{"id":1936,"date":"2025-03-21T14:03:17","date_gmt":"2025-03-21T12:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/triality.nl\/index.php\/2025\/03\/21\/prof-jeffrey-kripal-on-decolonizing-reality\/"},"modified":"2025-10-12T08:44:39","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T06:44:39","slug":"prof-jeffrey-kripal-on-decolonizing-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/triality.nl\/index.php\/2025\/03\/21\/prof-jeffrey-kripal-on-decolonizing-reality\/","title":{"rendered":"Prof. Jeffrey Kripal On &#8216;Decolonizing&#8217; Reality"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\"  id=\"_ytid_30879\"  width=\"840\" height=\"472\"  data-origwidth=\"840\" data-origheight=\"472\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LY8WI1t6WVs?enablejsapi=1&#038;autoplay=0&#038;cc_load_policy=0&#038;cc_lang_pref=&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;loop=0&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;playsinline=0&#038;autohide=2&#038;theme=dark&#038;color=red&#038;controls=1&#038;disablekb=0&#038;\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  epyt-is-override  no-lazyload\" title=\"YouTube player\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Each week, the Essentia Foundation shares highlights from the most insightful moments of longer videos on this channel. In this video Prof. Jeffrey Kripal talks about the importance of metaphysical diversity in academia: instead of regarding other than Western ontologies as Foucauldian language games, we have to see them as valid claims on reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Watch the full interview: What If Science Took The Paranormal Seriously? | The Superhumanities | Prof. Jeffrey Kripal PhD<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\"  id=\"_ytid_93574\"  width=\"840\" height=\"472\"  data-origwidth=\"840\" data-origheight=\"472\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1vMPISrMyvQ?enablejsapi=1&#038;autoplay=0&#038;cc_load_policy=0&#038;cc_lang_pref=&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;loop=0&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;playsinline=0&#038;autohide=2&#038;theme=dark&#038;color=red&#038;controls=1&#038;disablekb=0&#038;\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  epyt-is-override  no-lazyload\" title=\"YouTube player\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Essentia Foundation\u2019s Hans Busstra interviews Prof. Jeffrey Kripal, PhD, who holds the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University in Houston, on his new book: \u2018The Superhumanities, Historical Precedents, Moral Objections, New Realities.\u2019 What if the humanities would open their horizon to more metaphysical possibilities? Prof. Kripal has written a book about a future in which the humanities study the full human. In these superhumanities, the weird, the psi\u2014in short, the impossible\u2014is taken seriously metaphysically: anomalous phenomena are not only regarded as subjective truths, but also as objective claims about reality. In his book, Prof. Kripal clearly shows how the nineteenth century ontology of materialism reigns in almost all of the humanities, which limits our scientific understanding of who we are as humans: there is no transcendence, the individual is nothing but a social body in spacetime, shaped by society. As Prof. Kripal likes to quip: \u201cif there is one dogma in the humanities, it is that the truth has to be depressing.\u201d The humanities need to expand beyond this depressing view, not because it\u2019s depressing, but because it\u2019s simply a half truth. We are conditioned social animals and transcendent beings. We are human and superhuman, as he argues. Interestingly, the superhumanities can build on the same foundational thinkers as the humanities. When we read the full Friedrich Nietzsche, William James, or Jacques Derrida, for instance, we see that these thinkers very much acknowledged the super. It is only the postmodern reading of their texts in academia that filters out the ecstatic. When it comes to Nietzsche, Prof. Kripal convincingly argues that the \u2018crazy\u2019 Nietzsche was perhaps the real Nietzsche, at the pinnacle of his thought. But here\u2019s the thing: did he think his way to the vision of the \u00dcbermensch\u2014which later unjustly got contaminated by fascism\u2014or did he somehow receive it as a vision? According to Prof. Kripal, Nietzsche&#8217;s vision should be taken much more literally than we now take it: he was talking about an actual superspecies, with superhuman capabilities. What if the humanities could scientifically investigate what happened when, for instance, Nikola Tesla had the visions that led to groundbreaking inventions? What happened when Einstein saw the principles of general relativity in a dream? Perhaps the key takeaway from Prof. Kripal&#8217;s book is that, if the humanities would only dare to turn into the superhumanities, they would again become relevant for the other disciplines in academia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-amazon wp-block-embed-amazon\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Superhumanities: Historical Precedents, Moral Objections, New Realities\" type=\"text\/html\" width=\"840\" height=\"550\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen style=\"max-width:100%\" src=\"https:\/\/read.amazon.com\/kp\/card?preview=inline&#038;linkCode=kpd&#038;ref_=k4w_oembed_zUXrVF5Ny6bnaE&#038;asin=B0BCYN31SV&#038;tag=kpembed-20\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-amazon wp-block-embed-amazon\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"How to Think Impossibly: About Souls, UFOs, Time, Belief, and Everything Else\" type=\"text\/html\" width=\"840\" height=\"550\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen style=\"max-width:100%\" src=\"https:\/\/read.amazon.com\/kp\/card?preview=inline&#038;linkCode=kpd&#038;ref_=k4w_oembed_mGAT4iNouWgmWu&#038;asin=B0D5TMB9LM&#038;tag=kpembed-20\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Each week, the Essentia Foundation shares highlights from the most insightful moments of longer videos on this channel. In this video Prof. Jeffrey Kripal talks about the importance of metaphysical diversity in academia: instead of regarding other than Western ontologies as Foucauldian language games, we have to see them as valid claims on reality. Watch &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/triality.nl\/index.php\/2025\/03\/21\/prof-jeffrey-kripal-on-decolonizing-reality\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Prof. Jeffrey Kripal On &#8216;Decolonizing&#8217; Reality&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[83,14],"tags":[65,51,24,4,109],"class_list":["post-1936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","hentry","category-analytic-idealism","category-philosophy","tag-unreality","tag-books","tag-consciousness","tag-philosophy","tag-talks","post_format-post-format-video"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1485,"url":"https:\/\/triality.nl\/index.php\/2023\/05\/27\/the-afterlife-and-the-unconscious-mind-with-betty-kovacs-new-thinking-allowed-with-jeffrey-mishlove\/","url_meta":{"origin":1936,"position":0},"title":"The Afterlife and the Unconscious Mind with Betty Kov\u00e1cs: New Thinking Allowed with Jeffrey Mishlove","author":"admin","date":"May 27, 2023","format":"video","excerpt":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/6UPzuXjiWls Betty J. Kov\u00e1cs, PhD, taught symbolic\/mythic language for twenty-five years. She has served as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Jung Society of Claremont, California, and sits on the Academic Advisory Board of Forever Family Foundation. Dr. Kovacs is author of Merchants of Light: The Consciousness That\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Biology\/Ecology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Biology\/Ecology","link":"https:\/\/triality.nl\/index.php\/category\/truth\/science\/biology-ecology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/6UPzuXjiWls\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":849,"url":"https:\/\/triality.nl\/index.php\/2023\/03\/15\/quantum-bayesianism-and-the-embodied-agent\/","url_meta":{"origin":1936,"position":1},"title":"Quantum Bayesianism and the embodied agent","author":"admin","date":"March 15, 2023","format":"video","excerpt":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/X0HYYDXteAg The Nobel Prize in physics in 2022 went the scientists who, for over 40 years, have carried out a series of experiments indicating that, contrary to materialist expectations, physical entities do not have standalone existence but are, in fact, products of observation. This result is extraordinarily relevant to our\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Analytic Idealism&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Analytic Idealism","link":"https:\/\/triality.nl\/index.php\/category\/goodness\/philosophy\/analytic-idealism\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/X0HYYDXteAg\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1487,"url":"https:\/\/triality.nl\/index.php\/2023\/05\/26\/beyond-belief-considering-evidence-for-life-after-life-dr-eben-alexander-jeffrey-mishlove-phd\/","url_meta":{"origin":1936,"position":2},"title":"Beyond Belief: Considering Evidence for Life After Life- Dr. Eben Alexander, Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD.","author":"admin","date":"May 26, 2023","format":"video","excerpt":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/AJgpoFa67L4 Believing in the afterlife is one thing\u2026 proving it is another. This year, people from around the world competed in an essay contest providing their rationale for life after death. Nearly $2 million in prize money was awarded with Las Vegas entrepreneur Robert Bigelow putting up the prize money.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Biology\/Ecology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Biology\/Ecology","link":"https:\/\/triality.nl\/index.php\/category\/truth\/science\/biology-ecology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/AJgpoFa67L4\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1824,"url":"https:\/\/triality.nl\/index.php\/2024\/06\/30\/reality-begins-with-consciousness-with-vernon-neppe\/","url_meta":{"origin":1936,"position":3},"title":"Reality Begins with Consciousness with Vernon Neppe","author":"admin","date":"June 30, 2024","format":"video","excerpt":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/0rVxzHk---0?si=HuB4jJtJsxyF33Vg Vernon Neppe, MD, PhD, FRSSAf, is a neuropsychiatrist and head of the Pacific Neuropsychiatric Institute in Seattle. 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