From the Editor: A Trust-the-Reader Approach

This issue’s guest columnist is Lesley-Anne Brown. She writes about her experience with ayahuasca. Should more people try ayahuasca? As a magazine, we don’t have an opinion on that. Instead, we have an opinion about our readers—that they can navigate those sorts of questions on their own.

Trusting the reader is really important to us. I’d like to think it’s a big part of what sets us apart. A trust-the-reader approach shows up in our feature interview with Dr. Hitendra Wadhwa. His advice: Be an introvert and an extrovert. Be connected. Also, disconnect. In other words … be everything. This advice will seem less daunting after you’ve read the interview, but it’s still a headful.

Our twin stories on ritual are another example of the trust-the-reader approach. Mara Branscombe describes her journey towards a ritual-full life while Jessica Baron looks at the science behind rituals. We’re not presenting straightforward, follow-these-steps rituals. Instead, after reading these stories you might feel inspired to create your own idiosyncratic rituals. Making your own rituals is the harder-but-better approach.

In the same vein: One thing we say often in our (virtual) editorial offices is that our readers know a lot about a lot. That still leaves room for debate. Should we assume our readers are familiar with pranayama? Are they intrigued by ashwagandha, or is that old hat? These are fun discussions. We try to picture very specific people or imagine what our own friends or family might already know.

We’re always trying to find the right level. If you have time, drop us a note at editors@ spiritualityhealth.com and let us know how we’re doing.