Spirituality & Health founder T George Harris started life on a small Kentucky tobacco farm. During World War II, the young conscientious objector was transformed by the propaganda movie Sergeant York into a warrior working behind enemy lines as an artillery scout. T George was among the first liberators to reach the Holocaust camp at Ordruff. Having experienced the very worst mankind can do, this farm boy set out to discover the very best.

T George attended Yale and then Oxford on the G.I. Bill. Hired as a reporter for Time, he covered the civil rights and human potential movements, turning psychologists like Abraham Maslow into national figures. In the late '60s and '70s, as editor of Psychology Today, he gave voice to the women’s liberation movement, empowering millions to follow their dreams.

At the beginning of the fitness revolution in the ‘80s, T George launched American Health. His first writer, Steve Kiesling, was a child of the human potential movement in California. The duo helped millions discover how plastic our bodies are, that octogenarians can rise up and run marathons. In the '90s, neuroscientists discovered that our brains are much like our muscles: We can reshape them with exercises like meditation and can grow new neurons at any age. Meanwhile, New York City's Trinity Church, the wealthiest parish in America, approached its 300th birthday. For its anniversary project, the church decided to invest in the country’s spiritual development and hired Harris and Kiesling to launch Spirituality & Health. The investment proved prescient: Trinity Church is a block from Ground Zero; the attack on September 11th demonstrated the importance of understanding that our deepest personal religious beliefs are often expressions of tribal affiliation.

In this first decade of the new millennium, neuroscientists have learned how our sense of self is constantly shifting, depending on our own thoughts, the company we keep, the foods we eat, whether or not we exercise, even the air we breathe. Going “green” is not a just matter of self-preservation, but self-creation. Today, we better understand how “selves” can be destroyed by trauma, how Nazis, suicide bombers, and holocausts are created. We also better understand the evolution of the conscience, the power of forgiveness, and what is useful about enlightenment. We know that self-consciousness is not limited to human beings.

Some of the most powerful tools for self transformation turn out to be spiritual practices, including prayer, meditation, breathing exercises, and yoga. Every tradition has its own contributions, and never before has the entire smorgasbord been available to so many.

Spirituality & Health has been recognized with several Folio Awards. No longer subsidized by Trinity Church, we are a private company supported by our subscribers and advertisers.