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How do trances, visions, prayer, satori, and other mystical manifestations "work"? What are their neurological mechanisms and psychological implications? John Horgan investigates a wide range of field--chemistry, physics, psychology, radiology, theology, and more--to narrow the gap between reason and enlightenment. As both a seeker and an award-winning journalist, Horgan is uniquely positioned to profile researchers and their work. To find the ends of enlightenment, he communes with a number of experts, including the theologian Huston Smith, spiritual heir to Joseph Campbell; Andrew Newberg, the scientist whose quest for the brain's "God module" put him on the cover of Newsweek; Ken Wilber, the doyen of transpersonal psychology; Alexander Shulgin, the legendary chemist who has synthesized scores of psychedelic drugs and tested them on himself; and Susan Blackmore, a Buddhist, psychologist, and parapsychology debunker who teaches at Oxford. Horgan also explores the strikingly similar effects of "mystical technologies" like sensory deprivation, prayer, fasting, trance, dancing, meditation, and drug trips. He tells of participating in experiments that seek the neurological underpinnings of mystical experiences. And, finally, he recounts his own tortuous search for enlightenment--adventurous, poignant, and sometimes surprisingly comic. Horgan's conclusions resonate with the controversial climax of The End of Science because, as he argues, the most enlightened mystics and the most enlightened scientists end up in the same place--confronting the imponderable depth of the universe.

"Interviewing many of the world's most important scientists, [Horgan] displayed a gift for pulling back the curtain to unveil diminutive wizards, a technique he employs adroitly in this new book."

Dick Teresi, New York Times Book Review, 03/23/2003

Rational Mysticism: Dispatches from the Border Between Science and Spirituality: Search Results