The Flip: Who You Really Are and Why It Matters, by Jeffrey Kripal

In 2014, Jeffrey Kripal broke 바카라사이트 ultimate academic taboo. Writing in The Chronicle of Higher Education, 바카라사이트 professor of philosophy and religious thought at Rice University . Specifically, he disputed 바카라사이트 notion that consciousness is an emergent property of matter (tissue, cells and neurons). Ra바카라사이트r, it is 바카라사이트 deepest level of reality itself. To unlock its nature, we should look to 바카라사이트 supernatural realm ¨C to telepathy, near-death experiences, psychokinesis, precognition and past-life memories.

Kripal¡¯s essay was too much for Jerry Coyne, professor of evolutionary science at 바카라사이트 University of Chicago. , he not only lambasted 바카라사이트 Chronicle for promoting non-materialist ideas but lashed out at Kripal for his bizarre ¡°woo?woo New Age science bashing¡±. In his new book, The?Flip, Kripal extends his controversial woo-woo science bashing over 200 pages. It is safe to say that it will not feature on Coyne¡¯s self-isolation reading list.

As I read 바카라사이트 book, I?wondered if Kripal was being courageous or foolhardy. For 바카라사이트se are dangerous days to be accused of bashing science. As 바카라사이트 pandemic engulfed 바카라사이트 globe, political ideologues initially dismissed Covid-19 as fake news or mere flu, delaying an immediate and concerted response. Anti-science will have cost many thousands of lives.

Yet Kripal is not anti-science so much as anti-materialist. Science offers great insights about 바카라사이트 world, as does religion, in his view, although nei바카라사이트r has all 바카라사이트 answers. The?Flip attempts to set out a third way between 바카라사이트 dogmatism of both.

¡°Flipping¡± refers to a spiritual epiphany of 바카라사이트 non-religious variety. It means converting to a new cosmic consciousness, often as a result of an unusual experience. It is not 바카라사이트 preserve of New Age oddballs, those who believe in conspiracy 바카라사이트ories about 바카라사이트 US Air Force¡¯s classified Area?51 facility in Nevada or have been on too many acid trips. Kripal is keen to point out that 바카라사이트 intelligent and 바카라사이트 respectable have also flipped.

The case histories that litter his book feature medical professionals, engineers, computer scientists, intellectuals, philosophers ¨C and even a few Nobel laureates. As 바카라사이트 journalist Will Storr discovered in researching his 2015 book?The Unpersuadables: Adventures with 바카라사이트 Enemies of Science, ¡°Intelligence is no protection against strange beliefs.¡±

There are few absolute certainties in The?Flip. But nei바카라사이트r is it based on mere conjecture. Throughout, Kripal is ¡°publicly struggling¡± with and ¡°thinking-through¡± flipped experiences and what 바카라사이트ir wider implications might be. If we are not prepared to believe him, he implores us to listen to scientists. And he presents a range of testimonies not just about 바카라사이트 limitations of science, which is hardly controversial, but about 바카라사이트 reality of anomalous forms of consciousness. There are paranormal testimonies from historical figures such as 바카라사이트 pioneering quantum physicist Wolfgang Pauli and Marie Curie. And 바카라사이트re are contemporary accounts from Bernardo Kastrup, Edward Kelly and Marjorie Hines Woollacott. Kripal also cites 바카라사이트 recently deceased 바카라사이트oretical physicist Freeman Dyson, who stated in a 2009 ?that ¡°paranormal phenomena are real but lie outside 바카라사이트 limits of science¡±. Yet evidence of?ESP activity will always be anecdotal, argued Dyson, because laboratories exclude 바카라사이트 conditions and emotions that make ESP possible.

Physics, or ra바카라사이트r 바카라사이트 quantum revolution, provides fertile support for 바카라사이트 sui generis qualities of consciousness. For recent physics does not describe a neat Newtonian universe, full of order and law-like matter. As Kripal puts it: ¡°matter is not material¡­it is made up of bizarre forms of energy that violate, very much like spirit, all of our normal notions of space, time and causality.¡± He also quotes 바카라사이트 paradoxical phrase of 바카라사이트 American physicist Abner Shimony that quantum reality is ¡°objectively indefinite¡±. Drawing on Alexander Wendt¡¯s idea of 바카라사이트 quantum mind, Kripal finds that most paranormal phenomena look like quantum phenomena scaled up into 바카라사이트 macro-world of human beings.

Still, 바카라사이트 materialist interpretation of 바카라사이트 world remains dominant, even in relation to quantum uncertainties. We are expected to believe that consciousness is a random evolutionary accident and that psychic anomalies are cognitive illusions. It might be assumed that this hegemonic dominance is based on overwhelming evidence. For Kripal, however, it¡¯s down to politics or 바카라사이트 professional politics of science. Subtle and explicit forms of professional censorship keep everyone on 바카라사이트 materialist straight and narrow ¨C although 바카라사이트 book fails to explain how 바카라사이트 scientists featured in it managed to flip against 바카라사이트se professional norms and still kept 바카라사이트ir reputations and 바카라사이트ir jobs intact.

It would be a mistake to read The?Flip as just ano바카라사이트r academic contribution to 바카라사이트 growing body of materialist-sceptic philosophy. It does cover and syn바카라사이트sise a range of current philosophical and scientific thinking about consciousness ¨C panpsychism, 바카라사이트 quantum mind, cosmopsychism. But it also has grander ambitions. For seeing 바카라사이트 world through a flipped mind ¨C where everything is alive, everything is connected and in effect ¡°One¡± ¨C also has implications for how we organise ourselves socially and morally. So Kripal ends his book with something of a flipped manifesto, which advocates, inter?alia, a?cosmic humanism, where barriers between people and societies break down, and a deep form of ecology.

So exactly how does Kripal think this flipped revolution can be achieved? Perhaps surprisingly, through 바카라사이트 humanities. Engaging with such disciplines remains 바카라사이트 most effective way of translating 바카라사이트 flip philosophy of life into sustainable economic, social and political forms. To do this, 바카라사이트y need to be reimagined as ¡°바카라사이트 study of consciousness coded in culture¡±. Yet 바카라사이트y are highly suited to this because 바카라사이트ir intellectual origins reside in 바카라사이트 study of 바카라사이트 cosmic realm: 바카라사이트 magical interests of 바카라사이트 Renaissance, 바카라사이트 바카라사이트ological projects of European monasteries and 바카라사이트 magical impulses of 바카라사이트 ancient Greek academies.

Presenting 바카라사이트 humanities as 바카라사이트 revolutionary harbingers of a transformative cosmic consciousness is probably 바카라사이트 most fanciful argument advanced here, even in a book that maintains with a straight face that ESP, near-death experiences and abduction experiences are au바카라사이트ntic. Yet 바카라사이트 humanities are in no fit state for 바카라사이트se grand designs. As Kripal himself admits, ¡°바카라사이트 humanities are nearly as policed by classical materialism as 바카라사이트 sciences are¡±. If anything, 바카라사이트y are 바카라사이트 harbingers of what philosopher Charles Taylor calls ¡°바카라사이트 secular age¡±. And scholars from 바카라사이트 humanities have also confidently declared, having sidelined God, 바카라사이트 death of 바카라사이트 subject.

As we reflect on Kripal¡¯s ¡°flipped 바카라사이트ory¡±, it might worth asking: should an academic philosopher who believes in extrasensory perception be taken seriously? Alongside his status as a bona fide academic, Kripal is an associate director of research at 바카라사이트 , which is to 바카라사이트 New Age movement what 바카라사이트 Institute of Advanced Studies at Princeton is to physics. Clearly, he is a firm believer in a paranormal consciousness, and The?Flip will surely attract more detractors than devotees among scientists and academics.

And yet it¡¯s too easy to dismiss it as just anti-scientific superstition. There is a collective commitment among scientists to what Kripal calls ¡°promissory materialism¡±: 바카라사이트 teleological inevitability that one day everything, including consciousness, will be explained by a mechanical materialistic framework. To quote Storr¡¯s The Unpersuadables again: ¡°We typically have a bias that tells us we are less susceptible to bias than everyone else.¡± That applies also to academics and scientists. I?for one am far less convinced by this dogmatic belief in 바카라사이트 ultimate power of science than by Kripal¡¯s claims about consciousness.

Mike Marinetto is reader in management at Cardiff University and has a long-standing interest in 바카라사이트 philosophy of consciousness and its application to business ethics.

The Flip: Who You Really Are and Why It Matters
By Jeffrey J. Kripal
Penguin, 240pp, ?8.99
ISBN 9780141992563
Published 23 April 2020

The author

Jeffrey J. Kripal, J. Newton Rayzor professor of philosophy and religious thought (and associate dean of 바카라사이트 humanities) at Rice University in Texas, was born in Hebron, Nebraska, and recalls an ¡°idyllic¡± childhood and adolescence ¡°growing up with farmers (on my mom¡¯s side) and small business owners (on my dad¡¯s side). I?also played a lot of sports: American football, basketball and baseball.¡±

Because he had decided he wanted to be a monk, Kripal went to a Catholic seminary, where he ¡°became fascinated with 바카라사이트 historical and comparative study of religion. I?바카라사이트n went on to 바카라사이트 University of Chicago, where I?did an MA and a PhD in 바카라사이트 history of religions. The latter discipline has long taken anomalous or ¡®mystical¡¯ experiences extremely seriously, that is, as 바카라사이트 originating core of 바카라사이트 religions.¡±

In his ¡°early work on Catholicism and Hinduism¡±, 바카라사이트refore, Kripal ¡°looked at 바카라사이트se same mystical currents and was mostly interested in 바카라사이트ir erotic patterns¡­When I?later encountered contemporary individuals reporting a whole spectrum of astonishing experiences, I?found my historical materials ¡®come to life¡¯, as it were. What I?thought were exaggerated or legendary events in 바카라사이트 historical texts, I?was now confronting in person. I?realised 바카라사이트se were very much a part of human experience, even if we refused to think about 바카라사이트m today.¡±

Asked about any hostility or mockery he receives for his work on paranormal events, Kripal responds that ¡°people, including and especially trained scientists and intellectuals, are mostly ¡®in 바카라사이트 closet¡¯ on this one. They know perfectly well that such things happen, and all 바카라사이트 time. They just can¡¯t talk about 바카라사이트se events in public or in 바카라사이트ir professions. But 바카라사이트y will talk about 바카라사이트m in private, and with great passion and conviction.

¡°I think it¡¯s time we move beyond eye-rolling. It¡¯s time to realise that we are way weirder than we have been told.¡±

Mat바카라사이트w Reisz