The Sacred as Immanent in a Sentient World

Watch the recording

The Sacred as Immanent in a Sentient World

with Peter Reason

Sunday November 13, 2022
9:00am PST | 12:00pm EST | 5:00pm GMT  |  6:00pm CET

2-hour session

The session is live and you will be sent the RECORDING.

What does it mean to live on Earth as Gaia—that is to say, as a living, vital entity in which many kinds of beings create meaning and tell stories? If we invoke such a world of sentient presence, calling to other-than-human beings as persons, might we be graced with a response? And what does this mean for recovering the sacred?

Over the past four years I have initiated and participated in a series of co-operative inquiries, drawing on Freya Mathews’ articulation of ‘living cosmos panpsychism.’ In this talk I will give some accounts of our experiences from these inquiries, narratives of occasions when the world has indeed ‘answered back’ to our invocation. From this I will say something about living cosmos panpsychism that has underpinned our work.

I will continue to explore the ethical position inherent in this perspective—the ought which is ontological, at the core of what is. This is the Law in the pattern in things that enables the living cosmos to renew and re-articulate itself in perpetuity. It provides an understanding of the sacred as immanent, and offers a foundation for a more ontologically reverent, cosmocentric way of inhabiting the world.

To see the Full Recovering the Sacred Program

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Peter Reason

As Director of the Centre for Action Research in Professional Practice at the University of Bath, England, Peter Reason was an international leader in the development of participative approaches to action research. In these forms of experiential inquiry all are co-researchers, contributing both to the thinking that forms the research and to the action that is its subject. He published widely, co-editing the Handbook of Action Research: Participative Inquiry and Practice and co-founding the journal Action Research.

Since retiring from his academic position, Peter has focused on writing that links the tradition of nature writing with the ecological crisis of our times, drawing on scientific, ecological, philosophical and spiritual sources. He is currently engaged in a series of experiential and co-operative inquiries exploring living cosmos panpsychism in relation to Rivers. His books include Spindrift: A wilderness pilgrimage at sea; In Search of Grace: An ecological pilgrimage, and most recently (with artist Sarah Gillespie) On Presence: Essays | Drawings and On Sentience: Essays | Drawings. He is currently preparing Living in a Sentient World: An inquiry with his colleagues Freya Mathews, Andreas Weber, Stephan Harding, and Sandra Wooltorton.

Peter is Professor Emeritus at the University of Bath.