Newsweek told Hans they were doing a story about how scientists had discovered parts of the brain that responded to religious experience. What you see above is just one of the images we came up with. After it had been sent off, we were told that everyone at Newsweek liked the work, but a month went by and the photos never ran. I sensed a conspiracy. But then we got word that one of the images was going on the May 2nd cover. By way of congratulations, I emailed Hans:

"Good news from Simon. I was beginning to think the Vatican had supressed the story. My friend Max the Screenwriter is wondering if you can get a direct line to God by stimulating that region of the brain where our religious impulses are supposed to be. She thinks there may be an 'Outer Limits' type screenplay idea there. Me, I don't think it's all that different from John C. Lilly (the dolphin research guy) shooting up with ketamine and entering a tunnel in his mind where a bunch of surly dwarves would answer his every question about the nature of the universe, or that Canadian scientist who strapped an electromagnetic motorcycle helmet on his mailman and made the poor guy hallucinate that he was being abducted by aliens. All manner of strange things can happen when you stimulate a brain in some crazy way--talking to God being one of the more common experiences. But if Johnson & Johnson ever comes out with a pill that makes kids want to go to church, I'm sure it'll be a big hit among the Bush crowd. And we'll be able to say we played an infintesimally small role in making it happen."

Hans, generous guy that he is, made sure I shared the byline for the cover with him. There's something very satisfying about seeing your name in print in Newsweek. I highly reccommend it.

One further note: we were later told that this was Newsweek's best-selling cover of the year, outselling other issues by as much as 3-to-1.