FINISHED READING - Why? The Purpose of the Universe by Philip Goff

Philip Goff is a philosophy Professor at Durham University, specialising particularly in mind and consciousness. Becoming more widely known in recent years as a proponent of Panpsychism, which, put simply, is the belief that everything in the universe is conscious. This book explores ideas that underpin Panpsychism, concerning the origins and nature of consciousness. And argues by the end of it that probably physical science may never have the language or concepts sufficient to fully capture the nature of its qualities, and how consciousness works.

What is admirable is how he structures this book, Writing an accessible presentation of his ideas, followed by more complex academic addendums that Dig Deeper into the arguments pro and against his viewpoints. He guides you through these, telling you when he is about to enter difficult terrain, advising you when skipping specific chapters may be helpful. Giving you permission to hop around the book, whilst remaining engaged with the general thrust of his arguement.  I know I can easily lose the plot in closely argued jargon infested territory. So feeling free to miss out some of the complex theoretical sections, was liberating, and strangely reassuring. As a philosophical exploration, it is designed to be relatively user friendly.

We all may think we know what consciousness is, from personal experience. Though we posses it, we don't fully understand the what or how of it, at all. This has particular contemporary relevance, when tech developers of AI are in rapid pursuit of producing a synthetic version of it. What sort of consciousness is it, they are trying so earnestly to mimic?  Consciousness is a whole lot more than a data enriched calculator. From the start Goff makes it clear just how limited our understanding of our own consciousness is, how it may have come into being, and how it operates:-

 " Science is used to dealing with unobservables; fundamental particles, quantum wave functions, perhaps even other universes; none of these things can be directly observed. But there's a crucial difference when it comes to consciousness. In all other cases, we postulate unobservables 'in order to explain what we can observe.' In the unique case of consciousness 'the thing we are trying to explain' is not publicly observable"

Goff begins with a distinctly small observable positioning in the fundamental particles of the universe. As scientists developed an understanding of particle physics they produced a standard model, this contained 'constants' fixed numbers.masses and forces that were required in order to make it function. Having done that they postulated how much variance in these was permissable before the whole thing might evaporate or blow up. The nuclear force that binds all the elements in an atom together is represented by the number 0.007.  If that figure became 0.006 then there'd be nothing but hydrogen, if it were 0.008 or more then there would be the equivalent of an almighty bang. So, when you hear people referring to the 'fine tuning' of our universe, this is what that means. These particles found value in positioning themselves in this particular way, and it is extremely delicately balanced. He does not imply that this is 'intelligently designed' only that at a particle level things appear to have a purposeful direction.

" The essence of the Value Selection Hypothesis is simply that, however the numbers associated with these constants were determined, it was done in order to allow for a universe containing things of value.....at a fundamental level certain things happen 'for the sake of some future good.' "

Goff refers to these particles as having 'proto-agency', and from that state the sense of having purpose further evolves into an experiential understanding, that gradually becomes 'having agency,' what humanity calls conscious 'free will'. Although this process could be interpreted as purely instinctual, this changes with the arising of free will. Where we are able to chose to do things which are for some higher good, that is beyond any immediate need for survival. A particle, according to Goff's hypothesis contains the potential for this.

"There is not some magical capacity that appears out of thin air. Rather,the basic capacity to respond rationally - that very capacity possessed by the humble particle - has latent within it all of these possibilities. But these possibilities can be realised only when conjoined with the right kind of conscious understanding.'

So attention is a vital element. This is the foundation for his understanding of Panpsychism. This doesn't necessarily mean we are back to an omnipresent God as the answer to why the universe appears to have cosmic purpose. Omnipresence cannot adequately explain the purpose of consciousness, and why there is evil and suffering in the world if God created it.  In some respects the quarrelsome contentions of the Greek pantheon of gods, or the Manichean battle between evil and good gods, do a better job than monotheistic theology in providing an understandable context for why suffering happens. As a professor friend of Goff expressed it-' You've seen Luton airport, right? Why would an all powerful being motivated by beauty allow humans to create such monstrosities as Luton airport.' 

Recognising that humanity tends to get trapped in dichotomies of - its either God or atheism - an all powerful loving creation or a meaningless universe, Goff opens up some wilder alternative suggestions, for why this universe is manifested in this particular way. A much neglected area for philosophical speculation in Western thought. Some theoretical physicists are now proposing that those fundamental particles could exist within universe wide fields, the particles being localised vibrations within it. This may start to summon up ideas of a universal mind and guiding entity, but let's just park that there for now. 

Most ideas for why a universe of consciousness exists do entail some being other than us, creating it. The universe and humanity within it, being part of some eternal experiment, run by a higher being, in order to explore how consciousness develops. Though this doesn't necessarily have to have an all knowing God at the helm of it, though it is a notion we tend to forever cling to. The opposite of a good beneficent God, an evil God with malevolent intent, well, this runs into contradictions too that are the opposite of the former model, in a world of evil, why would there be good ? why would there be altruism? So is the universe then a creation of a completely amoral designer, who is deaf to the suffering they've created? There is the interesting idea we may all be part of an experimental simulation, run from a parallel universe. Or are we the creation of a God whose creative abilities are limited, hence the rough and ready, chaotic aspects of existence. Though quite why anyone would put much faith in such a God is another question. Then, as HL Menken once pithily remarked, 'Why assume that the God who presumably created the universe, is still running it?

Then there are suggestions that don't require a godlike being of any kind. Goff explores the ideas of Thomas Nagel, that cosmic purpose without a creator God is feasible, if we broaden our understanding of the laws that the universe is governed by. Most of the laws of nature we know posit a linear movement from past to future, what if that could also work from future to the past, to ensures the present remained on track for the emergence of life, for instance. This began to remind me of Dogen's writings about 'firewood and ash' in the Genjo Koan, that transcend linear ideas of time, where both time past and future remain factors in how the present moment manifests. The idea of a godless universe is also an old one. Goff cites Aristotle.

" Aristotle thought that organisms had essentially goal-directed natures, without feeling the need to postulate a designer who put the goals into things. That view was coherent although arguably disproven by the discovery that biological organisms had been shaped by blind process of natural selection. However, perhaps the evidence for cosmic purpose....gives us grounds for thinking that the universe as a whole is a kind of Aristotelian organism: it exists, in part, to fulfil a good purpose, despite the fact that nobody created it for that purpose. Perhaps the universe is like a plant that, in the fullness of time and with a bit of luck, will grow and blossom into something beautiful."

This is a thought-provoking book, which I certainly gained from reading, in amongst the many explications that were lost on me. The final chapter on Living With Purpose I found particularly useful, and resonated with some of my own conclusions, whilst giving me further pause for thought on how these ideas might relate to Buddhist views of consciousness and reality.

CARROT REVIEW -5/8

CHURCH LARKING - Burnham Norton Parish Church

 

The one of the six churches in The Burnhams, this is most likely the one with the oldest surviving structures. Dedicated to two female saints St Margaret of Antioch and St Margaret of Scotland, it's an extremely well maintained church, with an ornate galvanised metal modern gate. 

The original site of Burnham Norton village was most likely between the church and the friary, as the present day village is half a mile away from the church. Why the village relocated is unclear, it maybe as a result of the Black Death, the River Burn silting up and marshes forming, meaning the village Staithe had to move further out towards the coast. 

The close proximity to the Carmelite Friary down the hill, maybe of significance in why there is such a tightly bunched proliferation of Burnham churches. All that survives of the friary today is a rather fine 15th century gatehouse, which on this visit was surrounded by scaffolding, as its present state seems in dire need of stabilisation and conservation work. You can still see the actual boundary of the monastic precinct, which may indicate that this was probably a moderately well off, but actually quite small foundation. 

As round towers go, Burnham Norton's is one of the finest examples I've seen. A sturdily constructed tower, that tapers gently as it rises to a belfry and crenellated crown. It's the oldest surviving part of the church, with a likely early Norman date post 1086, as neither a church or tower is mentioned in the Doomsday Book. The church exterior generally has the overly neat look of a careful Victorian restoration project. It does possess a fine range of matching 15th century perpendicular nave and clerestory windows.  One of the benefits for many North Norfolk churches when perched on top of a hill or escarpment, like it is here, is the quality of light such windows illuminate the interior with. 

The interior is unusual with a small central area of pews separated off from the side aisles and font by relatively modern strip pine screens. Forty years ago when I first visited this church my recollection is of a slightly more open interior. This current arrangement demonstrates the medieval processional nature of its side aisles. There are a number of piscina, and a former communion bread oven in these aisles, which would indicate they once had side altars to saints, usually supported by donations from local medieval guilds. The pillars in the nave are 12th century Norman round in the north arcade and 14th century octagonal in the south. As with most North Norfolk churches, windows are plain diamond patterned glass. Surviving medieval stained glass is a rarity, and coloured window glass is generally, as here, 19th or 20th century in date. The east windows in the chancel are from the 1920's and feature depictions of the two female saints to whom the church is dedicated.

One reason to seek out this church is it's surviving medieval furnishings. It has a unique North West Norfolk style of Norman square font, which is quite low and chunkily carved, with deeply incised decoration on all its sides. 

East Anglia, post the Black Death and Famine in the mid 14th century, was in the middle of an economic boom, courtesy of its wool and weaving manufacturing. So it is not unusual that people who became wealthy during this time would become patrons to their local church, fund improvements to its interior and religious furnishings. There is an extremely rare survival of a 15th century wine glass wooden pulpit. Provided originally by local patrons John and Katherine Goldale, who are depicted kneeling on two of its panels. The standard Four Doctors of the Church, St Gregory, St Augustine, St Ambrose and St Jerome, are all seated at desks in the remaining panels,  With an inscription in Latin saying ' Pray for John Goldale and Katherine.. they had it made' then the date of 1450. Insensitively restored in the Victorian era, a more appropriate restoration was completed in the 1970's which revealed the original colouration and decorative scheme.

Alongside the pulpit is the remains of a medieval rood screen. Donated to the church by William Groom and his wife in 1458, so contemporaries of the Goldales. Most of the painting on the screen panels is now indistinct. Three panels had saints painted and the fourth was one of the donors. In the 18th century you could still make out some of the saints, The Virgin Mary, St Gregory and King Ethelbert. To the far left of the screen is the remains of a stairway that led to the rood loft, from which lessons from the Bible would have been read. Some remaining socket holes in the chancel arch indicate a crucifix, the rood, once hung above but separate from the screen. The screen itself was restored in 1953, when it was given a new rood loft replacement. The carved heads either side of the porch doorway most likely depict medieval people who also donated money for this to be built. 

St Margaret's has a quietly understated atmosphere, which somewhat downplays the medieval treasures it holds. It's unique semi open layout, may be more how rural medieval churches were once arranged.

SHERINGHAM DIARY No 142 - A Prickly Chaise Longue

Al created a beautiful but unusual word suggestion recently - I typed out the phrase ' not a God per se' which AI instantly changed to ' not a God jersey'. I love the idea of a 'God jersey.' Jasia Reichardt once said that 'one thing foreigners, computers and poets have in common is that they make unexpected linguistic associations'. So maybe embrace the creative possibilities AI random word changes suggest. Who knows where they might lead.

I've finally finished pruning back the pyracantha hedge. Our front window is now free of verdant obscuration. It now resembles a rather prickly Chaise Longue, or an elongated pram. The small section I cut back a week or so ago, has already begun sprouting tentative leaves. I've been dutifully watering and feeding it since, to encourage this revival. So, It looks as if it will survive my hacking away at it after all. Hurrah to the pyracantha! Hurrah to the pyracantha! Hurrah! Hurrah!!

Walking along a road in Wells next the Sea, there was a small bright yellow car with a sticker on the back in pink psychedelic letter font saying - Tailgate Me Harder. Daddy! Also a sign on a building for a company called Norfolk Sealants, with the byline -.You do your best, we'll masticate the rest!

In the process of chatting with one of our very lovely neighbours, we were collectively musing, as you do, on the bizarre behaviour of fascists. She confessed she had difficulty saying the words Neo Nazis, that it often came out sounding like Neo Nancy, and we riffed for a while on an activist group called The Neo Nancy's, open to both ladies and gentlemen, dedicated to ikibana and all things floral, the obligatory wearing of flamboyantly frilly pastel aprons in the street. Material Girl playing discreetly in the background. Like some pastiche wet dream from the 1950's. The Neo Nancy's, you heard it here first. 

I see the phrase Ambient Buddhism used a lot these days, and in wondering quite what that meant, realised - it's a spirituality that plays blandly in the background without overtly distracting your attention. If the Buddha knew what his realisation beneath the Bodhi Tree had been reduced to, maybe he'd have had more than second thoughts.

In our terrace there are six houses in the row, only two of them have house numbers on them. So sometimes you see delivery drivers anxiously walking up and down the terrace trying to work out the numbering. I mean, it is a miracle we don't have more things misdelivered or not delivered at all. We are one of the numberless houses. For the last year we have prevaricated, as only two gay men could do, over what style of colour of numbering, whether it should be in wood, metal or ceramic, but have failed to commit. But whilst recently in the Norwich Hobbycraft we saw some numbers in thin plywood for a £1 each. Which I have stuck to a stable wood backing, painted, varnished and now mounted. It turned out that what we really needed most,  was it to be cheap.

And the question on most mens minds according to one You Tube channel is - ' How to become glute dominant in a week'. Basically these are exercises for men who want to cultivate a really plump arse. The instructor guy wears only his dark stretchy briefs, has a blackboard, a pointy stick, and a moustache that wouldn't be out of place in the Village People. So he is a serious legit gym instructor.

Life is pootling along at a pace at present. Craft wise the gallery in Blakeney is doing very well for us, which puts a certain degree of pressure on to keep up with sales. Generally we are, but there is the desire for doing short intense dashes, rather than a long sprint. Which is OK. Ideally it might appear better to be on top and ahead of the curve. But that does not appear to be our way. A series of short periods of making, just about keeping up with sales, rather than aiming for far too much which may burn you dry, or overwhelm you. My role and strategy in all this is to make sure there is just enough fabric cut for Hubby to top up our biggest selling items. Fitting this around periods set aside for my own artwork. Getting the balance right is forever tricky, and I have to be prepared to drop whatever I'm doing in order to meet the urgency of a sudden sales surge.

Idly wandering out of QD I noticed a large sign hung from the ceiling that declared very proudly The Home of Quality Discounts. Discounts are just discounts surely.  I've never thought of discounts as having a quality before and pondered on what the opposite of 'quality discounts' might be. I came to no firm conclusion.

In the continuing heat, it's been a struggle to get a good night's sleep, as I presume many people have been finding. I've been aware for sometime of waking either with lower back pain or a cracking stiff neck/headache. And I know this is because my sleeping posture is incorrect. The mattress and pillow are not aligning my spine correctly. But whenever I've attempted to resolve this before, the solution generates another problem. Memory foam pillows, appears tobe ideal, but these make me incredibly over hot when all my body heat is thrown back at me. I tried a buckwheat pillow, and this seemed, like a lot of alternative solutions, to work momentarily, but not for very long. I've also consulted You Tube videos that suggest elaborate pillow solutions involving the creation of a veritable nest of them, propping up legs and arms in a supposedly correct alignment. I take one look and know this is not a practical solution. I'm a fidgety restless sleeper and have been since I was a child, where my Mother would often remark that I'd completely destroy a bed in one night. So some Jenga pillow rigmarole would last barely an hour with me.  It turns out one nicely stuffed, reasonably firm but yeilding, pillow is currently the best solution. I am wary to say more, as it wouldn't be the first time an apparent solution to this problem lasts a few days, then all the supposed improvements evaporate. But three nights in, I have woken up feeling rested and relatively discomfort free for the first time in a age. But then another heatwave arrives and I'm kept awake, sweating like a pig, even though every vestige of night ware has been divested.

Walking away from Tesco towards the car park. I overheard a mother who was bending down to talk to her child in the buggy, and saying in quite a matter of fact manner of delivery - 'and over there is the pub where your Dad and I blew £750 in a one night binge.' - I'll bet the kid will remember that and feel proud.

You Tube appears to use a somewhat crude, but essentially sterotypical 'gay' algorithm. And I have at times, as a gay man, undoubtedly triggered this. It emerged most strongly a while back when I was trying to find resistance band exercises for a troublesome shoulder, and has resurged again recently when I was again investigating beneficial exercises for strengthening hip muscles. My search found the helpful exercise advice videos, but mixed in amongst these were more than a scattering of what were basically soft porn. I've read recently, that even your average young straight man gets bombarded with imagery of the ideal male body, and videos about exercises you must do to obtain the perfect body form. I now get a lot of supposedly 'instructional' videos of outrageously pumped up men, young to middle aged, ready to abandon their T shirts and flash the pertness of their nipples at you. It happens in the drop of a hat, the shirt is whipped off, and they're jogging their pecs like horses. Displaying what is obviously the prime achievement of their life so far, a beautifully sculpted musculature. But what this most resembles is 'exercise porn'. Once you've seen one carefully posed armpit or crotch to camera, have you not seen them all? Take it from me, it may be tempting, but do not get drawn in.

 

Be aware of the seemingly innocent opener. There are those chaps making sincere heartfelt confessions about how much better they feel now they've come out as gay, or how beneficial taking a beautiful walk in the countryside is round here, whilst just casually displaying their handsome hairy bear bod, in a corn field, by a babbling brook, or relaxing across a rustic bench. Are they simply not getting enough real love and attention? Some of this undoubtedly is designed to be titilating, but not all of it. It becomes bewildering when even the straight guys appear to be having body buddies to show off there muscles too. It feels as though there's more than a gay thing going on here. An increasing insularity and narcissism in men, perhaps. A self preoccupation with their own idealised body beautiful. None of this is done to gain women's admiration. At best it is to bolster self esteem and catch the envious eye, a need for masculine attention and approval. Feeding the nascent aspirations of young men to also become painfully self preoccupied and obsessive about being visibly fit. It would be mistaken to couch this soley as sublimated homo eroticism, there is also a profound need for brotherly masculine camaraderie buried within this too.

A Norwegian guy makes these videos, which start out doing the innocent extolling of the virtues of being outdoors in nature shtik, but ends up with you voyeuristically watching him. He takes his camper van to a very remote place in the countryside. Mostly we view the proceedings through leaves on gently waving tree branches. He films himself from a suitably discrete distance, as the morning sun rises, undressing down to his undies, before going for an undoubtedly vigorous but chill wild swim in the lake. Then comes out Adonis like, backlit by the melting wet dream of dawn, to discreetly towel himself down. Then eat a very hearty meal cooked over an open fire, fully dressed in a parka, a wooly hat, with a cuppa coffee warming his cold numbed hands. The exact same thing happens every time, in every place he visits. Yes, I have checked this out! The border between male body positivity, outrageous showing off, vain preening, and simply being a titillating cock tease, is extraordinarily narrow these days. Though I guess these muted 'not quite porn, but close' videos, studiously avoid being censorable, but do earn this guy a living. How do you make them go away? - Ignore them for an extremely long time, and don't allow any of them ever to 'peak' your interest.  And puritan -  do not try to tell me your interest has never been peaked.

Within days of me writing these last paragraphs, and before I actually published the blog post, all the stuff I was talking about has now disappeared from my You Tube feed, except for the Norwegian guy. It's almost as though You Tube were aware of my draft post. It may of course be coincidental, and You Tube were already in the process of cleaning out this sub porn stuff. But interesting, is it not?

Greatly saddened to hear this week that Jason Arday took his life, and if I'm honest really angered by it ending in this way. Watching him being set up to be disgraced and his carreer sullied and trashed by the right wing media, has not been at all pleasant to watch. Any integrity or achievements he had,  being literally ripped to shreds in public. I doubt many of us could stand that level of lacerating scrutiny. And even when he resigned this didn't stop. The press never really cared about him, but simply wanted to make an example of him. Jason Arday was used to blow up a culture war bete noir, much beloved of the far right - DEI initiatives. His alledged plagerism could have been looked at within the broader framework of how academic standards might generally be being weakened, not just by DEI, but increased internet and AI usage. Plagarism is rife in academia.  I'll bet there are white Professors out there already shitting themselves, lest their CV or academic credentials now get a serious look at. But here it was specifically weaponised against one psychologically fragile black academic. Turning this one man's alleged untruthfulness into an all out attack upon DEI, by people who don't remotely believe in it's aims. They would prefer DIE - Deliberate Insular Elitism - which appears in this case to look more like white supremacy, given the protective gloss of upholding academic standards and rigor. Arday's suicide brings shame on them, and unfortunately also upon us all, because it happened during our watch. Jason Arday may indeed have been a needy fantasist, but did he need to be excoriated for public amusement in this way?

Cornucopia Blog Total Visits in July 141,750.

CHURCH LARKING - The Church of The Holy Transfiguration - Great Walsingham

 

Great Walsingham, is Little Walsingham's close cousin, a mile or so up the road. A cluster of picturesque houses, a ford, and in the centre an old Methodist Chapel converted into an Orthodox Church. The old chapel was purchased in 1986 and has become over time what you see today. . Externally the church architecture is very standard late Victorian non conformist style. Not very flashy, with echoes of the gothic in its windows, and an artful but subdued use of two tones of brickwork. As you step beneath it's tympanum, then through a pokey little vestibule, you enter into a compact, but very beautifully decorated Orthodox Church. Its like opening a very plain box to find this gorgeous present inside.

Converting this chapel must have entailed completely gutting the interior of its original furniture, pews, panelling and pulpit. Because what you see now in it's interior is a radical transformation, inserting an Eastern Orthodox structure into the empty box of a chapel. Changing it from an austere paired back protestant aesthetic, into this colourful embellished richness, which could not be more the antithesis of Methodist. Orthodox services are largely performed with the congregation standing, so the centre of the room is usually left relatively free of seating with only a choir lectern in the middle. As the services are often a hour and a half, seating is provided at the back and sides for those who really cannot stand for such a long period. 

The visual focus here is the icon screen, which is the Orthodox version of the rood screen, which separates the body of the church from the area of the altar. This altar is called the Holy Table, and is rarely seen by the general congregation. Here in The Church of the Transfiguration it is guarded left and right by Angels, Gabriel and Micheal. Bookending its central area, known as The Royal Doors, which here has incidents from the life of Jesus. An Icon of Mary with the baby Jesus stands to the left and Christ on its right. And as you move around the church every bit of wallspace or pillar has some sort of icon hanging from it.  Above all of this a dome has been inserted, with an icon of Christ 'Pantokrator' painted upon it.

I know only very basic things about orthodox religious structures, its imagery and their meaning, nor whether there is any significance to the placing of these icon images. It is so different to your standard Catholic or Anglican place of worship. It does, however, possess its own unique and visually distinct power.  The church has a stillness and quiet to it, and even within its subdued interior light, you can feel the love and care that has been lavished upon, what is a small sacred space. It is filled with a particular type of awe and wonder. As a church it is one so easily overlooked, if judged by its exterior. But its interior I would say, is really worth the short walk out to Great Walsingham to see.

MY OWN WALKING - August Journal 2026

Since last month's My Own Walking blog post, I've had further thoughts on the metaphorical import of seeing a three legged dog running down a street. Having stated that I felt that it gave form to how I felt about Buddhism, as essential lacking a fourth leg. This statement has since then, not felt quite on the real money. Running the risk of dragging things further into the metaphorical woods of 'taking this far too seriously' I've made some adjustments to the interpretation. That may be all religions have a missing fourth leg to them, an absent quality, a divinity or a potential. These represent things not easily made conscious to the rational mind, often generally couched as being ineffable. And this sense of there being an absence, can be mistaken for your chosen religion being lacking. Treating this 'wonky' ill fitting aspect as a failing, when actually it is a fully functioning part of it

Look at that fourth leg, is this to be apprehended as a phantom limb? Why does this metaphorical three legged dog not just instantly fall over? The three legged dog has to keep running, maintain momentum because to stop would risk instability and hence prone to falling over. Any 'phantom' fourth leg performs a vital but invisible function of helping keep things upright. If you apply such a metaphor to spiritual practice, this 'phantom fourth leg' can only be apprehended through our imagination 'bodying forth this thing unknown'. The 'phantom fourth leg' is something we place faith in. What we believe, but perhaps do not know for certain to be true. Faith, emboldens our imagination, to apprehend that 'phantom limb' we intuit to be there, but cannot normally see or tangibly touch, whether that is a creator God, the Enlightened state, or a Universal consciousness. The 'phantom' nature of that fourth leg explains why faith can sometimes wobble or fail us.

Malcolm Guite describes the difference spiritually between what we apprehend and what we comprehend. When we apprehend, we see something partially, we get a glimpse, or touch on something but can't quite yet fully grasp it. We are on earth, whilst what we apprehend is in the heavens. Whereas to comprehend is to fully grasp and be knowledgeable of something, about which you no longer have doubts or uncertainties. To comprehend is to bring the apprehended heavenly thing down to earth. So whatever we simply apprehend will be to some degree unknowable or ineffable to us. It will be beyond normal sentience. But through the use of a faith inspired imagination we can reach out to tug on the edge of it's veil. Comprehension can be a fleeting flash, a vision that then vanishes.

When dealing with ultimate apophatic states, we are always working blind in a darkened room. It maybe, that what we are feeling is actually there, or is it something being conjured up by our senses, then reified by our mind? This can confuse us as we oscillate between the two polarities. We want some certainty, but cannot rule any probability out when approaching the ineffable. Does the ineffable reach out to us through our sense faculties? How much do we 'make' belief? How much is 'the making of belief' the work of the ineffable, how much conjured up in our minds eye? 

The agency of doubt, sensitively applied, is important in clarifying what we have faith in.  To sift through the nature and qualities of what it is we are experiencing.  For we only have the limitations of our senses to apprehend the ineffable, to discern wether we are being communicated with through the senses or deceiving ourselves through them. The watershed between vision and fantasy can prove narrow. And such a firm distinction itself, might prove an illusory one. Whichever place we decide to rest our faith upon, will be arrived at through shaking hands with the most fundamental auspices of our doubtfulness, whilst standing in the midst of apprehension. This is the work in progress of any 'religious calling'.

Kosho Uchiyama would refer all the time to 'opening the hand of thought.' He was pointing us towards the closed down nature of our minds and imaginations. Our human tendency to think we comprehend what reality is actually like, understand what Enlightenment is actually like. Once we believe we know, we shut down our receptivity to anything else, we clench the sensing fingers of our minds into a hard fist of knowing. We cease maintaining an open hearted hand, to proffer a welcoming gesture to any new thought or experience, to encounter and engage with this fully. We can turn spiritual practice into a focusing and narrowing down of our options, rather than encouraging a broader receptivity beyond what we currently can apprehend. We all struggle to keep the hand of thought open. So easily trapped are we by the box of tricks that is the rational mind.

The spiritual life could be seen as like a three legged dog running purposefully down a street hell for leather towards its imaginal goal. We keep on running, because the energy and momentum we achieve is quite often misperceived as an expression of the depth of our devotion. Afraid to stop lest we lose that and fall flat on our newly deluded faces. If we have little sense for what that 'phantom fourth leg' might consist of, where we stand in relation to it, then all that intensity of running might lead us towards nothing. Apart from burnout. 

How we imagine and relate to the mystery that is Enlightenment, is something I need to reflect on further. 

PLAYLIST 2026 - No17 - Tone by Arto Lyndsay

Tone by Arto Lindsay

This summer it has definitely been the season for Arto Lyndsay. Exploring the 'bossa nova period' in his back catalogue has been quite a constant.  And with every week the algorithm on You Tube throws me some new musical morsels to try and chew on and ravenously gorge. Hence how I hit upon this sparky gem called Tone, from his 1999 album Prize. The parameters stay pretty much the same, his quiet almost whispered top vocals, effortless laid back and cool, with an unruffable ease, tripping over it's deceptively simple, yet artfully, constructed gently Latin rhythm. Tone has moments of when the soft soothness of this, dramatically breaks away from lilting, into a harder edged flat drum sound, half high hat, half phased, accompanied by the fluttering twitter of a synth drone.  I just find this totally addictive. And currently it's the source for making everything all right in the world.

SCREEN SHOT - The Odyssey (2026)

 

The Odyssey - Trailer

I doubt I need to fully recount the tale of The Odyssey that is set immediately after the destruction of Troy,. Other than to say, this is the original fantasy source for all protracted and impeded return journey stories, from Lord of The Rings to Lost In Space.  The Odyssey was an important development in Western literature. Both The Illiad and The Odyssey are not verbatim accounts, they are mythical stories. The Illiad may draw on half remembered almost mythic figures and recognisable details, but it is definitely storytelling, not history. The Odyssey is even more horrific and fantastical. 

It is then perfectly legitimate to interpret the story, introduce new angles into it, to cast a black Helen of Troy, and use designs of armour that are not historically accurate for the supposed period. We are not dealing with literal fact, but literary fiction here. However, because this film is of a story so long beloved, there are plenty of experts, both legitimate and armchair, who can't wait to tell you where Christopher Nolan got it all wrong with this film. It doesn't need to be historically accurate, or 100% loyal to the text, the story just needs to be well told. Does it capture your imagination, does it enthrall you through it's near three hours running time, despite its familiarity, does it grip you and carry along with it, does it move and shock you? The answer to all these questions is, yes, by the triumphant bucket load.

Odysseus (Matt Damon) is a psychologically broken man, consumed with traumatic stress and guilt. He created a peace offering to Athena as a deception, that enabled the rape and destruction of Troy. The slow decimation of all his fellow Ithacan crewmates, on his journey back home, was caused by his offending Poseidon. Odysseus can be cunning, he can be reckless and brutal, but usually he is trying to do good, to be honourable, to save the lives of his comrades. But somehow his good intentions are never sufficient to appease the punishment of the gods. 

In Nolan's script he blames himself for having erased a whole civilisation. There are also passing references, to the growing attacks of the Sea People, which is a historical fact. The evisceration of Troy, becomes another of Odysseus's actions that has a tragic consequence, here it is the progenitor of the fall of the entire Bronze Age civilisation. Though none of these are mentioned specifically in the original Odyssey, they were known of in the period of Homer, they do place the stories within a timeframe that it is a meaningful juxtaposition to highlight. 

If I have a qualm, it's that in partially abandoning the linear narrative of the original book, to move back and forth in the time sequence, it does lose some of the sense of a long perilous journey unfolding. I perfectly understand why it was done, it means we understand what his life in Ithaca was like before he left, and what has been going on in Ithaca before Odysseus actually gets back there, I just think the flashback storytelling format isn't entirely successful here in justifying that decision.

There are plenty of references and echoes ricocheting through the film, associations and foreboding oracles of things to come. You never really see Agamemnon ( Benny Safdie ) his face is hidden beneath his heavily stylised, evil looking black polished helmet and armour. When he strides into a scene wearing it, he instantly communicates the type of domineering, malevolent, menacing person he is. He is the classical world's equivalent of Darth Vader. A man who would sacrifice his own daughter to obtain an advantage with the gods, who later was to die at the hands of a vengeful wife, on his return from Troy. And Odysseus too has seriously wronged the gods, his long suffering wife Penelope ( Anne Hathaway ) waits distraught for lack of news of him, whilst his journey home becomes so plagued with impediments placed there by the gods. And it is the ghost of Agamemnon who warns him to conceal his identity on his return to Ithaca, to avoid succumbing to a similar regicide of his own.

Some critics have commented that they thought Nolan's film was not dark enough. I think it retains a remarkable amount of the stories bleakness, of Odysseus being caught in a hell somewhat of his own making. Whilst they're all lost at sea, being pounded by storms, no one cracks a light hearted joke for hours. Being held in the Cyclops cave or turned into pigs by Circe ( an awards worthy performance from Samantha Morton ) are two standout truly sinister and horrific moments in the entire film. I myself was wondering quite how they would handle the scene of his return to Ithaca, where Odysseus slaughters all the suitors who have been menacing his wife and regularly living off his food and drink for years. In the book, I found that scene truly shocking in how graphic and wantonly cruel it is. Causing me to mentally turn away, to question just how fucked up Odysseus was? 

In the film, Nolan uses all his consummate editing and brilliantly suggestive visual skill,  to portray this furiously unbridled slaughter by building up visual and sonic intensity, that does not resort either to the grotesque or the gratuitous in order to draw blood. It conveys a darkly menacing, if not, on the edge of being mad form of revenge. I held my breath for most of its carnage, wondering when it would come to an end. When Penelope pleads with Odysseus not to die the very moment he has returned to her, emotionally that broke me. Nolan invents Penelope and Odysseus leaving Ithaca to be ruled by their son Telemachus ( Tom Holland ) They sail west to fulfil Odysseus's promise to his crewmen to perform ceremonies to honour their deaths. After all his struggles to survive, to exact revenge, we reach remorse, and the need to bring a concluding peace to his disordered life. His son needs time to grow into being King. As the burnished sun sets over a story of one Ithacan King. All this, and to retain a 15 certification is, to my eyes. a minor miracle.

Taking Mark Kermode's recommendation to see The Odyssey in an IMax, we took a day trip into Norwich. Christopher Nolan shot The Odyssey entirely on IMax cameras. In my experience I can't believe any other projection format would have quite the same visual and aural impact. A good deal of the foreboding and tension in the film is created by the sound track, huge thundering noises, earth shattering booms and waves punching hard against people and boats. You feel the sound in an IMax cinema in your bones. Combined with the visuals, this means you come out of this movie in a state of shellshock, totally stunned.This film is so full frontal and in your face. It raises the stakes on what epic can be.

CARROT REVIEW - 7/8

PROTEST & PROGRESS - Uncivil & Civil War

My purpose in writing this Protest & Progress blog post, is to explore for myself the history of English Protest Movements. What effect they had, and the changes they may ( or may not ) have instigated. Today, it's the period before, during and after the Civil Wars.

The middling compromise that Elizabeth 1st's religious settlement of 1559 made, between old and new religious traditions, superficially stabilised the country. But that settlement entailed a huge degree of ostracizing of Catholics from high public office and influence. Anti-Catholic suspicion, derision and outright hatred, that still persists in the UK's collective psyche to this day, has its cultural foundations in this period. As her reign neared it's end, Catholic plots concerning Elizabeth's successor circled around Mary Queen of Scots, who, though deeply flawed as a monarch, was the best Catholic option available.  Eventually, with some ministerial pressure and her own reluctance overcome, Elizabeth removed the problem by executing her.

The only realistic claimant left was James 6th of Scotland, ironically Mary's estranged son, deliberately brought up to be a Protestant. Though she never clearly stated this preference, Elizabeth was canny enough to know full well that James was the obvious candidate. Her apparent dithering may simply have been tactical, to prevent any premature opposition to her successor developing.

An undertow of Catholic resistance, however, would quickly resurface in James 1st's reign, with the infamous plot to explode Parliament and kill King James. That the removal of Parliament was part of the objective, recognised how much the levers of power was shifting towards it. Increasingly split religiously between Catholic and Protestant sympathisers, Parliament was becoming noticeably less willing to genuflect to the kings will. James, though prone to paranoia, did at least manage to hold the ship of monarchy steady. On the succession in 1625 of his son Charles 1st, things took a rockier, more combative turn. Charles was flamboyant, an aesthete, married to a Catholic, he also took worryingly long trips to Catholic European countries, ostensibly to buy the latest fashions in baroque art. He was the last inflexible flush of a monarchy for whom the medieval concept of 'the divine right of kings', was an ardently held reality. That his wishes and demands should prevail over those of Parliament.

Parliament's religious and political divisiveness had its echoes across the country. The Protestant philosophy of 'salvation by faith alone' had introduced a new radical individualism into the country's religious practice. One which Elizabeth 1st's father Henry 8th, had himself demonstrated. Once you broke from adherence to Rome and the Pope, you could turn yourself into the leader of your own church or sect. 

One's faith was becoming increasingly a matter of personal choice, rather than requiring adherence to a collectively imposed belief system. And some truly radical sects were popping up all over the fertile soil of England's ferment. Charles's alleged Catholic sympathies served only to amplify a strong vein of 'republican' revolt amongst his own citizens, already opposed to the whole idea of a hereditary monarchy and ' Popery'. Disquiet undoubtedly was present, with a huge plethora of uncivil religious and political dissenting groups emerging before, during and after the Civil War's turmoil broke out. 

These groups further exemplify how political and religious allegiances were becoming inseparable, centering on ideas for how a new fairer more equitable society could be created. And if this was not to happen in England, from The Mayflower in 1620 onwards, these groups could emigrate, taking there religious convictions to America. Most dissenters had some religious theory or view point, which had specific political or social implications. Even the most basic list of them is long - Anabaptists, Baptists, Barrowists, Behemenists, Brownies, Diggers, Enthusiasts, Familists, Fifth Monarchists, Grindletonians, Levellers, Muggeltonians, Philodelphians, Puritans, Quakers, Ranters, Sabbatarians, Seekers, Socinians. Here are details of three, to give you a flavour of them.

The Levellers
Originally a term to describe rural peasants who levelled illegal enclosure walls and hedges.  The Levellers were a political movement active between the 1st and 2nd Civil Wars. Essentially campaigning for equality and widening the vote as a natural right, and electing a sovereign by popular vote. They were the first political dissenting group to disseminate their ideas through the distribution of pamphlets, petitions and soap box populism. Though their ideas were widely held within the New Model Army, they were very effectively sidelined by Parliament and Cromwell's Republic. 

The Diggers
Originally a disgruntled offspring from the above, who called themselves The True Levellers. They were more radical as an organisation, their political and religious philosophy would these days be called 'agrarian socialism'. Demanding common ownership of land and property in line with what was outlined in The Acts of the Apostles. They were non-conformists who wanted reform of the social order and created small communities based on egalitarian principles. They tried to re-establish farming on common land. This led to them being called 'diggers', and they were constantly being violently removed by local authorities and landowners.

The Grindletonians
Once you feel able to question the authority of the king, it becomes feasible to extend that questioning to all external authority, whether that be religious or political. The Grindletonians were a short lived phenomena in 17th Century England, exhibiting an extreme antinomian tendency. Emerging first in London in a sermon preached in 1627. The central belief of Grindletonian Familists, to give them their full name, was that salvation by faith and divine grace were one's sole binding moral authority, and no other law or power could take precedence over them.  Obedience to any common law, became dependent upon whether it conformed to your Christian belief or not. No other external authority would be recognised, whether that was King or Parliament. 

This tendency the Grindletonians represented was vehemently opposed, even by the father of the Reformation, Martin Luther. Their leadership came mostly from local clerics. So it was primarily an internal Church of England matter to police, and several vicars were hauled before church courts to answer for their antinomian sentiments, The last know English Grindletonian died in 1680.  Though this antinomian notion did spread, influencing other dissenting groups such as the Ranters and Quakers. The growth of Presbyterianism to America, means to this day it still manifests this antinomian tendency in Evangelical groups there.

Throw a defiant vain Catholic monarch into this simmering, growing pool of dissent and watch it transform rebellious uncivil behaviour into a civil war, and ultimately regicide. Even after two bouts of Civil War, nothing from a dissenting point of view was to them fully settled. Why accept a compromise when you could achieve a perfection unsullied by practicalities. Cromwell, may have started as a staunch Parliamentarian and anti monarchist, but soon found keeping the lid on a wide range of unreasonable demands from Protestant dissenters, was as much of an issue as containing Catholic and monarchist insurgency. His role as Protector of the Realm, soon became a king by another name, equally as ruthless, and ideologically proved to be more tyrannical. Though the Republic was short lived, it did firmly establish Parliament as the primary governing authority in England. When the monarchy was restored with Charles 2nd in 1660, this was came with Parliaments full approval. Though the Civil Wars were one long rebellious fight for this supremacy, there were a couple of other 17th century rebellions of significance.

THE WESTERN RISING 1627-1632
In the run up to the Civil Wars, the most significant rebellion was The Western Rising. This erupted across the West Country, spread sporadically east into the Midlands over a five year period. This was yet another protest about illegal enclosure, which arose from a different direction than before. Across England were numerous royal forests, such as the Forest of Dean. By adjusting the legal status of these royal forests as crown property, bits of them could now be sold off to the highest bidder. This was done to increase the royal coffers, to service Charles 1st's notably expensive tastes. Once this land was purchased by new owners they would enclose it, local rights would be removed, and access actively prohibited. These forest enclosures during the uprising were being regularly breached or dismantled, the age of defiant trespass of privately owned land had arrived. Local councils started to complain of the increased burden upon them, when an influx of impoverished peasantry moved into the wealthier towns and cities. Once again the consequences and effect on the poor of such egregious enclosure was never accounted for, at all. 

THE MONMOUTH REBELLION 1685
Primarily this rebellion, led by the Duke of Monmouth, one of Charles 2nd's bastard sons, was an attempt to overthrow James 2nd. A monarch who was crassly and openly exposing Catholic sympathies, barely twenty five years after the end of the Civil War. Underneath this challenge to the succession, were festering wounds and grievances from those wars still not fully healed to many people's minds. The Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, had been, for many Protestants, a gross betrayal of what the Civil War had supposedly been fought for. And now James 2nd was trying to reverse the Reformation and restore the primacy of the Pope too. Monmouth attempted to hitch his claim to the throne alongside these still simmering resentments. But despite pre-arranging a simultaneous rising in Scotland, and provocatively crowning himself in Taunton, the appetite for further conflict just was not there to be stoked. Monmouth failed to attract and build the sort of ardent following you would need to ensure a rebellion would succeed. 

Eventually on his defeat at The Battle of Sedgemoor on the 6th of July, he was captured and speedily executed a week later in the Tower of London. The battle had a huge rebel death toll of nearly 3,000, compared to the 27 royalists. James, nonetheless, set up The Bloody Assises, where Judge Jeffries tried and executed some of the remaining rebel leaders. Though mostly rebel sympathisers were sent to serve their sentence out working in England's relatively new colony of the West Indies. James clung on a further three years as monarch, vainly trying to restore Catholic fortunes in the face of widespread opposition. Only to be deposed by another cousin William Duke of Orange in 1688, in what became known as the Glorious Revolution. This anachronistically was neither glorious nor revolutionary, but merely a peaceful, cleanly executed transition of monarchical power, which Parliament had actively instigated. James's subsequent exile to Europe meant his Stuart descendents, fifty years later, would return to re-state their claim.

For all the upheaval, huge loss of life and political turbulence that broke out in the middle decades of Seventeenth Century England, very little was actually achieved beyond the execution of a king and establishing the primacy of Parliament. You might say social mobility improved, but then it had been doing so for at least two centuries already. Little of direct benefit to the everyday lives of ordinary lower class English citizens was felt. Parliament may have become stronger as an executive, but it still only represented the nobility and politically wealthy landowning elites. The Restoration of the monarchy appeared to return England to business as usual, as though the Civil Wars and The Republic, were an aberration that had never really happened. 

The protests and rebellions over the next few centuries became multi faceted ones, fighting cronyism, corruption, that old nemesis the enclosures, technological revolutions, and the expansion of Parliamentary representation. These were to be long hard fought for battles, and you could argue, ones that still have some road left to be travelled, even today. When democracy itself appears to have forgotten why and how it came into being in the first place.

Next Episode - Unsettling Revolutions 

FINISHED READING - The Will To Change by Bell Hooks

"Men cannot change if there are no blueprints for change. Men cannot love if they are not taught the art of loving. It is not true that men are unwilling to change. It is true that many men are afraid to change. It is true that masses of men have not even begun to look at the ways that patriarchy keeps them from knowing themselves, from being in touch with feelings, from loving. To know love, men must be able to let go the will to dominate, they must be able to choose life over death. They must be willing to change."

I picked up this copy of The Will To Change, as part of my continued reading on the 'masculinity crisis'. I've encountered books recently by Richard V Reeves and felt a feminist perspective, though acknowledged, was rarely fully applied.  Of Boys and Men, in my opinion got bogged down in it's allegiances to facts and figures, and as Reeves is a former political adviser, he treated the masculinity crisis as any 'policy wonk' would, with a practical legislative agenda. That is one of many, perfectly valid approaches.

"The grief men feel about the failure of love, often goes unnoticed in our society precisely because the patriarchal future really does not care if men are unhappy....... The masculine pretence is that real men feel no pain."

This book by Bell Hooks, looked like a different place from which to start exploring a more psychologically imaginative feeling based perspective. At its root is the question - why is it so difficult for men to change themselves? If feminism's success is not the imagined progenitor of the current masculinity crisis, then what is?

"Once upon a time I thought it was a female thing, this fear of men. Yet when I began to talk with men about love, time and time again I heard stories of male fear of other males. Indeed, men who feel, who love, often hide their emotional awareness from other men for fear of being attacked or shamed. This is the big secret we all keep together - the fear of patriarchal maleness that binds everyone in our culture."

From the start she lays out a clear message, that this isn't just about achieving gender equality, or pay parity,  but examining the persistent and pernicious effects of patriarchy upon our collective world view. We are not taking the pressures patriarchy applies in twisting our psyche's out of shape, and the effect this has upon the lives of both men and women. And whilst there are very good men and women out there doing sterling work to challenge these effects, only small changes in this underlying zeitgeist are being made. 

"No male successfully measures up to patriarchal standards without engaging in an ongoing practice of self-betrayal."

She repeatedly states, how she understands women's reluctance to get drawn into men liberating themselves from the shackles patriarchy puts upon them. But the tendency is to then diminish the problem, in order to return the focus to further advancing women's progress. Which means we are only really addressing one half of patriarchy's sphere of influence. And you could say, well that's for men to sort out for themselves. Which if all things were equal that would be the case, but they are not. Because the effect of patriarchy upon men is so tightly drawn, so narrow and limiting in it's perspective, that stepping outside of it without some sort of guide or external help, can almost be too impossible to imagine.  

" Despite the contemporary visionary feminist thinking that makes clear that a patriarchal thinker need not being male, most folks continue to see men as the problem of patriarchy. This simply not the case. Women can be as wedded to patriarchal thinking and action as men . "

Unless, of course, you feel you are placed outside of it by being gay for instance. This, in my experience, can force you to question the whole idea of masculinity you are being presented with. Though as Hooks points out, even in gay male culture strong patriarchal echoes of insensitive brutality and predatory none consensual sex can still be found within it.

If patriarchy were truly rewarding to men,  the violence and addiction in family life that is so all pervasive would not exist.. This violence was not created by feminism. If patriarchy were rewarding, the overwhelming dissatisfaction extensively documented ... would not exist."

She also asks women to examine their own role in the creation of male patriarchy. How in the difficult state of a mother raising a son and a daughter, they may still hold and perpetuate residual patriarchal instincts or expectations. The far right might like you to believe that patriarchy is biologically determined by God, and is hence a natural thing, not a culturally nurtured choice, but Hooks will have none of that. 

"We cannot turn our hearts away from boys and men, then ponder why the politics of war continues to shape our national policy and our intimate romantic lives."

I found The Will To Change presented a refreshingly open and broad perspective on how patriarchy reinforces itself, in both men and women. She gave me some new things to think about, as well as clarifying my own understanding of why men are currently stuck in a no mans land, unhappy and unloved within the confines of patriarchy, but unable to find an effective route towards a new way of inhabiting being masculine. This is one of he most helpful books I've read on this subject so far.

"We cannot honour boys rightly, protecting their emotional life, without ending patriarchy. To pretend otherwise is to collude with the ongoing soul murder that is enacted in the name of turning boys into men. "

CARROT REVIEW - 6/8

ART 'N' AB ART - Undercurrent - Wighton 26 Exhibition

This annual exhibition of contemporary art made by Norfolk artists has been running for 26 years. Each year a different artist or artists curates the selection. This is only the second year we have stopped off to view it, and though this seemed a better selection overall than last year, that really isn't saying much. Ian McGilchrist in a recent lecture, bemoaned art that need a A4 sheet of text to explain it. And there are works here that do that, or come perilously close to morally berating you on the evils of plastic bottles. If you want to see art about the climate crisis and environmental degradation then the Legacy exhibition at Cromer Artspace recently, was exemplary in how to do interesting, relevant art that was visually thought provoking work, without turning that into belligerent propaganda or hectoring you with facts.

Using a church space well, is always quite a challenge. Last year's was generally quite poorly displayed, this exhibition is better thought through and arranged. What gets me about some of the work here is how astoundingly dull so much of it is, because it has so little to say. Muddy or very ephemeral looking paintings, sculptures that look like an aesthetic arrangement of objects, that are not actually in a productive conversation. Geometrical forms perched on plinths, with ranting sloganeering hand written on each face panel. 

The few striking pieces were - an obelisk with brightly coloured relief panels - various small pieces of neon art hung in porches, up pillars and waving at us from an old rood loft stairway, table cloths made out of gardening centre plant labels. My favourite sculptural pieces were a selection of spherical shapes with spiky fronds or studded with screws.

Overall it was hard to say stuff stood out, because it didn't, surrounded as it was by so many half baked ideas, and the sort of work you'd do at A level, and subsequently burn from embarrassment. 

CARROT REVIEW - 3/8