Let's meet Saturday, May 23: Waking Up: Spirituality Without Religion
Details
NOTE: This will be a joint meeting with the Lesbian Spiritual Book Group--Portland.
What a wonderful and rich discussion we had on April 18 when we discussed 10% Happier by Dan Harris. Thank you so much to the 9 of us who logged onto Zoom and joined in, creating a very intimate discussion. The strength and commitment of this group make it possible for us to connect deeply even online, and I so appreciate this remarkable group of women.
Our next meeting will be on Saturday, May 23, 2026, from 4:00-6:00 pm PDT. We will discuss Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion by Sam Harris. The book is widely available in print and audiobook, new and used and electronically from www.amazon.com, www.alibris.com and other sellers. Please contact me if you need help locating or purchasing the book.
You are welcome whether you have read or listened to the book or not--the conversation will be rich and intimate regardless. Each time we are joined by some who have not read the book, and I think they can attest that our conversations start with the book and roam freely into the rest of our lives.
We have had a problem with uninvited disruptors. Please note that all members will be held in the waiting room and only admitted if they respond to messages or are known to us. All members must be willing to appear full face on screen throughout the meeting. If you have not RSVP'd, you will not be admitted if you are not known to the group.
About the book:
For the millions of Americans who want spirituality without religion, Sam Harris’s new book is a guide to meditation as a rational spiritual practice informed by neuroscience and psychology.From multiple New York Times bestselling author, neuroscientist, and “new atheist” Sam Harris, Waking Up is for the 30 percent of Americans who follow no religion, but who suspect that Jesus, Buddha, Lao Tzu, Rumi, and the other saints and sages of history could not have all been epileptics, schizophrenics, or frauds. Throughout the book, Harris argues that there are important truths to be found in the experiences of such contemplatives—and, therefore, that there is more to understanding reality than science and secular culture generally allow. Waking Up is part seeker’s memoir and part exploration of the scientific underpinnings of spirituality. No other book marries contemplative wisdom and modern science in this way, and no author other than Sam Harris—a scientist, philosopher, and famous skeptic—could write it.
## About the author
Sam Harris is the author of five New York Times best sellers. His books include The End of Faith, Letter to a Christian Nation, The Moral Landscape, Free Will, Lying, Waking Up, and Islam and the Future of Tolerance (with Maajid Nawaz), The Four Horseman (with Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens), and Making Sense. The End of Faith won the 2005 PEN Award for Nonfiction. His writing and public lectures cover a wide range of topics—neuroscience, moral philosophy, religion, meditation practice, human violence, rationality—but generally focus on how a growing understanding of ourselves and the world is changing our sense of how we should live.
Sam’s work has been published in more than 20 languages and has been discussed in The New York Times, Time, Scientific American, Nature, Rolling Stone, and many other publications. He has written for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Economist, The Times (London), The Boston Globe, The Atlantic, and The Annals of Neurology, among others. He also hosts the Making Sense Podcast, which was selected by Apple as one of the “iTunes Best” and has won a Webby Award for best podcast in the Science & Education category.
Sam received a degree in philosophy from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA. He has also practiced meditation for more than 30 years and has studied with many Tibetan, Indian, Burmese, and Western meditation teachers, both in the United States and abroad. Sam has created the Waking Up Course for anyone who wants to learn to meditate in a modern, scientific context.
Here is the link:
Andrea Bride is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Lesbian Spiritual Book Group
Time: May 23, 2026 04:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87403387620
Meeting ID: 874 0338 7620