Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

In this insightful discussion, philosopher Robert Rowland Smith shares his expertise on creating a safe therapeutic environment. He and Mark Vernon delve into the vital qualities of safety, trust, and confidentiality in psychotherapy. They explore how less conscious thoughts emerge in this secure space, and the paradox of a sacred frame that can also be misused. The conversation dives into the significance of therapeutic structure, the power of reframing perspectives, and the delicate balance between challenge and safety for personal growth.

The anxiety about AI has reached hysterical proportions. Luminaries are declaring that every last human being is at risk. Which suggests a panic not about the future, whatever it may bring, but about the present, and what has already been lost.What has vanished, for some, is a living sense of what it is to be human. As William Blake knew, when machine ways dominate, human beings flip from hope to despair, from elation to desperation.The question that seems to hard to answer is just what it means to be human. Drawing on a recent book, I Judge No One by David Lloyd Dusenbury, as well as my latest, Spiritual Intelligence In Seven Steps, this talk looks to the life of Jesus for inspiration. Figures from Dostoevsky to William Blake have recognised he lived at an existential edge, in this world whilst simultaneously making present another world, not of control and moral anxiety but of gift and eternal expansion.The vision is practical and, in an era in which the sense of being human is clearly at risk, fundamental and pressing.For more on I Judge No One by David Lloyd Dusenbury - https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/i-judge-no-one/For more on Spiritual Intelligence In Seven Steps - https://www.markvernon.com/books/spiritual-intelligence-in-seven-steps

William Blake was against the monarchy. But might his Georgian loathing of the homogenising, conforming tendency of tyrannical rule have been utterly transformed by the coronation that opens the Carolean era?My piece at The Idler, "The Marvellous Oddity of the Coronation" is here - https://www.idler.co.uk/article/the-marvellous-oddity-of-the-coronation/For more on Idler Drinks - https://www.idler.co.ukFor more on Mark Vernon - https://www.markvernon.com

Therapies of various kinds are routinely in the news. And there is much to be said for the ease with which people talk about mental ill-health. But psychotherapy, in particular, can also received critique. What works on the couch? How do different traditions and techniques foster change? And is all that can happen to us well viewed through the lens of trauma?Clearly, there is trauma in the world and too much of it. But there are other ways of approaching suffering. Maybe we are at a moment when they might be brought into the conversation, too?For more on the Philosophy Slam, which Mark and Robert offer, see https://www.philosophyslam.netFor more on Robert see https://www.robertrowlandsmith.comFor more on Mark see https://www.markvernon.com

Why do people offer praise and gain from it? Does God require, even demand praise? In this episode of the Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues, Rupert and Mark discuss what can be wrongly implied by praise and what it might mean as an immensely rich practice. Mark confesses to having been put off the notion, as if adulation were demanded by a divine narcissist, which Rupert responds to by considering the etymology of praise, shared by words such as appreciation and interpretation. The discussion develops to consider how praise is a disclosing activity, arising from a spontaneous perception of wholeness, beauty and existence itself. They consider how praise is linked to attending, and the ways in which we reach out to see the world, even as the world reaches back to us, much as William Blake described when seeing "heaven in a wild flower". And they address the question of why and how God is associated with praise. Praise, it turns out, is highly praiseworthy.During the discussion the Boyle Lecture 2023 by Rowan Williams is mentioned, online here - https://youtu.be/5u9WGaWTgU8The book on Shakespeare by Valentin Gerlier is also referenced, details here - https://www.routledge.com/Shakespeare-and-the-Grace-of-Words-Language-Theology-Metaphysics/Gerlier/p/book/9781032121406For more dialogues between Rupert and Mark see - https://www.markvernon.com/talks and https://www.sheldrake.org/audios/sheldrake-vernon-dialogues

A review and discussion of Decoding Jung’s Metaphysics by Bernardo Kastrup, considering what’s conscious and unconscious, personal and collective, caused and evoked, and also asking about the tradition of German Idealism, within which Bernardo persuasively situates Jung.

There is a myth that science and religion are locked in conflicted.  And it's a battle that science must win.The physicist, Carlo Rovelli, is an eloquent purveyor of the myth and uses the Ancient Greek philosopher, Anaximander, to perpetuate the confrontation.However, Rovelli has a problem. His case rests on a set of assumptions that look increasingly untenable and untrue, and even undesirable.In fact, Anaximander can help us understand where modern science, for all its genius, goes wrong.

So you've bought into the great insights of Iain McGilchrist, as explored in The Master and His Emissary, and also, The Matter with Things.You understand that the key ability is “presencing the world”- comprehending, not merely calculating- experiencing, not merely modelling- attuning, not merely measuring- understanding, not merely manipulating- living and dying, not merely being on or off.But what now to do? How not to live? What’s needed is a conversion of awareness. So here I suggest 10 ways in which our experience might be transformed, not by fixing perception, but by paying attention to how we perceive and experience, and cultivating more expansive modes of awareness.1. be interested in darkness2. understand the imagination as concealing and revealing3. be embodied to be changed by sensing more4. love the minute particulars to know the universal5. monitor your experience of time6. look for the third awaiting to be seen or born7. be open to other intelligences, natural and supernatural8. reconsider the nature of suffering9. love the precipitousness of infinity, eternity10. know life is a comedy that survives, embraces tragedies.Drawing on great adepts such as Meister Eckhart and Nicholas of Cusa, and particularly on Dante and William Blake.0:00 intro02:17 be interested in darkness06:45 understand the imagination as concealing and revealing13:01 be embodied to be changed by sensing more17:05 love the minute particulars to know the universal19:17 monitor your experience of time22:30 look for the third awaiting to be seen or born25:45 be open to other intelligences, natural and supernatural32:37 reconsider the nature of suffering37:00 love the precipitousness of infinity, eternity43:46 know life is a comedy that survives, embraces tragedies48:45 summary in conclusion

Objectivity has come to be regarded as a prime ingredient of reliable knowledge. But what is objectivity, how has it arisen, and is the notion in need of reform? In this episode of the Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues, Rupert and Mark consider the recent work of the philosopher, Richard Gunton. With colleagues, Richard examines older understandings of objectivity in science and proposes an alternative which is truer to scientific work. In particular, the reductive idea that links objectivity with replication seems increasingly untenable, given the replication crisis in science. Instead, linking objectivity to representation provides a fruitful way forward. Rupert and Mark consider facets of the history of science, not least the difference between so-called primary and secondary qualities, as well as how science is actually carried out, with the role that imagination and aesthetics bring to innovation and insight. Might a new notion of objectivity be not only good for science but also become part of overcoming modern alienation from the world? Richard Gunton’s paper is co-authored with Marinus Stafleu and Michael Reiss and is entitled "A General Theory of Objectivity: Contributions from the Reformational Philosophy Tradition."For more dialogues between Rupert and Mark see:https://www.sheldrake.org/audios/sheldrake-vernon-dialogueshttps://www.markvernon.com/talks/talks-with-rupert-sheldrake

Prince Harry is caught in a media storm. But within the mix of sympathy and loathing lie transatlantic differences in psychological and psychotherapeutic traditions.What is sometimes called Self Psychology plays a bigger role in the US, focusing on the healing potential of empathy, idealisation and narrative. This shapes therapeutic and cultural styles. It seems as if Harry has, in part, turned to this tradition to find healing.In British and European traditions, a different approach tends to dominate. Called Object Relations, it is more inclined to challenge the individual and foster a capacity to see how they are situated in a network of relations that is sometimes supportive, sometimes not.I wonder whether something of these differences is playing out in the different receptions of Harry's story, and also in the psyche of one painfully public man.