The Superhumanities: Altered States and the Future of Knowledge

This talk is advances the idea that the humanities as a set of disciplines are often generated or inspired by remarkable altered states of consciousness and embodiment, which can sometimes be re-experienced by a deep engagement with the texts and artworks themselves. Hence many a teaching or pedagogical moment. Hence some of the furthest reaches of the intellectual life. The humanities, in short, are often the superhumanities. Critical theory and altered states often go together and cannot be thought apart.

Jeffrey J. Kripal holds the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University, where he chaired the Department of Religion for eight years and helped create the GEM Program, a doctoral concentration in the study of Gnosticism, Esotericism, and Mysticism that is the largest program of its kind in the world. He is presently serving as Associate Dean of the Faculty and Graduate Studies in the School of Humanities. He is also the Associate Director of the Center for Theory and Research at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. Jeff is the editor-in-chief of the Macmillan Handbook Series on Religion (ten volumes) and the author of eight monographs, including, most recently, The Superhumanities: Historical Precedents, Moral Objections, New Realities (Chicago, 2022). He is presently working on a three-volume study of paranormal currents in the history of science and American metaphysical literature for the University of Chicago Press collectively entitled The Super Story. His full body of work can be seen at http://jeffreyjkripal.com