For the 100th episode of The Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues, Rupert Sheldrake and Mark Vernon considered the role of harmony, wholeness and hope in the modern world. The event was held in-person as well as streamed online.

The evening took as its inspiration the work of King Charles, who can be called a philosopher king. It follows the February 6 release on Amazon Prime of the documentary “Finding Harmony: A King’s Vision”. But what is this philosophy?

Rupert and Mark explore new ways that are old of looking at the world, aided by science, poetry, and perennial wisdom traditions. How is diversity transformed by awareness of unity? How might the unfolding of life aid transformation? Spirit, imagination and intelligence much matter.

The conversation was held in the Parish Church of St John-at-Hampstead.

For more of Mark and Rupert's conversations see - https://www.markvernon.com/talks

Christianity doesn’t do well with erotic love. The unease stems, in part, from the fact that the word “eros” doesn’t appear in the New Testament. The lacuna means that points of reference for discussions about sex are typically inadequate and thin. Command stands in for clear thinking.

Then, there is Saint Paul’s remark: “marry if you must” (1 Cor 7:8-9). His ambivalence has resulted in sexual relationships being hidden in marriage, hoping that there, they do less harm than good. Lady Hillingdon’s remark comes to mind, to lie back and think of England - the wit glossing oceans of suffering.

That said, there are remarkable exceptions to the handwashing, of which, in the Christian West, the shining example is The Divine Comedy. Dante’s understanding of the way romantic love can initiate a path to God is fearless, instructive and, because intrepid, transformative. We need it now for, as William Blake observed, “Our wars are wars of life & wounds of love.”

For more on Mark and his book about Dante's Divine Comedy - www.markvernon.com

In this conversation, psychotherapist and writer Dr Mark Vernon is joined by philosopher Dr Robert Rowland Smith to explore the imaginative world of J.R.R. Tolkien and the often-overlooked influence of Owen Barfield - friend of C.S. Lewis and another Inkling.

Saints, bodhisattvas and genii locorum, or spirits of place, are the names in various wisdom traditions given to guardian beings who protect, assist and inspire. So what does it mean to call on these sacred beings? 

In this episode of the Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues, Rupert Sheldrake and Mark Vernon discuss the role of patron saints who are associated with churches and shrines, days and names. 

What powers might figures from Saint Mary to Saint Nicolas bring to us? How do we call upon them and how is their presence understood? Rupert and Mark explore the ways in which saints connect heaven and earth in individual lives, particular places and at various times of the year.

ANNOUNCEMENT

The next episode of The Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues will be the 100th!

In celebration, Rupert and Mark will talk with an in-person audience that people will also be available to join via live streaming.

We will meet in the Parish Church of St John, Hampstead, on Sunday 15th February. The dialogue itself will start at 6.15pm and you are warmly invited to attend Choral Evensong at 5pm before. 

DETAILS OF TICKETS - https://buytickets.at/thesheldrakevernondialogues/2010539

Rupert and Mark will consider the role of harmony, wholeness and hope in the modern world. Themselves inspired by the book, Harmony, co-authored by King Charles, they will inquire into new ways that are old of participating with the living cosmos, aided by science, poetry, and perennial wisdom traditions. 

How is diversity transformed by awareness of unity? How might the unfolding of life aid transformation? Spirit, imagination and intelligence much matter.

What is the meaning of religious experience? What do spiritual questers from the West find in India? Just what happened to Ramana Maharshi and others who are said to have awakened? And how does this fit with Christian teaching and belief?

I talk with Clare Carlisle who has recently published a book the mixes the personal and the philosophical. Transcendence for Beginners raises many questions that press for those draw to explore the nature of reality and the presence of the divine. 

We talk about why Carl Jung didn’t visit Ramana Maharshi when he visited India. We ask whether the doctrine of the unique incarnation of Jesus can be reconciled with the Indian intuition that there are many incarnations of God. We explore how these things can be written about and taught, if at all. We ask about the significance of miracles and signs - and the risks of pursuing certain types of spiritual, ecstatic experience.

For more information about Transcendence for Beginners - https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=clare+carlisle+trasnedence+for+beginnings&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

For more information about Clare Carlisle - https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/clare-carlisle

For more on Mark's work - https://www.markvernon.com

How can we understand what is happening today from the perspective of what is sometimes called salvation history? What might be struggling to be born in our times? Why is a spiritual analysis - an unfolding of consciousness - key?

The talk was delivered at The School of Myth, “Wild Christ”, weekend with Martin Shaw, Rowan Williams, Heather Pollington and others.

I use the insights of Owen Barfield and Rudolf Steiner, to interpret developments across 3000 years of Christianity, given the movement of spirit began a millennia before Christ. I also take their lead on the value of William Blake to perceive the significance of what Blake called a “New Age” emerging now - which we might love, too.

My book unpacking Barfield’s interpretation of Christianity is “A Secret History of Christianity: Jesus, the Last Inkling and the Evolution of Consciousness”.

My book on Blake’s prophetic analysis of the dynamics active today is “Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination”.

For more see www.markvernon.com

The mood has shifted. Subjects that were once taboo - like God - are now discussed openly. So if a new theism is abroad, what might it bring? 

In this episode of the Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues, Rupert Sheldrake and Mark Vernon ask why individuals engaged in pursuits from cultural critique to theoretical biology are now actively interested in traditions such as Christianity and Platonism. 

What is new about this turn and what is old? What does it mean in terms of understanding our humanity, the sciences and wider cosmology? And how can these new currents be best assessed and discerned?

Rupert and I have almost 100 dialogues online.
For more on Rupert see - https://www.sheldrake.org
For more on Mark see - https://www.markvernon.com

An interview with Mark Vernon at the Harvard Divinity School with Adam Walker.

Mark Vernon's book is "Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination".

Adam Walker’s YouTube channel is Close Reading Poetry.

The Romantic movement is a tragic movement. In response to the Enlightenment, poets and painters sought a return of feeling but failed in one crucial aspect: to ground the vision, to make clear how it is a means of truth.

The result is that, alongside the wonderful, powerful presence of reason in the modern world, runs a desire to intensify feeling is if that can bring back the meaning otherwise lost to the technological and abstract.

Only, ungrounded, Romantic feeling doesn't. Instead, too often, it leads to reactionary nationalism, fundamentalism in religion, hedonism and sentimentality, and modes of inner healing that offer exaggerated experience as a proxy for transformation.

William Blake spotted this tendency. He realised that Romanticism must come of age, to borrow the expression of Owen Barfield, by understanding the imagination as a way of knowing of and growing into the fundamentals of existence. 

In this talk, delivered to the Centre for the Study of Platonism at the University of Cambridge, I explore how Blake conveyed the crucial awareness that might redeem the tragedy of Romanticism, so damaging alive in the modern world.

For more on Mark, and his book about Blake, "Awake!", see www.markvernon.com

A psychotherapist, philosopher and writer drawn to the wellsprings of both ancient and modern philosophy and the illumination of the inner life. His work moves between the timeless and the modern, exploring friendship and belief, wellbeing and wonder, and the quiet art of living with depth in a restless age.

His recent books trace paths through the visionary landscapes of William Blake, the awakening of spiritual intelligence, the pilgrimage of Dante’s Divine Comedy, and the Christian imagination as seen through Owen Barfield — the Oxford Inkling and close companion of C.S. Lewis.

You can find out more about Paul via his website - www.paulwilkinson.co.uk

You can find out more about Mark via his website - www.markvernon.com