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#4430 -
Friday, November 18, 2011 - Editor: Jerry Katz
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
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"Basically, I have come to see that the deep resonances,
even identities, between eroticism and mysticism that I tracked
in my early work are refigured in the deep resonances, even
identities, between matter and mind that I am now tracking in the
history and study of the paranormal. It’s all the same
social binary system (which is very useful but finally illusory)
and the same basic metaphysical nonduality (which is seldom
experienced but very real) playing themselves out in different
historical contexts and cultures. It’s all one reality,
which is fundamentally nondual.” Jeffrey J. Kripal. His
book, Mutants and Mystics, is reviewed below by Carl Gregg.
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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/carlgregg/2011/11/mutants-and-mystics/
Mutants and Mystics, Science Fiction, Superhero Comics,
and the Paranormal, by Jeffrey J. Kripal, The University
of Chicago Press, 2011, 353 pages
Reviewed by jcarlgregg, November 16, 2011 5:58 am
Have you ever been a comic book lover?
Have you ever had a paranormal experience?
If so, the author reports that his ideal reader is “Someone
who (a) has undergone a profound paranormal event and (b) is
obsessed with science fiction or superhero comics and does not
know why.”
As a lover of comic books in my teenage years and as a certified
religion nerd fascinated by all things paranormal, I am perhaps
dead center of Kripal’s target audience. His book, while not
an easy read is, nevertheless, a stunning and important book. I
frankly am shocked and impressed not only that this book exists,
but that it is published in a beautiful edition by the University
of Chicago Press.
For those not in the know, the University of Chicago does not
suffer fools gladly, which should be a would-be reader’s
first clue that, although this book treads on comic ground, it is
both deeply serious and profoundly personal. Kripal has said the
following in response to the question, “Why on earth are you
writing about the paranormal?”
Because (a) I had one major, mind-blowing paranormal experience
that changed my life and has since inspired all of my books (in
Calcutta in the fall of 1989: see the “Secret Talk”
sections of Roads of Excess, where I describe and analyze this
event in detail); (b) after such an experience, I know that
paranormal phenomena are real in the simplest sense that people
really and truly experience such things (that is, they are not
always fraudulent, mistaken perceptions, and so on), and (c) I
think the ways such phenomena offend or subvert our usual
dualistic epistemologies (subjective/objective, mind/matter,
meaning/causality, and so on) represent one possible future of
critical theory.”
Basically, I have come to see that the deep resonances, even
identities, between eroticism and mysticism that I tracked in my
early work are refigured in the deep resonances, even identities,
between matter and mind that I am now tracking in the history and
study of the paranormal. It’s all the same social binary
system (which is very useful but finally illusory) and the same
basic metaphysical nonduality (which is seldom experienced but
very real) playing themselves out in different historical
contexts and cultures. It’s all one reality, which is
fundamentally nondual.”
The author is no slouch: he’s the chair of the religion
department at Rice University and the author of five other
well-documented scholarly tomes.
I read and review many books, but Kripal’s Mutants and
Mystics is one of the rare books that forces me to slow down and
reconsider not only the text in front of me, but also my
conception of reality. He also challenges me both to take my
personal religious experience more seriously as well as to get
back in touch with my inner comic book geek, perhaps, in
particular, through Grant Morrison’s Invisibles and Alan
Moore’s Promethea. If there is any part of your experience
that intersects with the world of comic books or the paranormal,
I highly recommend Jeffrey Kirpal’s latest book.
This book review is a part of the Roundtable at the Patheos Book
Club. Visit the Book Club for more free resources related to this
book.
For Further Study
* David Ray Griffin, Parapsychology, Philosophy, &
Spirituality: A Postmodern Exploration (Constructive Postmodern
Thought).
The Rev. Carl Gregg is a trained spiritual director, a D.Min.
candidate, and the pastor of Broadview Church in Chesapeake
Beach, Maryland. Follow him on Facebook (facebook.com/carlgregg)
and Twitter (@carlgregg).