| Knowledge and Understanding | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Live album (lecture) by | |
| Released | 2005 |
| Recorded | 1955 at Hollywood Temple of the Vedanta Society of Southern California |
| Genre | Spoken Word |
| Label | GemsTone distributed by mondayMEDIA |
Knowledge and Understanding 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]
In the lecture, Huxley goes into some depth about the difference between knowledge and understanding and the practical need for both. 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,[8] and he discusses the significance of the drug experience.
In 1956 an article with the same title based on the lecture was published in Vedanta and the West,[9] 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.