Who Are We? (album) explained

Who Are We?
Type:live
Longtype:(lecture)
Artist:Aldous Huxley
Cover:Who_Are_We.jpg
Released:2008
Recorded:1955, Hollywood Temple of the Vedanta Society of Southern California
Genre:Spoken word
Label:GemsTone distributed by mondayMEDIA

Who Are We? is a 1955 recording of Aldous Huxley giving a lecture at the Vedanta Society of Southern California's Hollywood temple.[1] The lecture was originally recorded on a wire recorder and digitally transferred to CD.[2] Huxley was a student of Swami Prabhavananda,[3] [4] who founded the Society. Along with Christopher Isherwood and other notable disciples[5] of the Swami, Huxley would occasionally give lectures at the society's temples in Hollywood and Santa Barbara.[6] [7] [8]

In the lecture, Huxley goes into some depth about core issues about human existence, asking the primal question: what is our true nature. Included in the CD is a recording of a question and answer session between Huxley and the audience held after the lecture. The lecture was given just a year after the publication of Huxley's book, The Doors of Perception,[9] and he discusses the significance of the drug experience.

In 1955, the same year as the lecture recording, an article with the same title based on the lecture was published in Vedanta and the West,[10] the bi-monthly magazine produced by the Vedanta Society of Southern California.

The recording was licensed by mondayMEDIA from Vedanta Press and released on the GemsTone label.

Notes and References

  1. http://www.allmusic.com/album/who-are-we-r1790202 Listing in Allmusic.com
  2. http://www.dealtime.com/who-are-we/2viMWytbXx2BD98SWm-Adg==/info Details of recording and review of CD
  3. http://www.advaita.org.uk/reading/aldousHuxley.htm Details of Huxley's and Isherwood's association with Swami Prabhavananda
  4. [Aldous Huxley]
  5. http://www.advaita.org.uk/reading/aldousHuxley.htm Details of Huxley's and Isherwood's association with Swami Prabhavananda
  6. http://www.pooler-georgia-homepage.com/aldous-huxley.html Note on lecturing in Santa Barbara
  7. http://livre-athee.com/parole_athee_eng_3%20quote.htm Lectures at Hollywood and Santa Barbara
  8. http://www.answers.com/topic/aldous-huxley Details of Huxley's association with Swami Prabhavananda and details of the recording
  9. http://www.advaita.org.uk/reading/aldousHuxley.htm Details of Huxley's and Isherwood's association with Swami Prabhavananda
  10. [Aldous Huxley]