Jeffrey J. KripalJeffrey J. Kripal holds the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University and is the associate director of the Center for Theory and Research at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. He is the author of seven books,including: Comparing Religions: Coming to Terms (Wiley-Blackwell, 2014); Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred (Chicago, 2010); and Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion (Chicago, 2007). Jeff is a historian of religions who specializes in the comparison of extreme religious experiences and anomalous events across space and time. Read More Read Less