About Me
I am a historian of religions (Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1993) specializing in the comparison of extreme religious experiences across spatial and temporal boundaries, particularly those traditionally classified as gnostic, esoteric, and mystical. I hold the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University and am the Associate Director of the Center for Theory and Research of the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. I have published six monographs, the last two of which bear directly on parapsychological histories and themes: Mutants and Mystics: Science Fiction, Superhero Comics, and the Paranormal (Chicago, 2011),Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred (Chicago, 2010),Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion (Chicago, 2007), The Serpent’s Gift: Gnostic Reflections on the Study of Religion(Chicago, 2007),Roads of Excess, Palaces of Wisdom: Eroticism and Reflexivity in the Study of Mysticism (Chicago, 2001), andKali’s Child: The Mystical and the Erotic in the Life and Teachings of Ramakrishna (Chicago, 1995). I am also working with film maker Scott Jones on two feature documentaries based on two of my books, both again directly relevant to parapsychologists. My official website, which summarizes my entire body of work, can be found at: http://kripal.rice.edu/