The New School at Commonweal The Secret Body, Part 1 - Jeffrey Kripal and Host Michael Lerner
Oct 3, 2025
In this engaging conversation, Jeffrey J. Kripal, an esteemed professor at Rice University and co-director at Esalen Institute, dives into his intriguing book, *The Secret Body*. He reveals how his personal experiences connect to larger themes in mystical traditions, including heretical heterosexuality and the concept of erotic mysticism. Kripal shares tales of out-of-body encounters and critiques academia's disengagement from the erotic-mystical link. He pushes boundaries by proposing a new evolutionary humanism that intertwines consciousness and paranormal phenomena.
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Seminary, Scrupulosity, And A Queer Church
- Jeffrey Kripal recounts growing intensely religious as a teen and joining a Benedictine seminary at 18.
- He discovered a queer inside/outside structure in the Church that shaped his lifelong inquiry into erotic mysticism.
Heretical Heterosexuality Pattern
- Kripal's first 'gnomon' states male heterosexuality often finds no religious place while sublimated male homoerotic forms become normative.
- He traced this pattern across Christian and South Asian traditions and his own life.
The Kali Puja Transmission
- Kripal describes a 1989 Kali Puja night where he experienced sleep paralysis and an energetic interaction that led to an out-of-body event.
- He returned with a felt transmission of vast information that later shaped his books.
