Daymakers is a weekly video series of 21st century culture. As heretics we wish to break free of institutionalized ways of being, of knowing and of creating. So we’ll be bringing you poetry, storytelling, discussions and interviews centred on the heresies you’ll find in the pages of The Secular Heretic. We are interested in the most beautiful, striking art being produced today, and we’ll be discussing the most compelling ideas simmering in the peripheries. Join us at Daymakers and be inspired by an adventurous spirit! Dare to think new thoughts! Dare to dream new dreams! Help us build a truly 21st century culture.

We’re just getting started on this project, and we’re making all kinds of mistakes. So please forgive the technical quality of our first few videos. The learning curve has been steep. If you like the videos on this page, please visit our Youtube channel and Subscribe to the Daymakers series, ‘Like’ the video & leave Comments!

Daymakers Episode 1: Crito Di Volta: IL MORTARISTA

The Secular Heretic’s Daymakers discuss a passage from Marc di Saverio’s epic poem, Crito Di Volta, considering the good and the bad of postmodernism, and the ideas of risk and danger in the arts. This is a proof of concept video. We’re still working out the kinks. Video and audio quality will be improved in subsequent videos. In the meantime, enjoy!

This episode is available to patrons only. To view episode 1, become a patron by subscribing to our Patreon account: https://www.patreon.com/thesecularheretic. For just a $1/video, you can have access to all our videos and even see videos a week before they’re released to the public!

In this inspiring episode of Daymakers, we continue to discuss poetry and culture, especially focusing on what it means to be brainwashed (or indoctrinated). Get ready for some profound insights and an all round exciting conversation!

Daymakers 3: Crito Di Volta: Mortar

Join the Daymakers for a discussion about the “anti-poet,” the trouble with poetry school, what makes an epic hero in the 21st century, and the spirituality of the Dalai Lama.

Daymakers Episode 5: Crito Di Volta: The Overpoet

In this episode the Daymakers discuss the role of the poet in society, the development of a writer’s voice, the value of seeking out mentors, what can be taught at school and what is a matter of one’s own inner work. Most exciting is our considerations what constitutes true risk and danger in art. Prepare to be inspired with what di Saverio calls “Atlasian loving.”

This episode is available to patrons only. To view episode 5, become a patron by subscribing to our Patreon account: https://www.patreon.com/thesecularheretic. For just a $1/video, you can have access to all our videos and even see videos a week before they’re released to the public!

Daymakers 9: Drink & Drugs

Join the Daymakers for a discussion about the role of drinking and drugs in the artist’s life. According to Cyril Connelly, these distractions can become a substitute for art, preventing the artist from producing work. To what degree is he correct in this assessment? Isn’t Dionysus–the ancient god of intoxication–renowned for inspiring artists? Where does pot legalization fit into all of this? Find out in this latest bizarre episode of Daymakers.

This episode is available to patrons only. To view episode 9, become a patron by subscribing to our Patreon account: https://www.patreon.com/thesecularheretic. For just a $1/video, you can have access to all our videos and even see videos a week before they’re released to the public!

Daymakers 13: Rejection

In this hilarious episode, the Daymakers discuss the creative power of rejection. Quebecois poet Emile Nelligan for example composed his most successful poem “Le Romance du Vin” on the heels of severe literary criticism. Marc di Saverio reads his translation of the poem from his collection Ship of Gold. Also, don’t miss di Saverio’s microphone power slam!

This episode is available to patrons only. To view episode 13, become a patron by subscribing to our Patreon account: https://www.patreon.com/thesecularheretic. For just a $1/video, you can have access to all our videos and even see videos a week before they’re released to the public!

Daymakers 17: Interview with Stephen Robbins Part 3: Time, Memory & Creative Evolution

In part 3–the penultimate instalment of our interview with Steve Robbins–things get heavy as we chomp into the meat of the matter, considering the relationship between subject and object, and how Henri Bergson directs us to consider that relationship in terms of time rather than space. Of course this leads to a consideration of the nature of Time, and from there we progress to cosmic Memory and the origins of evolution. What is the real time of the universe as opposed to clock time or relational time (such as the revolution of the Earth around the sun or upon its own axis)? How is this true time related to the holographic memory inscribed in the cosmos? Gird your loins and get ready for the deep! And don’t miss part 4, where we discuss how the “classic metaphysic” impacts our daily lives.

This episode is available to patrons only. To view episode 17, become a patron by subscribing to our Patreon account: https://www.patreon.com/thesecularheretic. For just a $1/video, you can have access to all our videos and even see videos a week before they’re released to the public!

Capability Maturity Model (CMM) – Interview with Stephen Robbins Part 4 – (Daymakers 18)

This is the final segment of our first interview with Steve Robbins. Here we turn to the question of how the “classic metaphysic” impacts our daily lives. If merely from a pragmatic perspective, it is essential to critique the first principles driving our culture into roboticism and mediocrity. Here we drive home the urgent social and spiritual need to reevaluate Henri Bergson’s perspective on the reality of existence, so we can appreciate the tao of quality and reintegrate creativity. We talk about CMM, the misguided attempt to automate human problem solving, and we consider Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

Higher Energy States: Secret Metaphysics Revealed Part 1 (Daymakers 19)

Following our interview with Steve Robbins, the Daymakers decided to sit down and have a conversation to review some of the main ideas and to consider the implications of Henri Bergson’s metaphysics. How does the physical world become manifest to our senses? How does a frog or a bee or a cat see the world? What happens to space when one enters an higher energy state? If we are part of the same field that produced butterflies, brontosaurs, suns and everything else. . . what are our powers? what can we really do? Watch this episode by clicking here.

Cosmic Memory & Time: Secret Metaphysics Revealed Part 2 (Daymakers 20)

In our ongoing conversation on Steve Robbins and Henri Bergson, we consider further issues related to Galileo’s distinction between primary and secondary characteristics, between objective and subjective realities. We touch on the subjects of left and right brain orientations according to Iain McGilchrist’s The Master and His Emissary, the I/It-I/Thou relationship with the universe according to Martin Buber’s famous I and Thou. We touch upon the significance of the mathematics of probabilities: how is it that in a roll of the dice, if two double sixes have been rolled in a row, we can be sure a third double six will not be rolled? We also discuss different kinds of time along with Bergson’s Time as a sort of creative force emerging from Cosmic Memory. Watch this episode by clicking here.

How to Stop Time: Secret Metaphysics Revealed Part 3 (Daymakers 21)

Imagine you were The Flash and could accelerate to a point that everything around you seemed to stop moving. The invisible wings of a fly would slow down so that each wingbeat moved slowly as a heron’s wings. . . and then stop altogether. Take this meditation further and imagine yourself vibrating so quickly, all of the physical world blurred away into a haze of atoms, even your own body. Distances would fall away. All things would merge into one: subject and object would cease to exist. Steve Robbins calls this “the null state.” Now reverse this meditation. What is real? How does it all come together? To fully understand, we’ll have to let Robbins explain his ideas of invariance laws. But for now, let’s just consider Cosmic Memory, the Creative Force and Cosmic Time. . . and The Flash! We also talk about Goethe’s idea of “active seeing” and wonder how it is that most of us experience melancholy when gazing out at an autumn scene.

This episode is available to patrons only. To view episode 21, become a patron by subscribing to our Patreon account: https://www.patreon.com/thesecularheretic. For just a $1/video, you can have access to all our videos and even see videos a week before they’re released to the public!

How does the brain change space-time: Secret Metaphysics Revealed Part 4 (Daymakers 22)

In part 4 of their considerations of Steve Robbins & Henri Bergson, the Daymakers invite you to imagine yourself in accelerated and decelerated energy states. What would the world look like? How would experience change? Asa Boxer reads a couple of poems that meditate on the subject. Marko Sijan is horrified by life in a low energy state characterized by high velocity life, so speedy that civilizations appear as whirlwinds and seem to impact the world like tsunamis or meteoric strikes. Meanwhile, a high energy state slows everything down, allowing one to be the Buddha himself. Watch this episode by clicking here.

The Hidden Creative Force: Mind Unfolding into Matter Part 1 (Daymakers 23)

Put on your drysuit and get ready for a deep dive into metaphysical waters as the Daymakers discuss entropy, geometrical order, organic order, the eukaryote, the city, intellection, intuition, instinct and spider memory, consciousness, matter, IQ, creativity, innovation, evolution, mathematics, the sensual and the spiritual, myth and story-telling, and Goethe’s active seeing! How are all these connected? Watch this episode of Daymakers and find out as we continue to think about Steve Robbins’s insights into Henri Bergson’s Holographic Theory of Mind! Watch this episode by clicking here.

The Shape of the Creative Force: Mind Unfolding into Matter Part 2 (Daymakers 24)

This inspiring episode is not to be missed. The Daymakers get down to the nitty-gritty of what exactly a field might be. In other words, after discussing things like the Holofield of Steve Robbins and the Morphic Fields of Rupert Sheldrake, we venture an idea of what these fields might be and where they might emerge from. These considerations lead us to Ken Wheeler, the foremost researcher on magnetism and the only one to have defined a field. A magnet is a perfect model of the inextensive extrapolating into the extensive. As it happens, the reciprocating geometry of the magnetic and electrostatic fields forms a very familiar pattern of the sort you find in dream catchers, sunflowers, acorn caps, pineapples, pinecones… everywhere you turn. Along the way, the Daymakers also wonder whether the appearance of perspective in 15th century art signalled the dawn of the increasingly geometrical worldview that led to the observations of Copernicus and Galileo, and ultimately to the Industrial Revolution. Watch this episode by clicking here.

Is Experience Stored in the Brain: The Secrets of Consciousness Revealed (Daymakers 25)

In part 1 of this 7-part interview series with Stephen E. Robbins, the Daymakers ask what the holographic field of reality is actually made of. Further, they discuss the conundrum of the mainstream model of consciousness: that is, how the brain as a material organ can retain memories if all materiality dissolves into the past. What mechanism supports our sense of continuity? According Henri Bergson and Steve Robbins, it is absurd to expect memories to be stored in the brain. Isn’t perception itself a form of memory extending from moment to moment to moment like a symphony? How many instants would the brain have to store to make reality work? If you missed the episodes leading up to this video, we recommend starting with number 15, where we launched this metaphysical conversation.

This episode is available to patrons only. To view episode 25, become a patron by subscribing to our Patreon account: https://www.patreon.com/thesecularheretic. For just a $1/video, you can have access to all our videos and even see videos a week before they’re released to the public!

This interview series is meant to be a companion to Robbins’s article Welcome to the Holofield: Rethinking Time & Consciousness, which you can find here.

If you enjoyed this, you may want to check out Robbins’s YouTube series on Henri Bergson (and much, much more): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkj-ob9OuaMhRIDqfvnBxoQ

And here’s Steve’s website: http://www.stephenerobbins.com

How Do You Learn a Piano Concerto: The Secrets of Consciousness Revealed Part 2 (Daymakers 26)

In part 2 of this 7-part interview series with Stephen E. Robbins, the Daymakers ask if there is any form of memory that resides in the brain. How does muscle memory work exactly? Behavioural Psychologist, Karl Lashley, trained rats to run through mazes, and then removed various parts of their brains; but he could not remove their abilities to run the maze. Certainly, this suggests that the scheme of the maze was not in the brain. Does this confirm Bergson’s assertion that memory exists in the in-extensive fourth dimension (of counterspace)? We might not have a definitive answer, but certainly we open some fascinating territory for research. Watch this episode by clicking here.

How a Symphony Coheres: The Secrets of Consciousness Revealed Part 3 (Daymakers 27)

In part 3 of this 7-part interview series with Stephen E. Robbins, the Daymakers wrap up the conversation on Primary Memory as an indivisible continuum. How is Primary Memory related to Bergson’s Real Motion, which he compares to a kaleidoscope? This perspective offers a direct challenge to Einstein’s Relativity: if we jettison simultaneity, how does an orchestra make music? How does a tree grow without falling apart? Robbins suggests we think of the universe as a rose unfolding, coordinated in all its parts. Surely, there must be simultaneity in the macrocosm as much as there is in the microcosm. Watch this episode by clicking here.

How Does the Brain Retrieve Memories? The Secrets of Consciousness Revealed Part 4 (Daymakers 28)

In part 4 of this 7-part interview series with Stephen E. Robbins, the Daymakers wonder how exactly the brain manages the task of recollection. If memories are indeed in the aether, how does the brain glom onto them? Consider aphasia and lobotomized patients: what’s going wrong with the brain in these cases? What about electroshock treatment? Marc has some insights on this topic. Robbins talks about Jean Piaget and the two years it takes an infant to develop explicit memory, or the ability to consciously recollect an event or image and associate it with a present event or image. Watch this episode by clicking here.

What Triggers Memories: The Secrets of Consciousness Revealed Part 5 (Daymakers 29)

In part 5 of this 7-part interview with Stephen E. Robbins, the Daymakers delve into the structures and mechanisms that trigger memories. Key is the concept of redintegration, a word coined by Christian Wolff in his 1732 book Psychologia Empirica. The law of redintegration states that “when a present perception forms a part of a past perception, the whole past perception tends to reinstate itself.” Robbins also explains invariance laws like how we retain a sense of the size of things as they move closer or further away from us, and how we get the feeling of movement through “flow fields.” Something deeper emerges from these considerations. . . which is how abstract concepts are formed as we redintegrate multiple events with the same invariance structures.

This episode is available to patrons only. To view episode 29, become a patron by subscribing to our Patreon account: https://www.patreon.com/thesecularheretic. For just a $1/video, you can have access to all our videos and even see videos a week before they’re released to the public!

How Does the Brain Make Ideas? The Secrets of Consciousness Revealed Part 6 (Daymakers 30)

In part 6 of this 7-part interview with Stephen E. Robbins, the Daymakers ask Robbins to explain how analogies come about. Redintegration is central. Through an overlay or stacking of similar events, we perceive abstractions. We touched on this in the previous episode, referring to the idea of coffee stirring as opposed to any individual act of coffee stirring. But how do we develop complex ideas?. . . like “insignificance,” “ the mundane” or “trivial”? This process of concept formation lies at the heart of philosophy. In a future episode we will discuss why Plato advises that children be taught the myths before learning mathematics despite his insistence that mathematics is the highest form of thinking and despite his dismissal of the poets (writers of myths) from his ideal republic. Watch this episode by clicking here.

How Consciousness Shapes the Universe: The Secrets of Consciousness Revealed Part 7 (Daymakers 31)

In part 7 of this 7-part interview with Stephen E. Robbins, the Daymakers pry open a Bergsonism: “The more consciousness is intellectualised, the more is matter spacialised. “Marko asks whether this means that intellection creates space, implying that the more intellect is exercised, the more distance appears between objects. He wonders whether Bergson’s use of the word intellect is equivalent to what Robbins calls an “accelerated energy state.” If we consider the slowing of time in a heightened neurological energy state (see Daymakers 17), would time dilation dilate our sense of space or contract it? If virtual action is the filter of perception, space ought to contract because we can act more quickly. On the other hand, if the universe contracts, we’d lose the time advantage. Makes more sense if this model is asymmetric. As Robbins says, we can’t yet answer this question without research. Emerging from these considerations, Robbins raises the subject of Bergson’s differentiation between intellect and intuition, and how each must serve each other if we hope to produce any breakthrough thinking. Marc asks Robbins: “If Bergson’s ideas became mainstream, how would the world likely change?” Watch this episode by clicking here.

Via Negativa: The Way of the Spirit – C. S. Lewis’s Screwtape Preface (Daymakers 32)

Join the Daymakers for this inspiring introduction to C. S. Lewis’s Screwtape Letters. After Marko introduces C. S. Lewis and sets up our discussion, get ready for a dive into William Blake’s brilliant “Marriage of Heaven & Hell.” Does the Devil have something to teach us through apophasis? Lewis tells us the Devil is a liar. So how do we read the Screwtape Letters? The Daymakers consider the parable of The Prodigal Son, which Marc reads to us from the consummate King James Version. How is being lost, then “found,” so central to personal growth? The Daymakers wrestle with the problem of suffering. Watch this episode by clicking here.

Please note the following corrigendum: the line from Blake, “The vision of Christ that thou dost see / Is my vision’s greatest enemy,” does not in fact occur in “Auguries of Innocence,” but in “The Everlasting Gospel.”

Don’t miss the next episode on Screwtape’s Letter 1, which focuses on (a) the evil of bureaucracy, (b) what Screwtape calls “jargon” or “propaganda” as well as (c) the problem of the sensual world of experience.

Evil Admin & the Screwtapean Medium: Bureaucratic & Social Media Hell (Daymakers 33)

“I live in the Managerial Age, in a world of ‘Admin’,” writes C. S. Lewis in his Preface to the Screwtape Letters. Sound familiar? In this episode, the Daymakers are concerned with how The Screwtape Letters are relevant to our times. Consider for instance Screwtape’s advice to keep “the patient’s” mind focused on superficials, on jargon (aka propaganda), to never engage his reason and capacity for argumentation, and to engender a preoccupation with the mundane “stream” of sensual experience. Sound a bit like social media? You bet. But there’s another kind of sensuality that is positive. The Daymakers problematise this subject. Watch and see for yourself!

This episode is available to patrons only. To view episode 33, become a patron by subscribing to our Patreon account: https://www.patreon.com/thesecularheretic. For just a $1/video, you can have access to all our videos and even see videos a week before they’re released to the public!

In Search of a Church – Screwtape Letter 2 – Daymakers 34

The Daymakers tackle their pride and as a result the conversation heats up in this episode on C. S. Lewis’s Screwtape Letters. Marc and Asa face off over whether Marc looks down on the Church and on Church-goers. Marc claims he feels no superiority, but simply knows the Church is corrupt, simply feels bad for brainwashed congregants. Asa contends that this attitude is inescapably one of superiority. Why have this argument? Screwtape advises Wormwood to keep his patient focused on precisely these aspects of his fellow Church-goers. In other words, Lewis is suggesting that such an orientation is demonic, or in secular terms, destructive. The question is, Why? Don’t we sometimes know that people are corrupt? Shouldn’t we reject such people? In politically fraught times when various sides perceive each other as the enemy, as the group responsible for social harm, economic ruin and environmental trouble, this subject becomes especially urgent. Don’t miss the next episode when the Daymakers explore the limitations of humility and the need for certain forms of discrimination. Watch this episode by clicking here.

Hell’s Peculiar Clarity – Embracing the Shadow (Daymakers 35)

The Daymakers continue to discuss Letter 2 with a focus on “the peculiar kind of clarity which Hell affords.” According to The Screwtape Letters, we ought to humble ourselves and refrain from looking down on others. But is that really desirable? Is it even possible? According to William Blake, humility is a destructive form of self-doubt. Might there be a destructive, self-negating and self-abusive form of humility? Isn’t there a healthy pride, a helpful ego that serves to bring beauty and love to the world? In a polarized social climate, the Daymakers wonder what might be our way to band together despite political differences. What do we share in common? Marc speculates it’s the future of our children. Asa disagrees: look at Greta Thunberg! and the political controversy surrounding her. Marko suggests we meditate on Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay Self-Reliance, and later urges us to consider the hero’s journey. Watch this episode by clicking here.

Spiritual Jerk: Learning to Love (Daymakers 36)

Screwtape stirs up domestic trouble, advising Wormwood to steer his patient into the poisoned waters of a toxic home environment. The strategy is to set his words and body language at odds, to use innocuous words in a way that hurts. This deceptive strategy is implemented in order to claim that despite one’s motives, one is perfectly innocent and has not in fact provoked the outrage displayed by one’s interlocutor. Another Screwtapean directive teaches us to be “very spiritual” and to neglect the most obvious responsibilities. The focus of Letter 3 is on the home life of the patient, who lives with his mother. And Screwtape’s hope is to establish a regular exchange of “pinpricks” to keep them sunk in domestic misery. Watch this episode by clicking here.

Some have speculated that the mother of the “patient” is based on a woman named Janie Moore. During the Great War, Lewis and his friend Paddy Moore had made a pact that if one of them died in battle, the survivor would take care of the other’s family. Janie was Paddy’s mother, and Lewis kept his promise, living with her and caring for her for over twenty years. He was 18 and she was 45 when they first met. They apparently had a devoted, intimate friendship, and Lewis often introduced her as his mother, and referred to her as such in his letters. (Lewis’s biological mother had died when he was very young.) Some even believe they were lovers. Either way, she was characterized as a generous, affectionate person, but one who could also be deeply, often irritatingly fastidious, which made her difficult to live with at times, and so the anger and resentment the “patient” feels about his mother is often attributed as a veiled autobiographical detail of Lewis’s own frustration he often felt while living with Janie Moore for more than two decades. Watch this episode by clicking here.

The Mystery of Prayer Revealed: An Apophatic Approach (Daymakers 37)

Once again, the Daymakers wade into some very heavy material, so get ready for some intense conversation regarding C. S. Lewis’s Screwtape Letters, Chapter 4. Essentially, this week’s question is What is prayer? Or to put it apophatically, What is prayer not? Screwtape has some ideas. The Daymakers talk about idol worship, the desert temple of the Israelites, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Kabbalah.

This episode is available to patrons only. To view episode 37, become a patron by subscribing to our Patreon account: https://www.patreon.com/thesecularheretic. For just a $1/video, you can have access to all our videos and even see videos a week before they’re released to the public!

Facing Death: The Key to Inner Truth (Daymakers 38)

Examining Letter 5 of The Screwtape Letters, the Daymakers focus on the subject of facing one’s mortality. C. S. Lewis suggests that dying in a comfortable care home with family, doctors and nurses lying about one’s condition can cause more harm than good. Screwtape wants to keep folks in a spiritual death, and the best way to achieve this is to arrange things so that “the patient” is caught in a web of inward lies that block the inner life from finding vital expression. To set the soul free, one must face realities instead of indulge various fantasies. Screwtape is concerned that the war raging in the background of this letter will actually serve to awaken the subject because he will not be able to deny his mortality. The Daymakers revisit the subject of Episode 6 regarding the pitfalls of the new religion, the safety cult. And they also consider the problematics of deciding to participate in a war or to refuse participation. Watch this episode by clicking here.

What Am I Really Afraid Of? – Decluttering Your Safe Space (Daymakers 39)

Letter 6 of C. S. Lewis’s Screwtape Letters examines the psychology of fear and its diabolical power to bring out the worst in us. Screwtape wants us to worry and focus on what might hypothetically happen while steering our attention away from attending to our actions and their immediate impacts on our neighbours. What do the Daymakers think of all this? Watch and see! Watch this episode by clicking here.

False Science: Where Demons Come From (Daymakers 40)

In their latest round table on the topic of Letter 7 of C. S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters, the Daymakers draw some parallels between Screwtape’s hope for an emotionalised and mythologised science and the so-called science we are expected to believe in at present. Carl Jung had some insights on this topic as well… The Daymakers also consider representations of the Devil, their possible origins and symbolic content. Watch this episode by clicking here.

Resist Not Evil? – Battling the Devil (Daymakers 41)

What is true courage? What is a just cause or a just war? Is it more courageous to be a conscientious objector or to fight? Still considering Letter 7 of C. S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters, the Daymakers caution that we must first be true to ourselves before we can find our courage. Screwtape wants us to worry about abstract notions like the public good and safety while we in fact cause immediate harm to our neighbours and damage to our communities. He also tempts us toward fanaticism: toward leveraging spiritual notions for political ends. How do we navigate this psychological labyrinth?

This episode is available to patrons only. To view episode 41, become a patron by subscribing to our Patreon account: https://www.patreon.com/thesecularheretic. For just a $1/video, you can have access to all our videos and even see videos a week before they’re released to the public!

Open the Gates! – The Keys to Freedom – (Daymakers 42)

This episode of Daymakers is a synopsis and brief analysis of the 1988 film The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, directed and cowritten by Terry Gilliam. This film is a masterpiece worthy of much discussion, and it is our intention to spend several episodes exploring it. In other words, this video is a cornerstone for future conversation. Don’t miss it! Watch this episode by clicking here.

How Fairytales Shape the Mind (Daymakers 43)

This week the Daymakers start reading from Ted Hughes’s wonderful essay “Myth & Education” to discuss why Hughes believed one ought to read fairytales and myths to children. How does story-telling help shape the mind in its formative stages? Hughes argues that Plato recommended teaching myths to children, and he asks why that might be. What role did myths and folk tales play in the birth of the analogical mind in ancient Greece? Join the Daymakers for another insightful conversation on matters that penetrate to the heart of human existence. (Apologies for the sound trouble.) Watch this episode by clicking here.

The Crucifixion of Hitler: Stories of Consciousness (Daymakers 44)

As they continue to read Ted Hughes’s brilliant essay Myth & Education, the Daymakers consider how words and stories relay various forms of consciousness. When a word evokes a story, the person in possession of that story also has access to configurations of consciousness, some of which are central to the collective consciousness of our civilisation. From a personal perspective, the word is the inner light of consciousness, and the way to self development. Stories (and words, too—insofar as they represent stories) give one access to both the demonic and the heroic forces at work within us. Why is it critical we consider stories as stories and not as doctrine? Watch this episode and find out! Watch this episode by clicking here.

Slaves to the Plan: Aliens of the Inner World (Daymakers 45)

The Daymakers dip into Ted Hughes’s remarkable essay, “Myth & Education” for a third time to discuss the role imagination plays in our lives, often without our noticing. What are the impacts of a lack of imagination, or of imagination that is not grounded in realities? Projections from what Hughes refers to as “the inner world” can obstruct and deform a healthy imagination. The Daymakers struggle to understand what’s going on in there, on that “unexplored planet” within.

This episode is available to patrons only. To view episode 45, become a patron by subscribing to our Patreon account: https://www.patreon.com/thesecularheretic. For just a $1/video, you can have access to all our videos and even see videos a week before they’re released to the public!

Let’s Be Objective (Daymakers 46)

Continuing with Ted Hughes’s essay “Myth & Education,” the Daymakers consider the limits and dangers of the objective imagination, the potential hollowing out effect it has upon the psyche, the dehumanising effect it inflicts on the human heart. Want to understand how our society has arrived at a moment in which it despises the human body, in which we fear our own breath? Watch this episode. Let us know what you think about objectivity in the comments below. Watch this episode by clicking here.

The Morality of the Camera (Daymakers 47)

This week, the Daymakers continue discussing Ted Hughes’s essay “Myth & Education,” specifically focusing on the trouble with objectivity when it is not balanced with considerations of the inner world, the psychological dimensions of our lives. The morality of the camera leads to a form of brutality, but how? Isn’t being objective a way of bringing order to our relationships? Why does a rejection of religion and a turn to pure objectivity turn us into lunatics? Contrary to the dominant values of present times, the Daymakers explain how the stories and myths conveyed by religion helped civilise us. Whether one believes in a God or not, surely we can all agree that the chief danger of godlessness is a hubristic belief in one’s own supernal powers, one’s own (or the government’s) ability to establish a perfect and safe society by policing thought, speech and all human activity. Watch this episode by clicking here.

Connecting with Our Inner Child (Daymakers 48)

The Daymakers continue their fascinating discussion of Ted Hughes’s essay “Myth & Education,” this time working to understand the inner child, that element within us that persists in trying to reconcile the heart life with the claims of society. Our inner child is on a quest to discover who we truly are, and how best to express our natures. And that inner child is our vital force, that part of ourselves that we abandon at our peril. As the Daymakers close in on the conclusion to Hughes’s essay, they begin drawing connections to previous episodes and key content in The Secular Heretic magazine. Watch this episode by clicking here.

The Healing Power of Myth: Reconciling Inner & Outer Worlds (Daymakers 49)

According to Ted Hughes’s “Myth & Education,” myths, fairytales, folktales and the great works of art heal us by reconciling the inner and outer worlds. But how exactly does that happen? What’s really going on when we feel healed by reading great works of literature? Hearkening back a couple of episodes to the call to be objective, the Daymakers consider how engagements with art help us reconnect with our inner selves and establish a balance with the outer world we each have to navigate.

This episode is available to patrons only. To view episode 49, become a patron by subscribing to our Patreon account: https://www.patreon.com/thesecularheretic. For just a $1/video, you can have access to all our videos and even see videos a week before they’re released to the public!

The Primal Dreams of Our Common Humanity (Daymakers 50)

How is it that myths from around the world share so many striking similarities? Is it simply that every people has had to contend with the same fundamental struggles with nature? If that is the case, then how explain that so many have felt the need to weave these struggles into stories? And moreover, how is it that such similar fixations preoccupied the minds of so many and led to such similar formulations amongst such diverse and disparate peoples? In short, how do we account for our common experience of life? The Daymakers look at the final paragraphs of Ted Hughes’s essay “Myth & Education,” parsing these and other questions regarding the mysteries that folktales and fairytales contain and pass down from generation to generation. Watch this episode by clicking here.

A Simple Tale Told At the Right Moment: The Transformative Power of Literature (Daymakers 51)

This week the Daymakers engage in story-telling as they conclude the series on Ted Hughes’s essay Myth & Education. Learn the stories of the Beggar and the Princess, King Thrushbeard, The Tale of Salt and Lord Jim. Marko and Stephen talk about books that inspired them to write, and Marc talks about Kay Redfield Jamison’s book Touched With Fire, and how reading that book changed his life. Watch this episode by clicking here.

The Fool of the World & The Flying Ship (Daymakers 52)

You are invited to enjoy this story-telling episode relating the Russian folktale of The Fool of the World & The Flying Ship. This story is central to Terry Gilliam’s film, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, which the Daymakers have been discussing in the context of Ted Hughes’s brilliant essay, “Myth & Education.” Watch this episode by clicking here.

The Holy Fool (Daymakers S02Ep1)

Following last season’s cliffhanger, the Daymakers discuss the Russian folktale, The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship with a particular focus on the notion of the Holy Fool, Saint of the Imagination.

This episode is available to patrons only. To view episode 49, become a patron by subscribing to our Patreon account: https://www.patreon.com/thesecularheretic. For just a $1/video, you can have access to all our videos and even see videos a week before they’re released to the public!

Companions of the Fool (Daymakers S02Ep2)

Continuing their discussion on the Russian folktale, The Fool of the World and The Flying Ship, the Daymakers focus on the companions of the hero: do they signify inner powers or exterior geniuses? Both interpretations hold some valuable ideas. Might the Celtic Battle of the Trees have anything to do with the army that one of the fool’s companions raises from his bundle of wood? What other secrets might this seemingly simple tale hold? The Daymakers will consider The Tale of Psyche and Cupid in a future episode. Watch this episode by clicking here.

How To Be A Poet Part 1 (Daymakers S02Ep3)

This week, the Daymakers discuss what it means to be a poet. There’s a pretentious, shallow way of being a poet, by dressing and acting the part; and there’s truly being a poet with one’s soul. But what does that mean? The Daymakers look at some historical and anthropological materials on the subject and consider a number of poetic role models along the way. Watch this episode by clicking here.

How To Be A Poet Part 2 (Daymakers S02Ep4)

This week, the Daymakers continue their discussion on the true poet, springboarding from ideas expressed by Robert Graves in his tour de force book, The White Goddess. Graves expresses a commitment to the ancient poetic theme of dedication to the Supreme Goddess and to the creative spirit of nature. Poems that manage to evoke this theme most successfully have an actual physical impact on the audience. Watch the video to discover more on this subject. Watch this episode by clicking here.

The Poetic Continuum: Tradition and the Individual Talent (Daymakers S02Ep5)

The Daymakers take a look at T. S. Eliot’s famous essay “Tradition and the Individual Talent,” examining the idea of tradition in the essay, but also in the practice of writing poetry. Why are the dead poets so vital to the craft? The Daymakers tie this into previous ideas encountered in the series, including notions from Henri Bergson and Rupert Sheldrake.

This episode is available to patrons only. To view Season 2 Episode 5, become a patron by subscribing to our Patreon account: https://www.patreon.com/thesecularheretic. For just a $1/video, you can have access to all our videos and even see videos a week before they’re released to the public!

The Personality of the Poet (Daymakers S02Ep6)

As the Daymakers continue to discuss T. S. Eliot’s famous essay “Tradition and the Individual Talent,” they question the author’s injunction to remove all trace of personality from the writing. Is this possible? And if so, is it truly desirable? What does poetry without personality look like? Wouldn’t it be flavourless and boring? So what might Eliot be trying to get at here? Check out the video and tell us what you think of these matters. Watch this episode by clicking here.

Feelings & Emotions: The Ingredients of Poetry (Daymakers S02Ep7)

T. S. Eliot’s famous essay, “Tradition and the Individual Talent,” gets very cumbersome and confusing in the second half when the poet attempts to distinguish “feelings” from “emotions.” The Daymakers wonder what Eliot might be on about. Are the feelings we experience in poetry the effects of imagery? Perhaps this is what Eliot meant when he spoke of “the objective correlative.” And what of the emotions we experience through poetry? Do these have anything to do with the emotions we experience in the world? Or are these art-produced emotions entirely their own thing? Food for thought. Let us know what you think in the comments below. Watch this episode by clicking here.

Poetry & Communion (Daymakers S02Ep8)

The Daymakers wrap up their discussion of T. S. Eliot’s famous essay, “Tradition and the Individual Talent.” If it’s impossible to extricate one’s personality from one’s art, and if it isn’t even desirable, then how can we understand what Eliot might mean when he tells us that the work of great poets is an escape from personality? Is it that in attempting to escape one’s personality, one discovers communion—whether social or cosmic? This is a short one, but it packs a punch, and hopefully makes your day! Watch this episode by clicking here.

Two Poems by T. S. Eliot (Daymakers S02Ep9)

This week the Daymakers read a couple of poems by T. S. Eliot. These are the two poems of Eliot’s everyone ought to know. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (c.1910-1915) and Journey of the Magi (c.1927). What do you think of these poems? Leave us a comment.

This episode is available to patrons only. To view Season 2 Episode 9, become a patron by subscribing to our Patreon account: https://www.patreon.com/thesecularheretic. For just a $1/video, you can have access to all our videos and even see videos a week before they’re released to the public!

Three Poems by Dylan Thomas (Daymakers S02Ep10)

Get ready for some Dylan Thomas poetry! The Daymakers read “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night,” “In My Craft or Sullen Art,” and “Fern Hill.” This is a brief episode but packed with poetry that will make your day. Watch this episode by clicking here.

How Not to Be a Poet: The McGonagall Episode (Daymakers S02E11)

The Daymakers read some poems by William McGonagall, the worst poet ever to have written. This is a journey down the via negativa of poetics, seeking insights regarding how not to write poetry. Watch this episode by clicking here.

Auden Pound & Yeats: Further Readings (Daymakers S02Ep12)

The Daymakers read three fine and beautiful poems and discuss briefly: W. H. Auden’s “In Memory of W. B. Yeats”; two excerpts from Ezra Pound’s “Hugh Selwyn Mauberly”; and W. B. Yeats’s “Adam’s Curse.” Watch this episode by clicking here.

The Path Between Reality & the Soul: How to Be a Poet (Daymakers S02Ep13)

The Daymakers read from Walt Whitman’s Preface to Leaves of Grass and consider what it means to be a poet. This episode follows previous episodes on the same topic, starting with episode 3 of this season, where they examined Robert Graves’s The White Goddess. Viewers will find continuity with other threads in season one when the Daymakers read from Ted Hughes’s essay, “Myth & Education,” and tie-ins with their metaphysical discussions on Henri Bergson.

This episode is available to patrons only. To view Season 2 Episode 13, become a patron by subscribing to our Patreon account: https://www.patreon.com/thesecularheretic. For just a $1/video, you can have access to all our videos and even see videos a week before they’re released to the public!

The Integrity of the Poet (Daymkers S02Ep14)

The Daymakers explore the theme of “integrity” in the Preface to Walt Whitman’s book, Leaves of Grass. What do you think of his idea of candour? Let us know in the comments. Watch this episode by clicking here.

The Liberty of the Poet (Daymakers S02Ep15)

The Daymakers explore the theme of liberty in Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. How does the poet embody the spirit of liberty and become the age transfigured? Let us know what you think in the comments. Watch this episode by clicking here.

Healing Power of Poetry Pt1 (Daymakers S02Ep16)

The Daymakers read a passage from John Stuart Mill’s Autobiography in which the author discusses a period of severe depression in his life and how his education, steeped in rationalism, lacked any training of the passions and, more broadly, of his inner world. Ironic that in his pursuit of happiness, happiness itself evaded him, in fact, abandoned him, and this set him seeking both the cause of his emotional trouble and its cure. Watch this episode by clicking here.

The Healing Power of Poetry Pt2 (Daymakers S02Ep17)

The Daymakers discuss John Stuart Mill’s ideas on how happiness cannot be attained through the pursuit of happiness; how happiness must come accidentally while absorbed in other pursuits—these pursuits pursued not for happiness, but as ends in themselves.

This episode is available to patrons only. To view Season 2 Episode 17, become a patron by subscribing to our Patreon account: https://www.patreon.com/thesecularheretic. For just a $1/video, you can have access to all our videos and even see videos a week before they’re released to the public!

The Healing Power of Poetry Part 3: William Wordsworth (Daymakers S02Ep18)

In this episode of Daymakers, Marko reads some passages from William Wordsworth’s “Ode: Intimations of Immortality.” This reading follows on the heels of the Daymakers discussion of John Stuart Mill and his concerns regarding an education that fails to train the imagination, the passions and the inner world. In next week’s episode, the Daymakers will continue with Mill’s autobiography and his thoughts on the value of poetry. Watch this episode by clicking here.

The Healing Power of Poetry Part 4 (Daymakers S02Ep19)

This is the final episode on the subject of John Stuart Mill’s autobiographical account describing how his engagement with the arts helped cure his depression. Mill considered his formative education flawed for focusing exclusively on training his analytical abilities and for neglecting to cultivate his emotional life. He believed that his depression was owing to this gap, and he turned to the arts in search of a cure. Ultimately, the medicine that permanently alleviated him of this dejected state of mind was the poetry of William Wordsworth. The Daymakers consider how exactly this might have worked. Watch this episode by clicking here.

Pressure to Publish (Daymakers S02Ep20)

The Daymakers consider the problems that arise when a writer encounters various pressures–some internal, some external–to publish. In some cases, this pressure can be useful to the writer, while in others, it can undermine the writer’s integrity. When looking at some of the most influential writers, it becomes clear that quality is far more important than quantity. On the other hand, plenty of great books have been written by those who have over-published. What do you think? Let us know in the comments! Watch this episode by clicking here.

No Uncertain Terms: Show Don’t Tell (Daymakers S02Ep21)

The Daymakers problematize the creative writing instruction: Show Don’t Tell. How helpful is this tip? Can it get in the way of your writing? The Daymakers consider William Shakespeare, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Browning, Philip Larkin and John Berryman, who all wrote poems that tell more than they show. What do you think of this writing tip? Let us know in the comments!

This episode is available to patrons only. To view Season 2 Episode 21, become a patron by subscribing to our Patreon account: https://www.patreon.com/thesecularheretic. For just a $1/video, you can have access to all our videos and even see videos a week before they’re released to the public!

No Uncertain Terms: Write What You Know (Daymakers S02Ep22)

The Daymakers discuss the creative writing tip: Write What You Know and complicate the idea. Does one really need to have direct experience of something to be able to write about it? What kind of living is important to developing empathy? The Daymakers look at a clip from Wim Wender’s genius film Wings of Desire. This is a complex subject: let us know what you think in the comments. Watch this episode by clicking here.

No Uncertain Terms: What is True Risk? (Daymakers S02Ep23)

The Daymakers engage in an adults only conversation regarding what constitutes risk in the field of literary writing. They read poems by Ezra Pound and Leonard Cohen and discuss formerly controversial writers like Isaac Babel, Aleksander Wat and Pablo Neruda. Buckle up, folks! This one’s heavy. Let us know your thoughts in the comments. Watch this episode by clicking here.

The Art of the Sonnet (Daymakers S02Ep24)

The Daymakers discuss the rudiments of the sonnet form and pay particular attention to the work of Edna St. Vincent Millay. Let us know the title of your favourite sonnet. Watch this episode by clicking here.

Best Sonnets: Edna St. Vincent Millay (Daymakers S02Ep25)

The Daymakers read a few more poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay and marvel at her exceptional technique and her unbridled, poetic spirit.

This episode is available to patrons only. To view Season 2 Episode 25, become a patron by subscribing to our Patreon account: https://www.patreon.com/thesecularheretic. For just a $1/video, you can have access to all our videos and even see videos a week before they’re released to the public!

In Love with Edna St. Vincent Millay (Daymakers S02Ep26)

The Daymakers found Edna St. Vincent Millay’s poetry so beautiful and compelling, they couldn’t help doing another episode on her work. Here’s more in-depth biographical information and three more poems. Let us know your thoughts in the comments! Watch this episode by clicking here.

Göbekli Tepe, Velikovsky & the Doctrine of Gradualism (Daymakers S02Ep27)

The Daymakers take a break from creative writing-tips and literary discussions to consider an article written by Dr. Martin Sweatman for The Secular Heretic magazine on the topic of Göbekli Tepe and the origins of civilisation. According to Sweatman, the doctrine of gradualism “stretches back several hundred years—to at least the time of Hutton and Lyell—and until recently formed the foundation of geology. Championed by Darwin, gradualism has infected all academia. And yet it is actually a crazy extrapolation. No scientist today would dare to propose it.” Let us know what you think in the comments!

Göbekli Tepe, Atlantis & Ancient Tech (Daymakers S02Ep28)

The Daymakers continue their discussion of Göbekli Tepe based on The Secular Heretic article by Martin Sweatman, “Mother of Invention: Decoding Göbekli Tepe.” This time, the focus is on the unavoidable implication that it could not have been a spontaneous undertaking, but instead, must have been grounded in knowledge from a previous civilisation. Atlantis? Another subject of interest is how belief colours technology and what we might be able to deduce from the ancient, megalithic ruins. Given our society’s priorities and beliefs, what are we likely to invent. . . and what are we likely not to invent? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below! Watch this episode by clicking here.

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Meanwhile, we’re looking for submissions of short theatrical works and storytelling pieces that we can post here at The Heretic and present and discuss on Daymakers. So if you have anything remarkable and heretical, send it our way, and we’ll give it a look.

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