Do We Possess a Transpersonal Imagination?
Some products of our imaginations seem to spring from sources beyond our everyday selves...
Stories by John Horgan
Mysticism and the Mind-Body Problem: Other Views
Participants in a freewheeling exploration of nonmaterialist, mystical accounts of reality critique a journalist’s critique...
My Top 10 Columns of the Decade
Cross-Check began a decade ago. Here are columns that the author liked, even if readers didn’t...
My Go-To Arguments for Free Will
Free will must exist if some of us have more of it than others...
Can Mysticism Help Us Solve the Mind-Body Problem?
A freewheeling symposium explores experiences, theories and philosophies that challenge conventional materialist science...
Baba Ram Dass and the Tale of the Acid-Gobbling Guru
Skeptics have questioned a story told by the late counterculture icon in his classic best seller Be Here Now...
Can Philosophy Make You Happy?
Philosopher Catherine Wilson thinks the ancient sage Epicurus can provide guidance for our modern scientific age...
Beyond Physicalism
Philosopher Hedda Hassel Mørch defends the idea that consciousness pervades the cosmos
Multiverse Theories Are Bad for Science
New books by a physicist and science journalist mount aggressive but ultimately unpersuasive defenses of multiverses...
Jeffrey Epstein and the Decadence of Science
The Epstein scandal, which embroiled many prominent scientists, is just one of many signs that a gloomy prophecy is being fulfilled...
Can the Shape of Your Face Predict Your Propensity for Violence?
Modern scientists revive a crude form of biological determinism...
Can Lifelong, Invasive Screening Eradicate Cancer?
A prominent oncologist urges continuous testing of everyone from birth onward with implanted devices that detect cancerous cells before they spread
Meta-Post: Posts on Physics
Cross-check columns on physics, cosmology and related topics...
How Harold Bloom, the Late Literary Critic, Helped Me Write The End of Science
Bloom’s book The Anxiety of Influence helped a science writer understand the plight of modern scientists trying to surpass their predecessors
How Can We Curb the Spread of Scientific Racism?
A new book examines the insidious effects of scientific investigations into race...
String Theory Does Not Win a Nobel, and I Win a Bet
Science writer John Horgan wins a 2002 bet with physicist Michio Kaku that by 2020 no unified theory of physics will win a Nobel Prize...
On Philosophy, Death and the Sea
A young philosopher finds philosophy consoling because it is impossible...
My Regrets about Controversial Anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon (RIP)
Chagnon’s views of the “fierce” Yanomamö and of the roots of war were more subtle than his critics or admirers suggested...
How We Can Avert Climate Apocalypse
An alarming book provokes a vision of a world that has solved the problems of global warming and war...
Is Mathematics, like Science, Pluralistic?
Mathematicians disagree over whether their fundamental assumptions, or axioms, are true...
