Showing results by author "David Lane" in All Categories

One of the most significant discoveries of modern science is that the world we perceive around us is not as it appears. Rather, neuroscience, evolutionary biology, and quantum physics have demonstrated that our day-to-day reality is a relative construct, built upon a scaffolding of information bits that betray their real origin and causation.

The ancient Indian concept of Maya provides a deep insight into the nature of reality. Because what we perceive often betrays its real origination, we tend to confuse cause and effect, image and object. We are prisoners in a fragmentary illusion and haven’t realized that a vast horizon of possibilities awaits our arrival. Although the idea that the world is ultimately a beguiling phantasm has a long history, modern science, via ever-sophisticated computational technologies, has ushered in a radically new way of understanding the cosmos at large.

The following essays focus on consciousness, neuroscience, evolutionary biology, artificial intelligence, computer science, virtual and augmented reality, and more. Each chapter stands on its own and doesn’t require prior knowledge about the subject, though having a background in philosophical and scientific thinking is a plus. These essays, with a few exceptions, were originally published in Europe on the Integral World website during the past decade.

Where our lives of Jewish learning collide with our love of Nerd Culture. Join us as we explore Jewish texts, history, and values and the apparent and invisible connections to your favorite movies, characters, and hobbies. www.torahsmash.com

Back in the 1980s, I used to write articles for Fate Magazine, adding a little extra money to my teaching job at Warren College as I was attending graduate school at the University of California, San Diego. Eventually, I was asked to become a part-time book reviewer for the publication. It was a great gig since they would send me the latest books that they received in the office. Most of the texts dealt with excursions into the paranormal—ranging from Edgar Cayce readings to near-death experiences.

This audiobook is a memoir about my brother Joseph Alexander Lane, who was a man of many parts. Clerk/Executive Officer of the Second District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles, surfer, father, husband, award-winning bodysurfer, golfer, coach, mentor, and history buff. Divided into 30 distinct stories about Joseph's many adventures, that provide a glimpse into the life and work of this most extraordinary person, who touched the lives of all who were privileged to know him.

This small illustrated book gives a glimpse of the radical spiritual insights of Baba Faqir Chand, a renowned surat shabd yoga master, who was designated successor of Shiv Brat Lal. Faqir uses the metaphor of "hanging on the gallows" to explain his deeper meditational experiences. With a brief introduction by Professor David Christopher Lane who first met the famed "unknowing" sage in India in the summer of 1978.

This audiobook explores Nick Bostrom's idea that a computer could theoretically create self-conscious programs within its own hardware, with parallels to the “Blind Watchmaker” idea, where amaurotic processes produce an opened eye-consciousness that can ruminate about its origins.

This small, illustrated book contains more than 50 insightful and philosophical quotes from a variety of movies from the 1930s to the 2000s. With an introduction by Professor David Christopher Lane, who has selected the key passages that help illuminate the mind and generate a new series of queries.

This small, illustrated book focuses on how virtual reality technology is a progressive tool for understanding the mystery of consciousness. It utilizes the insights of David Chalmers and Nick Bostrom to elaborate on how our brains are really virtual reality rendering machines that give us in-sourcing options before out-sourcing them to a Darwinian world of eat or be eaten.

This small audiobook provides pithy insights into the nature of consciousness as a virtual simulator, why we ask the question why from an evolutionary perspective, and the nature of transference among humans.

This short audiobook presents Professor David Christopher Lane's cogent argument that karma theory, when properly analyzed, doesn't make rational sense. In fact, the usage of karma as an explanation devolves most often into unnecessary and often painful ad hoc judgments.

This is a book focusing on ecstatic states of consciousness, with a special focus on the work of Ramakrishna, Ramana Maharshi, and the notion of cosmic consciousness....

This little book was first given as an invited lecture in Agra, India, explaining how the differences between religion and science can be overcome by understanding that the nature of consciousness is similar to a Mobius strip....

These two distinct books touch on surfing, bodysurfing, wave mechanics, and being fully aware when riding waves. The Yoga of Bodysurfing: What is much less known is how yoga, shorn of its theological overlays and spiritual ultimacies, is similar in many ways to the art of bodysurfing. It is clear that a bodysurfer adept at riding waves actually employs yoga’s four-fold technique. The Psychic Surfer: Using surfing as a key and guiding metaphor, this audiobook explores why being "psychic" has nothing to do with paranormal abilities.

This audiobook contains a series of essays that provide arguments for a vegetarian/vegan lifestyle. We have included several chapters from books published in the 19th century which shows that the idea of a non-meat diet is not new in America, even if it has never been widely adopted. Keep in mind that these earlier writings didn’t have the scientific knowledge at their disposal that we have today.

This is a series of essays penned by Professor David Christopher Lane which were first published on the Integral World website in Europe. Each article emphasizes why focusing on a materialist science is actually helpful for anyone interested in a trans-rational worldview. Professor Lane provides a critical analysis of John White, Brad Reynolds, Ken Wilber, and others concerning the nature of science and its relationship with spirituality.

This collection contains short essays, each written by different authors, on the following agnostic thinkers: Charles Darwin, John Dewey, Lynn Margulis, Leo Szilard, Isaiah Berlin, Thomas Kuhn, Enrico Fermi, Herbert Spencer, David Hume, G.E. Moore, Karl R. Popper, Bertrand Russell, Michael Schmidt-Salomon, Thomas Henry Huxley. The long introduction is by David Christopher Lane, Professor of Philosophy at Mt. San Antonio College. The appendix is a famous essay on agnosticism by the famed trial lawyer, Clarence Darrow. The entire book has been edited by Roberto Allende.

This book contains a critical essay/preface on the cultic nature of censorship in Roman Catholicism by David Christopher Lane, professor of philosophy at Mt. San Antonio College. The main body of the book is on the Roman Catholic Index of Forbidden Books, which banned such texts as Kant's Critique of Pure Reason and all books by David Hume. This text includes a list of banned books up to 1966. This is a fascinating glimpse into Catholic apologetics about how they justified censorsing books that are now considered classics.

This small book contains the essence of the "Yoga of Unknowing" which is the realization that as humans we will always have limited knowledge and following the lead of Nicholas of Cusa we should learn to be cognizant of our ignorance and thereby become more enlightened in the process. Also included is the essay "The Mystery of the Eight Realms" which touches upon how virtual reality technology is our own technological Plato's Cave and how understanding VR, MR, and AR can help us better understand consciousness.