Mutants and Mystics

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Author :
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226453839
Total Pages : 392 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (264 download)

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Book Synopsis Mutants and Mystics by : Jeffrey J. Kripal

Download or read book Mutants and Mystics written by Jeffrey J. Kripal and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2011-11-15 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Account of how comic book heroes have helped their creators and fans alike explore and express a wealth of paranormal experiences ignored by mainstream science. Delving deeply into the work of major figures in the field - from Jack Kirby's cosmic superhero sagas and Philip K. Dick's futuristic head-trips to Alan Moore's sex magic and Whitley Strieber's communion with visitors - Kripal shows how creators turned to science fiction to convey the reality of the inexplicable and the paranormal they experienced in their lives. Expanded consciousness found its language in the metaphors of sci-fi - incredible powers, unprecedented mutations, time-loops and vast intergalactic intelligences - and the deeper influences of mythology and religion that these in turn drew from ; the wildly creative work that followed caught the imaginations of millions. Moving deftly from Cold War science and Fredric Wertham's anticomics crusade to gnostic revelation and alien abduction, Kripal spins out a hidden history of American culture, rich with mythical themes and shot through with an awareness that there are other realities far beyond our everyday understanding."--Jacket.

Authors of the Impossible

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Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226453898
Total Pages : 348 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (264 download)

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Book Synopsis Authors of the Impossible by : Jeffrey J. Kripal

Download or read book Authors of the Impossible written by Jeffrey J. Kripal and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2011-09-16 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Outstanding and almost certainly controversial. . . . [Kripal] has promise to revitalize and extend the reach of religious studies.” —Choice 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. “An excellent book. . . . engaging, witty, and thoughtful.” -- Christopher Partridge, Lancaster University “[Kripal] demands nothing short of a paradigm shift in order to make sense of the odd, the anomalous, and the inexplicable.” —Catherine L. Albanese, University of California, Santa Barbara “Quietly earth-shattering.” — Victoria Nelson, author of The Secret Life of Puppets

Secret Body

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Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022612682X
Total Pages : 493 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (261 download)

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Book Synopsis Secret Body by : Jeffrey J. Kripal

Download or read book Secret Body written by Jeffrey J. Kripal and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2017-11-14 with total page 493 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This latest work by the renowned historian of religions Jeffrey Kripal crystallizes his twenty-five years of work on two aspects of the contemporary study of religion: the erotic expression of mystical experience and the rise of the paranormal in American culture. Combining elements of memoir, manifesto, and anthology (a Kripal Reader, as it were), Secret Body reveals Kripal's oeuvre not as a series of disconnected books but as a dynamic corpus with the potential to renew and reshape the study of religion. Kripal explains how this oeuvre came about with his trademark humor and honesty, answers his censors and critics, and lays the foundation for a future theory of religion grounded in the cosmic nature of consciousness as such. No one interested in the history of religion and the erotic dimension of mysticism can afford to overlook Kripal's latest, his definitive intellectual self-portrait.

Kali's Child

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Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226453774
Total Pages : 421 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (264 download)

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Book Synopsis Kali's Child by : Jeffrey J. Kripal

Download or read book Kali's Child written by Jeffrey J. Kripal and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1998-10 with total page 421 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scholar Jeffrey J. Kripal explores the life and teachings of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, a 19th-century Bengali saint who played a major role in the creation of modern Hinduism. The work is now marked by both critical acclaim and cross-cultural controversy. In a substantial new Preface to this second edition, Kripal answers his critics and addresses the controversy.

Supernatural Entertainments

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Publisher : Penn State Press
ISBN 13 : 0271077379
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (71 download)

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Book Synopsis Supernatural Entertainments by : Simone Natale

Download or read book Supernatural Entertainments written by Simone Natale and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2016-03-31 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Supernatural Entertainments, Simone Natale vividly depicts spiritualism’s rise as a religious and cultural phenomenon and explores its strong connection to the growth of the media entertainment industry in the nineteenth century. He frames the spiritualist movement as part of a new commodity culture that changed how public entertainments were produced and consumed. Starting with the story of the Fox sisters, considered the first spiritualist mediums in history, Natale follows the trajectory of spiritualism in Great Britain and the United States from its foundation in 1848 to the beginning of the twentieth century. He demonstrates that spiritualist mediums and leaders adopted many of the promotional strategies and spectacular techniques that were being developed for the broader entertainment industry. Spiritualist mediums were indistinguishable from other professional performers, as they had managers and agents, advertised in the press, and used spectacularism to draw audiences. Addressing the overlap between spiritualism’s explosion and nineteenth-century show business, Natale provides an archaeology of how the supernatural became a powerful force in the media and popular culture of today.

Esalen

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Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226453693
Total Pages : 590 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (264 download)

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Book Synopsis Esalen by : Jeffrey J. Kripal

Download or read book Esalen written by Jeffrey J. Kripal and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2007-04-15 with total page 590 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Publisher description

The Super Natural

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Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0143109502
Total Pages : 386 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (431 download)

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Book Synopsis The Super Natural by : Whitley Strieber

Download or read book The Super Natural written by Whitley Strieber and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2017-09-26 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two of today's maverick authors on anomalous experience present a perception-altering and intellectually thrilling analysis of why the paranormal is real, but radically different from what is conventionally understood. Whitley Strieber (Communion) and Jeffrey J. Kripal (J. Newton Rayzor professor of religion at Rice University) team up on this unprecedented and intellectually vibrant new framing of inexplicable events and experiences. Rather than merely document the anomalous, these authors--one the man who popularized alien abduction and the other a renowned scholar and "renegade advocate for including the paranormal in religious studies" (The New York Times)--deliver a fast-paced and exhilarating study of why the supernatural is neither fantasy nor fiction but a vital and authentic aspect of life. Their suggestion? That all kinds of "impossible" things, from extra-dimensional beings to bilocation to bumps in the night, are not impossible at all: rather, they are a part of our natural world. But this natural world is immeasurably more weird, more wonderful, and probably more populated than we have so far imagined with our current categories and cultures, which are what really make these things seem "impossible." The Super Natural considers that the natural world is actually a "super natural world"--and all we have to do to see this is to change the lenses through which we are looking at it and the languages through which we are presently limiting it. In short: The extraordinary exists if we know how to look at and think about it.

Comparing Religions

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Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 1118281322
Total Pages : 557 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (182 download)

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Book Synopsis Comparing Religions by : Jeffrey J. Kripal

Download or read book Comparing Religions written by Jeffrey J. Kripal and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2014-01-14 with total page 557 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Comparing Religions is a next-generation textbook which expertly guides, inspires, and challenges those who wish to think seriously about religious pluralism in the modern world. A unique book teaching the art and practice of comparing religions Draws on a wide range of religious traditions to demonstrate the complexity and power of comparative practices Provides both a history and understanding of comparative practice and a series of thematic chapters showing how responsible practice is done A three part structure provides readers with a map and effective process through which to grasp this challenging but fascinating approach The author is a leading academic, writer, and exponent of comparative practice Contains numerous learning features, including chapter outlines, summaries, toolkits, discussion questions, a glossary, and many images Supported by a companion website (available on publication) at www.wiley.com/go/kripal, which includes information on individual religious traditions, links of other sites, an interview with the author, learning features, and much more

Roads of Excess, Palaces of Wisdom

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Author :
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 9780226453781
Total Pages : 440 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (537 download)

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Book Synopsis Roads of Excess, Palaces of Wisdom by : Jeffrey J. Kripal

Download or read book Roads of Excess, Palaces of Wisdom written by Jeffrey J. Kripal and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2001-12 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: William Blake once wrote that "The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom." Inspired by these poetic terms, Jeffrey J. Kripal reveals how the works of scholars of mysticism are often rooted in their own mystical experiences, "roads of excess," which can both lead to important insights into these scholars' works and point us to our own "palaces of wisdom." In his new book, Kripal addresses the twentieth-century study of mysticism as a kind of mystical tradition in its own right, with its own unique histories, discourses, sociological dynamics, and rhetorics of secrecy. Fluidly combining autobiography and biography with scholarly exploration, Kripal takes us on a tour of comparative mystical thought by examining the lives and works of five major historians of mysticism—Evelyn Underhill, Louis Massignon, R. C. Zaehner, Agehananda Bharati, and Elliot Wolfson—as well as relating his own mystical experiences. The result, Kripal finds, is seven "palaces of wisdom": the religious power of excess, the necessity of distance in the study of mysticism, the relationship between the mystical and art, the dilemmas of male subjectivity and modern heterosexuality, a call for ethical criticism, the paradox of the insider-outsider problem in the study of religion, and the magical power of texts and their interpretation. An original and penetrating analysis of modern scholarship and scholars of mysticism, Roads of Excess, Palaces of Wisdom is also a persuasive demonstration of the way this scholarly activity is itself a mystical phenomenon.

A New Gnosis

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Author :
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3031201272
Total Pages : 263 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (312 download)

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Book Synopsis A New Gnosis by : David M. Odorisio

Download or read book A New Gnosis written by David M. Odorisio and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-01-01 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Superhero phenomena exploded into 20th- and 21st-century popular culture by way of the visual medium of comic books. In an increasingly secular (yet spiritual) culture that has largely renounced “the gods” (and even religion), what does the return of the superhero through our own pop cultural mythologies say to us—or even about us? This collection of essays from leading and up-and-coming scholars in the fields of comparative mythology and depth psychology considers the return of the superhero as representative of our own unique emergent modern mythology: a wildly diverse pantheon that reflects back to us our most far-reaching hopes and (im)possible (super)human desires. In placing the interpretive tools of comparative mythology and depth psychology alongside the comic book phenomenon, a super-powered palette emerges that unveils the hidden potential of modern readers’ own heightened imaginations. The essays in this anthology examine select comic book and superhero characters from the “Silver Age” 1960s through contemporary 21st-century adaptations and innovations, as readers are invited to discover and uncover what the (re)emergence of these perennial gods and goddesses have to say about our own secret super selves today.

The Sacred Revival

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Publisher : SelectBooks, Inc.
ISBN 13 : 1590794613
Total Pages : 213 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (97 download)

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Book Synopsis The Sacred Revival by : Kingsley L. Dennis

Download or read book The Sacred Revival written by Kingsley L. Dennis and published by SelectBooks, Inc.. This book was released on 2017-10-24 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Sacred Revival is a thought-provoking examination of the social, cultural, and personal development that is part of a new and unfolding era in our history. Its central thesis is that a new form of energy has entered our post-industrial (post-mechanical) epoch, and that this energy will be more conducive to a respect for feminine attributes and organization and our inward “interior search and gaze.” The author predicts there will be a healing of life on the planet from an emerging new planetary ecosystem that will be physical-digital-biological and a greater drive toward a coherent cosmic consciousness. He explains that one of our greatest needs is for a connection with the transcendent.

Translation and Mysticism

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Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1040022057
Total Pages : 191 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (4 download)

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Book Synopsis Translation and Mysticism by : Philip Wilson

Download or read book Translation and Mysticism written by Philip Wilson and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-05-27 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines how mysticism can tell us about translation and translation can tell us about mysticism, addressing the ancient but ongoing connections between the art of rendering one text in another language and the art of the ineffable. The volume represents the first sustained act of attention to the interdisciplinary crossover of these two fields, taking a Wittgensteinian approach to language, and investigates how mystics and their translators manage to write about what cannot be written about. Three questions are addressed overall: how mysticism can be used to conceptualise translation; the issues that mysticism raises for translation theory and practice; and how mystical texts have been and might be translated. Walter Benjamin’s ‘The Translator’s Task’ is considered in detail as a controversial example of dialogue. Translation examples are given in a range of languages, and six major case studies are provided, including a close reading of Exodus and an analysis of a recent radical translation of Lucretius. This book will be of interest to students and researchers in translation studies, mysticism studies, theology and literary translation, as well as practising translators.

Depth Psychology and Mysticism

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Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 331979096X
Total Pages : 299 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (197 download)

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Book Synopsis Depth Psychology and Mysticism by : Thomas Cattoi

Download or read book Depth Psychology and Mysticism written by Thomas Cattoi and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-05-16 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the late 19th century, when the “new science” of psychology and interest in esoteric and occult phenomena converged – leading to the “discovery” of the unconscious – the dual disciplines of depth psychology and mysticism have been wed in an often unholy union. Continuing in this tradition, and the challenges it carries, this volume includes a variety of inter-disciplinary approaches to the study of depth psychology, mysticism, and mystical experience, spanning the fields of theology, religious studies, and the psychology of religion. Chapters include inquiries into the nature of self and consciousness, questions regarding the status and limits of mysticism and mystical phenomenon, and approaches to these topics from multiple depth psychological traditions.

Comics and Sacred Texts

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Publisher : Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN 13 : 1496819241
Total Pages : 323 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (968 download)

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Book Synopsis Comics and Sacred Texts by : Assaf Gamzou

Download or read book Comics and Sacred Texts written by Assaf Gamzou and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 2018-10-18 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contributions by Ofra Amihay, Madeline Backus, Samantha Baskind, Elizabeth Rae Coody, Scott S. Elliott, Assaf Gamzou, Susan Handelman, Leah Hochman, Leonard V. Kaplan, Ken Koltun-Fromm, Shiamin Kwa, Samantha Langsdale, A. David Lewis, Karline McLain, Ranen Omer-Sherman, Joshua Plencner, and Jeffrey L. Richey Comics and Sacred Texts explores how comics and notions of the sacred interweave new modes of seeing and understanding the sacral. Comics and graphic narratives help readers see religion in the everyday and in depictions of God, in transfigured, heroic selves as much as in the lives of saints and the meters of holy languages. Coeditors Assaf Gamzou and Ken Koltun-Fromm reveal the graphic character of sacred narratives, imagining new vistas for both comics and religious texts. In both visual and linguistic forms, graphic narratives reveal representational strategies to encounter the sacred in all its ambivalence. Through close readings and critical inquiry, these essays contemplate the intersections between religion and comics in ways that critically expand our ability to think about religious landscapes, rhetorical practices, pictorial representation, and the everyday experiences of the uncanny. Organized into four sections—Seeing the Sacred in Comics; Reimagining Sacred Texts through Comics; Transfigured Comic Selves, Monsters, and the Body; and The Everyday Sacred in Comics—the essays explore comics and graphic novels ranging from Craig Thompson’s Habibi and Marvel’s X-Men and Captain America to graphic adaptions of religious texts such as 1 Samuel and the Gospel of Mark. Comics and Sacred Texts shows how claims to the sacred are nourished and concealed in comic narratives. Covering many religions, not only Christianity and Judaism, this rare volume contests the profane/sacred divide and establishes the import of comics and graphic narratives in disclosing the presence of the sacred in everyday human experience.

The Divine Ideas Tradition in Christian Mystical Theology

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Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0199580812
Total Pages : 232 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (995 download)

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Book Synopsis The Divine Ideas Tradition in Christian Mystical Theology by : Mark A. McIntosh

Download or read book The Divine Ideas Tradition in Christian Mystical Theology written by Mark A. McIntosh and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2021-03-04 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study brings to life the striking role of the divine ideas tradition in the teaching of its central exponents, and suggests how the divine ideas might constructively inform Christian theology and spirituality today.

Mysticism, Ritual and Religion in Drone Metal

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Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1350025119
Total Pages : 225 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (5 download)

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Book Synopsis Mysticism, Ritual and Religion in Drone Metal by : Owen Coggins

Download or read book Mysticism, Ritual and Religion in Drone Metal written by Owen Coggins and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-01-25 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first extensive scholarly study of drone metal music and its religious associations, drawing on five years of ethnographic participant observation from more than 300 performances and 74 interviews, plus surveys, analyses of sound recordings, artwork, and extensive online discourse about music. Owen Coggins shows that while many drone metal listeners identify as non-religious, their ways of engaging with and talking about drone metal are richly informed by mysticism, ritual and religion. He explores why language relating to mysticism and spiritual experience is so prevalent in drone metal culture and in discussion of musical experiences and practices of the genre. The author develops the work of Michel de Certeau to provide an empirically grounded theory of mysticism in popular culture. He argues that the marginality of the genre culture, together with the extremely abstract sound produces a focus on the listeners' engagement with sound, and that this in turn creates a space for the open-ended exploration of religiosity in extreme states of bodily consciousness.

Ecologies of Participation

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Publisher : Lexington Books
ISBN 13 : 1498568165
Total Pages : 353 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (985 download)

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Book Synopsis Ecologies of Participation by : Zayin Cabot

Download or read book Ecologies of Participation written by Zayin Cabot and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2018-04-30 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this daring debut, Zayin Cabot challenges the wise homebodies of academia. A profoundly interdisciplinary approach to comparative scholarship, Ecologies of Participation offers a methodology whereby we can face our shared planetary predicament. It is grounded in process philosophy, and asserts the importance of a new ontology of agency. It traces the importance of Lévy-Bruhl and Lévi-Strauss’s early work, while offering new insight into the ontological turn in anthropology. This book sets out to destabilize modern reductionist trends toward scientific materialism, without falling into postmodern cultural constructivism. It does not assume the givenness of nature or culture. By advancing a multi-ontology approach, this work offers robust interventions into decolonial and critical studies. Cabot takes contemporary scholarship in new and exciting directions—offering an unstable ground from which to examine our shared worlds, both human and other. Throughout the last chapters of the book, these threads are illuminated through a detailed ethics of comparison and participation.