Author: Mark Vernon

An audio version of this conversation is at my podcast, Inner Life, available via podcast feeds. A conversation from History with Chris Harding. In Mark Vernon’s new book “Awake!”, he argues that we’re missing something from our view of the great visionary artist William Blake. It’s that word – ‘visionary.’ Mark argues that Blake’s extraordinary… Continue reading How to Live like William Blake!

An audio version is available at my podcast, Inner Life, available via podcast feeds. A taste of Blake’s genius and what he might mean for us. Celebrating the release of “Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination” by Mark Vernon. The full countdown: 10. I’ll sing to you to this soft lute, and shew… Continue reading Top 10 William Blake quotes! The full countdown

Acknowledging that there are complementary modes of perception has become commonplace. But left-hemisphere analysis can diagnose the problem without offering much sense of how better to incorporate the right. Which is where William Blake comes in. New essay at my Substack, A Golden String.

An audio version of the conversation and music is at my podcast, Inner Life, available via podcast feeds. A live conversation with Mark Vernon, Katy Carr and Dexter Bentley from the Hello Goodbye Show. Who was William Blake? What might his music have sounded like? What did he say about the imagination? Why might he… Continue reading William Blake in words and songs

Of the many applications for Artificial Intelligence, one that is talked about is in relation to offering therapy. And developments have been in the offering for quite some time now. But what are the worries? To what extent can artificial relationships help real ones? And more subtly, how might ever-present, tireless AI therapists effect us?… Continue reading Ready to see you AI therapist? Just watch out for signs of regression

An audio version of this talk is at my podcast, Inner Life, available via podcast feeds. Saint Francis was born into a world in a panic. The stabilities of the feudal world had collapsed with the rise of mercantilism. The gap between rich and poor was unsustainable and a new underclass was tearing apart the… Continue reading The saint who ripped reality and rose like a sun. Francis and the apocalyptic fears of chaotic times

An audio version of this conversation is at my podcast, Inner Life, available via podcast feeds. The conviction that the natural world is obedient, adhering to laws, is a widespread assumption of modern science. But where did this idea originate and what beliefs does it imply? In this episode of the Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues, Rupert Sheldrake… Continue reading Does nature really obey laws? A dialogue with Rupert Sheldrake

William Blake opens the third part of his epic poem, Jerusalem: the Emanation of the Giant Albion, with an astonishing remark. “He never can be a friend of the Human Race who is the Preacher of Natural Morality or Natural Religion.” The declaration is shocking because today, two hundred years since he first printed these… Continue reading “Enemies of the Human Race” William Blake on the disaster of atheism

An audio version of this conversation is at my podcast, Inner Life, available via podcast feeds. There is undoubtedly a new spirit of interest in Christianity abroad in the presumed secular world. Some increases in church-going are even showing up in the stats. But what can be made of the curiosity? Is it straightforwardly to… Continue reading Merely Christianity? Discerning the Spirit of a Revival

An audio version of this talk is at my podcast, Dante’s Divine Comedy, available via podcast feeds. Dante encounters seven popes in the Divine Comedy, five in hell, one in purgatory and one in paradise – that last being Saint Peter. His condemnation of individual popes and, I think, the papacy is extraordinarily strong and… Continue reading Pimps, remorse and blood. Dante’s Divine Comedy and the critique of the Papacy