The Superhumanities: Historical Precedents, Moral Objections, New Realities

290 Pages·2022·2.918 MB·English

by  Jeffrey J. Kripal

THE
SUPERHUMANITIES

Jeffrey J. Kripal

THE
SUPERHUMANITIES
Historical Precedents,
Moral Objections,
New Realities
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS
CHICAGO AND LONDON
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2022 by Jeffrey J. Kripal
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced
in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in
the case of brief quotations in critical articles and reviews. For
more information, contact the University of Chicago Press,
1427 E. 60th St., Chicago, IL 60637.
Published 2022
Printed in the United States of America
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ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 82024- 8 (cloth)
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 82025- 5 (e-b ook)
DOI: https:// doi .org /10 .7208 /chicago /9780226820255 .001 .0001
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Kripal, Jeffrey J. (Jeffrey John), 1962– author.
Title: The superhumanities : historical precedents, moral objections, new realities / Jeffrey J.
Kripal.
Description: Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2022. | Includes bibliographical references
and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021056891 | ISBN 9780226820248 (cloth) | ISBN 9780226820255 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Superman (Philosophical concept) | Humanities. | Altered states of
consciousness.
Classification: LCC BL465 .K75 2022 | DDC 150.19/87—dc23/eng/20220119
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021056891
♾ This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48- 1992
(Permanence of Paper).
de impossibili facere possibile

for Stephen, Sravana, Benjamin, Alana, Jess, and John,
superhumans all

Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of
tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs?
ralph waldo emerson, Nature (1836)
Humans fear the supernatural, both the undivine (the animal impulses such
as sexuality, the unconscious, the unknown, the alien) and the divine (the
superhuman, the god in us). Culture and religion seek to protect us from these
two forces.
gloria anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera (1987)