Reviewed by Nemo C. Mörck
Prof. Jeffrey Kripal holds the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University, Houston, Texas. He is a historian of religion fascinated by the paranormal, and who can blame him? During interviews, he has often related an anomalous experience he had in India, in 1989, while he was working on his first book. He had a so-called out-of-body experience and felt as if a massive amount of information had been imparted to him. Since then, he has written a number of books. The Flip is particularly relevant to consciousness studies and offers alternatives to Susan Blackmore’s stance that consciousness is merely an illusion.
... I focus on the extraordinary experiences of scientists … each of whom flipped his or her previous materialistic outlook after experiencing some overwhelming event that revealed the fundamental, irreducible nature of mind as such (p. 14).
The first chapter derives from an earlier essay (Kripal, 2014). Kripal takes the reader back to 1858 and presents a precognitive dream that Mark Twain had that year. Twain had more curious experiences, and wrote about them in 1878, but did not publish his thoughts about them until later (Twain, 1891, 1895). Kripal also draws attention to more recent examples (Amatuzio, 2006) and seems annoyed by many scientists’ unwillingness to deal with puzzle pieces that do not fit neatly with the rest. However, there are also many exceptions (Cardeña, 2015). Kripal notes that Einstein wrote the preface to Upton Sinclair’s Mental Radio. Einstein appears to have been open-minded, but in a letter he acknowledged that he wrote the preface ”owing to personal friendship” (see Ehrenwald, 1978, p. 137).
Take my own discipline, the history of religions. It is filled with countless ’impossible’ things—from conscious light forms to materializing monsters to levitating saints—that make my opening stories look utterly ordinary and uneventful. And what do scholars of religion do with these astonishing (im)possibilities? Not much (p. 39).
The paranormal is an open secret, and in the UK, the reception and interest generated by the BBC’s Uncanny series underscores its pervasiveness. Nevertheless, as Kripal notes, people may hesitate to report their experiences because they do not align with our everyday experience of the world, though naturally this can differ depending on culture and context. When something unexpected occurs, it can cause a shift of perspective, a flip.
One of Kripal’s examples of flipped scientists is Hans Berger, the inventor of the EEG. What seemed like a telepathic experience in a sense changed everything and his life took a new direction (van Emde Boas & Koehler, 2025). The philosopher A. J. Ayer is another example, although after his near-death experience (NDE), he remained unsure about whether there is life after bodily death and kept hoping that there was not! Nevertheless, his perspective shifted, and he became more open-minded. Eben Alexander III is a more famous example, much has been written about his NDE and he has generously shared his perspective. Kripal notes his avowal of prior scepticism – this is rather common in these kinds of conversion stories (Lamont, 2007). Barbara Ehrenreich is the fourth example - she had a mystical experience that rocked her world. Marjorie Woollacott had an experience that made her realise that writings about energies and chakras may derive from actual experiences. Finally, Michael Shermer, well-known as a sceptic, to his credit, shared an anomalous experience that made him pause (Shermer, 2014).
Kripal is an engaging writer, clearly fascinated by these accounts, and repeatedly returns to them. He has spoken at the Esalen Institute and befriended parapsychologists. Kripal is a sympathetic observer of the field. As a historian of religion, he is interested in far more than average parapsychologist and does not need to be as concerned about whether something truly happened exactly as described. Instead, he can focus on the meaning and the implications of experiences.
Kripal refers to the inadequacy of materialism and points out that it is just an interpretation - ”... not a fact” (p. 105). He covers alternative philosophical stances: Panpsychism, dual-aspect monism, quantum mind, cosmopsychism, and idealism (in particular Bernardo Kastrup’s perspective). I don’t expect the reader to take them all in one go, in fact, it may be necessary to slow down and reflect. This is not a light read, but I am confident that Kripal has done as best as he can to guide the reader.
While ethically we cannot expose people to extreme and violent conditions, life does this for us. If we look at what happens to a human being in extreme conditions (like a near-death experience or a traumatic paranormal event), we will likely get much closer to the truth of consciousness than we ever will by talking endlessly about qualia and cognitive modules (p. 157).
As a historian of religion, Kripal is also acutely aware of mystical experiences and notes that several physicists turned to mystical literature during their search for parallels to their thinking. Kripal suggests that mystical literature needs to be explored if “... we are really serious about plumbing the depths of consciousness and cosmos, of mind and matter” (p. 165).
After one has realized that consciousness is fundamental to the cosmos and not some random evolutionary accident or surface cognitive illusion, that everything is alive, that everything is connected and in effect 'One,' then what? (p. 167, emphasis in original).
I am sure that Kripal could have stayed with this question for quite some time. However, he finds himself writing about the humanities, in which ”... the truths discerned almost always offend or violate the status quo and the comfortable ...” (p. 171). Politics also slip in his final chapter, and he points out the troubles with both the Left and the Right. Eventually, he presents a final account of a scientist, Jill Bolte Taylor, who underwent an anomalous experience during a stroke. She comes across as being conflicted. Taylor spoke and wrote about her experience based on her training as a neuroanatomist, yet the experience itself was clearly reminiscent of what one can find in the mystical literature. In closing, it should perhaps be noted that Kripal does ”... not wish to argue that the flip is some kind of sure-bet way to become a moral and politically enlightened person ...” (p. 169), however, it can certainly leave one wondering about what kind of world we actually inhabit.
References
Amatuzio, J. (2006). Beyond knowing: Mysteries and messages of death and life from a forensic pathologist. New World Library.
Cardeña, E. (2015). Eminent people interested in psi. Psi Encyclopedia. https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/eminent-people-interested-psi
Ehrenwald, J. (1978). Einstein skeptical of ESP? Postscript to a correspondence. Journal of Parapsychology, 42, 137-142.
Kripal, J. J. (2014, March 31). Visions of the impossible. How ‘fantastic’ stories unlock the nature of consciousness. The Chronicle of Higher Education. https://www.chronicle.com/article/visions-of-the-impossible/
Lamont, P. (2007). Paranormal belief and the avowal of prior scepticism. Theory & Psychology, 17(5), 681-696.
Shermer, M. (2014, October 1). Infrequencies. Scientific American, 311(4), 97. https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican1014-97
Twain, M. (1891, December). Mental telegraphy. A manuscript with a history. Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, 95-104.
Twain, M. (1895, September). Mental telegraphy again. Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, 521-524.
van Emde Boas, W., & Koehler, P. J. (2025). Hans Berger (1873–1941): The search for “mental energy” that brought the electroencephalography. In F. Brigo, & O. Mecarelli (Eds.), EEG: The first 100 years (pp. 9-23). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-86878-8_2