Mark Vernon is a writer, psychotherapist, and broadcaster with a background in physics, theology, and philosophy. He has written extensively on spirituality, inner life, and imagination, with books including A Secret History of Christianity, and Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination. Through his teaching, podcasts, and online courses, he explores how ancient wisdom and modern thought can guide personal transformation and cultural renewal.
1. If you had to describe yourself in three words, what would they be?
Hopeful, faithful, restless.
2. Do you have other writers among your family or friends who have influenced your path?
One of my longest standing friends, Denise Inge, wrote about Thomas Traherne in a way that echoed the beauty of his vision as well as discussing that vision – showing as well as telling.
3. Your academic journey- from physics to theology to philosophy- is quite distinctive. What motivated these transitions, and how have they shaped your current work?
The common thread is a love of the big questions. In the physics, I loved the cosmological elements, in theology the God-talk, in philosophy how we come to know. I then trained as a psychotherapist because the philosophy I worked on was that of Plato and he was clear that who you are, and who you are becoming, much matters when it comes to what you know. This is because knowing is not primarily about receiving facts but resonating with reality. In retrospect I can see that the hope of resonating with reality motivating the transitions.
4. You frequently emphasize the importance of the inner life. How do you define it, and why is it so vital in today’s world?
Inner life is what is going on in our minds, bodies and souls, some of which we are conscious, but also much of which we are not conscious. And it doesn’t stop with our personal inner lives but the inner lives of others around us and the inner life of the culture and world in which we live – all of which are connected. Extending our understanding of inner life beyond the private is therefore vital because the inner life of the environment around us profoundly shapes us.
5. What themes or philosophical questions are currently most inspiring or urgent in your work?
The nature of the imagination is key, particularly the idea that the imagination is not a private possession, churning out images from within our bodies and skulls, but that we live in a great flow of imagination with which we can participate and co-create. That wider imagination can be seen in everything from the growth of a tree to the brilliance of language. A world can be seen in a grain of sand, William Blake said, not because we project onto a grain of sand but because our spirit meets the presence of the grain and a wider perception of reality emerges in the encounter.
6. You’ve published across nearly two decades. How has your idea of “spiritual intelligence” evolved from earlier works like After Atheism to more recent projects like the Seven Steps guide and Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination?
A key question for me is how I understand and, now I would say, relate to God. And also how I conceive of and receive talk about God – theology in the best sense, not of doctrines but of fostering wider awareness. To put it another way, a broadening of spiritual intelligence.
7.Many of your podcast conversations explore spirituality’s role in modern life. How do you stay attuned to topics that resonate both emotionally and intellectually with your audience?
My personal practice is key, which is a contemplative or meditative practice drawing on a well-respected book in Christian spirituality entitled The Cloud of Unknowing. This kind of approach connects emotional and intellectual challenges, both at the personal and social level, to our contact with the ground or wellspring of it all. To use a Biblical image: it feels to me as if the modern world tries to build houses on sand, and so the task today is to reestablish our cultural foundations on divine rock.
8. You’ve brought philosophical and spiritual inquiry into online education through visual and audio media. How do your online courses complement your free YouTube and podcast content?
I try to live as if the fundamental feature of reality is abundance not scarcity. One practical ramification of that is to try to give much away for free, because I receive the most important things for free, whilst still earning a living. Roughly speaking, I use the psychotherapist’s model of asking for payment for dedicated time.
9. You’ve explored the thought of Owen Barfield extensively. What aspects of his work do you find most relevant or prophetic today?
Barfield had one big idea: that our consciousness changes over time, which means that our perception of ourselves, others, nature and the divine changes over time. He thought that the modern sense of alienation and striving to find purpose is not only traumatic but itself has meaning and will lead to a renewed consciousness that reinvigorates our perception of things and, therefore, the meaning of life. In short, when things are bad, the good is not far off!
10. A Secret History of Christianity reframes the tradition through Owen Barfield’s lens. What hidden or overlooked aspect of Christian spirituality did you most want to bring to light?
The incarnation is the pivotal feature of Christianity, meaning that in the figure of Jesus, everyone can see how the divine dwells within them. We know this because we are finite creatures with a taste for the infinite. The critical question now is how we satisfy this desire for more because in a consumer age, the risk is that the desire becomes destructive. Finite things, no matter how many we possess, don’t touch the longing to be in touch with eternal things.
11. In Love: All That Matters, you explore multiple forms of love. How might modern culture recover deeper, less celebrated forms—like compassion or soulful letting go—alongside romantic love?
By realizing that romantic love is just one kind of love but, rather, an initiation into these wide kinds of love. Many, perhaps most, have the experience of falling in love and then experiencing how that falling falls away. But that is not the end of love, only its beginning. The question is whether different kinds of love can be known, which is what many people in relationships discover – the intimacy of mutuality, the joys of friendship, the strength of commitment.
12. In your book on Dante, you present The Divine Comedy as a spiritual guide. What aspects of Dante’s imagery or structure make him especially relevant to personal transformation?
Dante knew that hell, purgatory and paradise are not just metaphysical places on the other side of death. They are also states of mind that people occupy in this life. Further, in this life we can make ourselves more capable of purgatory and paradise by working through how we get trapped in hellish states of mind. That is the heart of personal transformation as he sees it.
13. What inspired you to write Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination at this moment in time, and what do you hope Blake offers as a guide for today?
Blake’s poetry and imagery is, at once, very enticing and, also, often confusing. But I trust him when he says he gives us the end of a golden string, to wind into a ball, and be lead to heaven’s gate build in Jerusalem’s wall. The imagination is key because Blake is also clear that we live in a great flow of imaginative activity – witnessed in others and the natural world around us – so he can help us escape the prison house that, unfortunately, is often strengthened by modern psychology, because of the assumption that as individuals we are the originators of imagination, feeling, thought, and consciousness rather than our imagination, feeling, thought and consciousness being a sharing in that greater flow.
14. Blake was profoundly religious, if unconventionally so. How do you help readers- especially secular ones—connect with his spiritual vision?
Actually, I don’t think he was unconventional. Rather, he was a mystic or visionary. That approach to spirituality, particularly within western Christianity, has become marginal even endangered in recent centuries making him seen unconventional. But he is not. For example, when Christianity is taught as a kind of moral creed, Blake’s enjoyment of energy and spirit can appear antinomian or anarchic, but really he is following what figures like St Paul said: the spirit gives life, not the law.
15. Blake criticized political zeal and moral certainty. What elements of his critique feel especially pressing in today’s social and political environment?
Much of the fragmentation we see in the world around us arises from relating through moral principles and abstract ideals, rather than the messiness and delight of actual encounters. This is the tragedy of today. The best has become the enemy of the good, justice the enemy of friendship, moral principle the enemy of social connection. Instead of ethics, we need virtues – the personal qualities that enable us to bend with the wind and not break.
16. How did writing Awake! deepen or reshape your own understanding of the imagination?
Reading and writing about Blake is demanding because he asks that you are changed by his work, not simply approach it as if it needs decoding. Engaging with him is therefore a process of formation, not least when it comes to the imagination. He takes you to places on the edge of your perception and asks you to wait awhile to see if your perceptions change. That is not easy to do.
17. For readers encountering Blake for the first time, what mindset or openness would you suggest they bring?
Bring the virtue of innocence, which Blake said, dwells with wisdom not ignorance. In other words, be open but also discerning, be ready to change your mindset but only because you discover something yourself.
18. In what ways do you hope Awake! might encourage readers to not just understand Blake intellectually, but to live and perceive differently?
The point about Blake is not only to learn about him, but to learn from him. I think he was one of the sanest people to have lived in the modern world because he remained open to wider ecologies of life than just the human. Today, people are growing more open to what he saw in terms of the intelligence that is manifest in other creatures and plants. The next step will be to grow more alert again to the intelligence of the spiritual world too – what people in past ages have called angels and other celestial entities. My hope is that readers can find a way in between gullibility, on the one hand and on the other, scepticism.
19. Are there any upcoming projects, books, or areas of inquiry you’re particularly excited to explore or share?
I am working on how the themes in the book, particularly the imagination, can be shared online and in in-person settings. My ongoing work with organisations like The Temenos Academy and Broughton Sanctuary are central, as is my own YouTube, Substack and other channels.
20. For readers, scholars, or fellow creatives who resonate with your work, what’s the best way to connect with you or stay updated on your upcoming projects, courses, or collaborations?
I keep my website up-to-date – www.markvernon.com – and also post on social media.
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