The Highly Played Game of As If – Episode One: The Miracle at the Pool of Bethesda

Bethesda Fountain, San Francisco, CA, Courtesy of: F. Diez

Matt and I just finished recording the first episode of The Highly Played Game of As If: A Podcast Exploring Creativity in the Light of Sacred Texts. In it we look specifically at a story from the Gospel of St. John, interpreting it in the style of Maurice Nicoll, a British psychologist and student of Carl Jung and G. Gurdjieff. Our conversation includes a brief introduction to the underlying concepts — which you can read about more at the post, Introducing the Highly Played Game of As If — as well as our analysis of the Miracle at the Pool of Bethesda, from John Chapter 5.

As I said, our commentary stands on the high shoulders of the British psychologist, Maurice Nicoll, who wrote a ground-breaking book called The New Man, in which Nicoll offers a number of deep insights into the parables and miracles of Christ as described in the New Testament Gospels of the Christian Bible. Below you’ll find an inline flash player loaded with our talk, as well as a link to the audio file and a brief play-by-play outline of what went down.

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Download Episode One (runs about one hour and four minutes)

1. Introduction to the Game of As If — 00:00 – 26:30
2. Reading of the Miracle at the Pool of Bethesda — 26:30 – 28:30
3. The Sheep-Gate and the Five Porches: Being Led by Our Senses — 28:30 – 36:45
4. The Stirring of the Pool: Water as a Symbol for Living Truth — 36:45 – 41:10
5. The First Man: Receptivity, Readiness, and Disposition Toward Living Truth — 41:10 – 47:10
6. The Sick Guy, His Bed and the Presence of Jesus: Being Touched by the Good of the Truth — 47:10 – 01:03:30
7. Closing — 01:03:30 – 01:04:30