$oul Traders

Fake news, discredited experts, broken politics – is it any wonder that many men are rejecting established truths and seeking a higher plane of consciousness? Or that spirituality is becoming a marketable commodity? Will Self examines how altered states became a burgeoning business

Back in the day when Morrissey was cleverly – nay, artfully – subversive, rather than merely a reactionary blowhard, I considered this one of the most intelligent lyrics ever to be penned by an English pop star. Because, let’s face it, we really don’t know. Sometimes we are convinced that changing the way we think will change the way we feel, while at other times we’re absolutely certain it’s the physical that takes precedence. Going for a walk or popping a Prozac: both of these commonplace nostrums rest on the assumption that mens sana (“a healthy mind”) depends in corpore sano (“on a healthy body”) – whether that health be a function of fitness, or the prevention of dopamine being reabsorbed by your synapses.

In the West, the Cartesian position has tended to prevail, so much so that it seems common sense to many that the body and the mind are separate, and that the gauzy stuff that is consciousness bears no discernible relation to the rather more solid – and often irksome – bodily realities. This dichotomy remains enshrined in our medical services, such that mental and physical health are regarded as quite different spheres. Yet, as an Ayurvedic (traditional Indian) doctor who I once consulted pointed out, “Only in the West is ‘psychosomatic’ a sort of insult”.