“Jeffrey J. Kripal is the Associate Dean of the School of Humanities and 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 the Associate Director of the Center for Theory and Research at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, where he also serves as Chair of the Board. Jeff is the author or co-author of eleven books, seven of which are with The University of Chicago Press, including, most recently a memoir-manifesto entitled Secret Body: Erotic and Esoteric Currents in the History of Religions (Chicago, 2017). He has also served as the Editor in Chief of the Macmillan Handbook Series on Religion (ten volumes, 2015-2016). He specializes in the study of extreme religious states and the re-visioning of a New Comparativism, particularly as both involve putting “the impossible” back on the academic table again. He is presently working on a three-volume study of paranormal currents in the history of religions and the sciences for The University of Chicago Press, collectively entitled The Super Story.”
“Archives of the Impossible” [Formerly the GEM Archives: Gnosticism, Esotericism, and Mysticism] – Rice University, Houston, Texas http://libguides.rice.edu/paranormal
Archives of the Impossible at Fondren Library’s Woodson Research Center (special collections) From the certificate program within the Religious Studies department of Rice University, founded by the efforts of Jeff Kripal.
Main Collections:
Jacques F. Vallee –UFOlogist, computer scientist, venture capitalist.
Whitley Strieber – author of the Communion books detailing his abduction experiences, and his wife and co-author, Anne Strieber.
Edwin May – research director at Pentagon’s Star Gate project that focused on ESP research.
Richard Haines – founder of National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena (NARCAP).
Brenda Denzler – anthropologist and scholar of the paranormal (books and some archival materials).
Jeffrey Kripal Academic Papers, 1970-2015 A full run of Fate magazine.
“Jeffrey J. Kripal is the Associate Dean of the School of Humanities and 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 the Associate Director of the Center for Theory and Research at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, where he also serves as Chair of the Board. Jeff is the author or co-author of eleven books, seven of which are with The University of Chicago Press, including, most recently a memoir-manifesto entitled Secret Body: Erotic and Esoteric Currents in the History of Religions (Chicago, 2017). He has also served as the Editor in Chief of the Macmillan Handbook Series on Religion (ten volumes, 2015-2016). He specializes in the study of extreme religious states and the re-visioning of a New Comparativism, particularly as both involve putting “the impossible” back on the academic table again. He is presently working on a three-volume study of paranormal currents in the history of religions and the sciences for The University of Chicago Press, collectively entitled The Super Story.”
