Category: Blog

An essay written for Beshara Magazine Hysteria is a form of defence, according to psychoanalysis. Underneath the panic or mania lies something that it has become impossible to think about. Alarm and fever are a cover for what threatens to destroy. I have been pondering this insight recently, as first a handful, and then dozens,… Continue reading AI and Spiritual Intelligence

In the 1930s, Carl Jung stayed in Ravenna and visited the Baptistery of the Orthodox, also known as the Neonian Baptistery. In Memories, Dreams, Reflections, he described the experience he had there as “among the most curious events in my life”. He and his companion saw brilliant mosaics that weren’t there, though they did not… Continue reading “A most curious event in my life.” Carl Jung, Ravenna and the mystery of the Neonian Baptistery

This recently published fictionalised autobiography is, I suspect, an instant spiritual classic. It follows the life of the anchorite and mystic, Mother Julian of Norwich, related against the backdrop of the terrors of the 14th century, which some say was the worst in which to have lived. Julian’s despair, illness, revelations and final conviction that… Continue reading The Problem of Suffering & I, Julian by Claire Gilbert

An audio version of this conversion is at my podcast Talks and Thoughts available via podcast feeds. What golden thread might link these writers across the centuries? Why might each matter now? Taking a lead from Valentin’s book, Shakespeare and the Grace of Words, we explore how the finite and infinite meet in dialogue, analogy,… Continue reading Heaven in a Wild Flower. Plato, Cusa, Shakespeare & Blake. Valentin Gerlier & Mark Vernon

An audio version of this conversation is at my podcast, Talks and Thoughts, available via podcast feeds. What is meant by the unconscious? Is it even a “thing”? Why does it seemingly originate with Freud? How useful is the concept? How can it be worked with? In this discussion, Robert Rowland Smith and Mark Vernon… Continue reading The Unconscious. A conversation with Mark Vernon & Robert Rowland Smith

An audio version of this talk is at my podcast Dante’s Divine Comedy, available via podcast feeds. Reason fails before the greatest spiritual truths. That much is not news. But part of the genius of Dante is his conjuring of images that reach beyond the impasses of paradox and seeming contradiction. I consider 8 such… Continue reading Seeing the Unsayable. Dante’s ineffable images

  Prayer, alongside meditation, is an integral part of religious traditions. God can be prayed to but also saints and angels. In this episode of the Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues, Rupert and Mark ask whether and why prayer is not widely discussed, how prayer can be practiced, and what prayer might be. They share personal practices of… Continue reading How to teach prayer. A conversation with Rupert Sheldrake

An audio version of this conversation is at my podcast, Talks and Thoughts, available via podcast feeds. Robert Rowland Smith and Mark Vernon discuss these two dynamics of projection. Transference and countertransference have become core to psychoanalysis, though Freud and others were initially very wary of them. So what are the limits to using the… Continue reading Falling in love with your therapist. On transference & countertransference

An audio version of this talk can be found at my podcast, Talks and Thoughts, available via podcast feeds. AI can be understood by the many, not just the few. We don’t need to respond to technologist and media hype via fear and the call for another lockdown, this time on AI development. I hope… Continue reading 10 ways to understand AI

An audio version of this talk is at my podcast, Talks and Thoughts, available via podcast feeds. What exactly is narcissism? Why is it so debilitating and troubling? Must everyone face narcissistic impulses and needs? In this discussion, Robert Rowland Smith and Mark Vernon explore the origins of narcissism in ancient myth and contemporary psychoanalysis.… Continue reading Narcissism. Good and Bad Therapy. A series of conversations with Robert Rowland Smith & Mark Vernon