Episode 91 - In Conversation with Iain McGilchrist

This week, I’d like to share a film of a recent conversation with Iain. As so often happens with friends, one wishes it were possible to capture the deep, spontaneous conversations that arise around meals or while relaxing. That not being possible, here’s us discussing a little of what we’ve been talking about over the last couple of years since my last visit to Skye in 2023 with Dougald Hine. (You can watch the conversation he had with Iain here).It’s not possible for me to fully delineate the influence of Iain’s work on both my own thought and practice, as well as that of many people in the T’ai Chi schools of which I have been a part. I go into some details about it in the film we made two years ago, which you can watch here.I have added links regarding some of the things we mention in conversation. Mostly these relate to points Iain makes. So many of the things I talk about pertain to creaturely knowledge gained over years in an oral tradition, taught week-in, week-out, in a physical environment and understood in an embodied way before any words coalesced around the knowing. They mostly remain ‘unsearchable’ online, but they are nonetheless real. These understandings are possibly the thing I discuss most with my trusted friends; it is rewarding to compare insights gleaned from their particular realms of study and expertise. We see where shafts of light that have percolated through our own unique vessels refract and finally, together, illuminate a tiny portion of the beloved shared table that is our too-brief time on earth together.I hope that my gestures, analogies and stories go some way to giving you a little insight into my particular area of study and begin to explain why encountering The Master and His Emissary and more recently, The Matter with Things, was so important.Of course, the real joy is simply knowing Iain, to whom I am profoundly grateful for his time in making this film, for his encouragement, and for his ongoing friendship.Uncivil Savant is a reader-supported publication. Your generous subscriptions mean I can keep everything available to all with no financial barrier to access, thank you!I would like to thank my partner Jonny Randall for beautifully shooting and editing the film. We currently have a very good and equitable skill-swap going on (I mend and sew things and he films and photographs things) but if you’d like to show him some extra appreciation, please feel free to:All tips from the appropriately transformed ‘buy me a coffee’ button will go to Jonny this week! Thank you.This podcast was first published as a video here on Substack on 5th May 2025 with full show notes, links, footnotes, images and extras.Selected notes: (h:m:s)5:00 Newgrange Spiral carvings5:35 Heartwork, T’ai Chi lineage9:40 Dōgen finger pointing at the moon11:20 Ultramarine extraction from lapis lazuli11:40 ‘The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the Lord trieth the hearts.’ Proverbs 17:v3, Old Testament, KJV Bible14:44 Keats’ Doctrine of Negative Capability16:34 Niels Bohr deep and shallow truths24:25 Dreyfus brothers’ model of acquisition of skill26:51 Sincerity, Jonathan Monks32:53 D H Lawrence we are transmitters of life33:30 Goethe uniting the divided38:46 Matter and consciousness41:36 Rabbinical saying ‘you are not tasked with completing the work…’44:08 Dougald Hine the question that is yours to carry48:13 Necessary distance49:38 Henri Bergson time, duration, paradox50:08 Dōgen If there were no time there would be no mountain51:28 Zeno’s paradoxes52:05 Heraclitus Panta rhei / everything flows53:19 Marcelo Gleiser the same situation cannot occur twice55:45 The third heart, connexion, longing56:49 Max Scheler1:01:15 Paul Kingsnorth Past, People, Place, Prayer from ‘Against The Machine’1:04:05 Jan Zwicky (also of interest - The Experience of Meaning)1:05:59 Love Story ‘love means never having to say you’re sorry’1:06:46 Orangutan rofl1:07:35 Marcel Theroux ( of interest - In Search of Wabi Sabi)1:08:24 Commedia dell’Arte1:09:10 John Cleese1:13:00 Stewart Lee1:14:00 Life of Brian, new stage show Get full access to Uncivil Savant at carolineross.substack.com/subscribe