Beyond Flatland – Discussion Day Recordings
in collaboration with
The Centre for Myth, Cosmology and the Sacred, Perspectiva and the Galileo Commission
This Zoom event was held on Saturday 28th November. You can access the recordings here.
Presenters:
Mark Vernon, David Lorimer, Angela Voss, Mary Attwood, Louise Livingstone, Geoffrey Cornelius, Jules Evans, William Rowlandson and Jeff Kripal
Reductionism and literalism are often acknowledged as problems bequeathed to us by the 18th century Enlightenment. They foster tyrannical attitudes that disqualify ways of knowing widely enjoyed by our ancestors.
Owen Barfield called it “camera consciousness”: the ability to look at but not into things. It has become so powerful that even those pursuing imaginative and intuitive modes of perception can run aground on the rocks of spiritual materialism, which can be defined as the tendency to collapse life’s multiple dimensions onto a flatland of mechanical existence.
What is lost is an ability to enter into the felt presence of the world. There is an art to experiencing life across vertical as well as horizontal aspects of reality. It is, at times, troubling as well as liberating, and requires not only challenging modern epistemologies, but embarking on journeys of personal transformation that foster the trust and discernment required to participate fully in the meaning of events and encounters.
This day will suggest ways to recover and evolve a wider, expansive consciousness. It will explore how the power of symbols and synchronicities, divination and everyday intimations of more might be reappraised as forms of knowing that have their own kind of relevance and validity, and help to make sense of our times. These modes of consciousness are crucial in our times. They can reintroduce us to other worlds that are already here.
Programme
10am Issues – Angela Voss, David Lorimer and Mark Vernon on alternative ways of knowing and the need for them today.
11.00 Short break
11.15am Practices – Mary Attwood and Geoffrey Cornelius discuss and demonstrate two practical alternative ways of knowing.
12.15pm An exercise – Louise Livingstone introducing and offering a practice to explore a symbol in small groups.
1.00pm Lunch – During which speakers will be available for questions from 1.30pm.
2.00pm Discoveries – William Rowlandson and Jules Evans on personal transformation and encountering the psyche.
2.45pm Short break
3pm Flipping – Jeff Kripal in conversation with David Lorimer and Mark Vernon on the presence and meaning of other dimensions of reality.
3.40pm Concluding thoughts and questions
4pm Finish
