Showing results by author "David Christopher Lane" in All Categories

This book touches upon a number of cutting edge issues in science, including artificial intelligence and its impact on humankind, Darwin's moral sense and its implications, and how to think critically in an age of paranormal beliefs.

This is the third in a series of books on Mystics of the World. Includes a meditative glimpse into the "unknowing" philosophy of Nicholas of Cusa, one of the great philosophical thinkers of all time.

One of the first critical studies ever done on the hidden history of Paul Twitchell and Eckankar. It was first completed as a term paper when David Lane was only 20 years old as an undergraduate student at CSUN. Later, it evolved into a very controversial book which caused a worldwide stir in the Eckankar organization. Contains extensive documentation on how Paul Twitchell created a fictional mythology about himself while denying his association with certain spiritual teachers.

Sri Ramakrishna is one of the most thoroughly studied saints in the last 150 years. He is by any measure one of the most extraordinary mystics to have emerged from India. Ramakrishna has impacted the lives of millions around the world and he continues to intrigue and puzzle spiritual seekers and scholars alike. After reading many of Sri Ramakrishna’s wonderful sayings, filled with such rich and earthly analogies, I thought it would be instructive to choose 88 of his insights and put them in a short, introductory book.

This edited volume by the MSAC Philosophy Group includes a variety of essays by different authors on virtual reality, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and those computational pioneers and thinkers who have advanced our understanding of a digital future.

In this book via three key essays, I attempt to turn the issue of mindless automatons on its head (with a bad pun included) by pointing out that “this [very issue] begs a much larger question: how do we really know that the zombie is merely a mindless automaton? The obvious answer is that we don't.” In other words, while it is certainly true that we can project consciousness on all sorts of objects that may lack it...

I first encountered the mystical logic of Nicholas of Cusa when I read S.L. Frank's magnificent (and underappreciated) volume, The Unknowable. I was both mesmerized and haunted by Cusa's koan-like summation of his philosophy when he wrote, "The unattainable is attained by its unattainment." As Socrates and other mystic-philosophers before him, Nicholas of Cusa had realized through mathematics and geometry that infinity cannot be comprehended by that which is finite.

Jeffrey Kripal’s latest book, The Flip: Epiphanies of Mind and the Future of Knowledge, extends his anti-materialist critique. Kripal goes so far as to suggest that “matter may, in fact, be an expression of some kind of cosmic Mind [sic], which expresses itself as the material world through the abstract structures of mathematics and physics.” I find that the examples he cites to support his “trans-materialism” purview to be half-baked and lacking in the necessary attention to detail. This short book is a three-fold critique of Kripal's anti-materialist purview.

Although there is now a plethora of books by and about Rumi, I thought it might be instructive to republish a small portion of Edward Henry Whinfield's English translation of Rumi's Persian masterpiece. I think it is vitally important in today's social climate to focus on those aspects of Islam which elevate humankind and I can think of no better place to start than with the Sufi mystics of Islam, of which Rumi is the most famous (and perhaps finest) example.

I bring up the subject of Gumby and the spiritual claims surrounding him because I am often asked in class about the verdicality of certain metaphysical claims that abound in religious mythologies. My usual rejoinder is that we don’t want to enter into “Gumby Land” when doing philosophy since most of these kinds of questions (how many angels can sit atop an empty coke top?) are literally non-sense (in the precise definition of that term as first coined in the 17th century).

The following is a selection from three books that were published in 1894, 1910, and 1905 respectively by early pioneers who ventured into Tibet. They are Among the Tibetans, India and Tibet, To Lhassa at Last. Although as Westerners their perspectives are culturally bounded (and too often myopic), they each write vividly and occasionally with great insight about what they experienced in their travels. Sadly, however, two of the narratives are militaristic and we witness an unwanted invasion on behalf of the British to gain controlling interest in the region.

This book provides a wide overview of Darwin's views on a variety of subjects. It also draws out some of the implications of his groundbreaking work on psychology and philosophy.

This is the first of a three-part series centering on my personal remembrance of Charan Singh (1916-1990), who was the spiritual leader of Radha Soami Satsang Beas from 1951 to 1990. As such, it isn’t a biography, but rather partial glimpses of my own recollection of how I came to know of Charan, and why I eventually took initiation from him into the meditational practice of Surat Shabd Yoga. I didn’t write this as a devotional eulogy to my deceased spiritual teacher, but more selfishly as a way for me to write down key moments of my association with him...for over four decades.

The moral imperative behind vegetarianism is precisely this: to imagine the pain of an animal and then to ask yourself one straightforward question: Do I need to kill it in order to live? And, if you do not need to eat animals to live a good life, then ask yourself the following, and perhaps more pertinent, questions: Is slaughtering a cow, beheading a chicken, or hooking a fish necessary? Is my palate the driving force behind my ethical values?

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.

The idea that the world is an illusion that betrays its real origin has a long tradition and can be found in the writings of Hindu rishis, early Greek philosophers, and Christian Gnostics. What is perhaps surprising is to find such a rich literature on the subject in neuroscience and quantum physics. The latest, and perhaps most provocative, idea to gain some currency in varying scientific disciplines is the hypothesis that the universe is the result of a computational simulation....

This book describes the life and work of eight Indian mystics, including Ramana Maharshi, Sawan Singh, Paramahansa Yogananda, Baba Faqir Chand, Sushil Kumar, Tripta Devi, and Pratap Singh. Includes the author's personal interaction with several of them, as well as a detailed account of shabd yoga and the inner journey that occurs during meditation.

One of the first books ever published to objectively study the life and work of Franklin Jones, also known as Bubba Free John, Da Free John, Adi Da, an infamous cult leader who attracted both devotees and detractors. Contains original essays by Professor Scott Lowe (University of Wisconsin) and Professor David Lane (Mt. San Antonio College).

This audiobook focuses on two of Samuel Butler's more intriguing writings concerning machine evolution and intelligence, including his most famous piece, "Darwin Among the Machines", and his chapter on Erewhon in "The Book of the Machines". Professor David Christopher Lane has written a brief introduction. Also included is a small biography of Samuel Butler.

According to Littlewood's Law of Miracles (based on the theory of large numbers and probability), you should expect something truly unusual to happen every 35 days - so strange, in fact, that it will look like a miracle. This book explains how the improbable is probable by focusing on desultory decussation (where two random events from an interesting intersection - a synchronicity) and Littlewood's work in number theory at Cambridge University in the last century. Also explains such concepts as apohenia and patternicity.