The column Alternative Approaches began in May of 1997 when Christine Hall returned to Greensboro, N.C. after a three year stint hanging-out in Chapel Hill, N C. During her previous stint in Greensboro, she had written for several newspapers, including the daily Greensboro News & Record, the monthly political journal Omega News, and the weeklies Triad Style and ESP.

Upon her return to Greensboro, she contacted her old friend Ogi Overman, the editor of ESP magazine. At that first meeting, Ogi gave her an assignment to write an article on the Tarot, the so-called “fortune telling” cards that had been designed by the Italian Gnostics in the middle of the fifteenth century and which are one of her fields of expertise. After the article was published, they agreed that, given her interest in the “New Age” or “Human Potential Movement,” she should write a column for ESP on the often weird and offbeat world of the alternative - and the column Alternative Approaches was begun.

Now, four years later, the column still appears three out of every four weeks and, as the Grateful Dead opined nearly thirty years ago, “what a long strange trip it's been,” as you will see as you delve into the best of Alternative Approaches...