Authors of the Impossible

The Paranormal and the Sacred

Jeffrey J. Kripal (Rice University, USA)

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English

University of Chicago Press
30 November 2011

Occult studies

Most scholars dismiss research into the paranormal as pseudoscience, a frivolous pursuit for the paranoid or gullible. Even historians of religion, whose work naturally attends to events beyond the realm of empirical science, have shown scant interest in the subject. But the history of psychical phenomena, Jeffrey J. Kripal contends, is an untapped source of insight into the sacred and by tracing that history through the last two centuries of Western thought we can see its potential centrality to the critical study of religion.

Kripal grounds his study in the work of four major figures in the history of paranormal research: psychical researcher Frederic Myers; writer and humorist Charles Fort; astronomer, computer scientist, and ufologist Jacques Vallee; and philosopher and sociologist Bertrand Meheust. Through incisive analyses of these thinkers, Kripal ushers the reader into a beguiling world somewhere between fact, fiction, and fraud. The cultural history of telepathy, teleportation, and UFOs; a ghostly love story; the occult dimensions of science fiction; cold war psychic espionage; galactic colonialism; and the intimate relationship between consciousness and culture all come together in Authors of the Impossible, a dazzling and profound look at how the paranormal bridges the sacred and the scientific.

By: Jeffrey J. Kripal (Rice University USA)
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 23mm, Width: 15mm, Spine: 2mm
Weight: 510g
ISBN: 9780226453873
ISBN 10: 0226453871
Pages: 352
Publication Date: 30 November 2011
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Jeffrey J. Kripal is the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University. He is the author of several books, including Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion and The Serpent's Gift: Gnostic Reflections on the Study of Religion, both published by the University of Chicago Press.

Reviews for Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred

This is another in a series of outstanding and almost certainly controversial contributions to the academic study of religion by Kripal.... Kripal has one of the most distinctive, interesting voices in the humanities today and has promise to revitalize and extend the reach of religious studies. (Choice) Kripal 'leans toward' the paranormal - he does not dismiss it as the fruit of deluded minds. He thinks there is some external reality being talked about, something real out there. In this regard, he is like the four mystics he writes about in Authors of the Impossible. (New York Times)