Full-strength imagination. Romanticism come of age. Mark Vernon & Robert Rowland Smith talk Blake
Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination is now available worldwide.To celebrate, Mark Vernon and Robert Rowland Smith discuss all things Blake from angels and images, to poetry and prophecy.For more on the book see https://www.markvernon.com/books/awake-william-blake-and-the-power-of-the-imagination
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William Blake’s spiritual analysis of our times. A conversation with Jason Whittaker and Mark Vernon
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 analyst of the modern spirit. We examined the significance of the imagination and the nature of God for Blake.For more on Jasons’s work see - www.jasonwhittaker.co.ukFor more on Awake! and Mark’s work see - www.markvernon.com0:00 Introductions1:36 How Blake speaks to us5:35 Mystic or visionary?7:45 On not psychologising Blake9:40 Reading Blake’s poetry11:54 Blake as a prophet of now15:40 Understanding Blake’s characters19:20 The significance of the imagination in Blake23:12 Blake and God27:03 Why deism matters32:55 Infinite perception37:46 Against the church43:05 Dialogues and the expansion of perception
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Poetry Fetter’d Fetters the Human Race! William Blake on an antidote to the mechanistic imagination
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 concreteness”.William Blake is another critic. “General Knowledge is Remote Knowledge. But General Forms have their vitality in Particulars. It is in Particulars that Wisdom consists & Happiness too.”We should care about what Blake called “single vision and Newton’s sleep”. The antidote is to reestablish a relationship with presence. Poetry and imagery evoke the lived moment of experiencing and the fluid dynamics of that perception. Regain contact with that, regain contact with life.This is the promise of Blake and others.For more on Mark’s book, Awake!, and more of his work see - www.markvernon.com
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William Blake and the Power of the Imagination. A talk at L'Abri, Sussex, England
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
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 edge of consciousness research, with Rupert just back from The Science of Consciousness Conference 2025 in Barcelona. They discuss the impact of Indian researchers of consciousness and the proposals of microchip inventor, Federico Faggin. They consider trainings in extra-ocular vision and questions thrown up by the hit podcast series, The Telepathy Tapes. One thing is clear: when the materialist paradigm passes, the science of consciousness will have only just begun.For more on Rupert's work see - https://www.sheldrake.org/For more on Mark's work see - https://www.markvernon.com/
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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