John:
... Other than that he's the only famous atheist who's also a contemplative which is probably a good bridge between science and religion.
I found his book disappointing. He breezed through, in fifteen or twenty pages, the part that I was looking forward to. As a neuroscientist (I think he has his Masters) and an experienced meditator having done a few years in retreat practice, I thought he'd detail his practice in practical language, what insights he had, and try to put them into scientific terms. Instead there was a lot of general fluff aimed at non-meditators. Though, I understand he was writing to a non-meditator audience.
Harris explains, very quickly, that he gave up on vipassana after not getting
stream entry first path, and turned towards Dzogchen. That he had a positive experience with his new teacher. But he doesn't go into any detail, like how far did he get in vipassana, why did he 'fail', did he have to start over with Dzogchen, how long did his progress take, did his success with Dzogchen line up with what he was looking for with vipassana. etc....
There wasn't much in his book that I haven't already read in other books.
* edit, I meant 1st path above, not stream entry. sorry..