I mean what exactly are we arguing about. Obviously all sorts of inventions, ideas, political movements change consciousness. However if the term "evolution of consciousness" is to mean something, it simply has to mean a lot more than that.
The reason Mark Vernon traces the evolution of consciousness is that he thinks it informs how people should approach spirituality today.
So he has a point beyond just that consciousness has changed over time.
His point is that we should move forward not backward. To do that you need to know what happened in the past.
there's
13:50
quite a lot of that around these days
13:52
and by that I mean the sense that we as
13:54
a were give up on our ego we give up on
13:56
our individuality and sink into a kind
13:59
of oceanic bliss and whether it be
14:01
through meditation techniques whether it
14:04
breathe through the use of drugs
14:05
psychedelics that can give us a sense
14:08
that there's more than just me for sure
14:10
but I think it's also infantilizing
14:13
ultimately because it just leaves you
14:16
sort of at the whim or blissed-out in
14:21
this experience in psychotherapy you
14:23
talked about it being regressive Freud
14:25
for example thought that a lot of
14:27
spiritual experience was the kind of
14:29
desire to return to a kind of childish
14:32
state and where you're held and feds and
14:35
nurtured and everything feels like it's
14:37
one I think he was wrong to think the
14:40
whole of spiritual life is like that but
14:43
he was picking up on one part of it and
14:44
which is this regressive tendency that
14:46
you can see quite a lot of but also I
14:49
think we need to avoid another kind of
14:51
extreme which is the a stream that goes
14:53
to ecstasy's that that seeks just one
14:55
peak experience after another I'm going
14:58
to try add in the series to point to a
15:00
kind of in-between way of approaching
15:03
these things that's not reaching out for
15:06
a kind of loss of self but also is not
15:09
reaching out for one ecstatic experience
15:11
after another but that the spiritual
15:14
sense can steady down and it can be
15:16
lived with more and more day by day it's
15:19
quieter but nonetheless it's more
15:21
sustaining it's sometimes not so
15:23
spectacular and yet actually it grounds
15:26
you in life a lot more and that's what
15:29
I'm going to be trying to go for in
15:31
thinking about how to see spiritually
15:33
we've even got the idea
11:59
that the universe is like a mechanism
12:02
that actually has no inner life it has
12:05
no implicit inner meaning this model has
12:08
been very successful in many ways it's
12:10
given us technology and many comforts
12:13
and secure features of modern life but
12:16
it's left us with the sense that we're
12:17
not sure how to connect with it once
12:19
again and we've kind of lost that innate
12:23
sense there is a meaning to connect to
12:25
we're not sure about that anymore and
12:27
with it goes the wisdom about how to
12:29
really develop that sense and the wisdom
12:32
that would have been held in the great
12:33
spiritual traditions be at the
12:34
monasteries and religious houses in
12:37
other parts of the world in different
12:39
contexts I actually think the
12:41
psychotherapy has arisen in the modern
12:43
world to try and fill this gap this is
12:46
this vacuum we want to work on our inner
12:48
lives again aren't quite sure how to do
12:51
that and often find ourselves stumbling
12:53
over pathologies and so on in the effort
12:55
to do so but nonetheless this is our
12:58
challenge this is how we become perhaps
13:02
cut off from spiritual perception
13:04
through this great evolution of
13:05
consciousness from a time about 3000
13:09
years ago and when it really wasn't an
13:10
issue spirits and gods were felt to be
13:13
all around nature was felt to be alive
13:16
we've come through these various stages
13:18
of stepping back with the bonus that
13:21
that brings of ended
13:23
be now to study the world more
13:24
objectively and but also with this great
13:27
challenge that we need to know how to
13:29
perceive spiritually once more how to
13:32
engage with the inner life of all things
13:34
and not just work on the assumption that
13:36
the only inner life is the inner life
13:38
inside our heads so we need a new
13:41
approach and that's what I'm gonna try
13:43
and talk about in this series it needs
13:46
to think to be non aggressive there's
13:50
quite a lot of that around these days
13:52
and by that I mean the sense that we as
13:54
a were give up on our ego we give up on
13:56
our individuality and sink into a kind
13:59
of oceanic bliss and whether it be
14:01
through meditation techniques whether it
14:04
breathe through the use of drugs
14:05
psychedelics that can give us a sense
14:08
that there's more than just me for sure
14:10
but I think it's also infantilizing
14:13
ultimately because it just leaves you
14:16
sort of at the whim or blissed-out in
14:21
this experience in psychotherapy you
14:23
talked about it being regressive Freud
14:25
for example thought that a lot of
14:27
spiritual experience was the kind of
14:29
desire to return to a kind of childish
14:32
state and where you're held and feds and
14:35
nurtured and everything feels like it's
14:37
one I think he was wrong to think the
14:40
whole of spiritual life is like that but
14:43
he was picking up on one part of it and
14:44
which is this regressive tendency that
14:46
you can see quite a lot of but also I
14:49
think we need to avoid another kind of
14:51
extreme which is the a stream that goes
14:53
to ecstasy's that that seeks just one
14:55
peak experience after another I'm going
14:58
to try add in the series to point to a
15:00
kind of in-between way of approaching
15:03
these things that's not reaching out for
15:06
a kind of loss of self but also is not
15:09
reaching out for one ecstatic experience
15:11
after another but that the spiritual
15:14
sense can steady down and it can be
15:16
lived with more and more day by day it's
15:19
quieter but nonetheless it's more
15:21
sustaining it's sometimes not so
15:23
spectacular and yet actually it grounds
15:26
you in life a lot more and that's what
15:29
I'm going to be trying to go for in
15:31
thinking about how to see spiritually
15:33
and once again
15:35
to unfold over this series