul and creativity."

HT: Core77

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Y'know, I think I tripped over this woman yesterday. @#%^?! meditators in Times Square! Via TechSpace:

Click To Play

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From Busted Tees:

"Ugh, I was into yoga way before ancient peoples discovered the restorative powers of meditation combined with stretching."

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