Events at Reed

Jeffrey J. Kripal, J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University, will focus his lecture on three texts: Philip K. Dick’s Valis (1981), Whitley Strieber’s Communion (1987), and Living with a Wild God (2014) by Reed alumna Barbara Ehrenreich ’63. Prof. Kripal will demonstrate how each author describes a deeply personal, life-changing encounter with what any earlier culture would have called a god, demon, or angel. Each author engages this religious language and history but ultimately moves outside of it to posit some actual invisible species in the physical environment that interacts with human beings at its whims and for its own interest, often of an emotional or sexual nature. The result is a kind of panpsychism and/or polytheism that presents serious challenges to the reigning materialisms, monotheisms, and historicisms of our field. Kripal is the author of numerous books and publications, including Comparing Religions, Mutants and Mystics: Science Fiction; Superhero Comics, and the Paranormal; and Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion. Sponsored by the religion department. [Image: Michael Spadafina for MAX Video Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.]