Bücher von David Lane

Do you see Luna Blanca? Does she follow you everywhere and watch you too? I love Luna Blanca.Celebrate the magic of the night sky with your child and learn what dreams are made of. Who knows? If we reach for the moon and stars, we might just find something special along the way.

Orpheus and the Maenads A Traditional Play in Blank Verse The preternaturally great poet Orpheus has responded to the loss of his wife Eurydice to the Underworld by forsaking the society of his fellow men in Thrace, where he was a poet-king, and endlessly wandering through field and forest, using his poetic genius to lament his loss. Apollo, the god of poetry, urges him to give up his excessive mourning and return to Thrace and once more sing the deeds of the great heroes of Greece. He warns him that in the wild he inhabits there lurk the young god of wine Dionysus and his super-human followers the Maenads, who themselves eschew the ordinary society of men and give themselves to mad ecstasies brought on by wine and who would like nothing more than to recruit Orpheus to their number. Unwilling to give up his devotion to the memory of Eurydice, Orpheus rejects the Maenads and their Master with unmeasured words of scorn, sealing his own doom. Dionysus devises a fiendish plot of revenge that goes well beyond the ancient myth.

In this partially autobiographical book, Professor David Christopher Lane, PhD., a long-time skeptic of religion and the paranormal, explains why he meditates and why he believes it is extremely beneficial to human well-being. Includes a detailed section on how to meditate using an ancient technique called shabd yoga (listening to the inner sound) without resorting to mythological concepts or overlays.From the Text: I don't meditate with an end goal or with some underlying desire for a specific enlightened state mentioned in some ancient holy book or postulated by a revered sage. I meditate just like I surf: for the bliss of the ride. Where it will eventually take me is not dissimilar to where life takes us: to the unexpected and to the unexplored.In other words, it is the means of meditation and not some desired end that is fulfilling. I have noticed that if I get anxious about some result or when I feel a rush, as if entering a time and space portal to a new world, I lose my own balance by clutching. Letting go, surrendering, to our own consciousness and not succumbing to the endless stream of virtual simulations (which our brains are evolutionarily designed to do) is to apprehend the meta program and experience why it emerged.

Surprisingly, one of the more lucid insights on the philosophy of the Tibetan Book of the Dead comes from a Hindu mystic, named Baba Faqir Chand, who apparently was not familiar with the original Tibetan text or its English translation. Although Faqir was not conversant with the Bardo Thotrol, he was nevertheless steeped in its philosophy as taught to him by his guru, Shiv Brat Lal of Gopiganj. Faqir Chand, like his lama counterparts, spent much of his life in meditation, attempting to consciously go through the dying process in order to prepare himself for his final exit. However, unlike others of his kind, Faqir left a detailed account of his some 70-plus years of meditation (ranging from three to 12 hours daily) which led up to his enlightenment. The result is a richly detailed account which provides a thorough understanding of how inner visions and the like are projected in the intermediate stages between life and death.

The Radhasoami Tradition is an important contribution to several scholarly literatures: on Southeast Asian studies; the sociology of religion, and the sociology of politics. Dr. Lane has gathered a truly impressivearray of data on the process of choosing a new guru in the Radhasoami tradition. No serious scholar of Indian religion can ignore Lane's work. The data he has collected will be the building blocks for all future researchon this area. To this data, David has applied a very insightful, original conceptual framework combining elements of Weberian theory on the transmission of charisma, of phenomenological theory on the sociology ofexperience, and the theories of "ideological work" developed by Bennett Berger. The result is the kind of scholarship that deeply respects the authenticity of the religious experience of the Radhasoami communitywhile at the same time making it possible to understand that experience in the context of cultural processes and organizational dynamics common to many different religious communities. --Professor Madsen, Co-author of Habits of the HeartThe Radhasoami Tradition is one of the best works I have read in many years in the field of modern religion and society. Its great strength, I feel, is its understanding of the concept of authority in the Radhasoami tradition and in religious communities in India in general. At no greater time is this concept tested and honed than in the process of succession from one spiritual master to another. These are often difficult moments for the Radhasoami communities, and for this reason inside knowledge about guru succession is very difficult to obtain. Dr. Lane not only has this information, he has it in abundance. He is able to work with this vastknowledge of Radhasoami history and make useful sociological observations on the basis of it.--Professor Juergensmeyer, Author of Radhasoami RealityThe Radhasoami Tradition is a masterful work. Dr. Lane demonstrates the dynamics and history of Indian religious movements in the Hindu tradition and provides a basis for comparative analysis. Building on the classics in the sociology of religion and new studies of religious movements, Dr. Lane skillfully show how religious traditions are maintained in the midst of change, conflict, and negotiation. --Professor Jules-Rosette, Author of The New Religions of Africa

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.

Shabd yoga works. It is an ancient technique that when performed correctly can elicit a series of remarkable experiences, not the least of which is a deep sense of euphoria. However, this ancient practice (which apparently dates at least to the pre-Vedic period in India) has become so intertwined with varying religious doctrines (ranging from Nathism to Radhasoami) that the simplicity of its technique has been overshadowed by unnecessary theological overlays. The technique is not at all complex. Sitting as still as possible the neophyte calmly and patiently listens to subtler and subtler internal sounds within one's head with the desired aim of melting or blending into certain melodies that give one an almost immediate sense of bliss. Varying religious systems have arisen in India and elsewhere which have attempted to give a spiritual or ontological interpretation to what these inner sounds mean and what they purport. However, the technique itself doesn't have to be lost to such theological entrapments because it actually succeeds regardless of whether one is an atheist, agnostic, or a firm believer. Just as anyone can potentially have amazing dreams at night, so anyone can potentially hear inner sounds and have remarkable experiences thereby. This book provides some rich excerpts from the Upanishads and Yogic texts, along with critical insights byProfessor David Christopher Lane on the practice of listening to the inner sound.

This is a new edition of two small, fully illustrated books: The Yoga of Bodysurfing and The Psychic Surfer

This book explores how a young boy and his Dad use a magical mantra to entice the ocean to produce surfable waves in Hawaii. It explores Littlewood's Law of Miracles and the theory of large numbers. Fully illustrated withbeautiful pictures throughout.

The long-awaited sequel to The Making of a Spiritual Movement: The Untold Story of Paul Twitchell and Eckankar, this work goes into further detail about Paul Twitchell's extensive plagiarism, his cover-ups, his neo-mythology, and the acrimonious break-up of Darwin Gross and Harold Klemp. Includes documents, photographs, and a plethora of intriguing materials on the evolution of Eckankar as a New Age religion.

Tom Blake changed the face of surfing and has long been lauded as one of the true pioneers and innovators in the sport. Although much has been written about him and his contributions (culminating in Gary Lynch's magisterial biography of him, Tom Blake: The Uncommon Journey of a Pioneer Waterman, published in 2001), very little work has been done on Tom Blake's Einsteinian philosophy. This is a shame, since though Blake was not formally educated (he never graduated high school due to the devastating influenza epidemic that swept the world in 1918 and 1919), he was an astute observer of nature and had a deep understanding of science and its implications on such perennial questions concerning ethics, God, and the goal of human life. The essence of Tom Blake's philosophical outlook is best captured in his book, Voice of the Atom, an engaging narrative that centers on his conversations with a young nomadic wanderer named Anthony. Yet, there are also other scattered writings, particularly letters that he wrote to friends over the years, that provide a wider glimpse into Blake's thinking that are invaluable.

This graphic novel with over 100 tantalizing pictures describes a futuristic company that has developed a new virtual reality application called the Prajna Project. There are ten distinct libraries, each with 10,000 books, that the user can read or listen to in an ever-changing meditative environment. Moreover, there are A.I. curators that can guide the reader and respond to almost any query in hundreds of languages. But what makes this app unique is that the reader can actually live out the narrative as a character and become an integral part of the story. Yet, there is a glitch in the system that forces the company to confront a strange mystery, what has become known as the Mystery of the Eleventh Portal.

The wisest course for schools (at all levels) is to wake-up to Artificial Intelligence and see it for what it is: a revolutionary and magnifying tool for increasing our knowledge of how things work. Yes, there will be hiccups, yes, there will be mistakes, and yes, we should be vigilant in how we utilize this most remarkable of breakthroughs. But censoring it in the classroom as if it somehow doesn't or shouldn't exist is pure folly.

In each Manvantara, there appear Seven Sages who help guide humanity. Each resides at a different geographic region across the globe, but their exact location is a closely guarded secret. There is a disputed Hindu legend that exists which claims that if anyone can discover the real names of these Rishis and where they presently reside, then the seeker will be immediately enlightened. In early September 1659, Princess Jahanara at the bequest of her brother Dara Shikoh, before he was beheaded, instructed a group of devout Sadhus then living near her palace in Agra to search for clues concerning these all-powerful Rishis. Nothing came of it. However, a fanatical clan grew out of this search that still survives to this day. They are known as "The Cult of the Seven Sages." Its current leader and founder is Jasbir Kashani, a Hindu-Muslim mystic, who after 7 months of continuous meditation has just emerged from his solitary cave in the Himalayan mountains. This is his story about the quest to find the name and location of the first of the Saptarishi.

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. I have added a postscript to several essays to bring them up to date and add the latest insights culled from the latest research in all things related to A.I. and V.R.

This fully illustrated book with over 95 unique pictures describes the journey of consciousness through the inner regions of light and sound by the ancient practice of surat shabd yoga. Based on the work of Shiv Dayal Singh, Julian Johnson, and others, the book provides the reader with a rare visual treat of realms beyond imagination.

I don't understand a lot of things - I guess that's why I ask so many questions. But one thing I do know: Santa Claus is real! How do I know? Because one year, I almost ruined Christmas. My curiosity is always getting me in trouble. You know what they say - curiosity killed the cat, and this one Christmas...Readers' Favorite 5-star review:I Have Questions, Lots and Lots of Questions is inspired by David Lane when he was six years old. The story is told from the perspective of a little boy. He is so excited about Christmas and can't stop asking various questions. It's Christmas Eve, so he wants to know things, like why this celebration is only once a year, what Santa's life is like, and everything related to this date. His parents do their best to satisfy his insatiable curiosity; however, there are so many things to learn. We can watch this adorable boy as he conveys his excitement. The adorable illustrations by Caleb McBee highlight the tenderness of this marvelous tale.David Lane expresses himself naturally, even in his bio where he answers some of the questions raised in the story. His narration is great and offers us friendly characters. At the same time, he shares good values by showing a patient and loving family. I loved Caleb McBee's illustrations. He sometimes uses different angles, not just frontal images, and highlights textures well. In addition, the colors reflect harmony. Both the story and the visual content convey a lot of love. I Have Questions, Lots and Lots of Questions is an excellent option to inspire children's curiosity and interest in Christmas.

In this investigation into the criminal underworld of the cities and villages of the Italian South, David Lane provides an unrivaled exposé of the operations of the Mafia today From Naples, home of Mafia-controlled mozzarella and toxic waste, through the no less rotten Calabria, to Sicily, cradle of Cosa Nostra, the hold of the Mafia on Southern Italy is as strong as ever. Following a multi-decade career as a journalist in Italy, David Lane uses his extensive contacts into the world of organized crime to demonstrate how globalization has transformed the Mafia into more than simply a global phenomenon. In painful detail, Into the Heart of the Mafia describes the unceasing mafia pressure endured by priests and politicians, businessmen, trade unionists, and ordinary citizens, and the risks undertaken by the policemen, judges, and politicians who fight to weaken the Mafia's influence. A travelogue with the most deadly of implications, Into the Heart of the Mafia stands as a guide like no other into the darkest side of Italy.

The play presents the life of King Louis XVI of France during the French Revolution and is based on the tradition dating from the seventeenth century of an unfulfilled request by Jesus Christ through St. Margaret Mary Alacoque that, to avert a future catastrophe in the realm, Louis' great grandfather, Louis XIV, must consecrate France to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In return for this act of humility, the Lord promised to shower France with graces and blessings. Louis XIV and the kings who followed him delayed in making the consecration until, finally, on June 17, 1789, one hundred years later to the day, the Third Estate of the Estates General declared itself the National Assembly, challenging King Louis XVI and initiating the French Revolution. Louis was later stripped of his powers and sent to the guillotine to be put to death like a common criminal; France thereupon became engulfed in the horrors of the Revolutionary Terror. This play, therefore, like the ancient Greek tragedies, has a religious dimension in the concepts of divine retribution and the iniquity of the fathers visited upon the sons to the third and fourth generation (cf., The Bible, Euripides, Shakespeare).