Tantric Obsession
: Scott Carney + David Vago

When thirty-eight-year-old Ian Thorson died on a remote Arizona mountaintop in 2012, The New York Times reported the story under the headline: “Mysterious Buddhist Retreat in the Desert Ends in a Grisly Death.” Journalist and anthropologist Scott Carney was struck by how Thorson’s death echoed other incidents that reflected the little-talked-about connection between intensive meditation and mental instability. He explores the neural implications of obsession with cognitive neuroscientist David Vago.

A book signing for Scott Carney’s A Death on Diamond Mountain takes place after the program.