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How to Think Impossibly
"From precognitive dreams and telepathic visions to near-death experiences, UFO encounters, and beyond, so-called impossible phenomena are not supposed to happen, but do happen all the time. These are the kinds of fantastic experiences that Jeffrey J. Kripal takes up in How to Think Impossibly. The impossible, Kripal asserts, is a function not of reality, but of our present social constructions and subsequent perceptions and cognitions. In other words, we think these events and experiences are impossible, but they are only impossible within our historically constructed frameworks. In How to Think Impossibly, Kripal thinks-with specific individuals and their extraordinary experiences in vulnerable, open, and often humorous ways. These lines of thought interweave the mental and material dimensions of humanistic and scientific inquiry, resulting in a developing awareness in the reader that what we think of as the impossible is not impossible at all"--
The Flip
“One of the most provocative new books of the year, and, for me, mindblowing.” —Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma and How to Change Your Mind “Kripal makes many sympathetic points about the present spiritual state of America. . . . [He] continues to believe that spirituality and science should not contradict each other.” —New York Times Book Review “Kripal prompts us to reflect on our personal assumptions, as well as the shared assumptions that create and maintain our institutions. . . . [His] work will likely become more and more relevant to more and more areas of inquiry as the century unfolds. It may even open up a new space for Americans to reevaluate the per...
Aldous Huxley and Alternative Spirituality
Aldous Huxley and Alternative Spirituality offers an incisive analysis of the full range of Huxley’s spiritual interests, spanning both mysticism (neo-Vedanta, Taoism, Mahayana and Zen Buddhism) and Western esotericism (mesmerism, spiritualism, the paranormal). Jake Poller examines how Huxley’s shifting spiritual convictions influenced his fiction, such as his depiction of the body and sex, and reveals how Huxley’s use of psychedelic substances affected his spiritual convictions, resulting in a Tantric turn in his work. Poller demonstrates how Huxley’s vision of a new alternative spirituality in Island, in which the Palanese select their beliefs from different religious traditions, anticipates the New Age spiritual supermarket and traces the profound influence of Huxley’s ideas on the spiritual seekers of the twentieth century and beyond.
The Oxford Handbook of Humanism
As a system of thought that values human needs and experiences over supernatural concerns, humanism has gained greater attention amid the rapidly shifting demographics of religious communities. This outlook has taken on global dimensions, with activists, artists, and thinkers forming a humanistic response not only to religion, but to the pressing social and political issues of the 21st century. The Oxford Handbook of Humanism aims to explore the subject by analyzing its history, its philosophical development, and its influence on culture. It will also discuss humanism as a global phenomenon-an approach that has often been neglected in more Western-focused works.
The Encyclopedia of Parapsychology
“Superbly organized and researched, this book by Block provides a comprehensive presentation about parapsychology." -Library Journal, Starred Review The Encyclopedia of Parapsychology covers the history of parapsychology, key international figures, and a decade-by-decade annotated bibliography of research. It includes find information on early psychical researchers from around the globe and how the work of those psychical researchers inspired the creation of the modern field of parapsychology. Alongside biographical entries about key figures are sketches of those at the center of psychical inquiry, like mediums and others who seemingly have the ability to manifest strange phenomena. The En...
Secret Body
"An academic memoir . . . addresses topics as diverse as Hindu Tantra, Christian mysticism, American counterculture, and the history of the paranormal." —Los Angeles Review of Books Over the course of his twenty-five-year career, Jeffrey J. Kripal's study of religion has had two major areas of focus: the erotic expression of mystical experience and the rise of the paranormal in American culture. This book brings these two halves together in surprising ways through a blend of memoir, manifesto, and anthology, drawing new connections between these two realms of human experience and revealing Kripal's body of work to be a dynamic whole that has the potential to renew and reshape the study of ...
New Paths in Jewish and Religious Studies
The work of Elliot R. Wolfson has profoundly influenced the fields of Jewish studies as well as philosophy and religion more broadly. His radically new approaches have created pioneering ways of analyzing texts and thinking about religion through the lens of gender, sexuality, and feminist theory. The contributors to New Paths in Jewish and Religious Studies: Essays in Honor of Professor Elliot R. Wolfson, many of whom are internationally renowned scholars, hearken from diverse fields. Each has learned from and collaborated with Wolfson as student or colleague, and each has expanded the new scholarly directions initiated by Wolfson’s groundbreaking work. Wolfson’s scholarship gives us innovative ways to think about Judaism and a fresh understanding of religion. Not only a scholar, Wolfson is one of the most important Jewish thinkers of our day. Chapters are grouped according to the categories of religion, Jewish thought and philosophy, and a focused section on Kabbalah, Wolfson’s primary specialization. The volume concludes with a bibliography of Wolfson’s published work and a selection of his poetry.
Summary of Jeffrey J. Kripal's The Flip
Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 Mark Twain was a famous writer who was obsessed with coincidence. In 1858, he had a dream in which his brother was lying in a metal burial case, which was exactly how his brother died. He could not bring himself to publish the story, as he was afraid the public would treat it as a joke. #2 The mental telegraphy metaphor points to the cutting-edge technology of the day. It also points to Twain’s belief that whatever processes this mental telegraphy named had some profound relationship to his literary success. #3 The word paranormal was coined by the French researcher Joseph Maxwell in 1903. It was used to describe mind-over-matter phenomena that were well documented, but poorly understood. The word was not used to describe supernatural phenomena. #4 The supernormal and the paranormal did not mean the supernatural, which was used from the thirteenth century on as a clear marker for an act or event from God. The supernormal meant all of those strange signs and anomalies of human experience that hint at a fundamental reality.
Sacred Places of Goddess
Uncovering the past through the lens of sacred travel, this travel book includes both academic and popular religious perspectives, and is filled with photographs of both famous and lesser-known locales from every corner of the world. Each site-specific explanation of the significance of Goddess today and in centuries past deftly combines current trends, academic theories, and historical insights. From the Middle East, to Europe, Africa, and the Americas, the images of feminine divinity presented in this work are as uniform in their beauty as they are diverse in cultural tradition. For each location-be it the shrines in Kyoto and Kamakura or the sites worshipping the Virgin Mary in Bolivia, France, Trinidad, and the Saut D'Eau Waterfalls of Haiti-this book provides a history of each site in conjunction with the photography.
Miracles: An Exercise in Comparative Philosophy of Religion
This volume provides a comparative philosophical investigation into a particular concept from a variety of angles—in this case, the concept of “miracle.” The text covers deeply philosophical questions around the miracle, with a multiplicity of answers. Each chapter brings its own focus to this multifaceted effort. The volume rejects the primarily western focus that typically dominates philosophy of religion and is filled with particular examples of miracle narratives, community responses, and polemical scenarios across widely varying religious contexts and historical periods. Some of these examples defy religious categorization, and some papers challenge the applicability of the concep...
