Pioneering scholars Jeff Kripal and Jake Sherman invite us into a profound exploration of consciousness that challenges brain-bound theories. As the field of consciousness studies experiences unprecedented expansion—with over 100 theories now in academic circulation—these visionaries examine how our conception of consciousness is undergoing radical transformation. More theorists are taking seriously the possibility that consciousness is a pervasive feature of existence—not confined to human minds, but extending throughout the non-human world. The speakers articulate how this emerging paradigm suggests consciousness is participatory in nature, weaving humans into an intimate relationship with our earthly companions and the broader cosmic community.
This panel took place on Saturday, September 13, as part of Frontiers of Knowledge, a day-long symposium featuring an amazing collection of world-renowned speakers conceived by Candice Olson and co-produced by Aspen Public Radio, Center for MINDS, California Institute of Integral Studies and the Mays Family Foundation at the historic Wheeler Opera House in the heart of Aspen, Colorado. Learn more at: frontiersofknowledge.org
Speakers:
Jeff Kripal holds the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University, where he served as the Associate Dean of the School of Humanities (2019-2023), chaired the Department of Religion for eight years, and also helped create the GEM Program, a doctoral concentration in the study of Gnosticism, Esotericism, and Mysticism that is the largest program of its kind in the world. He presently helps direct the Center for Theory and Research at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, where he served as Chair of Board from 2015 to 2020. Jeff is the author or co-author of thirteen books, nine of which are with The University of Chicago Press. He has also served as the Editor in Chief of the Macmillan Handbook Series on Religion (ten volumes, 2015-2016). He specializes in the study of extreme religious states and the re-visioning of a New Comparativism, particularly as both involve putting “the impossible” back on the academic table again. He is presently working on a three-volume study of paranormal currents in the history of religions and the sciences for The University of Chicago Press, collectively entitled The Super Story.
Jacob Sherman is Professor of Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness and chair of the department at CIIS. He taught previously at King’s College London and the University of Cambridge. By training a philosopher, theologian, and religious studies scholar, he is the author of Partakers of the Divine: Contemplation and the Practice of Philosophy, and editor, with Jorge Ferrer, of The Participatory Turn: Spirituality, Mysticism, Religious Studies. His writings have appeared in publications such as the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Modern Theology, and Theology and Science. He writes and lectures frequently on topics related to contemplative traditions, metaphysics, disenchantment and re-enchantment, philosophy and poetics, and nonreductive approaches to understanding our relation to nature. He is currently writing on a new manuscript entitled The Book of Nature: From Contemplative Antiquity to Integral Ecology.
Sam Kimbriel - political philosopher, author, and founding director of the Aspen Institute’s Philosophy & Society Initiative, which seeks to reignite a national tradition of public philosophy, enabling us to grapple with our largest and most haunting issues of societal purpose—What is justice? What is a good life? What is society for? –as part of an emerging generation of philosophers rethinking basic questions of individuality, identity, and community. Author of Friendship as Sacred Knowing: Overcoming Isolation and Editor at Large for Wisdom of Crowds, he writes widely on topics of solidarity, ideology, democracy, power, and trust for outlets including the Washington Post and BBC. He lives in Washington, D.C. and holds MPhil and PhD degrees from the University of Cambridge.