(Continued from last week's post). This will be my last blog post for three weeks. I'm taking a short break to work on a rewrite of my novel The Color of Electrum. I'll be back on May 15, with the first of a two-part post on the precognitive dream reported by Mark Twain--one of the many … [Read more...]
An Initiatory Journey – Jeffrey Kripal’s “Comparing Religions” (Part 1)
Review of Comparing Religions: Coming to Terms, by Jeffrey J. Kripal; with Ata Anzali, Andrea R. Jain, and Erin Prophet. Wiley Blackwell, 2014. Has there ever been a book like Jeffrey Kripal's Comparing Religions? If there has, I haven't seen it, and in my 24 years as a professor of religious … [Read more...]
Truth with Meaning – The Quest of J. Allen Hynek
Last week's post, on Jeff Kripal's Mutants & Mystics, has called forth thoughtful responses from a long-time reader named Ross, and from Jeff himself. Both took issue with my (very qualified) endorsement of the view expressed by Lester del Rey, that materialist science's transformation of our … [Read more...]
From Superman to Whitley Strieber – Reflections on a “Super-Story”
"I am not denying the obvious. I am simply suggesting that there is also a 'secret life' to Superman that extends far, far beyond his latest incarnation and 'descent' (or crash landing) into American pop culture." --Jeffrey J. Kripal It takes a big book to encompass between the same two covers … [Read more...]
Metatron – the Mutant, the Mystic (Part 1)
He's an angel, sort of, but more like a god. His name "Metatron" sounds Greek, sort of, but comes down to us written in Hebrew letters. What it might mean in Greek, we don't know, although etymologies have been proposed. In Hebrew it means nothing at all. The name couldn't be more unlike … [Read more...]