Joan Halifax, Ph.D.: My Spiritual Opening

Joan Halifax, Ph.D.: My Spiritual Opening

Joan Halifax holds a Ph.D.in medical anthropology and psychology and is the author of several books on Buddhism and spirituality. She currently serves as Abbot and guiding teacher of Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a Zen Peacemaker community which she founded in 1990 and where we filmed this interview.

Although Joan is not totally against psychopharmacology, she believes our mental health system creates an inhibitory process that actually interferes with spiritual awakening.

She attributes her successful navigation of a very difficult psychological time in her life to her extensive practice of meditation and her knowledge of shamanic practices and indigenous cultures.