How to Think Impossibly: Freeing the Mind from it's Cultural Constraints with Dr. Jeffrey Kripal

Ever wondered what happens when we stop trying to explain away the mysterious and start truly listening to the extraordinary? Join us for a mind-expanding conversation with Dr. Jeffrey J. Kripal, a pioneering scholar who's not afraid to explore the weird, wonderful, and unexplainable.

Jeffrey J. Kripal holds the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University, where he served as the Associate Dean of the School of Humanities (2019-2023), chaired the Department of Religion for eight years, and also helped create the GEM Program, a doctoral concentration in the study of Gnosticism, Esotericism, and Mysticism that is the largest program of its kind in the world. He presently helps direct the Center for Theory and Research at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, where he served as Chair of the Board from 2015 to 2020.

Jeff is the author or co-author of thirteen books, nine of which are with The University of Chicago Press. He has also served as the Editor in Chief of the Macmillan Handbook Series on Religion (ten volumes, 2015-2016). He specializes in the study of extreme religious states and the re-visioning of a New Comparativism, particularly as both involve putting “the impossible” back on the academic table again. He is presently working on a three-volume study of paranormal currents in the history of religions and the sciences for The University of Chicago Press, collectively entitled The Super Story.

In this Episode, We Cover:

• Personal Background and Early Experiences
• The Role of Suffering and Religious Narratives
• The Concept of Superhuman Experiences and Erotic Experience
• The Importance of Experiences as Entry Points
• The Varying Degrees of Mystical Experiences
• The Role of Trauma and Suffering in Accessing the Extraordinary
• The Challenge of Integrating Extraordinary Experiences of the Impossible
• The Role of Imagination in Mediating Extraordinary Experiences
• The Sacred is Not Necessarily Good
• How to Think Impossibly: Get Weird
• The Importance of Visual and Symbolic Representations
• The Human Potential Movement at Esalen
• The X-Men and Evolutionary Potential
• The Importance of Reading and Storytelling

Helpful links:

• Dr. Jeffrey Kripal - J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University
• How to Think Impossibly: About Souls, UFOs, Time, Belief, and Everything Else
• The Superhumanities: Historical Precedents, Moral Objections, New Realities 

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