Jeffrey J. Kripal

Jeffrey J. Kripal is the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University, where he co-hosts the Archives of the Impossible collection and conference series. He also co-directs the Center for Theory and Research at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. Jeff is the author of numerous books, most recently How to Think Impossibly: About Souls, UFOs, Time, Belief, and Everything Else (Chicago, 2024). He is presently working on a three-volume study of paranormal currents in the sciences, modern esoteric literature, and the hidden history of science fiction collectively entitled The Super Story: Science (Fiction) and Some Emergent Mythologies. His full body of work can be seen at http://jeffreyjkripal.com  He thinks he may be Spider-Man. 

Abstract:

I simply want to say this. We are here to encourage the conversation, wherever it goes. Our minds are open. So are our hearts. What we are most about in this room is a kind of deep listening, to one another, but also to the phenomenon itself, which might not be us, or might be us in some other form. We simply do not know. Neither does anyone else, by the way. They well have pieces and parts, but not the big picture. I am not certain of much. But of that I am certain. There is a conviction and a conclusion.