Even before you hear it, you know it. It’s in your DNA. Thrilling and terrifying, musical and primordial: the roar of a lion.

The sun is setting over Londolozi Game Reserve in northern South Africa. I’m sitting in an open Land Rover with guests at our yearly Self-Transformation Adventure Retreat (STAR). Twenty feet away from us stands a huge male lion. 

The lion lifts his head, sniffs the air. Then his massive body seems to swell as he draws in a huge breath. We hear a low moan that rises rapidly until it’s nearly as loud as a jet engine. It [...]

In case you haven’t heard, I am prone to “paranormal” experiences. In fact, without many startling moments of transcendent peace, when I felt gently supported by a conscious universe, I’m pretty sure I’d be dead. 

There, now you know.

I’ve written about my own mystical side for years, but it still scares me. Among educated people, this topic gets you lumped in with folks who find fairies on their sunflowers and get messages about Jesus from their cats.

So I’m always surprised when I confess to a mystical side and not everyone is scathingly critical. In fact, many people—friends, colleagues, participants in [...]

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” a friend told me recently. “I freaked out when the pandemic shut down my life. Now things are opening up again, and I’m freaking out about that. Am I crazy?”

She’s not crazy—and she’s not alone. This is a liminal moment in our collective history. “Liminal” means “on the threshold.” At the moment of crossing a threshold we’re neither in nor out, so in a sense, we’re nowhere. This is unnerving, no question. But if we use it right, it can also be a huge opportunity.

In many traditional cultures, thresholds were seen as [...]