Owen Barfield talked of an evolution of consciousness towards final participation. But what is that state or quality awareness? How does it relate to the life of Christ? How was it described by Rudolf Steiner? Can we see and know intimations of it now?

In this second discussion with Landon Loftin and Max Leyf, we explore the ideas of freedom and individuality, modernity and language, kenosis and romanticism come of age to press Barfield’s great insight and see whether we can help give it voice.

For more on Landon and Max’s book see https://wipfandstock.com/9781666736762/what-barfield-thought/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CLoftin%20and%20Leyf%20have%20provided,on%20his%20fellow%20Inklings%2C%20C.%20S.

For more on Mark’s book see http://www.markvernon.com/consciousness

Why do we love? Is love inevitably a foolhardy endeavour? Or does it lead to a knowledge of reality beyond reason?

In this discussion, Robert Rowland Smith and Mark Vernon discuss the ideas of Freud and Lacan, Bowlby and Winnicott, who had differing ideas about the nature of love and where it leads.

Is love the idealisation of another, which inevitably leads to frustration and loss? Is love the realisation of a wider reality which, without it, we would neither feel drawn to or be prepared to know?

And why are love and suffering so intimately linked, so that strangely it promises our greatest fulfilment and worst fears?

For more on Robert - https://www.robertrowlandsmith.com
For more on Mark - https://www.markvernon.com

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, play and contrary, arguing that Plato, Nicholas of Cusa, Shakespeare and William Blake directly address our times of crisis and separation.

For more on Valentin’s book see www.routledge.com/Shakespeare-and-the-Grace-of-Words-Language-Theology-Metaphysics/Gerlier/p/book/9781032121406
He teaches an MA in Poetics of Imagination: https://campus.dartington.org/poetics-of-imagination/ 
His substack is https://graceofwords.substack.com/

For more on Mark see www.markvernon.com

The book on Plato I mention is Plato: A Very Short Introduction by Julia Annas.
For more on The Temenos Academy see www.temenosacademy.org

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 explore the history of this central notion in psychoanalysis. They look at the different articulations of it, particularly in Freud and Jung, and ask how it links to other ideas such as the field, inspiration and the divine.

Are vertical metaphors the right metaphors, as when people talk of "depth psychology"? Is the subconscious just the unconscious lite? What is the difference between the personal and the collective unconscious? Is there really a difference?

Will a time come, as a time once was, when human beings felt no need to refer to this surprising, alluring and pervasive dynamic?

For more on Robert - https://www.robertrowlandsmith.com
For more on Mark - https://www.markvernon.com

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 prayer and explore the agency of angels and saints. They ask about the entities that people report encountering when using psychedelics, alongside other questions such as how to pray for people and what can be expected from prayer. 

The desire to pray seems to be an almost universal human impulse. Much more might be made of it.

For more conversations between Rupert and Mark see
https://www.sheldrake.org/audios/sheldrake-vernon-dialogues
https://www.markvernon.com/talks

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 feelings that fill a therapy room? 

How can the set-up of the room itself affect such things? How can transference and countertransference be unethically manipulated, not least when feelings of love are activated? 

And also, how do these experiences relate to the uncanny, even so-called paranormal types of awareness and perception?

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 ten points are illuminating.

1. The Turing test has been passed, but it never was a very good test to start with.
2. The AI industry thrives on the promise of tomorrow and is often led by those confusing themselves with gods.
3. Our psychology, as well as theirs, needs considering more fully, too.
4. AI models reality, as much science does. So don’t confuse AI models with reality.
5. Human intelligence doesn’t much involve calculation but presence, not much patterning but more participation.
6. We’re adaptive. Technology is surprisingly unadaptive.
7. Attention is a moral act and how we attend deeply shapes what shows up.
8. A cybernetic future might be the one coming, with AI recognised as tool not master.
9. Our intelligence is deeply linked to striving and longing, desiring and loving.
10. Our intelligence thrives with patience and experiencing, learning from now.

For more on Mark, particularly his work on spiritual intelligence, see www.markvernon.com.

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. They explore the variety of pathological narcissisms, how it can be treated and whether a society increasingly online is at risk of becoming more narcissistic.

For more on Robert - https://www.robertrowlandsmith.com
For more on Mark - https://www.markvernon.com

Owen Barfield was the friend of CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien. He championed the importance of imagination and poetry. But what can be missed is the transformative depth of his ideas. They can revolutionise our perception of everything. 
Landon Loftin and Max Leyf are the authors of What Barfield Thought: An Introduction to the Work of Owen Barfield. In this conversation with Mark Vernon they ask how Barfield invites us to reconsider the meaning of everything from the human face to ancient history, from music to the person of Jesus. They ask about Barfield’s relationship with Lewis and other figures, such as Rudolf Steiner. 
Barfield had an answer to the alienation many experience in today’s world. His remedy was born of his own escape from depression. He realised modernity need not be rejected but itself contains the portals of participation that lead back to the divine.

For more on the book, What Barfield Thought: An Introduction to the Work of Owen Barfield - https://wipfandstock.com/9781666736762/what-barfield-thought/
For more on Mark's book, A Secret History of Christianity: Jesus, the Last Inkling and the Evolution of Consciousness - https://www.markvernon.com/consciousness

Terminal lucidity is the phenomenon of individuals who are dying receiving a surge of life, perhaps to say goodbye, as their death approaches. So what is the nature and meaning of such well-attested experiences? 
In this episode of the Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues, Rupert Sheldrake and Mark Vernon use Rupert's recent paper examining terminal lucidity in animals, to open up a discussion of phenomena from post-mortem contacts to the resurrection of Jesus.
Rupert's paper can be found here - https://www.sheldrake.org/files/pdfs/papers/Experiences-of-Dying-Animals_Parallels-With-End-of-Life-Experiences-in-Humans.pdf
For Lesley Kean's book Surviving Death see - https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/246583/surviving-death-by-leslie-kean/
For Dale Allison's discussion the resurrection see - https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/resurrection-of-jesus-9780567697561/