Arthur Johnson Memorial Library

Horgan, John

Rational mysticism dispatches from the border between science and spirituality John Horgan - Boston Houghton Mifflin 2003. - 292 p. 24 cm.

Contents:
Introduction : Lena's feather
Huston Smith's perennial philosophy
Attack of the postmodernists
Weightlifting Bodhisattva
Can neurotheology save us?
God machine
Sheep who became a goat
Zen and James Austin's brain
In the birthplace of LSD
God's psychoanalyst
Man in the purple sparkly suit
Ayahuasca
Awe-ful truth
Epilogue : Winter solstice

"How do trances, visions, prayer, satori, and other mystical experiences "work"? What induces and defines them? Is there a scientific explanation for religious mysteries and transcendent meditation? John Horgan investigates a wide range of fields - chemistry, neuroscience, psychology, anthropology, theology, and more - to narrow the gap between reason and mystical phenomena." "As both a seeker and an award-winning journalist, Horgan consulted a wide range of experts, including theologian Huston Smith, spiritual heir to Joseph Campbell; Andrew Newberg, the scientist whose quest for the "God machine" was the focus of a Newsweek cover story; Ken Wilber, prominent transpersonal psychologist; Alexander Shulgin, legendary psychedelic drug chemist; and Susan Blackmore, Oxford-educated psychologist, parapsychology debunker, and Buddhist."--Jacket

0618060278

2002032281


Mysticism.
Religion and science.

291.175 Hor 8