About

A Lifetime of Liberation: The Story of Spirituality & Health

In a single lifetime, our understanding of what it means to be human has been completely transformed. While we may think of our sense of self as constant—and we strive to be “authentic”—it now seems clear that the experience of “I” is more illusory than even the Buddha believed. To comprehend this breathtaking transformation in human understanding—and the mission of Spirituality & Health—we can look at the life of our founding editor.

T George Harris started life on a small Kentucky tobacco farm walking behind a mule-driven plow. Before that time a Methodist farm boy would almost certainly become a Methodist farmer or, in the Harris family, a preacher. But T George asked too many questions and became instead a newspaper reporter. When World War II came along, the young conscientious objector was transformed by the propaganda movie Sergeant York into a warrior who worked fearlessly behind enemy lines as an artillery scout. Commissioned on the battlefield at Bastogne, T George was among the first liberators to reach the Holocaust camp at Ordruff. Having experienced the very worst mankind can do, this Kentucky farm boy set out to discover the very best.

T George used the G.I. bill to go to Yale and then to Oxford. Hired as a reporter for Time, he covered the front lines of the Civil Rights movement and the birth of the human potential movement, turning psychologists like Abraham Maslow into national figures. In the late '60s and '70s, as editor-in-chief of Psychology Today, he gave voice to the women’s liberation movement. He empowered millions to become the people of their dreams.

At the beginning of the '80s and the fitness revolution, T George launched American Health magazine. His first writer was Steve Kiesling, a child of the human potential movement in California. At American Health, Harris and Kiesling helped millions discover how plastic our bodies are; that sedentary octogenarians can rise up and run marathons.

In the '90s, neuroscientists discovered that our brains are much like our muscles: We can re-shape our brains 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 surveyed the country to learn what was needed most, and a clear answer came back: spiritual development. So Trinity Church hired Harris and Kiesling to launch Spirituality & Health. It seems remarkable that an Episcopal church would spend more than 10 million dollars on a magazine that examines the roots of all religious and spiritual practices, but the investment proved prescient. Trinity Church is a block from “Ground Zero” and its St. Paul’s Chapel was almost buried under debris from the fallen Twin Towers. 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, and even the air we breathe. Going “green” is not a just matter of self-preservation, but self-creation. Who wants to create a toxic self?

Today, we better understand how “selves” can be destroyed by trauma, how Nazis and suicide bombers can be created, and how holocausts can happen. We also better understand the evolution of the conscience, the power of forgiveness, and what is useful about the brain state known as enlightenment. We know that self-consciousness is not limited to human beings. 

Perhaps not surprisingly, some of the most powerful tools for self transformation turn out to be spiritual and religious practices, including prayer, meditation, breathing exercises, yoga, as well as indigenous practices such as vision quests, sweat lodges, and the use of sacred plants including peyote and ayahuaska. Every tradition has its own contributions. Never before has the entire smorgasbord been available to so many.

Spirituality & Health has been recognized with several Folio Awards as the best magazine in Religion and Spirituality. No longer subsidized by Trinity Church, we are a private company supported by our subscribers and advertisers. We continue to follow the stories wherever they lead. T George, now in his 80s, has battled back from strokes, heart attack, and cancer, and continues as our most influential advisor. Editor-in-chief Steve Kiesling, 51, was the oldest competitor at the trials for the 2008 US Olympic Rowing Team and continues to push the limits of human experience. Our journey is not always easy, and the stories we undertake are not always comfortable, but we have a world-class team and would love for you to join us.