Real Time Travel: Owen Barfield and JRR Tolkien Take Us Back

Owen Barfield and JRR Tolkien both claimed explicitly, and otherwise assumed the truth of the claim, that they had, each and individually, broken through a veil between ordinary waking consciousness and the authoring consciousness of whatever ancient or foreign text they were reading.

Tolkien broke through a veil; Barfield noted a change of consciousness. Tolkien lands in a land at a time and in a place with peoples and of course languages of differing character add texture; Barfield rises to an experience of discernible patterns across languages, and through time, where the transitions and shapes make the meaning.

I speak roughly of their methods for achieving these feats, by focusing on several techniques they share.

In upcoming clips, I'll look at these topics:

- Sharing a method v. mutual influence

- Concrete meaning

- Word histories

- Reading and writing poetry

- Meditation/Contemplation

One element that I will weave throughout each of the topics is practical, personal application of the methods, to find out if in fact they work. I look at several words histories, in sketch and open ended, using words and ideas outside of Barfield's own examples; samples of my poems, where in form and substance I imaginatively tested poetry as a catalyst or occasion for felt changes of consciousness; and some of my own tests and experiences with meditation and contemplation.

There will be a section, too, on objections and unanswered questions.

I wrote in the blog post title "[They] Take Us Back". To take my presentation in the right perspective, you'll have to understand that Barfield and Tolkien aren't taking us back, neither in a literal spiritual/mental sense, nor as individualities. We, like them, will be implementing, by our own initiative, as an individual, a method shared with other individuals.

I use 'take us back' to keep with the time travel concept, so this presentation is fairly a research report on personally testing what I take to be their shared techniques of experiencing past human consciousness.