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Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred — Occult Philosophy

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Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred

Name: Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred
Price: 32.00 USD
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ISBN: 9780226453873

✍️ Kripal, Jeffrey J

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4.6

(1 review)

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📚 WHAT THE BOOK IS ABOUT

Jeffrey Kripal provocatively challenges the academic world's dismissal of paranormal phenomena, arguing that these often-maligned events are not mere pseudoscience but crucial lenses through which to understand the sacred. Tracing the trajectory of psychical research across the last two centuries of Western thought, this work highlights its overlooked significance in religious studies. Kripal delves into the contributions of pioneering figures like Frederic Myers and Jacques Vallee, guiding readers through a fascinating landscape where telepathy, UFOs, and psychic espionage blur the lines between objective fact, human imagination, and outright deception, revealing the profound connection between consciousness and culture.

Kripal, Jeffrey J

📚 all books by this author (2) →

🕯️

Occult Philosophy

Praise for this book

“Kripal's erudite writing, interspersed with snippets of humour, moves along at an enthusiastic pace; it is evident that he finds this area of study exciting, both personally and academically. Rather than dismissing the paranormal as pseudo-science or belonging only to the rat-bag fringe, Kripal suggests instead that a more gainful approach is to investigate how the paranormal might bridge the sacred and the…”

— Lynne Hume

🏛 University of Chicago Press 📅 2011 📖 352 pages 📔 Paperback ISBN: 9780226453873

Fun Fact

Kripal masterfully bridges academic rigor with open-minded inquiry into the paranormal, offering a fresh, sophisticated perspective on spirituality and consciousness that few dare to attempt. His incisive analysis of key figures and their contributions to understanding the inexplicable is both challenging and utterly engaging. This book will disappoint those seeking definitive proof or debunking of psychic phenomena, or a traditional religious studies text. Instead, it's a pivotal work that challenges disciplinary boundaries, essential for anyone interested in the philosophy of science, consciousness studies, and the history of esoteric thought.

📝 Description: Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred

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 Méheust. 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.

📑 What's inside

Acknowledgments
An Impossible Opening: The Magical Politics of Bobby Kennedy
Introduction: Off the Page
Definitions and Broken Lineages
Restoring a Lineage
Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal as Meaning
The Fantastic Narrative of Western Occulture: The Paranormal as Story
1 The Book as Séance: Frederic Myers and the London Society for Psychical Research
After Life
Myers and the Founding of the S.P.R
The Subliminal Gothic: The Human as Two
The Supernormal and Evolution: The World as Two
Telepathy: The Communications Technology of the Spirit
The Perfect Insect of the Imaginal
The Telepathic and the Erotic: Myers's Platonic Speech
Dimensions
2 Scattering the Seeds of a Super-Story: Charles Fort and the Fantastic Narrative of Western Occulture
The Parable of the Peaches: Fort's Mischievous Monistic Life
Collecting and Classifying the Data of the Damned: Fort's Comparative Method
The Three Eras or Dominants: Fort's Philosophy of History
The Philosophy of the Hyphen: Fort's Dialectical Monism
Galactic Colonialism: Fort's Science Mysticism and Dark Mythology
Evolution, Wild Talents, and the Poltergeist Girls: Fort's Magical Anthropology
3 The Future Technology of Folklore: Jacques Vallee and the UFO Phenomenon
Forbidden Science (1957-69)
Passport to Magonia: From Folklore to Flying Saucers (1969)
The Invisible College (1975)
The Present Technology of Folklore: Computer Technology and
Remote Viewing in the Psychic Underground
The Alien Contact Trilogy and the Mature Multiverse Gnosis
Sub Rosa: The Three Secrets
The Hermeneutics of Light: The Cave Become Window
4 Returning the Human Sciences to Consciousness: Bertrand Méheust and the Sociology of the Impossible
A Double Premise
Méheust and the Master
Science Fiction and Flying Saucers
The Challenge of the Magnetic and the Shock of the Psychical
"If Only One of These Facts . . ." The Impossible Case of Alexis Didier
The Collective Mind: Bateson, De Martino, Vallee, and Jung
Agent X: Projection Theory Turned Back on Itself
Conclusion: Back on the Page
The Eclipse of the Sacred and the Psyche in Modern Oblivion
Consciousness, Culture, and Cognition: The Fantastic Structure of the Mind-Brain
From Realization to Authorization: Toward a Hermeneutics of the Impossible
Dimensions
Impossible (Dis)Closings: Two Youthful Encounters
Required Reading (That Is Never Read ): A Select Annotated Bibliography
Some More Damned Anecnotes
Index

💎 Expert review

“

💎

Esoterica Books editorial team

Occult literature desk

Kripal’s argument is bold and necessary for those tired of rigid secularism, yet it demands intellectual stamina. This is not a light read for casual enthusiasts seeking simple proof or easy answers; it requires engagement with complex historical trajectories of psychical research. Readers who prefer clear-cut distinctions between science and mysticism may find the blurring of these lines frustrating. However, for scholars and serious students willing to confront the unsettling truths of the sacred through the lens of the paranormal, it is a vital, thought-provoking contribution that redefines our understanding of religious experience.

✓ EDITOR'S REVIEW

📖 Why choose it

📖

Why this book is worth reading

Readers fascinated by the liminal spaces between objective fact, human imagination, and deception will find this text profoundly rewarding. It is ideal for those willing to look past standard academic skepticism to explore how telepathy, UFOs, and psychic espionage reveal the profound connection between consciousness and culture. Kripal invites you to see these events not as pseudoscience, but as unsettling truths where the sacred reveals itself. If you seek a provocative challenge to traditional religious studies that embraces the paranormal as essential rather than marginal, this book offers a unique, intellectually rigorous path into the depths of the impossible.

⭐ Reader reviews

The starting rating comes from the team Esoterica Books —

⭐ Esoterica editorial review Editorial rating 4.6/5

★★★★★

For those intrigued by the intersections of science, spirituality, and the unexplained. If you question academic dogmas and seek a deeper understanding of phenomena often dismissed as impossible, this book offers a rigorous yet open-minded intellectual journey into the heart of mystery.

Reader rating

4.6

Based on 1 reviews

Esoterica Books editorial team

Kripal’s argument is bold and necessary for those tired of rigid secularism, yet it demands intellectual stamina. This is not a light read for casual enthusiasts seeking simple proof or easy answers; it requires engagement with complex historical trajectories of psychical research. Readers who prefer clear-cut distinctions between science and mysticism may find the blurring of these lines frustrating. However, for scholars and serious students willing to confront the unsettling truths of the sacred through the lens of the paranormal, it is a vital, thought-provoking contribution that redefines our understanding of religious experience.

❓ Frequently asked questions

Kripal doesn't uncritically endorse paranormal claims, but rather argues for their intellectual and historical significance. He treats them as cultural events that reveal much about human experience and belief, regardless of their 'objective' truth.

The sacred here isn't confined to traditional religious dogma but encompasses the numinous, the awe-inspiring, and the mysterious that transcends ordinary experience, often revealed through extraordinary psychic or anomalous events and their cultural interpretation.

📖 Who should read this

🎯 Key themes and symbolism

The Sacred Impossible

This book posits that phenomena often relegated to the fringes of science actually offer profound insights into the nature of the divine and mystical experience, challenging conventional religious studies. Kripal argues that by engaging seriously with the "impossible," we uncover deeper dimensions of spirituality and human potential beyond established dogmas.

Academic Boundary Pushing

Kripal critiques the widespread academic tendency to categorize psychic events as fraudulent or irrational, arguing instead for their serious consideration as historical and cultural phenomena worthy of rigorous intellectual inquiry. He exposes how scholarly institutions often avoid subjects that defy empirical materialism, thus limiting their understanding of human experience.

Explorers of the Unknown

The author deeply examines pioneering researchers and thinkers who dared to explore the inexplicable, unveiling their contributions to understanding phenomena from telepathy to UFO encounters, and how their work shaped our perception of the unknown. Through their stories, Kripal illuminates the intellectual courage required to confront the truly anomalous.

📜 Historical context

This work situates itself within a lineage of thought that grapples with the inexplicable, emerging from the Enlightenment's rationalism yet challenging its boundaries. It traces the evolving Western engagement with psychic phenomena from spiritualism's heyday through the Cold War, highlighting its persistent, if often marginalized, presence in intellectual discourse and its profound influence on cultural narratives.

📚 Glossary

Psychical Phenomena
Esoteric Tradition
Liminal Space

📔 Questions to reflect on

How might our understanding of "reality" shift if we seriously considered phenomena typically labeled as impossible or pseudoscience?
Reflect on a personal experience that defied conventional explanation. How does Kripal's approach resonate with or challenge your interpretation of it?
In what ways do academic and cultural institutions benefit from dismissing certain topics as "fringe" or "unscientific"? What is lost in this dismissal?