Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

Anthony Ashley Cooper (1671-1713) may be the greatest English philosopher you have never heard of. In the 18th century, he was said to be the most famous philosopher in Europe. His ideas suffered in England, as those of his empiricist tutor, John Locke, took hold. But they inspired figures from William Blake to Adam Smith, and are, in my view, much needed now.For more on St Giles House - https://www.stgileshouse.com

A short discussion of psychodynamic psychotherapy, talking about the experience of suffering, the ego, the past and present, and the future change as people move through three zones - which might be described as hell, purgatory and paradise.For more see - www.markvernon.com.

Why do matters as seemingly unconnected as children’s stories and shamanic encounters feature talking animals? This episode of the Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues, with Rupert Sheldrake and Mark Vernon, is prompted the book, Roland In Moonlight by David Bentley Hart. It relates long conversations between the Eastern Orthodox philosopher and his pet dog, generating fascinating thoughts on all sorts of liminal experiences, from telepathy to panpsychism. How might a re-enchanted world appear to us in the future? What does that have to do with ancient perceptions and modern science? Rupert and Mark discuss matters from pets to symbiosis, and the way that the living world participates in divine life.For more dialogues between Rupert and Mark see:https://www.sheldrake.org/audios/sheldrake-vernon-dialogueshttps://www.markvernon.com/talks​

Modern Christianity, at least as expressed by the church, has become very confused about the afterlife.So can our experience of life now, illuminated by wisdom traditions and modern science, offer a way into this perennial question?I've written more fully about these things in my book, A Secret History of Christianity. See here - https://www.markvernon.com/consciousness​

Death always brings subterranean assumptions and stresses to the surface, and the pass of Prince Philip is no exception.The moment carries the weight of millennia, which is why it’s hard to navigate, though it can be better understood as part of the evolution of human consciousness, as Owen Barfield and others understood it.The key test is the vision held about the future humanity.I talk in particular about the two images in the episode artwork.

Could bliss be transmitted by a Happy Helmet? Are the fantasies of the super-wealthy secretly shaping our lives? In this episode of the Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues, Rupert Sheldrake and Mark Vernon discuss a new novel, Double Blind, by Edward St Aubyn. It is a story of ideas, including issues previously explored in these dialogues, from the nature of consciousness and the revelations of psychedelics, to the missing heritability problem and the replication crisis. St Aubyn has richly addressed our moment with its environmental and existential concerns. His characters explore matters of paramount important as they effect real lives. His book invites us to ask ourselves about the worldviews we hold and the ways in which our imaginations reach out for tomorrow.For more dialogues between Rupert and Mark see:https://www.sheldrake.org/audios/sheldrake-vernon-dialogueshttps://www.markvernon.com/talks

Some reflections on the fascinating conversation between Jordan Peterson and Jonathan Pageau:- Maybe it's not how to be a Christian but to realise how you already are- Why symbology, developmental maps and archetypes become as many rabbit holes- That the beginning and ground matters as much as the end and theosis- CS Lewis and what he never quite got from his friend, Owen Barfield- The way hierarchies collapse into the unity of all things- How Dante and Meister Eckhart in the western Christian tradition help- And more!The original conversation is here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rAqVmZwqZMMore on A Secret History of Christianity here - https://www.markvernon.com/consciousnessFor more on Dante see here - https://www.markvernon.com/dantes-divine-comedy

Iain McGilchrist and Rowan Williams were in dialogue on Friday 19th February 2021, a beautiful exchange that was sadly not recorded. Here I offer some thoughts on it, particularly in the light of reflections offered by Matt Segall. It concerns transcendence and immanence, being and becoming, eternity and processes in space and time - or to put it another way, the similarities and differences between the ontologies of Plato and AN Whitehead. Matt's reflections are online here - https://youtu.be/znoNfagDeUo​

The discussion of alternative worldviews, from various forms of materialism to types of idealism, has exploded in recent years, and the notion of panpsychism is in the middle of the debate. In this episode of the Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues, Rupert Sheldrake and Mark Vernon explore the different types of panpsychism being proposed, from more conservative forms that are linked to materialism, to older types that have been advocated by figures from AN Whitehead to Aristotle. They ask about the place of time and space in different views of reality, and tease out the connections to consciousness and eternity. Models including emergence and information theory rise, as well as the role of the brain, as they wonder about the direction in which this rich conversation is heading.For more dialogues between Rupert and Mark see:https://www.sheldrake.org/audios/sheldrake-vernon-dialogueshttps://www.markvernon.com/talks​​

A friendly chat about the movie Soul, with me Pippa Evans and Jonathan Rowson.Does Pixar's latest movie have a message we should 'get', or is the most important thing to get about the movie that there is really nothing to get? In what way might it place our plans for our lives in perspective? Does it make it any clearer what 'the soul' is? We are colleagues at Perspectiva, a group seeking perspectives on systems, souls and society. https://systems-souls-society.com/​For more on Pippa http://www.pippaevans.com/ For more on Jonathan https://twitter.com/Jonathan_Rowson.