Holy Heretics: Losing Religion and Finding Jesus · The Sophia Society

The Science of Spirituality w/Dr. Rupert Sheldrake

·1 hr 1 min·4 clips

Morphic resonance says similar self-organizing patterns become more likely the more often they repeat.

Gary Allen frames the show around post-evangelical questions about God, politics, sexuality, spiritual formation, how we got here, and where to go next. He introduces Rupert Sheldrake as a scientist whose work has drawn the label of heresy. Sheldrake recalls that the editor of Nature denounced his work in language comparing him to Galileo. He jokes that the comparison was not especially careful, since Galileo was right. From there, the conversation moves into consciousness and the meaning of being human. Sheldrake argues that the divine underlies all life and all being. He says human awareness of that divine dimension is greater than that of most other species. For him, that makes human life an astonishing privilege and gift. Allen then asks whether this connects to theosis. Sheldrake explains the Eastern Christian idea that humans can become divine. He traces that idea through Christ's incarnation, death, and resurrection. The resurrection, he says, opens into a realm of consciousness beyond space and time. Christ came from that realm in the first place, and that pattern opens the way for others to follow. He contrasts this with the crucifix often found in Roman Catholic churches. In that setting, the central image is the suffering Christ. Eastern Orthodox churches, by contrast, often show Christ in glory. The visual contrast becomes a shorthand for different theological emphases. Throughout, the conversation keeps circling back to the question of what it means to have access to the divine while living in a body.

As heard by us

A heresy-flavored exchange on consciousness, divine life, and why spiritual questions still bite.

Rupert Sheldrake and Gary Allen keep the discussion on a familiar but still live question: whether spirituality belongs inside consciousness, human distinctiveness, and divine life, rather than outside science.

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Why you'd press play

If you want a serious talk about divine consciousness, theosis, and heresy.

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