In his remarkably prolific career, Rice University professor of religion Jeffrey Kripal has challenged the most fundamental assumptions of the academic – and indeed, the Western intellectual – world view. Examining the “impossible” anomalies of our mental life – paranormal events and perceptions that are inexplicable according to the dominant materialistic paradigm – Kripal speculates on how they might alter our outlook on religious traditions and, even more profoundly, on the nature of mind, consciousness, and reality itself. This lecture will trace the evolution of Kripal’s “mystical humanism,” as he calls his philosophical stance, from his earliest writings to his most recent publications.
Offered as a separate presentation, this lecture also forms the first session of the six-week course, “Jeffrey Kripal’s The Superhumanities: A Book Study”
