Owen Barfield and the Evolution of Consciousness

Owen Barfield is perhaps best known as the great friend of C.S. Lewis, and for being one of the Inklings, the group of writers, including Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams. But Barfield is an important thinker and writer in his own right, and his significant body of work deals with the themes of language, consciousness, and the imagination. His first book, History in English Word revealed that a study of the history of language showed a curious fact: human consciousness evolves. This was confirmed for Barfield by his encounter with the work of Rudolf Steiner. In 1996 I conducted the last interview with Barfield, who died in 1997 at the age of 99. My talk will introduce Barfield and explore some of his central ideas about human consciousness, how it has evolved to where it is now, and where it may be heading.

 

Gary Lachman is the author of twenty-one books on culture, consciousness, and the western inner tradition, including The Secret Teachers of the Western World, Lost Knowledge of the Imagination,The Caretakers of the Cosmos, and Rudolf Steiner: An Introduction to His Life and Work. www.garylachman.co.uk

 

£7 (£5 concessions). All welcome - no booking required