Category: Blog

I’m delighted to have permission to post my long review of Jeremy Naydler’s book published in the Temenos Academy Review 2019. In the Shadow of the Machine: The Prehistory of the Computer and the Evolution of Consciousness by Jeremy Naydler. Forest Row: Temple Lodge, 2018. 376 pp. £22.50. The question of what is unravelling in… Continue reading In the shadow of the machine – review

Reflections from the day conference of Saturday 30th November, 2019 by Mark Vernon. The complete films and podcasts of the day are online. “What is now proved was once only imagined,” wrote William Blake. London’s greatest modern mystic lent his inspiration to our gathering as around 150 people met in Colet House, London. Organised by… Continue reading Evolving Consciousness – conference report

I know of no better method for guaranteeing a personal revelation than walking a pilgrimage. Even a short one of an hour or two will do. It must be why they’re booming as a spiritual practice. “Bring your own beliefs” is the strapline of the British Pilgrimage Trust, one organisation doing much to spread the… Continue reading Pilgrimages at Perspectiva

Aristotle called three a perfect number. We offer three cheers of praise. Christians envisage God as triune. In this new episode of The Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues, Rupert Sheldrake and I ask why three is associated with completion, creativity, dynamism and divinity. The discussion ranges over the patterns of three that are revealed in nature; the relationship… Continue reading Trinities – latest discussion with Rupert Sheldrake

You can now listen to the introduction to A Secret History of Christianity: Jesus, the Last Inkling and the Evolution of Consciousness on youtube or audio. Do consider buying it as an audiobook!

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