Between Academia and esotericism: Jeffrey Kripal̓s strategy for transforming the humanities

The article focuses on the idea of “thinking impossible” developed by the American scholar of religion Jeffrey Kripal in his latest book “How to think impossibly: About souls, UFOs, time, belief, and everything else” (2024). The author analyzes the epistemological and ontological foundations of this project and its connection with Kripal’s previous intellectual strategy aimed at transforming the humanities. The article examines the debate on the status of the “impossible” in academic science and on the boundaries of religious studies as a discipline. It is shown that Kripal’s project represents a deliberate departure from the bounds of “normal science” (in Thomas Kuhn’s sense) with the goal of changing the existing paradigm. Special attention is paid to the metaphysical foundations of his approach – dual-aspect monism, which goes back to C.G. Jung and W. Pauli – as well as his understanding of time, belief, and symbol as conditions for the possibility of “impossible thinking”. The author concludes that Kripal occupies a liminal space between academic science and esoteric tradition, and that this position is not accidental but the result of a consistent intellectual strategy.

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