Books
Where Was God on September 11? A Scientist Asks a Ground-Zero Pastor.
With Reverend Frank Geer. Edited and with an Introduction by Robert Hutchinson. Brown Trout, 2002. Royalties go to Help the Afghan Children Inc.
Misc. Writings
Toward a Unified Theory of Einstein's Life
Review of biographies of Einstein by Walter Isaacson and Jurgen Neffe, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 4, 2007.
Spirit Tech: How to Wire Your Brain for Religious Ecstasy
A report on "mystical technologies" for inducing religious experiences, Slate, April 26, 2007.
Francis Collins: The Scientist As Believer
Q&A with Francis Collins, Director of the Human Genome Project, National Geographic, February 2007.
The God Experiments
Article on scientific explanations of religious experiences, Discover, December 2006.
The Final Frontier
Tenth-anniversay update of The End of Science for Discover, October 2006.
Rent-a-Genius
Review of The Jasons: The Secret History of Science's Postwar Elite, by Ann Finkbeiner, New York Times Book Review, April 16, 2006.
The Templeton Foundation: A Skeptic's Take
Essay in the Chronicle of Higher Education, April 7, 2006.
Einstein Has Left the Building
Essay in the New York Times Book Review, January 1, 2006.
Political Science
Review of The Republican War on Science by Chris Mooney. New York Times Book Review, December 18, 2005
The Forgotten Era of Brain Chips
Profile of Jose Delgado, a pioneer of brain implants, Scientific American, October 2005.
In Defense of Common Sense
An essay inspired by the Centennial of Einstein's revolutionary papers on relativity and quantum mechanics. New York Times, August 12, 2005
Can a Single Brain Cell Think?
Researchers have found evidence for the controversial "grandmother-cell" theory. Discover, June 2005.
Brain Chips and Other Dreams of the Cyber-Evangelists
An essay in the Chronicle of Higher Education, June 3, 2005
Do Our Genes Influence Behavior?
An essay published in the Chronicle of Higher Education, November 26, 2004.
Keeping the Faith in My Doubt
An essay published in the New York Times, December 12, 2004
Why I Can't Embrace Buddhism
A critique of Buddhism, published online by Slate (slate.msn.com) February 12, 2003.
Peyote on the Brain
Published in Discover Magazine, February 2003. A profile of the Harvard psychiatrist John Halpern and his five-year study of peyote use by members of the Native American Church.
More Than Good Intentions: Holding Fast to Faith in Free Will
An essay published in the New York Times, December 31, 2002.
A Holiday Made for Believing
An essay published on the oped page of the New York Times Christmas Day, 2002.
Selected Articles, 1986-Present
A list of articles written for Scientific American and other publications.
Outtakes from Rational Mysticism
(published here only)
Why I Gave Up On Zen
An account of Horgan's efforts to achieve satori in a Zen class.
The Psychedelic Sorcerer
A profile of the German anthropologist and authority on shamanism Christian Ratsch.
The Anti-Gurus
A profile of Diana Alstad and Joel Kramer, authors of The Guru Papers.
A Modern Catholic Mystic
A profile of the Benedictine monk Brother David Steindl-Rast.
Beyond Belief
A profile of the British Buddhist Stephen Batchelor.
The Myth of the Totally Enlightened Guru
A profile of the guru Andrew Cohen, founder of What Is Enlightenment?, with digressions on Yogi Bhajan and Amrit Desai.
