Episodes
Friday Mar 16, 2018
ON BREATH
Friday Mar 16, 2018
Friday Mar 16, 2018
In this podcast I give a brief outline of breath disciplines described by Patanjali and Svatmarama and discuss their practicality and significance. I draw attention to the common tendency to manipulate the mind-body complex and endow the resultant effects with significance derived from received models of the human being and metaphysical narratives. I ask, 'how do these fit in with the fact that this is it?' [Free. 26 minutes.]
Friday Jan 26, 2018
ON TABOOS
Friday Jan 26, 2018
Friday Jan 26, 2018
This podcast is a rambling discussion which seeks to elucidate the nature of taboos. This involves considering law, superstition, transgression, the unconscious and Freud's metapsychology. We find ourselves questioning the coherence of the notion of the unconscious whilst at the same time finding it almost indispensible. Do we have to have taboos? We conclude that theoretically a society could be without taboos but that it is unlikely in the near future. However, minimising the play of irrational forces is thought to be desirable. The one thing that taboos have in their favour is their connection with the transgressive element in erotic jouissance. Contains a discussion of swearing and an account of a tantric exorcism. [Free. 38 minutes.]
Tuesday Jul 25, 2017
PARENTS
Tuesday Jul 25, 2017
Tuesday Jul 25, 2017
This podcast considers "making your peace with your parents" and why, if possible, it's a good idea. [Free. 20 ,minutes.]
Monday Apr 10, 2017
CONSCIOUSNESS [THOUGHT LABORATORY PREAMBLE]
Monday Apr 10, 2017
Monday Apr 10, 2017
This podcast is an entirely extempore survey of 'the hard problem of consciousness' which was undertaken as a preliminary to a proposed series on this matter. It is by no means exhaustive and rather rough but I offer it to patrons in the hope of wetting their appetite. [Patrons only. 46 minutes.]
Tuesday Feb 28, 2017
THE BLUE PILL OR THE RED PILL? PART FOUR: POLITICS AND IDEOLOGY
Tuesday Feb 28, 2017
Tuesday Feb 28, 2017
In this podcast, we refer to the last scene of The Matrix in which Neo speaks directly to the hegemonic machines and explicitly draws attention to the political dimensions of the film. This scene invites us to understand the real-apparent binary as the opposition between the concrete political situation of slavery and exploitation and the ideological mystification which prevents the victims from throwing off their chains or even realising that they are in them. This leads us to a discussion of the attempts to make good the lacuna in Marxism around the details of ideological mystification by theorising a Freudian-Marxism. Dramatis Personae: Freud, Marx, Hegel, Lacan, Zizek, Fromm, Reich, Marcusse, Engels. The final scene [3 minutes 31 seconds] is here:- https://youtu.be/aTL4qIIxg8A. See the blue pill - red pill choice in this four minute clip: https://youtu.be/zQ1_IbFFbzA. [Free. 39 minutes.]
Monday Feb 13, 2017
Monday Feb 13, 2017
Part Two of our series on The Matrix attempts to characterise Neo's choice of the red pill in terms of the kind of human freedom posited by the existentialist philosophers. We draw particularly of Kierkegaard and Sartre. See the blue pill - red pill choice in this four minute clip: https://youtu.be/zQ1_IbFFbzA. [Free. 32 minutes.]
Sunday Jan 15, 2017
SYNCHRONICITY
Sunday Jan 15, 2017
Sunday Jan 15, 2017
Synchronicity is the phenomenon in which we encounter meaningful coincidences. It tends to occur if we are in dialogue with our unconscious mind, whether through meditation or psychoanalytic types of engagement. In this podcast we consider the nature of this phenomenon and its possible use for self-enquiry. The book Synchonicity [1952] by C G Jung and Wolfgang Pauli is drawn upon as is Jung's approach to the I Ching. [Free. 25 minutes.]
Sunday Dec 11, 2016
CONSIDERING CULTS
Sunday Dec 11, 2016
Sunday Dec 11, 2016
In this podast we attempt to characterise 'cults' and identify psychological processes that sustain them. This broadens out a little into considerations of dominance and power dynamics in general. [Free. 30 minutes.]
Saturday Oct 01, 2016
THE MYTH OF THE YOGA TEACHER
Saturday Oct 01, 2016
Saturday Oct 01, 2016
In this podcast, we examine some of the identifiable modes of yoga teaching. In particular, we talk about parroting, missionary activity, dominance games and meeting in openness. [Free. 22 minutes.]
Tuesday Sep 13, 2016
YOGA REGULATION? NO THANKS
Tuesday Sep 13, 2016
Tuesday Sep 13, 2016
This podcast addresses a situation current on planet Yoga in the UK and will be of special interest to UK Yoga teachers and teacher trainers. The situation I allude to is the decision made by a government licensed body [Skills Active] in conjunction with the British Wheel of Yoga to institute a 'National Occupational Standard' [NOS] for a Yoga teacher. This was attempted 12 years ago and didn't succeed, most likely because of considerable opposition from the Yoga Community. I give an outline of the history and the players in this mad game and then demonstrate that Yoga should not be regulated by any governmental agency or narrow interest. Rather, I contend, it is necessarily diverse and therefore beyond the scope of regulation. I then give an account of the Independent Yoga Network which was set up 12 years ago in the face of the first attempt at NOS to defend freedom and diversity and promote Yoga. [Free. 44 minutes.]