The Flip: Epiphanies of Mind & the Future of Knowledge by Jeffrey J. Kripal

Look at a photo of Jeffrey Kripal, and you’ll see a pleasant, teddy-bear- looking fellow (or the winner of a Karl Rove look-alike contest). He looks pleasant and friendly, and I suspect he is both. But behind this pleasant facade and seemingly easy-going demeanor is an intellectual daredevil. Let me provide a little background of what I know about this Clark Kent of scholars. 

Kripal was raised in a small town in southeast Nebraska and raised a Catholic. As he reached his teen years, instead of pursuing a the common family pursuit of athleticism, he marked himself off by becoming very thin via religiously-motivated--or so he thought--fasting. And after graduation from high school, he went off to a monastery in Missouri. There, his fellow monks worried about his appearance (thin), and they put him in psychoanalysis with a Benedictine monk. Kripal gained a great deal from this, not the least of which was weight. What he discovered in this process was that he has issues with sexuality that he was suppressing and that he was suffering (as he describes it) from anorexia. With this life-altering and intriguing knowledge, Kripal left that seminary and went to pursue a degree in comparative religion at the University of Chicago. Apparently not one to take the easy course, he concentrated in the Hindu tradition, studying under an acclaimed expert in that tradition, Wendy Doniger. (Surely he learned some Latin and Greek during his time in the Church and in a monastery.) But like Doniger, Kripal’s writings about Hindusim--especially about the sexuality of some Hindu gods and adepts--drew the wrath of militant Hindus, and this eventually drove him from the field. (It seems that writing about the sexuality of religious figures in an established tradition can yield death threats for such perceived transgressions. The same thing happened to Doniger while we lived in India, and her book, The Hindus: An Alternative History, was supposed to be pulled from shelves in India by her publishers--although I found it in Trivandrum, I’m happy to report.)  (Most of this information comes from a Youtube interview of Kripal conducted by science journalist John Horgan, which is well worth watching to get an overview of where Kripal is coming from and what he's up to.)

Karl Rove? No? Well, different thoughts, I'm sure, the likeness notwithstanding

So Kripal took his professional life in a new and no less provocative direction by inquiring into the “paranormal”--all the weird, seemingly impossible things that people report have happened both within and outside of established religions. What’s going on with reports of telepathy, precognition, near-death experiences, levitation, UFO abductions, conversing with spirits, and so on? Needless to say, this broad topic is fraught with challenges and skeptics from both religious and secular perspectives. Nevertheless, he persists, and happily so.

Flip is Kripal’s most recent venture into this field, and I think it serves as a summary of where he’s gone and what (often tentative) conclusions he’s reached so far. (In this, I’m speculating, because I’ve read only one of his earlier works in full, The Serpent's Gift: Gnostic Reflections on the Study of Religion (2006), but Flip certainly seems like a weigh station on his journey). In any event, Kripal provides a useful summary of his conclusions to date and how his thinking along these lines might continue. In the book, he addresses individuals and their “flip” experiences, and ideas about how weird reality might be made more comprehensible through contemporary thinking based on quantum physics and scientifically-informed philosophy. I should note that philosophy is called on in part because it is one the humanities (as opposed to a field in the natural sciences). In short, the humanities deal with the mind or consciousness. As Kripal notes, “Consciousness is the fundamental ground of all we know, or ever will know” (46) and the humanities involve “the study of consciousness coded in culture” (45). Later in the book Kripal reminds us again of the importance of the mind (consciousness) to scientific as endeavors as well as those of the  humanities: 

Mind or consciousness is the locus of all scientific practice and knowledge; that science, at the end of the day, is a function of human subjectivity and consciousness and not, as often assumed, a simple photographic record of the world of things and objects "out there." (15).

Kripal buttresses his arguments via quantum theory, drawing upon, for instance, international relations theorist-turned-quantum social science proponent, Alexander Wendt, along with others. He also draws upon contemporary philosophers such as Philip Goff and Bernardo Kastrup. But the most compelling aspect of the book isn’t the theory (interesting as it is), but in his choice of witnesses to the paranormal. For his testimonials, he draws upon scientists, physicians, a philosopher, and a rationalist--not a “religious” figure among them. A couple of his exemplars I found especially surprising: A.J. Ayer, the famed logical positivist philosopher and Barbara Ehrenreich, a cell biologist and journalist concerned about women’s issues and poverty. But she’s also the author of Living With a Wild God: An Unbeliever’s Search for the Truth about Everything (2014) that details a “flip” experience of her own that occurred in her youth. Another witness (as it were) is Eben Alexander III, a physician who suffered a near-death experience and an extended coma that flipped his perspective on "reality." I trust you get Kripal’s point: this isn’t the group of loonies that you might expect. (For a parody of those whom many would associate with paranormal events, see the SNL skits with Kate McKinnon as the renegade UFO subject whose reports aren’t sweetness and light but instead hilarious sexual shenanigans.) 

This book and Kripal’s project as a whole to inspect what’s under the hood of the paranormal or “super natural” is a careful and thoughtful--and needed--investigation into these undeniable phenomena. He’s fun to read and can hold the reader's attention much as we’d be held in thrall by a . . . well, a ghost story. 

George Conway: DJT as a Mental Health Issue

Impeachment Installment #5: This article by lawyer George T. III provides an excellent brief arguing the premise that DJT has shown himself unfit for office because of his mental condition. Of course, Speaker Pelosi and Chairman Schiff may cringe when reading this, not because they disagree with the premises or conclusions offered in the article, but because it doesn't fit with the pointed effort to pursue impeachment based on the abuse of power displayed in the effort to bribe Ukraine and to cajole other nations into helping DJT's re-election campaign. But DJT's extreme aberrant behavior isn't something that we can continue to sweep under the rug. He's not the daft, cranky old uncle you have to invite over for Thanksgiving dinner and whose behavior you have to tolerate for a few hours. This is the President of the United States of America, whose decisions are often those of life and death. And, IMHO, DJT is utterly unredeemable. In my experience as an attorney who represented clients charged with crimes, neglect or abuse of children, and involuntarily confined for mental health treatment, so cases can be truly intractable. This 73-year old man of dubious physical health and with such longstanding and patent mental health issues (not to mention lack of basic moral conduct) isn't going to change. We need to face the truth of what we have on our hands.

THEATLANTIC.COM

Unfit for Office

Donald Trump’s narcissism makes it impossible for him to carry out the duties of the presidency in the way the Constitution requires.

Maureen Dowd Goes Noir: Trump's Washington as Chinatown (with a Touch of Evil)

I'm going to get around another impeachment installment, but this is related and it uses a favorite flick to make its point. The article is by Maureen Dowd, whose jaundiced eye has seen just about everything that Washington D.C. and politicians have to offer. She's usually not at a loss for words of her own or in need of such an extended analogy, but this essay is pretty spot on. Plus, this is a classic film (especially the screenplay by Robert Townsend). A good excuse to see the film again and consider the "Chinatown" we're in today. BTW, the title of the piece, "Touch of Evil" is also the title of a film by Orson Welles that starred Welles, Charlton Heston, and Janet Leigh from 1958 and that is considered one of the last--and best--of the golden age of film noir. Dowd knows her flicks!

NYTIMES.COM

Opinion | Touch of Evil

Donald Trump drags us down to Chinatown.

Gun Island: A Novel by Amitav Ghosh

Amitav Ghosh’s most recent novel  Gun Island: A Novel, was a joy to read. 

One may quibble, I suppose, whether this book is best described as a novel or as a fable, but under either rubric, it tells a story that takes the reader on a fascinating adventure and that provides a much-appreciated perspective on our world.

The story revolves around a middle-aged Indian-American rare books dealer--Deen--who, during an annual trip to Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), becomes involved in a mystery. Or is it a revelation? Into Deen’s quotidian life in Kolkata come two women; one, a new acquaintance, Piya, is also an Indian emigre to America, and she’s a marine biologist. She’s a skeptical scientist committed to her research into dolphins in the vicinity of the Sundarban islands in the Bay of Bengal, near Kolkata. The other woman, Cinta, is a long-time acquaintance from Venice, a historian, who has experienced what we might call the “paranormal’ or the“super natural” in her long life. Finally, two young men, Rafi and Tipu, are introduced into the plot, and things begin to move--across continents. 

The confluence of the five main characters begins a chain of events that takes Deen to the Sundarban islands, back to his home in Brooklyn, to Los Angeles, to Venice, and onto a ship in the Mediterranean, all to solve a mystery. Or to pursue a vision.  The mystery arises from the legend of the “the gun merchant” (or ‘Bonduki Sadagar’ in Bangla) and “Manasa Devi,” the goddess of snakes and other poisonous creatures. Deen is prodded into exploring this legend in part because of his work as a young doctoral student who wrote his dissertation about a Bengali legend. Although quite reluctant, Deen is compelled by personal connections (realized and hoped for), and he agrees to investigate the claim that there is a shrine in a swampy Sundarban island dedicated to the goddess. The shrine, he hopes, will also provide a memorial of the struggle between the gun merchant and the goddess. Almost against his will, Deen is drawn further and further into discovering and reconstructing the tale of the gun merchant. 

But as Deen attempts to construct an account of the gun merchant, the natural world, the world of snakes and dolphins, for instance, keeps intruding in new and puzzling ways.  To the rational mind, what the characters are experiencing is a sea-change (in part quite literal) in the environment that forces creatures to migrate or die. The natural world and the super natural world keep manifesting in new and unexpected ways. “Super natural”? In a bit of coincidence (or synchronicity), at the same time that I read The Gun Merchant,  I read Jefferey Kripal’s The Flip: Epiphanies of Mind & the Future of Knowledge (2019). In his work, Kripal, a scholar of comparative religion, addresses what is often referred to as the “paranormal,” or as he suggests, the “super natural.” (My review in the works.) Of course, we’re dealing here with a work of fiction, but Ghose doesn’t open or close the door of explanation about what’s going on here;  instead, he leaves the door ajar for us to ponder what lies on the other side. In any event, the confluence of events, by coincidence or synchronicity, natural or “super natural,” comes to a climax on the Mediterranean as a group of illegal immigrants seek to improve their lot in life by coming to Europe. 

Through the course of the novel, we learn about the experience of immigrants, legal and illegal, human and animal. Some are impelled to move in the hope of a better life, others compelled to migrate just to survive in a rapidly deteriorating environment. While providing this account of our rapidly changing world--and the rapidly changing world of the gun merchant in the late 1600s--Ghose doesn’t preach. His story illustrates his points. The connection between the human world and the natural world (to the extent that they could ever be thought truly distinct) is displayed with such story-telling dexterity that Ghose needn’t exposit his themes or provide lengthy accounts from history. We watch the changing tides of history as we learn the story of the gun merchant and the adventures of Deen and his compatriots involved in bringing this quest to a conclusion. For me, it provided a compelling reading experience. 

David Frum on the Perils & Possibilities of Impeachment: Lesson 1 on the Trump Impeachment

Okay, it's time to start paying attention to impeachment (akin to a criminal indictment). This article by former Bush speechwriter David Frum is an excellent place to start. It briefly outlines the perils of impeachment (if you shoot at a king, you'd better not miss). And as for the Dems, they need to keep talking about the issues that people care about and that this administration is screwing-up: health care, climate change, tariffs that hurt American enterprises (e.g,. farmers), and so on (and believe me, I could go on at length). Anyway, start here, and I"ll try to keep pace.

P.S. Am I excited about impeachment? Do I cherish the ideas of President Mike Pence? Good grief! We must ultimately act via an election and reject the politics of division.

About this website

THEATLANTIC.COM

A Realist’s Guide to Impeachment

Trump should face the consequences of his misdeeds, but the road ahead is perilous.

Mind, History, and Dialetic: The Philosophy of R.G. Collingwood by Louis Mink

An overview of Collingwood's project

In this work, Louis Mink proves himself a sympathetic but not uncritical expositor of Collingwood's thought. Mink recognizes that Collingwood was a systematic thinker and that Collingwood was also economical in his writing–not often repeating contentions or arguments from book to book. And, of course, Collingwood’s thought developed over time. 

Mink identifies Speculum Mentis (1923) as the template of for Collingwood's later thinking, and he then reveals how RGC (Collingwood) alters and details that map in his later works. I’ve read all of RGC’s major works except Religion and Philosophy (1916), An Essay on Philosophical Method (1932), and An Essay on Metaphysics (1940). By having completed Mink's book, I've gained a greater sense of what I'm missing and how these works tie together in Collingwood's overall project. 

For instance, Mink clarifies Collingwood's ideas about "the logic of question and answer," which, as Mink demonstrates, is not a (propositional) logic at all, but a theory of inquiry. Mink also clarifies Collingwood's notion of "absolute presuppositions," another one of Collingwood's concepts that is often misunderstood and widely criticized, but that makes sense with Collingwood's larger scheme. Mink also addresses many of the sticking points found in The Idea of History (1946--posthumous publication). The way that Mink unpacks some the peculiarities of Collingwood's insights can save readers from the gamut of responses often suffered when reading and contemplating The Ideas of History initially. In my experience, these responses can run from thinking "unique" to "brilliant" to "really? to "dogmatic and arbitrary" to "nonsense!"--all concerning one concept or argument! Mink's efforts to place these ideas, such as "all history is the history of thought," in the context of Collingwood's entire opus allows the reader to (perhaps) return to the initial response of "unique" and "brilliant" that may well have been justified in the first place, Mink's effort may also spares us from suffering unjustified reams of critical complaints based on faulty assumptions. All of this is not to say that Mink isn't critical, but only that he makes sure that he's dug as deeply as possible to get at the fundamental insights that Collingwood has attempted to convey before he levels any criticism.  

One other point of value also worth adding is that Mink briefly explores similarities between Collingwood's thought and that of pragmatism and existentialism. Collingwood didn't directly address these contemporary philosophical schools, but Mink points out some striking similarities. For my part, I also see some intriguing similarities between Collingwood's thought and that of Hannah Arendt, herself a unique offspring of the German existentialist school of thought, especially regarding the topics of political action, the crisis of the 20th-century, and democracy. 

I’ve read only a couple of other book-length considerations of RGC’s work (one focused on The Ideas of History & the Fred Inglis biography, History Man), but Mink’s book has provided the most thorough and well-presented roadmap of Collingwood’s project as a whole that I can imagine anyone writing in a single, 268-page text.

Images & Reflections About the Climate Strike

Marching to Battery Park

They just keep coming!

Grade school kids having their say!

A river of humanity, young, old, and everyone in-between, representing about every demographic and identity one could imagine--as only New York City can--rallied and protested yesterday. The scene was a mixture of carnival and the utmost seriousness (reminding me of demonstrations in the early 1970s). Of course, diversity also means disagreement. I'm one to look at a poster and ponder whether it's accurate and most often its not--at least not entirely so. But these demonstrations are about symbols and numbers. A vast number of people around the world are frightened about the increasingly real peril that climate change poses to our shared well-being as a civilization (now global) and as a species. At demonstrations, we focus on slogans, symbols, and personalities ("Greta Thunberg for President!" "We Love Greta!" and so on). All well & good for the present, but we have to translate this concern into policy--and here we'll encounter conflict. And here the challenge is to engage in meaningful political action: in other words, speech. We must act to find common cause and to sort answers, all in good faith (and knowing that good faith is not always in play). Whatever changes we make (or don't make), someone's ox will get gored (as my medieval history prof used to say about attempting to discern the motives of political players in medieval history). Or, to put it another way, some will be made worse off, some better off. It's a moral and political and economic question of the highest order. So, the hard work lies ahead. The U.S. Congress and the executive branch must mobilize to act, and that will occur if there's a tidal wave of popular sentiment conveyed to those folks.

So, now write, call, email, & converse with every elected official you can. Keep talking with your friends and neighbors. We'll either address these issues through talk or by violence. Let's make the right choice.

"A personal overview of Collingwood’s New Leviathan" by David Pierce: A brief cover note

This will complete a Collingwood trifecta today (aren't you lucky!). This one is by David Pierce, an American logician and mathematician who teaches in Turkey. I just discovered his blog a couple of days ago, and he has a wide range of interests, not the least of which is the philosophy of R.G. Collingwood. The post linked below marks the beginning of a careful walk through the last work published in Collingwood's life, The New Leviathan. I've only begun my trek through this series of posts, but Pierces's commentary adds a delicate sauce to Collingwood's sometimes Spartan sentences. (N.B., Collingwood is a fine stylist and often a pleasure to read, but in NL, he adopts a leaner form and style.)

Enjoy!

POLYTROPY.COM

A personal overview of Collingwood’s New Leviathan

These are the notes of an amateur of the work of the philosopher R. G. Collingwood. Published in 1942, The New Leviathan was the last book that…

"How the untimely death of RG Collingwood changed the course of philosophy forever" by Ray Monk: A note & link

A very recent appreciation of Collingwood by the biographer of Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein, Ray Monk. Monk posits that Collingwood and the later Wittgenstein were kindred philosophical spirits and that British philosophy would have taken a different course if Collingwood would not have died young and been replaced by Gilbert Ryle, a militant analytical philosopher who came to dominate British philosophy in the post-war period. A worthwhile appreciation of Collingwood as a person of diverse interests and an outstanding philosophical project. 

PROSPECTMAGAZINE.CO.UK

How the untimely death of RG Collingwood changed the course of philosophy forever

The passing of this eclectic and questioning man in his prime allowed the narrower and more imperious Gilbert Ryle to dominate British philosophy. Had Collingwood lived, could the deep and damaging schism with continental thought have been avoided?

"R.G. Collingwood on the corruption of democracy" by Jonathan Ree: An appreciation & link

Since about 2014, I've become quite an admirer of the work of the philosopher R.G. Collingwood (1889-1943). He's best known of his book THE IDEA OF HISTORY (published posthumously in 1946) and other works of philosophy. But he dedicated much of his time before his impending death (of which he was quite aware) addressing the issues raised by the politics of the 1930s. This article by philosopher Jonathan Ree provides a peek at Collingwood's effort to address political issues. It's worth the read--Collingwood's insights seem quite pertinent today.

NEWHUMANIST.ORG.UK

R.G. Collingwood on the corruption of democracy

The philosopher, historian and archaeologist argued for the importance of "politically educated public opinion".

Roy Cohn & Donald Trump: The Master & the New Master via Maureen Dowd & Matt Tyrnauer, Documentary Filmmaker

Read at least this much & you get the gist of the article:

'“Roy Cohn did the impossible,” Mr. Tyrnauer said. “He created a president from beyond the grave. I don’t think there’s any disputing that. The basic lessons that Trump learned from Cohn were: Never apologize. If someone hits you, hit them back a thousand times harder. Any publicity is good publicity. And find an ‘other.’”

He said that the origin of Mr. Cohn’s career in the 1950s was dooming the Rosenbergs to the electric chair, Jews as Bolsheviks and fifth columnists, and going after gay people in the State Department. [SNG note: Cohn was Jewish & gay.]

“With Trump, the other is Mexicans, Latinos, Muslims, I mean, fill in the blank,” he said. “The lesson of this from history is: Pick your other. That’s what a demagogue does. Trump’s kind of an empty vessel. I think he’s eerily similar to Joe McCarthy in that way. I think it basically comes down to something Ken Auletta said in the film: What a demagogue does is throw out an untruth or a lie and then stands back and watches as that fills the void.”

. . . .

Flamboyant and ruthless met flamboyant and ruthless when Mr. Cohn collided with a young builder named Donald Trump at Le Club sometime in the ’70s.'

NYTIMES.COM

Matt Tyrnauer: Chronicler of Trump’s Mentor Roy Cohn

A Vanity Fair correspondent turned documentarian with a fascination for figures of the late 20th century.

A Secret History of Christianity: Jesus, the Last Inkling, and the Evolution Of Consciousness by Mark Vernon

I came to this book through the back door; that is, it was not the “Secret History of Christianity” that grabbed me (not a unique title), but the subtitle “the Last Inkling and the Evolution of Consciousness.” This phrase no doubt referred to Owen Barfield and his line of thought about the evolution of consciousness. Barfield has been on my radar for years as I’ve sought to become more familiar with his deep insights. While Barfield is a lucid writer, his thought dives deep and sometimes can leave the reader adrift. And unlike his more famous Inkling companions C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, Barfield never reached great numbers with his works (which only included a relatively small amount of fiction and poetry). So, I thought, perhaps this work would reveal more about Barfield’s project to me.

Alas, it did not. After an initial cursory introduction to Barfield’s key notion of “original participation” followed by “withdrawal participation” and “reciprocal participation,” and a nod to French anthropologist Lucien Levy-Bruehl about his idea of “participation mystique,” Vernon plunges directly  into a history of the Hebrew Bible through the lens of the concept of “participation.” From that starting point, he moves on into a review of ancient Greek culture through the same lens. In both traditions, the earlier manifestations of those cultures were marked by “original participation” with the world around them. As Vernon describes it, the phenomena refer “to the felt experience of participating in life. Original participation dominates when there is little distinction between what’s felt to be inside someone and what’s outside because the boundaries of individual self - consciousness, which today we take for granted, are not in place.” (p. 3; loc. 264.) Or as Barfield describes it: “Early man did not observe nature in our detached way . . . . He participated mentally and physically in her inner and outer processes.” (p. 3; loc. 269.) Vernon proceeds to take the reader through a brief history of the Hebrew Bible to illustrate this phenomenon and the eventual shift away from a consciousness marked by original participation to one of “withdrawal participation,” which is marked by a shift away from immersion in the surrounding world into a greater sense of individuality. As Vernon describes it, “An awareness of separation, even isolation, is felt. A person will begin to sense that they have an inner life that is, relatively speaking, their own. (p. 3; loc. 273.)

After completing his brief but illuminating history of the Hebrew Bible, Vernon moves across the street, as it were, and does the same with ancient Greek culture, displaying the same dynamic at work. Like the Hebrew prophets, the emerging Greek philosophers (culminating in Socrates) promote a greater sense of individuality and individual agency. The world of Achilles in the Iliad is significantly different from that of Socrates. As Vernon points out, another way to look at this shift is to discern a growing sense of individuality and the use of introspection by individuals.

With the advent of the Hellenistic Age in the wake of Alexander the Great and his successors, these two lines of thought—Hebrew and Greek—begin to encounter one another and interact. Out of this mixture arises the life of Jesus and the coming of Christianity. It’s at this point that I must quibble about the first part of the title of this book, “the Secret History of Christianity.” What Vernon writes about in this section and the sources he draws upon is not Dan Brown material. Rather, the sources that Vernon draws upon are neither secret nor very unorthodox. (Although he does cite the Gospel of Thomas, which is outside of the sanctioned Scriptures, that’s about as far out of the mainstream that he goes.) Vernon’s portrait of Jesus draws upon the Four Evangelists and Paul to demonstrate that Jesus was taking his followers deeper into the interior life. Vernon demonstrates his argument with quotations from the Gospels and Paul that should prove familiar to any reader. He emphasizes the message of interiority preached by Jesus and the desire of Jesus to prompt a metanoia—a change of mind (or heart-mind, as I’m persuaded may prove a more adept translation). Vernon argues that Jesus didn’t intend to set down new sets of rules to follow, but instead, he intended to change our awareness; to find the root of our conduct on the inside. (I can’t help but recall the scene in Monty Python’s Life of Brian where the supposed messiah (Brian) loses a sandal while attempting to flee the crowd and the crowd takes this as a directive to shed their sandals--or something. Ah, literalism.) In short, Vernon provides a convincing and attractive portrait of Jesus that comports with Barfield’s theory of “participation” and that comports with sound Biblical scholarship. Sorry, no lost gospels or secret societies here.

Vernon continues his tour of Christian culture and belief through the early Church on to Augustine, whose interiority further expands this Christian insight and who develops the idea of the will to better understand an individual’s volition. Vernon follows this path continuing up through the Renaissance, which—contra Burkhardt—Vernon argues does not provide a definitive break with medieval culture and belief. But the Reformation, which follows upon the Renaissance and does alter the course of the evolution of consciousness. The Reformation, in the words and works of Luther and Calvin and their followers, placed a significantly increased emphasis on the individual’s conscience. The Reformation, along with the Scientific Revolution, altered the ways that individuals saw themselves and their world. The advent of the printing press, like the advent of literacy and private reading in earlier times, greatly facilitated (or perhaps more it’s more accurate to say, helped cause) this change in consciousness. Humanity became more aware of how to manipulate the world around it and gained an increased sense of individual agency. But these gains came at the cost of losing much (and in some cases all) of the sense of belonging to the cosmos that had survived through the Renaissance. Christianity, as a result, tended more toward literalism and faith as belief rather than trust. This trend has continued up through the present, but Vernon identifies signs that humanity may be ready to move into a mode of “reciprocal participation.”

Vernon identifies “imagination” as the key to reaching a state of reciprocal participation. In this argument, Vernon echoes many of the themes that Gary Lachman identified in his 2017 publication, Lost Knowledge of the Imagination. As both authors note, imagination is not another word for fantasy; both authors draw upon Samuel Taylor Coleridge for guidance in describing the role and function of imagination and its distinction from what Coleridge labeled as “fantasy.” Also, Vernon discusses the body of poetic and visual works of William Blake as a master of informed imagination.

Thus, while I didn’t experience an in-depth dive into Barfield’s thought (although Barfield’s work does resurface prominently toward the end of the book), I did receive a persuasive application of how Barfield’s perspective can apply to the history of Western Christianity. An for those who want a helpful introduction to Barfield’s project, one can turn to Gary Lachman, who refers to Barfield frequently, and at depth in his works ASecret History of Consciousness and Caretakers of the Cosmos. And as to having a not-so-secret history of Christianity added to the piles of books written about the history of Christianity, Vernon’s effort is worthwhile. The fact the sources that Vernon draws upon are not occult doesn’t mean that the project isn’t valuable; it is. While not secret, his understanding of Christianity is not widespread so far as I can discern. The description that he provides is one that could prove useful as we go forward to meet the challenges ahead. He hopes to see Christianity (along with other wisdom traditions) bridge the gap between our alienation from the world around us (and ourselves) and the gifts that individuality and science have brought to us. This is a noble and vital enterprise, and one that deserves our thanks—and our reading time.