THURSDAY,
May 11
4 p.m.
Welcome: Jeffrey J. Kripal
"A Higher Higher Education"
4:30 p.m.
Plenary Session: Greg Eghigian
“UFOs and Alien Contact in the Shadow of Deception”
5:30 p.m.
Plenary Session: Stephen C. Finley ’06, ’09
“In and Out of This World: Material and Extraterrestrial Bodies in the Nation of Islam”
6:30 – 8 p.m.
Connecting with One Another: Food and Drink
Dean’s Commons, Anderson-Clarke Center, Susanne M. Glasscock School of Continuing Studies
FRIDAY,
May 12
9 a.m.
Welcome: Jeffrey J. Kripal
MODERATOR: APRIL DECONICK
Flash Talk: Loriliai Biernacki
“Mantras, Mental Causality, Information and Transcendence”
9:30 a.m.
Flash Talk: Dale Allison
“Comparing Like with Like: The Impossible Jesus and Impossible Others”
10 a.m.
Flash Talk: Rey Hernandez
“Statistical Studies of the Contact Modalites: Understanding Our Greater Reality”
10:30 a.m.
Flash Talk: Anya P. Foxen
“The Sublime and the Ridiculous: What Happens When the Impossible is Ordinary?”
11 – 11:30 a.m.
Coffee break
11:30 a.m.
Plenary Session: Barbara Newman
“ ‘To Slip Between Dimensions’: A Tale of Glory and Tragedy”
12:30 – 2 p.m.
Lunch
MODERATOR: WILLIAM PARSONS
2 p.m.
Flash Talk: Colm Kelleher
“The UAP and Parapsychology: Lessons Learned From Managing a Pentagon Classified Study”
2:30 p.m.
Flash Talk: Michael Lackner
“Divination: An Alternative Rationality”
3 p.m.
Flash Talk: Kenny Paul Smith
“Teaching the Superhumanities: Some Modest Reflections”
3:30 - 4 p.m.
Coffee break
4 p.m.
Panel Discussion: John E. Mack Gift
MODERATOR: JEFFREY J. KRIPAL
Discussants:
Karin Austin
Amanda Focke
Anna Shparberg
5:30 p.m.
Plenary Session: Charles M. Stang
“The Call of the Ancient: Psychedelic Pasts and Futures”
SATURDAY,
May 13
9 a.m.
Welcome: Jeffrey J. Kripal
MODERATOR: CAMERON DEZEN HAMMON
9 a.m.
Flash Talk: Sravana Borkataky-Varma
“Imaginal Siddhis, Engines of Insight”
9:30 a.m.
Flash Talk: David Halperin
“The Academy and the Impossible — A Tale of Two Bibles”
10 a.m.
Flash Talk: Georgy Mamedov
“Dialectical Notes on the Human: Marxism as the Impossible, and the Impossible through a Marxist Lens”
10:30 a.m.
Flash Talk: Bernd-Christian Otto
“A Practice of the Impossible? Pondering the Peculiarities of Modern Sigil Magick”
11 – 11:30 a.m.
Coffee break
11:30 a.m.
Plenary Session: Karin Meyers
“Buddhism and the Impossible”
12:30 – 2 p.m.
Lunch
MODERATOR: NIKI KASUMI CLEMENTS
2 p.m.
Flash Talk: Sharon Hewitt Rawlette
“The Impossible Efficacy of Intention? Psi as a Model for Value-Based Holistic Causation”
2:30 p.m.
Flash Talk: Joel Gruber
“Manufacturing the Impossible: A Practice-Based Approach to Instigating the Mystical Experience (without Psychedelics)”
3 p.m.
Flash Talk: Scarlett L. Heinbuch
“A Lifetime Living Between Worlds: Love is the Key”
3:30 – 4 p.m.
Coffee break
4 p.m.
Panel Discussion: Film and the Impossible
MODERATOR: JEFFREY J. KRIPAL
Discussants:
Brad Abrahams
Stuart Davis
Kevin Lincoln
5:30 p.m.
Plenary Session: AnaLouise Keating
“Cultivating the ‘Impossible’ with Gloria Anzaldúa: Towards a Transformational Politics of Spirit”
6:30 p.m.
Closing Remarks: Jeffrey J. Kripal
"I Have No Idea What I Am Going to Say"