Andrea Diem-Lane has 14 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 13 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4★ across 2 ratings. The most-rated is The Avatar Project.
The Avatar Project
Summary
This book is a collection of distinct essays that explore the future of education, the role of computers, and the nature of consciousness, with particular attention paid to the role artificial intelligence will play in our school and other learning outlets. We are witnessing an informational tsunami the likes of which is completely unprecedented in human history. The digital revolution is such that almost every aspect of our lives is being upended. Who could have imagined just two decades ago that the vast majority of us would check our smart phones on average 150 times a day or more? Or, that young people worldwide would consciously choose to spend eight hours a day in front of a computer monitor playing never ending games of Minecraft? The great disruptor of the 21st century is our attention span, and the Internet and computational technologies have opened up a Pandora's box of endless distractions. We are not merely entertaining ourselves to death (to echo Neil Postman's prophetic words), we are becoming entertainment ourselves as we moment-to-moment reveal our innermost selves on Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and new emerging forms of social media. What all this will eventually portend nobody precisely knows, except that Ray Kurzweil's outlandish idea of a Singularity in 2045 doesn't look so outlandish anymore. We are on the edge of a digital precipice, and where we will fall appears to have no bottom.
©2016 Andrea Diem-Lane (P)2016 Andrea Diem-Lane
Ahimsa
Summary
Jainism arose as a systematic response to human and animal violence by positing a radical alternative - the path of ahimsa or non-violence. Their argument is a simple but profound one. If we can lessen the pain and suffering of those around us, why not choose that option instead of needlessly perpetuating the never-ending cycle of violent retribution? Jainism raises a most pregnant question for all of us: how big is our circle of compassion? Can we extend its circumference beyond our selves and ken to include other human beings not of our tribe and even further to include animals and other living beings? In those brief moments where we almost instinctively lash out others, can we instead pause and change our responses? The Jains believe that we can and have demonstrated over hundreds of years of how it can be ecologically and ethically successful. This book is a brief introduction to the Jain religion, including a close look at its inception and how it evolved over time to its present day status. Special attention will be given to how Jain ideals such as ahimsa and anekantavada (the doctrine of non one-sidedness) can serve as a much needed and welcome panacea to the world's strife and misery. Although Jainism is perhaps the smallest of the world's religions, what it has to offer humankind is of inestimable value.
©2016 Andrea Diem-Lane (P)2016 Andrea Diem-Lane
Maya: The Physics of Deception
Summary
This audiobook explores the ancient Indian concept of Maya. Utilizing the latest research in neuroscience and physics, this work explains why Maya (or the notion of illusion) is an important concept and better understood today in light of science, even though ancient rishis had glimpsed its importance thousands of years ago.
©2017 David Christopher Lane (P)2017 David Christopher Lane
The Socratic Quest
Summary
Too often students today think that Plato's dialogues concerning Socrates have no relevance to the present issues confronting humankind. It is mistakenly believed that Socrates' quest is dated and that we as species have outgrown such philosophical speculations. However, this is not the case, since the Socratic search for knowledge is a perennial one and we can learn much by closely reading what these early Greek thinkers pondered during their time. In this book, we have included excerpts from the Socratic dialogues (as penned by his most famous student, Plato) and Professor Andrea Diem-Lane's brilliant treatise on the "Cerebral Mirage" which brings Plato and Socrates up to date by showing how the latest findings in quantum theory and neuroscience substantiate much of early Greek skepticism, particularly concerning how easily we can be deceived by our various forms of certainty.
©2016 MSAC Philosophy Group (P)2016 MSAC Philosophy Group
Quantum Weirdness: Einstein vs. Bohr
Summary
This book explores the famous quantum debate between Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr. A clear and precise exposition of a most complicated issue concerning the implications of indeterminacy and photon entanglement.
©2014 Andrea Diem-Lane (P)2015 Andrea Diem-Lane
You Are Probability
Summary
As I glance around the room, I notice that after lecturing for an hour and a 45 minutes straight on quantum theory, desultory decussation, and Wolfram's new kind of science, I see a Krispy Crème glaze descend over a few of my students' eyes. The fantastic implications of chance and necessity (to echo the title of biologist Jacques Monod's famous 1970s book) appears either to have gone over their heads or, more likely, seems of little practical consequence in their day to day lives. I then try to draw out more clearly how understanding probability can radically alter how one views life. Imagine in this moment that you have a California Lottery "scratcher" ticket and as you systematically scratch off your numbers and their adjoining prizes, you realize in the middle of class that you have won a mega jackpot of five million dollars. What would you do? I suspect that most of my students would stand up and leave the room there and then. One thing is for sure, however: It would wake them up and give them a huge and intoxicating adrenaline rush. The winning student might later ruminate about his or her good fortune and reflect upon how lucky they were (given the astronomical odds against them - one in 2,400,000) in securing that particular ticket. I give this illustration to my students because a winning lottery number exponentially pales in comparison to the odds against them being alive and breathing (even if they nod off a bit here and there) at this very juncture in history. But in order to appreciate the anomaly of one's existence it is necessary to get a deeper understanding of the theory of large numbers.
©2011, 2014 David Christopher Lane (P)2016 David Christopher Lane
The Rise of New Religions
Summary
This introductory text focuses on how and why new religions and cults arise. Special chapters on meme theory, Nietzsche, and Ken Wilber. The author argues that the human quest for meaning is inexhaustible and therefore new religions emerge to fulfill this need. Dr. Andrea Diem-Lane is a Professor of Philosophy and has taught courses in religion for nearly 25 years.
©1997, 2008, 2014 Andrea Diem-Lane (P)2016 Andrea Diem-Lane
The Library of Consciousness
Summary
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. For instance, the other day, I remarked to my oldest son, Shaun, that the ocean water around Catalina Island looked exceptionally blue. But, given his deep knowledge of science, my son responded that such “blueness” was actually not in the water at all, but how different light waves get absorbed and refracted. The colors we see are due to the spectral properties of light. The longer wavelengths of light (such as red, orange, and yellow) are more readily captured by H20 whereas the shorter wavelength of light (such as blue) gets refracted and thus we see the color blue, particularly if the water is clear. But the scientific explanation for why an ocean is blue or a sunset is red is precisely not how we tend to experience such at first glance. In other words, the way we apprehend the world around us is not necessarily how we later comprehend it through scientific analysis. And herein lies the great divide, the great deception, or what early Indian rishis insightfully called “Maya.” We live in a magic land, where all that manifests and appears real and certain is anything but. Perhaps the study of consciousness has an inherent limitation, similar in import to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle in quantum mechanics or Gödel's incompleteness theorem in mathematics. Perhaps we are like seasoned travelers on a Mobius strip in quest of the “other” side of the band who after long and arduous circular travels come to realize that no matter what route we take we will always only be touching the same surface. If this is so, then a specialized version of Niels Bohr's complementarity may be an instructive insight for us as we venture forth: “In any given situation, the use of certain classical concepts excludes the simultaneous meaningful application of other classical concepts.” In the study of consciousness it appears we may have to confront an epistemological complementarity where any objective study (via third person analysis) of qualia must by necessity lose in translation a fundamental feature of the very phenomenon under inspection. This book combines the Oceanic Metaphor and the Cerebral Mirage.
©2014, 2017 David Christopher Lane (P)2018 David Christopher Lane
The Jain Path
Summary
Professor Andrea Diem-Lane, PhD, provides an in-depth analysis and summary of 10 key books on the religion of Jainism, providing the listener with a deeper grasp of this ancient Indian religion and its compassionate practice of ahimsa, or nonviolence. Serves as a general introduction to the Jain religion.
©2016 Andrea Diem-Lane (P)2016 Andrea Diem-Lane
The Gnostic Mystery
Summary
Comparative studies often reveal similarities between greatly different cultures, even if those cultures are geographically separated by thousands of miles or historically distinct by thousands of years. This has been especially true in religion where similar ideas have been propounded by tribes or clans that have on the surface no contact historically or geographically with one another. For the phenomenologist, this kind of transcultural link or synchronicity is important because it raises the question of how religious ideas emerge and develop over time. Are religious ideas part of an innate, biological, developmental sequence that manifest over the course of human evolution? Or are religious ideas simply the product of historical transfusion, played over the course in time where one tribe touches another tribe thereby transforming concepts in a very material and socially determinable way? Although this thesis does not answer those profound questions, it does provide a remarkable example of religious synchronicity, where two diverse spiritual traditions, Gnostic and Sant, posit very similar ideas about salvation and the nature of God. In this thesis, I demonstrate how Gnostic and Sant Mat ideas concerning ontology, cosmology, and soteriology are remarkably close, despite the fact that the Gnostic tradition arose in the Middle East in the first and second century C.E. and that Sant Mat emerged in North India in the 14th and 15th century. My main sources are the Nag Hammadi Library for the Gnostic tradition and the writings of Tulsi Sahib and Shiv Dayal Singh for the Sant tradition.
©2015 Andrea Diem-Lane (P)2016 Andrea Diem-Lane
Listening to the Inner Sound
Summary
Listening to the inner sound to achieve higher states of consciousness has a long history and can be found in different religious traditions around the world (ranging from Gnostic Christianity to Islamic Sufism to Tibetan Buddhism). In this presentation, we will explore the originations of shabd yoga and trace it over time (in its various manifestations) up until the present day. In so doing, we will want to learn how listening to the inner sound is theologically interpreted in varying cultures on distinct continents. Who would have imagined that a relatively unknown spiritual master living in Agra, India, from 1818-1878, would eventually influence the lives of millions around the world? Shiv Dayal Singh, the founder of Radhasoami, has had an impact on a number of disparate fronts, including religion, literature, music, education, industry, philosophy, consciousness studies, and even culinary habits. This book provides a brief overview of the impact that Shiv Dayal Singh (honorifically called "Soamiji Maharaj") has had in the spread of shabd yoga worldwide, as well as his ethical influence in the sphere of vegetarianism.
©2018 David Christopher Lane (P)2018 David Christopher Lane
The Guru in America
Summary
The Radhasoami tradition, as founded by Shiv Dayal Singh in Agra in 1861, has been highly influential in the development of several new religions in North America and elsewhere. However, little work has been done in showing how Radhasoami has been transplanted into American soil and the impact it has had on the spiritual marketplace. Utilizing socio-historical/textual analysis, this study begins by exploring the emergence of Radhasoami as a transnational religion, focusing on the development of Radhasoami in America since the early part of this century. The objective is to illustrate its influence on several guru movements in America, paying close attention to how society, in particular, alters the manifestation of religious groups and their respective theology. By charting such lines of influence among religions, we may then begin to get a much keener understanding of how and why religions evolve the way they do. Among the guru movements genealogically and theologically connected to Radhasoami are: Paul Twitchell's Eckankar; John-Roger Hinkins' Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness [MSIA]; and Dr. Bhagat Singh Thind's Sikh Study Groups. In addition, there are numerous smaller groups who have been influenced by Radhasoami which do not have as yet many members. Nonetheless, these "virtual" groups are important not only because they contribute to the plurality of religion in America, but they give us access to study the evolutionary beginnings of a group which may develop into a well-known entity or at least serve as a micro-bridge for future movements. Each of these "virtual" groups, Jerry Mulvin's Divine Science of Light and Sound, Gary Olsen's The Master Path, and Michael Turner's The Sonic Spectrum, have developed a unique version of Radhsoami practices and teachings, illustrating the fluidity of religious ideas and how such ideas get incorporated and transformed over very short periods of time and in very limited settings.
©2015 Andrea Diem-Lane (P)2016 Andrea Diem-Lane
Is Consciousness Physical?
Summary
Explores whether or not consciousness has a physical basis. Utilizes the work of Ramachandran, Feynman, Wilber, Churchland, and Gerald Edelman.
©2011, 2017 David Christopher Lane (P)2017 David Christopher Lane
Darwin's DNA
Summary
This is an illustrated version (replete with black and white pictures and graphs) of Dr. Andrea Diem-Lane's book, Darwin's DNA. It explores evolutionary theory and how Darwinian natural selection can help explain why consciousness developed as a virtual simulator over time. Fully illustrated. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2020 David Christopher Lane (P)2020 David Christopher Lane