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Summary:

"From precognitive dreams and telepathic visions to near-death experiences, UFO encounters, and beyond, so-called impossible phenomena are not supposed to happen, but do happen all the time. These are the kinds of fantastic experiences that Jeffrey J. Kripal takes up in How to Think Impossibly. The impossible, Kripal asserts, is a function not of reality, but of our present social constructions and subsequent perceptions and cognitions. In other words, we think these events and experiences are impossible, but they are only impossible within our historically constructed frameworks. In How to Think Impossibly, Kripal thinks-with specific individuals and their extraordinary experiences in vulnerable, open, and often humorous ways. These lines of thought interweave the mental and material dimensions of humanistic and scientific inquiry, resulting in a developing awareness in the reader that what we think of as the impossible is not impossible at all"-- [Provided by publisher]
"A mind-bending invitation to experience the impossible as fundamentally human. From precognitive dreams and telepathic visions to near-death experiences, UFO encounters, and beyond, so-called impossible phenomena are not supposed to happen. But they do happen--all the time. Jeffrey J. Kripal asserts that the impossible is a function not of reality but of our everchanging assumptions about what is real. How to Think Impossibly invites us to think about these fantastic (yet commonplace) experiences as an essential part of being human, expressive of a deeply shared reality that is neither mental nor material but gives rise to both. Thinking with specific individuals and their extraordinary experiences in vulnerable, open, and often humorous ways, Kripal interweaves humanistic and scientific inquiry to develop an awareness that the fantastic is real, the supernatural is super natural, and the impossible is possible"-- [Provided by publisher]

Table of Contents:

• Prologue : knowledge before its time
• Introduction : the fantastic foundations of reality
• Part One: When the impossible happens. Words are experiences : evolutionary origins and the world of the dead; Why they don't land : Mantis, mystical theology, and social criticism; "That they are not human" : thinking on the autistic spectrum
• Part Two. Making the impossible possible. The timeswerve : theorizing in a block universe; The world is one and the human is two : some tentative conclusions; We are God (and the devil) : further thoughts and moral objections
• Conclusion : how to think impossibly
• Epilogue : the three bars.

Author/Creator:

Kripal, Jeffrey J. (Jeffrey John), 1962- , author

Languages:

English

Language Notes:

Item content: English

Main Work:

How to think impossibly: about souls, UFOs, time, belief, and everything else [by Kripal, J.J.]

Other Related Resources:

Print version: How to think impossibly [by Kripal, J.J.] (Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2024 — ISBN 9780226833682; LCCN 2023053669; OCLC Number 1399165623)

Subjects:

Parapsychology — Philosophy

Extrasensory perception — Philosophy

Curiosities and wonders — Philosophy

Altered states of consciousness — Philosophy

Mysticism — Philosophy

Metaphysics

Monism

Dualism

Parapsychology

Philosophy

Extrasensory perception

Curiosities and wonders

Altered states of consciousness

Mysticism

General Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Description based on: Print version record.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiii, 297 pages)

Digital Characteristics:

text file

Call Numbers:

BF1040 .K75 2024eb

ISBNs:

9780226833699 (electronic bk.)
0226833690 (electronic bk.)
9780226833682 [Invalid]
0226833682 [Invalid]

OCLC Numbers:

1451535779