Author: Mark Vernon

This is a talk I gave at WPF Therapy on how Owen Barfield’s ideas about the evolution of consciousness might help shape psychotherapy’s sense of itself. The youtube shows the core part; the audio is the full talk including my personal introduction and the questions. In short, psychotherapy can be said to have emerged to… Continue reading Psychotherapy and the evolution of consciousness

Excerpts from my essay on trance states and the origins of religion in human evolution published at Aeon. Dunbar believes that a few hundred thousand years ago, archaic humans took a step that ramped up this capacity. They started deliberately to make music, dance and sing. When the synchronised and collective nature of these practices… Continue reading Divine transports

The artefacts of ancient Egypt fascinate because they touch a half forgotten experience of being in the world. Hieroglyphs do something similar. As Tutankhamun comes to London, what participation with life do they convey? Susan Brind Morrow, a translator of the writings known as the Pyramid Texts, argues hieroglyphs are best read as poetry, in… Continue reading Tutankhamun’s spell and the lure of ancient Egypt

Socrates was at the start of a revolution in the perception of death. It had been experienced as a return to the ancestors. It became the way to discover the life beyond this life. This is an edited extract from my book, A Secret History of Christianity: Jesus, the Last Inkling and the Evolution of… Continue reading Life after death. A Halloween thought from Socrates.

This article was published in The Tablet. I was once in a discussion about mission. We were a sub-committee, mulling over what we should do to spread the gospel and boost church numbers. An hour passed, as did various moods, from anxiety to optimism. And then someone said, “But wait. It’s not our mission that… Continue reading Owen Barfield and the power of words

Part 1 Part 2 I was delighted to get the chance to range over a wide variety of key questions put by Michael Leighty, gathered from an online audience, to reflect on the relevance and thought of the Inkling, Owen Barfield. The discussion includes the ideas of Dante, Jung, Kant, CS Lewis and Steiner, and… Continue reading Barfield on Jung, Dante, Steiner, Lewis, imagination & meaning – a QnA

I hugely enjoyed this further conversation with Paul VanderKlay about Owen Barfield and modern Christianity. It ranged over the meaning of parables and the reality of miracles, the eyes that can see today and the ears that can detect what’s coming tomorrow.

The origins of religion lie deep in the story of human evolution. But as Rupert Sheldrake and I discuss in this new episode of The Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues, the scientific study of our encounter with other worlds is changing. It has been proposed that humans believe in gods because punishing presences keep individuals in check, but… Continue reading The Evolution of Religion with Rupert Sheldrake

My talk at the Temenos Academy, The Inkling Owen Barfield, Jesus, and the Evolution of Consciousness, on 1st October is now online.

It was a joy that Owen Barfield’s grandson, Owen A Barfield, who has done so much to champion his grandfather’s work, spoke at the book launch of A Secret History of Christianity.