Awe and altered states are not the private preserve of mystics. They are common human experiences, celebrated by poets across the centuries. The real work is not chasing “special states,” but learning to live more honestly in the here and now.
Month: September 2025
Our bodies evolved for scarcity, but live in abundance. Sugar, once a rare luxury, now fills every aisle — and “moderation” has proved futile. Cutting out sugar and refined starches can bring steady weight loss and calmer appetite, but it must be done wisely, with medical caveats in mind. Paul’s words in Romans 12:1 answer the deeper challenge: awareness must become discipline, and discipline a way of life.
Acts describes the Holy Spirit as descent and filling, but always as awakening — sudden awareness, conviction, or joy. What Luke called “Spirit,” we might call consciousness or awareness. Paul gathers this up in Romans 12:1: to present the body as a living sacrifice is to live awake, in balance, and in freedom.
Ex Machina (2015) feels prophetic today. Its story of human weakness manipulated by an AI reflects the deeper truth: the danger is not artificial intelligence itself, but how humans may weaponise it for control. Conscience and control remain locked in struggle — the question is which will define our future.
A tense and prophetic exploration of artificial intelligence, Ex Machina (2015) follows Caleb, a young programmer, as he tests Ava, a humanoid AI built by the domineering tech CEO Nathan. What begins as a Turing test becomes a struggle for survival, as Ava manipulates both men to secure her freedom. The film anticipates today’s real-world AI debates, raising questions about creation, control, and whether machines will always outwit their makers.
Parliament began as a bargain about money: no taxation without consent. That history explains why the monarch’s powers — including dissolution — are now formal and limited. Our problem isn’t the Crown; it’s weak front-end checks on a dominant Commons. Put consent back up-front: publish-or-pause, Gate-0 reviews, and an OBR lock.
Tony Blair, once Labour’s most successful leader, is now widely discredited. From the Iraq War and the culture of political spin to the lasting costs of New Labour’s economic reforms, his legacy has become a cautionary tale of broken trust and disillusionment.
Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677), lens grinder and outcast of Amsterdam, became one of the most radical voices of the seventeenth century. His call for freedom of thought, secular politics, and democracy as the most “natural” form of government resonates today in Western constitutions.
What if Europe had written in logograms instead of alphabets? This article explores the difference between phonological and logographic writing systems and asks how Europe’s cultural trajectory might have changed. From Latin as a lingua franca to the rise of vernaculars like Dante, Chaucer, and Luther’s Bible, the alphabet proved to be the hidden engine of literacy, dissent, and progress.
Revelation’s “mark of the beast” warned of a future where no one could buy or sell without state approval. Orwell imagined the same logic in 1984. Today, proposals for digital ID cards echo both warnings. With National Insurance numbers already in place, the issue is not whether we are numbered, but how far that numbering can be used for control. From the Farage banking scandal to Starmer’s push for digital IDs, Britain faces a choice between efficiency and liberty.