The Super Natural: Why the Unexplained Is Real

by Whitley Strieber, Jeffrey J. Kripal

Overview

Two of today's maverick authors on anomalous experience present a perception-altering and intellectually thrilling analysis of why the paranormal is real, but radically different from what is conventionally
understood.

Whitley Strieber (Communion) and Jeffrey J. Kripal (J. Newton Rayzor professor of religion at Rice University) team up on this unprecedented and intellectually vibrant new framing of inexplicable events and experiences.

Rather than merely document the anomalous, these authors—one the man who popularized alien abduction and the other a renowned scholar and "renegade advocate for including the paranormal in religious studies" (The New York Times)—deliver a fast-paced and exhilarating study of why the supernatural is neither fantasy nor fiction but a vital and authentic aspect of life.

Their suggestion? That all kinds of "impossible" things, from extra-dimensional beings to bilocation to bumps in the night, are not impossible at all: rather,  they are a part of our natural world. But this natural world is immeasurably more weird, more wonderful, and probably more populated than we have so far imagined with our current categories and cultures, which are what really make these things seem "impossible."

The Super Natural considers that the natural world is actually a "super natural world"—and all we have to do to see this is to change the lenses through which we are looking at it and the languages through which we are presently limiting it. In short: The extraordinary exists if we know how to look at and think about it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780143109501
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/26/2017
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	273,789
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

WHITLEY STRIEBER is one of today's most influential and bestselling authors of both science fiction and extraordinary fact. He is best known for his groundbreaking memoir Communion, which popularized the alien-abduction thesis, as well as his many bestselling novels, such as The Wolfen and The Hunger. These and other of Strieber's books have formed the basis for many popular movies, including The Day After Tomorrow.

JEFFREY J. KRIPAL is the J. Newton Rayzor professor of religion at Rice University. He is the author of six books, including Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion, Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred, and Mutants and Mystics: Science Fiction, Superhero Comics, and the Paranormal.

Read an Excerpt

 The Already World
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "The Super Natural"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Whitley Strieber.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

1 The Already World 1

2 Into the Woods 21

3 Making the Cut 39

4 The Blue Man Group-the Other One 57

5 A Context in the Sky 79

6 Lying in the Lap of the Goddess 96

7 What Evolution Looks Like 111

8 Pain 130

9 Super Sexualities 150

10 Physical Traces and the Feral Boy 174

11 The Magical Object 189

12 Cracking the Cosmic Egg 206

13 Trauma, Trance, and Transcendence 218

14 Haunted 234

15 The Soul Is a UFO 262

16 Mythmaking 282

17 The Mythical Object 303

18 Shifting the Conversation 320

Appendix

"An Approximation to Realness or Final Awakening": Or How to Make the Supernatural Super Natural in Nine Steps 339

Entirely Natural Notes 343

Index 357

About the Authors 367

Editorial Reviews

A cohesive reframing of the ‘pantheon of the unknown’ … A thought-provoking, intelligent reconceptualization of supernatural events.” –Kirkus Reviews  

 

"This book is a dream come true. It has taken thirty years for the most articulate of abductees to be taken seriously by a senior academic. This dialogue between the famous abductee and the historian of religions is the first major step in ufology since Jacques Vallee’s writings of the 1990s. Whitley Strieber’s intelligence and honesty compel one to take his experiences seriously, though they may sweep the philosophical ground from under our feet. In taking up the challenge, Jeffrey Kripal avoids the simplistic reactions of both skeptic and true believer. Instead of pretending to have the answers, he asks mind-bending questions, whose very asking is an act of self-transformation. Their conversation sets off sparks that should rekindle the search after “rejected knowledge,” and integrate it with the great paradigm change of our time: the end of materialism." —Joscelyn Godwin, Colgate University

“Requires the reader to avoid the first great pitfall of thinking that ‘skepticism’ and belief are the only two options … very well written, surprisingly light, and fast-paced … They don’t pretend to have answers, but we get the feeling the right questions lie in this direction. Every serious fortean needs to read it.”—Bob Rickard, Fortean Times 

“If reading The Super Natural doesn't make your hair stand straight up, you need to read it again. This book is at once disturbing and disorienting, fascinating and lucid. Its ‘new vision of the unexplained’ dives headfirst into all sorts of strange but true encounters, from ravishing alien goddesses to loathsome blue gremlins. While this domain of human experience remains strictly taboo, it doesn’t stop hundreds of thousands of ordinary people from continuing to report bizarre encounters with we know not what. This remarkable book does not attempt to explain what is going on. But it does crack open your head long enough to provide a new perspective.” –Dean Radin, Chief Scientist, Institute of Noetic Sciences and author of Supernormal; Entangled Minds; and The Conscious Universe

"Something is happening here, and we're not sure what it is, but Kripal and Strieber have a clue: if there are aliens among us, they are ourselves, and we seem eager to make contact. This is a brilliant, provocative, and gripping new inquiry into the mysteries of time, space, and the human — and not so human — mind. Absolutely captivating; one could even say I was abducted..." –Gary Lachman, author of The Secret Teachers of the Western World

  “A modern day descent into the rabbit hole, The Super Natural will blow your mind wide open, overturn beliefs about reality and the imagination, and challenge preconceived notions about life, death, and what falls in-between. Erudite, illuminating, and thoroughly exciting (not to mention quite funny at times), Strieber and Kripal’s collaboration takes a serious look at what many would consider an unserious subject and have written the most thought-provoking and important book on the essence and nature of unexplained phenomena in more than forty years.” –Gary Jansen, author of Holy Ghosts

“Fascination with the UFO phenomenon and with its extreme forms found in ‘abduction’ reports has triggered passionate debates about the nature of the manifestations, the reliability of human testimony, and the unavoidable parallels with initiatory states and certain mystical visions. Yet the ambiguity of the relationship with the creatures involved has remained unresolved. The controversy has reactivated fundamental debates about the role of archetypes, the power of the unconscious, and the transcendental meaning of sex. A novel way to approach the problem emerges in this exceptional book — the product of a dialogue between an articulate experiencer and an erudite historian of religions. In the process we discover that the experiencer is also something of a historian, and the historian confesses he has not been untouched by the experience...What is at stake is nothing less than the nature of our reality, and our ability as humans to grasp levels of perception that are at once so dangerous and so sublime.” –Jacques Vallee, author of Passport to Magonia, Forbidden Science, and Wonders in the Sky

"Practically anything goes at the American Academy of Religion's annual conference...What was almost impossible to find, at this orgy of intellectual curiosities, was discussion of the paranormal: ESP, premonitions, psychic powers, alien abduction and the like. This is a conference concerned with all sorts of supernatural and metaphysical claims....So why nothing about, say, mental telepathy? That is the question posed by Jeffrey J. Kripal, a professor of religion at Rice University in Houston and a renegade advocate for including the paranormal in religious studies." –The New York Times

"No matter your beliefs, Strieber's writing has impact." –Library Journal

From the Publisher

11/01/2015
UFO proponent and horror novelist Strieber (The Wolfen) and Kripal (J. Newton Rayzor Professor of Philosophy and Religious Thought, Rice Univ.; Mutants and Mystics) alternate the writing of chapters here, together presenting a unified front regarding their theory that the modern supernatural world now consists of aliens and UFOs, the soul is just energy, and other supernatural events are in fact rarely encountered natural phenomena. Not yet having a scientific explanation for things like UFOs, they state, doesn't mean that such things don't exist; instead they are part of a nature that we don't yet understand. VERDICT This book is for die-hard believers in UFOs and the supernatural who are looking for a new belief system. It's not an easy read but has some sections that will appeal to Strieber's fans. For large systems, or libraries where the exploration of supernatural phenomenon is very popular.—Mary E. Jones, Los Angeles P.L.

Library Journal

2015-11-04
A religious historian and a popular fiction writer and mystic collaborate to adopt unexplained phenomena into the realm of natural occurrences. Best known for his graphic depictions of alien abductions and otherworldly encounters (his own included), Strieber (Solving the Communion Enigma: What Is to Come, 2012, etc.) pairs up with Kripal (Religion/Rice Univ.; Comparing Religions, 2014, etc.) to produce a cohesive reframing of the "pantheon of the unknown" through the lens of the natural world. To accomplish their "apocalypse of thought," both authors worked in tandem, intertwining their unique perspectives, experiences, and educational backgrounds. They explore Strieber's legacy, the development of alien folklore, and the logical debate on how the American government's skepticism and secrecy surrounding UFOs only propagates their mythological potential. Kripal's broad religious comparisons and his intellectualization of unknown phenomena from a spiritual perspective complement Strieber's menacing laundry list of what haunts him most, from his many sinister encounters with nonhuman entities to a medically mystifying, nonremovable ear implant, a beautiful ghostly temptress, and gargantuan pulsating spiders hovering above his bed. Appealing to his already established readership, these unsettling anecdotes indeed make this a Strieber book, but Kripal's religious assessment of sex and gender is similarly provocative. Lucid and convincing, the writers' volleying hypothetical interpretations of how "to embrace science in a new way" implore that it's not necessary to believe in the supernatural in order to study it and to comprehend its validity or its possibilities or impossibilities, yet much work remains to elevate it beyond perpetual public mockery. Though Kripal implores that "we are all embedded in a much larger, fiercely alive and richly conscious reality," perhaps the best counsel for dogmatic debunkers can be found in the book's appendix, which kindly suggests that everyone patiently "learn to live with paradox, to sit with the question." A thought-provoking, intelligent reconceptualization of supernatural events.

Kirkus Reviews