Posts

My Thought For The Day, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Today programme on Friday 12 June, available on my Substack, A Golden String.

The Pope knows anthropology is key to contemporary troubles because Christianity redefined what it means to be human. The imagination available to embrace contemporary troubles, particularly when they are threaded with fatalism and declinism, rests much on the richness, or paucity, of the vision held about what it is to be human. New essay at… Continue reading Magnifica Humanitas In Temporibus Anxietatis

Last week, I wrote about Carl Jung and the prayer that turns to what is not known, not felt, not understood but is loved. This article is based on the transcript of a discussion I had with Tim Nash from the Nomad podcast, published as Silence and the Search for God. Tim from Nomad PodcastMark,… Continue reading Under The Radar Mystics

How to read William Blake’s “Jerusalem the Emanation of the Giant Albion.” Brilliant to talk with Susanne Sklar about this great, epic poem.

Jung was asked about God and said, he knew. But what did he know and why might that much matter? New essay at my Substack, A Golden String.

AI hype and reality is confusing, but also an opportunity “For a tear is an intellectual thing.” William Blake To read the headlines, you would think that intelligence is about processing information, solving problems and collecting data. But it’s not. Real intelligence is about understanding, richness and the shining beauty of life; there should be… Continue reading The Campaign For Real Intelligence

Many people report apparitions of their loved ones after death, and even of loved dogs and cats. But how do these after-death communications align with the Christian teaching of the resurrection of the body? In this episode of the Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues, Rupert Sheldrake and Mark Vernon explore the evidence for the post-mortem appearances of humans and non-humans,… Continue reading Making Sense of the Resurrection of the Body. A conversation with Rupert Sheldrake & Mark Vernon

Psychedelics dominate vegetal spirituality. But there is another herbaceous tradition Devotion to shrooms, communion through imbibing, enthusiastic psychonauts preach. But I can report on an alternative spiritual intimacy with plants, thanks to a wonderful talk, based on her book, by the scholar-practitioner, Simone Kotva. We were speaking at a symposium in Oslo, entitled Being Human… Continue reading Trust Your Inner Plant, As The Mystics Say

This is the script for my Thought For The Day delivered on BBC Radio 4. The strike by resident doctors highlights the severe tensions faced by the National Health Service. The tragedy of the dispute, and any disruption experienced by patients, is that all sides involved no doubt very much want health services to improve.… Continue reading What exactly is health?

  Apollo astronauts suffered much after their return to Earth. Will those on Artemis? My third year undergraduate physics project was to measure the heights of mountains on the Moon. I didn’t get to go to the Moon, but, instead, had to take the best photographs I could through the university telescopes and calculate the… Continue reading Splashdown. Now Comes The Greatest Danger