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# Dr. Diana Pasulka and Mark Stahlman join Larry Chapp to discuss the recovery of our spiritual senses in a digital age
- URL: https://gaudiumetspes22.com/dr-diana-pasulka-and-mark-stahlman-join-larry-chapp-to-discuss-the-recovery-of-our-spiritual-senses-in-a-digital-age/
- Published: 2026-09-24T13:14:06.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-24T13:19:40.000Z
- Author: Larry Chapp
- Tags: Podcasts

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/27/e8278f75-be80-45f0-8633-f46257645e84/content/images/2026/09/Mark-Stahlman-PIC-7.jpg)

This podcast is audio only at the request of the guests. This is an absolutely fascinating conversation with two experts on the issue of the challenges we face as a result of the digital revolution. We discuss the absolutely critical importance of recovering the classical Catholic doctrine of the internal spiritual senses as the best response to the flattening of what it means to be human in an era of AI and digital everything. I also discuss with Dr. Pasulka the issue of Ufo's and the current viral publicity with regard to the question of "disclosure". Listed above the podcast link are bios for both guests so you can get a sense of who they are. I loved this conversation.

**Dr. Diana Pasulka**:

Dr. Diana Walsh Pasulka, Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW). Dr. Pasulka’s research focuses on religion, technology, and emerging religious movements. She has authored a series of acclaimed books, including:

- *“American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, and Technology”*(2019), which explores the convergence of these themes, receiving critical acclaim from major publications like Vice, Vox, Fox News, and The Los Angeles Review of Books.
- *“Heaven Can Wait: Purgatory in Catholic Devotional and Popular Culture”*(2014), delving into Catholic traditions.
- *“Encounters: Experiences with Nonhuman Intelligences” (2024)*, exploring the nature of unexplained experiences.
- And a forthcoming book, *The Others: AI, UFOs and the Secret Forces Guiding Human Destiny (St. Martin’s Essentials, MacMillan, July 2026).*

Beyond these books her published articles and book chapters delve into topics ranging from historical examinations of 19th-century Western American children’s literature about the afterlife.

Diana has appeared on popular podcasts like The Joe Rogan Experience, Lex Fridman, Mysterious Universe, and in the New York Times. She was the consulting producer for the Emmy nominated Amblin Netflix Series called Encounters, and the consultant for the first Conjuring movie in the franchise. Her insights were also featured in the J.J. Abrams-produced docuseries “UFO.”

**Mark Stahlman**:

Mark Stahlman is President of the Center for the Study of Digital Life (CSDL). A retired Wall Street technology strategist, investment banker and serial entrepreneur, he launched his first software company – Computron Technologies, Inc. – in the early 1970s after leaving his study of Theology (University of Chicago) and Molecular Genetics (University of Wisconsin, Madison) to join the still nascent digital revolution. Stahlman started his digital career as a computer architect and programmer, designing computer and networking systems for Wang Labs, Citibank and the Diplomat Arabic word processor for Computron. He began his Wall Street career as a principal at Sanford Bernstein, and is credited with being the first to cover Sun Microsystems (SUNW) in 1986\. He continued at Alex Brown and Sons, where he was a partner and he formed the New Media banking practice which managed the initial public offering for America Online (AOL) in 1992\. Stahlman’s work in computer architecture led him to coin the term “network computing,” which Sun Microsystems adopted for their corporate motto “The Network is the Computer.”  
  
In the 1990s, Stahlman co-founded the world’s largest Internet group, the New York New Media Association (NYNMA), and is credited with the term “Silicon Alley.” His Why IBM Failed article for Harvard Business Review led to an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal and a consulting assignment at IBM that pushed the company towards its leadership in the services business. More recently, Stahlman helped organize an East-West “Dialogue of Civilizations” conference at the United Nations, and guest-edited a Special Centennial issue of the literary journal Renascence, devoted to Marshall McLuhan. He is a prolific writer whose reports have generated over $50M for his firms and 10-20x investment returns for his clients. He was on the first Institutional Investor magazine All American Team for Microcomputers, has appeared often on CNBC, CNN and Bloomberg TV, was profiled by Forbes as “The Futurist,” has written for Wired and Information Week, and was a contributing editor at Strategy + Business. His godfather was Norbert Wiener, and he considers CSDL to be a continuation of his father’s participation in Wiener’s “Genius Project.”