Rational Mysticism: Dispatches from the Border Between Science and Spirituality [Hardcover]

John Horgan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 22, 2003

John Horgan, author of the best-selling The End of Science, chronicles the most advanced research into the mechanics—and meaning—of mystical experiences. 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 module” 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 Zen practitioner. Horgan explores the striking similarities between “mystical technologies” like sensory deprivation, prayer, fasting, trance, dancing, meditation, and drug trips. He participates in experiments that seek the neurological underpinnings of mystical experiences. And, finally, he recounts his own 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.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

A former senior writer at Scientific American investigates the physics of mystical experiences like prayer, fasting, and trances.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"A marvelous book....[Horgan has] a gift for pulling back the curtain to unveil diminutive wizards, a technique he employs adroitly in this new book...." --Dick Teresi The New York Times Book Review

"[I]nformative, critical . . . fascinating and disturbing." Library Journal

"[A] great read, full of amusing vignettes and thoughtful reflections." --Stephen Mihm The Washington Post

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 292 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (January 22, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618060278
• ISBN-13: 978-0618060276
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (57 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,089,293 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #97 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Other Practices > Scientology

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An important, challenging, and subversive work., January 26, 2003

By 

Jim R. "thevulgarian" (Portland, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rational Mysticism: Dispatches from the Border Between Science and Spirituality (Hardcover)

This is one of the best nonfiction reads I've encountered in a long time. It's compulsively readable. I love to have my assumptions challenged and this book did that and more. I laughed, cried, rolled my eyes, argued with Mr. Horgan. It's a great ride.

Rational Mysticism was especially meaningful to me because I long ago gave up on organized religion and put my faith in science. I occasionally try to return to religion, but quickly leave in exasperation. Now I understand that either path ends in mystery. We need to respect that mystery and appreciate the reality we have more.

You will meet some fascinating people in these pages, titantic egos, brilliant thinkers, crackpots. The introduction "Lena's Feather" was profoundly moving to me. Mr. Horgan's account of the ayahuasca ceremony is not to be missed. Finally the chapter "The Awe-Ful Truth" will leave you with much to think about.

Anyone who thinks on the "big questions" whether religious or rationalist should read this book.

73 of 81 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars valuable overview filled with pointers to further sources, October 2, 2004

By 

James J. Lippard "skeptic" (Phoenix, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rational Mysticism: Spirituality Meets Science in the Search for Enlightenment (Paperback)

John Horgan has written a wonderfully entertaining and informative account of his attempt to find who is productively applying science to the field of mysticism. One other Amazon.com reviewer said that they do not like this sort of book, which is based on interviewing individuals and commenting on their personalities as well as their ideas, but I personally prefer this approach as an introduction to the lives and works of others. I found the book to be very insightful, as Horgan always seemed to ask the questions and raise the issues that I was interested in hearing about. His open-minded yet skeptical approach is one I find refreshing.

Horgan's subjects--Huston Smith, Steven Katz, Bernard McGinn, Ken Wilber, Andrew Newberg, Michael Persinger, Susan Blackmore, James Austin, Albert Hofmann, Stanislov Grof, Terence McKenna, Alexander "Sasha" and Ann Shulgin--are all quite interesting people. Horgan seemed most sympathetic to Blackmore, Austin, Wilber, McKenna (personality-wise more than idea-wise), and the Shulgins. He was--correctly, I believe--skeptical of Persinger after finding his pro-psi views. My own view of Persinger is that he attempts to fit everything into his temporal lobe epilepsy/tectonic strain theory views, but has often been unskeptical about the data he's pushing into the theory; I've never understood why skeptics like Blackmore and Michael Shermer have thought him to be plausible. (I've authored a critical review of Persinger's Space-Time Transients and Unusual Events for including bogus debunked events as items to be explained by his theory, and The Arizona Skeptic published an extensive bibliography of critiques of his TST assembled by Chris Rutkowski of the University of Manitoba in the July 1992 issue).

In the end, Horgan is skeptical of all of his subjects, and thinks that they've missed out on the importance of a sense of awe and wonder, as well as playfulness and fun (though McKenna seems to have had that down). I'm not sure I agree with Horgan on that--I thought that what most of these people seemed to have in common was being very comfortable (most seem to be wealthy, famous, respected, and living well) and being advocates of a quietistic conservatism that advocates being content with the way the world is. That's an easy position for someone who is comfortable to take. Horgan does touch on this subject briefly a few times, such as when he writes about "the nature does-not-care principle" and the problem of natural evil (pp. 192-194) and when he raises the issue of suffering with Austin (p. 131).

Horgan seemed most at odds with Katz, a view I shared--Katz's views seem sheer unsubstantiated dogmatism, when he insists that drug experiences have absolutely nothing to do with mystical experiences, and in his insistence on a commonality between all forms of mysticism, which reminded me of the Bahai faith--a religion that disagrees with all other religions in arguing for the compatibility of all religions.

In the end, I found myself scrawling notes of other books I'd like to read as a result of the references in this book: Austin's Zen and the Brain, Georg Feuerstein's Holy Madness, V.S. Ramachandran's Phantoms in the Brain, Francisco Varela's Sleeping, Dreaming, and Dying, Anthony Storr's Feet of Clay, and Rudolf Otto's The Idea of the Holy, as well as finding numerous references to other works that seem to me to be likely to be "on the right track" (Stephen Batchelor's Buddhism without Beliefs, Ronald Siegel's books on hallucinations and drug experiences). Reading Horgan's book was for me a valuable experience that I recommend.

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars well written, but author's prejudices seep through, June 5, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Rational Mysticism: Dispatches from the Border Between Science and Spirituality (Hardcover)

Horgan's Rational Mysticism takes a serious look at the various approaches of mysticism. The book is roughly broken up into three broad approaches to mysticism -- philosophical, neurological/psychological, and psychotropic. Horgan has interviewed a large group of people for this book including Huston Smith, Steven Katz, Bernard McGinn, Ken Wilber, Andrew Newberg, Michael Persinger, Susan Blackmore, James Austin, Stanilav Grof, and Terrance McKenna.

Horgan asks good questions and finds contradictions between the ideas and philosophies of those he interviews, sometimes taking one person's comments from a previous interview to contradict another's answer. Sometimes he stoops to ad hominen attacks. The title about Ken Wilber, 'The Weightlifting Boddhisattva' seems like a subtle attack of Wilber's character and authenticity if he has any. In another chapter he talks about how Michael Persinger loses all credibility when he finds out that he is carrying out research into psi phenomena. I'm a skeptic when it comes to psi myself, but to throw out Persinger's neurological studies just because he wants to test psychic phenomena seems akin to throwing out the baby with the bath water. Throughout the book he uses these popular and mainstream prejudices (UFOs come up later) to cast doubts on the ideas of everyone he interviews.

I was greatly disappointed at the end of the book where he makes the following comment: "Not until I met and fell in love with Suzi (wife) almost a year after the trip did my estrangement from life and from my own self finally subside. Mysticism did not save me; it was that from which I needed to be saved."

People pursue mysticism and religion for meaning. People can pursue relationships for the same reason. I have no problem with this. But Horgan, who seems so dismissive of mysticism as being an unreliable path for so many, himself included, wants to sell this idea of true love as the answer to life. Maybe it is and maybe it isn't. It certainly is a noble concept. However, one thing is for sure; love, friendship, and meaningful relationships are full of pain as well as pleasure for most people. And just as one personality, like Horgan, may find mystical concepts such as non-duality or oneness disturbing, another personality may see romantic or companionate love as a disturbing manifestation of dependency or neediness.

Overall, I feel it is a good book for skeptics, free thinkers and maybe conservative/fundamentalist religious people who don't buy the whole contemplative approach to religion. Mystics and those interested in experiential/contemplative religion may want to steer clear of this book which seems more about creating uncertainty than answering any hard questions. Of course, no one should expect to find such answers in a book. Maybe Horgan was just trying to convey his own personal experience, but the objective interviewer seemed to be tainted by the end of the book.