An MP3 of this talk is available at my Talks and Thoughts podcast, which can be found via your podcast feed. The recent work of the psychiatrist and philosopher, Iain McGilchrist, allows us to bring the role of dualities in spiritual perception right up to date. He has shown how brain lateralisation facilitates two types… Continue reading The Master and the Emissary – dualities in the philosophy of Iain McGilchrist
Author: Mark Vernon
Contraries and Human Existence – William Blake and Cleansing the Doors of Perception
An MP3 of this talk, though without images, can be found on my Talks and Thoughts podcast via your podcast feed. Perception is cleansed in the struggles of life, William Blake realised, as his own life was lived between heaven and hell, innocence and experience, vision and labour. Opposites are the energy that bring the… Continue reading Contraries and Human Existence – William Blake and Cleansing the Doors of Perception
Stone Circles & Sun Disks – Alternative thoughts on Stonehenge at the British Museum
An MP3 version of this talk is on your podcast feed at my Talks and Thoughts. Much is now known about Stonehenge. Wonderful artefacts have been recovered, a welter on display at the British Museum’s gobsmacking 2022 show. But much mystery remains. How to interpret the past? Why do stone circles still draw us? What… Continue reading Stone Circles & Sun Disks – Alternative thoughts on Stonehenge at the British Museum
The Way Up and the Way Down. Dante and the One Path from Hell to Paradise
An MP3 version of this talk is on my podcast feed, Dante’s Divine Comedy. Dante’s Divine Comedy famously opens with the poet wakening in a dark wood. His life has seemingly taken a wrong turn. But why must he embark first on a journey through hell, before ascending Mount Purgatory, only then entering paradise? What… Continue reading The Way Up and the Way Down. Dante and the One Path from Hell to Paradise
The Way of Love – Plato and participation in the good, beautiful and true
An MP3 version of the talk is on my Talks and Thoughts channel, found on podcast feeds. A talk as part of the Dualities series with the Pari Centre, running through February 2022. For more information see – https://paricenter.com/event/dualities/2022-02-06/ In this talk, I discuss dualities in Plato. The ancient Greek is often accused of dualism,… Continue reading The Way of Love – Plato and participation in the good, beautiful and true
Christianity, Covid & Transformation – Paul Kingsnorth in conversation with Mark Vernon
An MP3 version of this conversation is at my Talks and Thoughts stream available via podcast feeds. What might Christianity have for us today? How might it stories still speak? Where to find what’s right in the tradition? I was delighted to speak with Paul Kingsnorth, whose substack and other writings since his conversion to… Continue reading Christianity, Covid & Transformation – Paul Kingsnorth in conversation with Mark Vernon
William Blake and the Metaverse – The Mental Fight to be a Person
An MP3 version of this talk is at my stream Thoughts and Talks, which should be in your podcast feed. The hard problem of consciousness. Imagination as an “overheated brain”. A future in the Cloud or Metaverse. William Blake was a thinker as well as poet and artist. His prophetic punch comes from seeing through… Continue reading William Blake and the Metaverse – The Mental Fight to be a Person
NEW COURSE – We Must Be Mystics: Owen Barfield & Christianity
A six week online course with Dr Mark Vernon 6th March 2022 to 10th April 2022 Sunday evenings (6pm-7.30pm, UK-time) £10 per session/£60 total CS Lewis called Owen Barfield his “second friend”: Barfield was the one who challenged him and seeded his own best ideas, an experience of encountering Barfield with which JRR Tolkien agreed.… Continue reading NEW COURSE – We Must Be Mystics: Owen Barfield & Christianity
Love and Power – Making sense of science & statistics, control & conspiracies
An MP3 version of this talk can be found in your podcast feed, looking for my Talks and Thoughts. How can we find a way through conflicts in and around science? What about experts and simplifications, uncertainties and advice, control and its consequences? Tensions are only going to get worse as the fallout and impact… Continue reading Love and Power – Making sense of science & statistics, control & conspiracies
From Ulro to Eternity – the place William Blake died. Walk and reflection
A MP3 version of this talk can be found on you podcast feed as my Talks and Thoughts. William Blake died in the apartment he shared with Catherine Blake on Sunday 12 August 1827. A contemporary letter reports: “He died … in a most glorious manner. He said He was going to that Country he… Continue reading From Ulro to Eternity – the place William Blake died. Walk and reflection