Biologist Dr. Rupert Sheldrake and psychotherapist Mark Vernon explore the frontiers where rigorous science meets life's deepest mysteries. Through original research and thoughtful dialogue, they investigate consciousness, memory, spiritual practices, and the nature of reality itself—questioning the materialist assumptions that have dominated science for centuries. Their conversations bridge empirical investigation with ancient wisdom, offering fresh perspectives on everything from prayer an ...
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Rupert Sheldrake And Mark Vernon Podcasts
Reflections from Mark Vernon on soulful matters including spirituality and psychotherapy, science and religion, consciousness and the divine. For more on see www.markvernon.com
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William Blake’s spiritual analysis of our times. A conversation with Jason Whittaker and Mark Vernon
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I very much enjoyed speaking with Jason Whittaker, a profound lover of Blake, because we have our differences about how Blake speaks to us and, I hope, that is illuminating. We discussed Blake the visionary and mystic, and resisting forcing Blake through the sieve of more recent psychology. We thought about how Blake speaks to us now, as a poet and…
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Poetry Fetter’d Fetters the Human Race! William Blake on an antidote to the mechanistic imagination
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Why is the mechanical view of reality so strong? Why does billiard-ball atomism remain the default popular metaphysics? William James was horrified by such “nothing buttery” and the way it substituted bare concepts for rich phenomena. A.N. Whitehead famously – or perhaps not famously enough – described the problem as the “fallacy of misplaced concr…
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What is really known about consciousness?
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You may agree that the so-called hard problem of consciousness exposes the deep inadequacies of a materialist worldview. But the alternatives - various forms of panpsychism, panentheism and idealism - raise rich and fascinating questions too. In this episode of The Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues, Rupert Sheldrake and Mark Vernon explore the leading edg…
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William Blake and the Power of the Imagination. A talk at L'Abri, Sussex, England
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Mark Vernon provides a fresh route into Blake, taking him at his word. Exploring his writings, artwork and life, Vernon illuminates Blake’s vivid worldview and shows how his thinking is still relevant for us today. Please note that the ideas expressed in this lecture do not necessarily represent the views of L’Abri Fellowship.…
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What is really known about consciousness? A conversation with Rupert Sheldrake & Mark Vernon
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You may agree that the so-called hard problem of consciousness exposes the deep inadequacies of a materialist worldview. But the alternatives - various forms of panpsychism, panentheism and idealism - raise rich and fascinating questions, too. In this episode of The Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues, Rupert Sheldrake and Mark Vernon explore the leading ed…
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Awake! William Blake and the Power of Imagination. A conversation with Jane Clark and Nikos Yiangou
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In my book, I want to draw out two facets of William Blake, which I think get routinely sidelined now. My conversation with Jane Clark and Nikos Yiangou enabled us to explore these dimensions. One is that Blake was a very sharp thinker. He had a very accurate and clear critique of the ideas that were beginning to bed down in his time and have reall…
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An Implosion of Light. Talking mystical experiences with James Harpur and Mark Vernon
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James Harpur’s new book, "Dazzling Darkness: The Lives and Afterlives of the Christian Mystics", begins with an account of a mystical experience that happened to him - “an implosion of light”, as he describes it. That led to his book, Dazzling Darkness, in pursuit of the path that leads to ultimate reality: God. Mark Vernon’s new book, "Awake! Will…
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The most insightful poet that ever lived. Iain McGilchrist & Mark Vernon on William Blake
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Iain McGilchrist calls William Blake “the least cosy of poets and one of the most insightful that ever lived.” Blake is cited more often than most figures in Iain’s great book, "The Matter With Things". So what did Blake express that might much matter now? How did he understand key features of our humanity such as the imagination and inspiration, a…
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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 and Mark Vernon discuss the impact on science of the Elizabethan lawyer, Francis Bacon. His New Instr…
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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 art reveals an expanded experience of the world that Blake lived with every day: angels, fairies, r…
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Awake! Albion awake! And let us awake up together!
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Recorded in St James’s Piccadilly, the church in which William Blake was baptised, with his life mask also present. Thoughts on Blake’s great call to us today from the launch of my new book, “Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination”.By Mark Vernon
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Top 10 William Blake quotes! The full countdown
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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 you all alive The world, where every particle of dust breathes forth its joy. 9. I give you the end of a golden string; Only …
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On the Right Track. Liberty from left-brained analysis. William Blake’s path of perceptual expansion
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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. He describes the narrowing of perception from the perspective of the wider involvement. The result is …
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Loosening the mind-forged manacles. William Blake in words and songs
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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 understand our predicament today? Mark Vernon and Katy Carr joined Dexter Bentley on Resonance FM to talk William Blake on Saturday 31st Ma…
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The saint who ripped reality and rose like a sun. Francis and the apocalyptic fears of chaotic times
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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 fabric of society. Then, there were the looming presence of the Mongols to the east and the transformative impact of the Islamic e…
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Does nature really obey laws? A dialogue with Rupert Sheldrake
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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 and Mark Vernon discuss the impact on science of the Elizabethan lawyer, Francis Bacon. His New Instr…
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"Enemies of the Human Race" William Blake on the disaster of atheism
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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 lines, naturalistic explana…
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Merely Christianity? Discerning the Spirit of a Revival. A conversation with Elizabeth Oldfield
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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 be welcomed? Are there dark sides to newfound enthusiasms? Elizabeth Oldfield is the author of Fully Alive and host of …
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The Unity of Being and the very great things Ibn ‘Arabi made of it
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Ibn ‘Arabi is arguably the greatest philosopher in the Islamic world, though controversial; Seal of the Mohammedan Saints, as he is known, alongside Shaykh al-Akbar, he is becoming more important again, especially against a backdrop of fundamentalism. Born into a noble family in Anadalusian, Moorish Spain, he adopted the Sufi way of life after a re…
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Andalusia and machine anxiety. How new technology in Moorish Spain sparked insights that help us now
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The extraordinary spread of Islam after 632 - from Central Asia to North Africa in a century - reached Europe from the eighth century, generating issues still energising to this day. Not ones of religion, though, but of technology. Within a few generations, the devices of the new civilisation hit the Iberian peninsula: vertical axis windmills, the …
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Jesus is the only God. And so am I and so are you. William Blake’s mystical Christianity
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The first in a series of talks I’ll be posting in anticipation of my new book, Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination, out in June/Sept (UK/US). Do consider pre-ordering! (Thanks: it really helps early sales and so bookshop notice.) “The best overall study of Blake I have encountered in a very long time. A joy to read, well worthy of…
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Christ the turning point. Owen Barfield in a secular age. A conversation with Ashton Arnoldy
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Owen Barfield was the genius Inkling, said CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien. But why does he so much matter today? They consider how Owen Barfield addresses the idea of secularism developed by Charles Taylor and why that might matter in a cultural moment that feels like a folk in the road. They speak personally of how Barfield touched them and why his insi…
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Much of the modern world has become uncoupled from the transcendent in a cultural experiment Nietzsche called the death of God. But might this spiritual crisis prove to be a time of rebirth? In this episode of the Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues, recorded live at an event organised by the Temenos Academy, Rupert Sheldrake and Mark Vernon discuss the evo…
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Living in an Age of Spiritual Crisis. A conversation with Rupert Sheldrake & Mark Vernon
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Much of the modern world has become uncoupled from the transcendent in a cultural experiment Nietzsche called the death of God. But might this spiritual crisis prove to be a time of rebirth? In this episode of the Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues, recorded live at an event organised by the Temenos Academy, Rupert Sheldrake and Mark Vernon discuss the evo…
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The Abolition of Man, That Hideous Strength, Till We Have Faces. CS Lewis as prophet of dark times
1:18:52
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A discussion with Jason Baxter, Nicholas Colloff and Mark Vernon. The Abolition of Man is a series of three lectures given by C.S. Lewis in defence of objective value, arguing that modernity has undermined our humanity by uncoupling intellect from instinct. With hearts divorced from minds, first the world empties of presence, then life empties of m…
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Evolution. From natural selection to omega point. A conversation with Rupert Sheldrake
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Darwinian evolution shapes modern biology, but the notion of evolution has a wider history, too. In this episode of the Sheldrake-Vernon dialogues, Rupert Sheldrake and Mark Vernon explore linear and cyclical conceptions of human and cosmic evolution and ask what they can mean in the modern world, where innovation and evolution appear to be escalat…
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Evolution: From Natural Selection to Omega Point
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Watch: https://youtu.be/_ywyQIFMtQE Darwinian evolution shapes modern biology, but the notion of evolution has a wider history, too. In this episode of the Sheldrake-Vernon dialogues, Rupert Sheldrake and Mark Vernon explore linear and cyclical conceptions of human and cosmic evolution and ask what they can mean in the modern world, where innovatio…
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Physics and reality. Francis Lucille on the nature of matter, the flaws of panpsychism & God
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Francis Lucille is teaching of Advaita Vedanta who brings together nonduality with science, amongst other subjects, his past having been in physics. Here, he talks with Mark Vernon about the universality of consciousness and how that fits with modern physics, theories of consciousness and the inspiration of wisdom traditions. For more on Francis se…
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On Mysticism. With Simon Critchley on his new book, inc. figures from Mother Julian to Annie Dillard
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Mysticism is a modern word, as Simon Critchley discusses in his tremendous new book, On Mysticism. And its novelty is not a happy intervention in the history of mystics and their significance, Fundamental aspects of the insights pursued by figures such as Mother Julian and Meister Eckhart are obscured by the focus on peak or exceptional experiences…
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In Search of Wild Gods. Reflections on Nick Cave and Tom Holland in conversation about Christianity
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Nick Cave and Tom Holland discussed Christianity in an event organised by Unherd entitled In Search of Wild Gods on Thursday 9th January 2025. Chaired by Freddie Sayers, the conversation revolved around whether and why there is renewed interest in Christianity. Tom Holland’s book Dominion has become a staple of learned comment, with its thesis that…
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Meister Eckhart's Christmas Sermon One. Where is the Word born and how?
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Sermon One (in Walshe, Complete Mystical Works) has become known as capturing the essence of Meister Eckhart’s thought. “Here, in time, we are celebrating the eternal birth which God the Father bore and bears unceasingly in eternity, because this same birth is now born in time, in human nature.” And why does this lofty thought matter? “What does it…
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Forms are all around us: clouds, flowers, creatures, even systems of thought and logical relations. And yet the nature of forms is rarely part of the modern scientific conversation. In this episode of the Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues, Rupert Sheldrake and Mark Vernon discuss the importance of forms and how they work. The need for form to account for …
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Forms and the Reformation of Science. A conversation with Rupert Sheldrake
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Forms are all around us: clouds, flowers, creatures, even systems of thought and logical relations. And yet the nature of forms is rarely part of the modern scientific conversation. In this episode of the Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues, Rupert Sheldrake and Mark Vernon discuss the importance of forms and how they work. The need for form to account for …
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"Enemies of the Human Race." William Blake on how to know God
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The new issue of VALA, the magazine of the Blake Society, is all about God. I've an article in it on Blake's mystical knowledge of God. "I am in you, you are in me, mutual in love divine." Blake could hardly have been stronger in his views that naturalistic explanations for religion, and what would now be called non-real theologies, are inadequate …
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The gospel, sexual desire and the abuse scandals in the church. What has the erotic to do with God?
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The resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury has highlighted the horrendous nature of abuse in the church and also the church’s difficulties in dealing with these individuals. But is focusing on individuals enough or trying to address these matters through safeguarding and moral injunctions? Those elements are no doubt necessary. But I think als…
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