On this episode of Neon Galactic, through our third interview with Jeffrey Kripal of Rice University, we come as close as we ever have to finding answers around the various stripes of anomalous phenomenon we have long been covering.

Kripal is perhaps the most influential thinker working today in the broad and often confused study of the anomalous. He’s written several books, but his most recent – “How To Think Impossibly” – is an urgent and convincing call for people to reconsider reality and take more seriously the message being communicated by the uncanny and strange. 

In this chat, we discuss the book, and its assertions that the anomalous represents two co-equal principles – firstly, that the human is in fact a composite being, one aspect as the conscious, personal ego, and the other a deeper and more connected being, a figment of the all. The human as two.

Secondly, Kripal argues that dual aspect monism is the most rigorous and coherent approach to explaining reality while leaving all of people’s experiences on the table.

It is an ontology that argues reality is at root one thing, with two predominant aspects: the material, and immaterial consciousness. They are fundamentally the same, yet remain contrasting expressions of the whole. 

We also discuss the role of imagination in connecting humanity with the broader truth of what is. Kripal argues that the various shades of the phenomenon are different ways that the whole deploys to make us rethink our place in the universe, and how we conceive of ourselves within it.

His vision does not preclude the existence of other beings and entities, yet they too would be creatures of this broader reality, and perhaps better able to grok its complexity. Imagination is the mechanism of contact, and realization. 

Jeffrey J. Kripal holds the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University.

According to his bio on the Rice University website, his current work includes the articulation of a New Comparativism that puts “the impossible” back on the table; a robust and even conversation between the sciences and the humanities; and the mapping of an emergent mythology or “Super Story” within paranormal communities and through individual visionaries.

His efforts have led to the establishment of the Archivers of the Impossible, a vast collection of experiencer narratives and related materials that capture the diversity of anomalous human experience.

To purchase his books:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=jeffrey+kripal&crid=PJAGRLX5CKRL&sprefix=jeffrey+kripal%2Caps%2C174&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

To learn more about the Archives of the Impossible, visit the website:

https://impossiblearchives.rice.edu/

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