paranormal phenomena.

This is the 'Neural Surfer' website created by Dr. David Christopher Lane.

In an interview, he commented, 'We need to shave more with Occam's Razor.'--that is when something strange happens, consider and eliminate the most common place, simplest reasons for its occurance instead of jumping to conclusions that something paranormal has happened.

David Lane is a philosophy professor and also an avid surfer. That, along with his low tolerance for BS would make him a good Aussie--just the right blend of gusto and smarts.

There is a new version

[elearn.mtsac.edu]

and an older version of Neural Surfer. Try both. I find the older version a bit easier to navigate, but some very good material is only available on the new site such as this essay describing Dr. Lanes own spiritual journey and how he became an exposer of spiritual scams.

[www.geocities.com]

[www.geocities.com]

Try both and choose what you and your computer like.


If you have not yet read them, I think you will be fascinated by these essays

[elearn.mtsac.edu]

and find they are well worth the effort needed to zap the infuriating 'pop ups' that plague this otherwise excellent site. He has essays on a variety of topics including Satya Sai Baba, Shabd Yoga/guru issues and Ken Wilber.

Lane has taught courses on Wilber's material, finds some of it quite good, but he also takes Wilber to task for misunderstanding evolution.

David Christopher Lane is a philosophy professor. He is also a devotee of an Indian guru, now deceased, named Faquir Chand. Lane found a way to love the man and his teachings, without regressing and his guru into some sort of demi-god.

Faquir Chand was at pains to educate his followers that the power lay within them, that he was not the source. Lane challenges another guru named Kirpal Singh who allows devotees to attribute all sorts of special powers to him, merely because, they experience all sorts of strange things when in Kirpal Singh's presence.


I especially recommend the essays

'The Guru Has No Turban'

The Magic of an Elevated Podium' (the way crowds of devotees create the atmosphere and social context in which seemingly ordinary situations suddenly seem magical or portentious)

The Kirpal Statistic (VERY INTERESTING in relation to the various visions SSB devotees report)

More Light on the Kirpal Statistic

The Locker Room of Junior High Mystics

I am a Skeptic but I can Still Yearn

[elearn.mtsac.edu]

(sample quote)

Now from my perspective it looked like Agam was suffering from a bad cold or flu. I felt sorry for him since his health was not up to par.

Yet, his disciples didn't say "Yea, guru has a bad cold." Rather, there were all sorts of dramatic explanations revolving around karma.

"You see, Dave, the Master is taking on the karmas of his disciples and he is literally paying off their debt in his own body. He is so compassionate. The Master himself, of course, never suffers. He is always enjoying the divine inner bliss." Well, that's a nice way of "explaining way" Agam's obvious suffering, but such metaphysical trapeze work seems to me a long-winded way of avoiding the obvious: The guru is sick!

That's okay, most of us get sick from time to time, but we don't need to resort to non credible theories for why we are sick. Indeed, if the guru's body is simply the manifestation of "eating karma" then when he is healthy it is no different than when he was sick. Yet, it is precisely when he is sick that the disciple wheels out the elaborate explanation for why he is in such a state.

In the Sociology of Knowledge there is a nice phrase for this kind of posturing: "Ideological Work"--the attempt to reconcile a discrepancy between theory and praxis. That is, what do you when your theology demands a certain ideal and the actual example of it cannot and does not live up to it? One then is forced by the searing breach to engage in ideological work.

The bigger the gap between the ideal and the example and the more mentalistic footwork that is demanded. For instance, if you one is brought up in a spiritual tradition where the guru is seen as merely mortal there is not much difficulty when he or she gets a cold/flu. Hey, she's just sick. No need to elaborate. But in traditions where the guru is elevated to Almighty status there can be potential difficulties when the guru shows signs of physical weakness.

I remember noting that one esteemed guru in India seemed to get regularly ill after conducting mass initiations. The "unofficial" buzz around the ashram was that the guru was "taking" on the new initiates' karma.

Naturally, I had a different hunch of the situation. I noticed that thousands of people would get really close to him during this time and, invariably, a few of them had colds or other contagious ailments. I thought to myself that this was the underlying cause for the guru's illness, since I even seem more prone to getting colds and the like after interacting with large groups of people (particularly when dealing with college students in conferences).

Then there are those "embarrassing" things that gurus do, like pick their nose. In India, especially in the Punjab, I have noticed a lot of gurus picking their nose (and I [i:e1a618019c]do [/i:e1a618019c]mean "picking"!). Why? It's dusty.

Now this is where I would expect some "karmic relief" theory to be brought out. "No, the guru is picking away at dirt of our soul and his nose is simply the symbol of it." However, I have yet to hear a karmic explanation for nose picking. Maybe it is too obvious or too personal [i:e1a618019c]or too funky[/i:e1a618019c]. (Corboy's italics)

But I most certainly do hear karmic theories for colds, for yawning, for back troubles, etc. My sense is that some things are too bodily obvious to demand any ideological work. "No, the guru doesn't pee for himself. He is simply whizzing our sins down the toilet." (end of quote)