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Bringing Grandma Home
Grandma Aggie wants to sit in her family chair. Who could say no to that? But Grandma Aggie is ...
We’re so happy you’re here!
In honor of the 25th anniversary of Spirituality + Health, we’re sharing our favorite articles from the last two and a half decades. Explore cutting-edge wellness tips, interviews with beloved spiritual teachers, and musings on what it means to be totally alive.
A Letter from Our Editor
25 Years! Wow! How times flies!
Our 25th Anniversary issue is filled with old friends and family swapping stories about the nature of what’s called homo narrandus, the storytelling animal. My brother Brady, an archaeologist in Athens, writes about the world’s first double-blind experiment—created because the Oracle at Delphi was thought to be bribed. Evolutionary neuroscientist Peggy La Cerra looks further back than Delphi to explain how alternate facts arose at the very beginning of storytelling. Brain surgeon Allan Hamilton, MD, gives a harrowing and hilarious account of being intubated without sufficient anesthesia, a tale that explains why some stories flash back and reveals the minefield that is PTSD. Wellness pioneer Joel Bennett explains an ultimate path to savoring one’s own life story as a “connoisseur of time”. And Olympic gold medalist Oliver Fix tells of finding Ho'oponopono Ke Ala, an effortless path to happiness.
My cover story, "The Origins of The Declaration of Independence," was carried for hundreds of generations to Grandma Agnes Baker Pilgrim, the last keeper of the Takelma Salmon Ceremony at Ti’lomikh Falls on the Rogue River in Oregon. Watch the video below and read my 2014 story "Bringing Grandma Home" about Grandma Aggie’s epic raft trip to "The Story Chair" that led to our 25th Anniversary cover photo. But it wasn’t until recently that I began to fully understand why so many great women risked so much to preserve the Salmon Ceremony over thousands of years. The Story Chair is where a Takelma elder managed the salmon fishery so that no one went hungry—an obligation to share food that gave birth to Thomas Jefferson’s “Right to Life."
Join us! You too will love the experience!
Steve Kiesling
Editor in Chief, Spirituality+Health
Bringing Grandma Home
Grandma Aggie wants to sit in her family chair. Who could say no to that? But Grandma Aggie is no ordinary grandma and her chair is The Story Chair, where a Takelma elder managed the salmon fishery so that no one went hungry—an obligation to share food that gave birth to Thomas Jefferson’s “Right to Life”. Watch the video and read the 2014 story about her epic trip here. To learn “The Source of the Declaration of Independence”, you’ll need our March/April issue (get yours today!).
