Jeffrey John Kripal is the J. Newton Rayzor Professor of Philosophy and Religious Thought and former chair of the Department of Religious Studies at Rice University in Houston, Texas. His books include Kali’s Child, Esalen, Authors of the Impossible, The Serpent’s Gift, Mutants and Mystics, The Supernatural (with Whitley Strieber), and Secret Body.

Here he describes his intellectual journey starting with the study of eroticism in religion and leading him into the study and appreciation of the esoteric or paranormal. His early research focused on homoeroticism in the life of the nineteenth century Hindu saint, Ramakrishna. In India, he experienced a profound state of consciousness associated with the goddess Kali. Later he worked with Whitley Strieber, a UFO contactee, and describes a striking correspondence between Strieber’s experience of the Visitors — and his understanding of Hindu goddesses.

New Thinking Allowed host, Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, is author of The Roots of Consciousness, Psi Development Systems, and The PK Man. Between 1986 and 2002 he hosted and co-produced the original Thinking Allowed public television series. He is the recipient of the only doctoral diploma in “parapsychology” ever awarded by an accredited university (University of California, Berkeley, 1980). He is past-vice-president of the Association for Humanistic Psychology, and is the recipient of the Pathfinder Award from that association for his contributions to the study of consciousness.

(Recorded on November 17, 2018)

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