The Sacred Speaks
Join depth psychotherapist and Jungian scholar, John Price, in an exploration of extraordinary stories and phenomena that lurk beneath the surface of normal and everyday life. Listen in as John interviews experts, dilettantes, sinners, and saints to explore their professional and personal perspective on the underlying purpose of the mysteries which lurk within the seemingly mundane nature of day-to-day life. John received his Master’s degree in clinical psychology and his Doctorate degree in Jungian psychology. He is in private practice and is also on the faculty of The Jung Center and The University of St. Thomas, both located in Houston, Texas. He lectures and teaches classes in subjects ranging from Parenting and Consciousness to Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll. This podcast seeks to accept a challenge laid out by Carl Jung: to explore the universal human feelings of emotional incompleteness, spiritual curiosity and one’s related search for wholeness and meaning. Interviews commence with the belief that, by engaging in this exploration, we can learn more about the psyche, consciousness, spirituality, philosophy and the profound, though often hidden, meaning of the day-to-day lives we lead (or which will lead us, if we aren’t watchful).Come along as John follows people into bars, universities, places of worship, financial districts and the home. He finds each context equally able to provide a setting for this worthy search and also that, through this process, we have an opportunity to come to know each other and ourselves much more deeply.
The Sacred Speaks
29: Living Consciousness. A conversation with G. William Barnard.
In today’s episode Dr. Bill Barnard and John explore some of the fundamental definitions and aspects of consciousness and the study of consciousness. Bill is a professor of religious studies and passionately studies William James and Henri Bergson – both early thinkers in the world of religion, psychology and consciousness. The conversation touches upon some of the basic overview of the study of consciousness including materialism, idealism, determinism, dual and non-dual traditions, psychedelics, and meanders through the dynamic between the materialist reductive thinking about consciousness juxtaposed with the non-dual traditions. Dr. Barnard also discusses his study of entheogens in religious contexts, primarily as sourced by the Santo Daime tradition.
Bio:
Dr. G. William Barnard, (B.A. Antioch University; M.A. Temple University; Ph.D. University of Chicago) is a Professor of Religious Studies, as well as a University Distinguished Teaching Professor. His primary areas of research interests are the comparative philosophy of mysticism, religion and the social sciences, contemporary spirituality, religion and healing, and consciousness studies. Professor Barnard is currently researching the Santo Daime tradition, a syncretistic, entheogenically-based new religious movement that emerged in Brazil in the mid-twentieth century. He teaches a variety of courses: Magic, Myth, and Religion; Mysticism: East and West; Understanding the Self: East and West; Introduction to Primal Religions; Wholeness and Holiness: Religion and Healing Across Cultures; Waking Up: The Philosophy of Yoga and the Practice of Meditation; Ways of Being Religious; Living from the Heart (of it All): An Exploration of Mystical/Spiritual Ethics; Plants of the Gods: Religion and Psychedelics; and a graduate core seminar: History, Theory, and Method in Religious Studies. Professor Barnard is the author of Living Consciousness: The Metaphysical Vision of Henri Bergson as well as Exploring Unseen Worlds: William James and the Philosophy of Mysticism, both published by State University of New York Press. In addition, Professor Barnard is the co-editor of Crossing Boundaries: Essays on the Ethical Status of Mysticism. Professor Barnard has also written many journal articles and book chapters on a variety of topics, such as pedagogy in religious studies, the nature of religious experience, and issues in the psychology of religion. He is a member of the Academy of Distinguished Teachers and has received the Godbey Lecture Series Authors’ Award for both Living Consciousness and Exploring Unseen Worlds. He has also received the Golden Mustang Outstanding Faculty Award for teaching and scholarship as well as the SMU Mortar Board Honor Society Award for teaching excellence. He was also awarded an American Academy of Religion Individual Research grant.
Website:
www.smu.edu/Dedman/Academics/De…acultyStaff/Barnard
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