For episode 7, we welcome the writer and scholar Erik Davis (4:06) to reflect on the journey that led to his new book, BLOTTER: The Untold Story of an Acid Medium. We discuss Erik’s writing for the Village Voice in the early 90s, his breakthrough monograph Techgnosis, and how his home state of California informs his oeuvre. In the second half of the interview, we discuss the academic study of “the weird,” perils and possibilities for the psychedelic renaissance, and how BLOTTER is a love letter to LSD.

LINKS

• Blotter book launch event 4/30
• Erik's website
• Burning Shore
• Blotter: The Untold Story of an Acid Medium
• Techgnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information
• High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the Seventies
• Led Zeppelin IV 33/13
• Nomad Codes: Adventures in Modern Esoterica
• Visionary State

For our sixth episode, we welcome the spirit channel, teacher, and playwright Paul Selig. In this conversation 8:14, we explore Selig’s early career as a playwright and professor, his spiritual awakening during the Harmonic Convergence of 1987, how he cultivated his mediumship abilities, and the twelve books Selig has channeled from “the Guides.” On the way, we explore what happens to Selig in the channeling state and the metaphysics of mind that make these states possible.

LINKS
Paul Selig's Website
Selig, I Am the Word
A Course in Miracles
Ann Braude, Radical Spirits
Ed. Cathy Gutierrez, Handbook of Spiritualism and Channeling
Taves, Revelatory Events
Jane Roberts, Seth Speaks

For episode five of the pod, we are honored to welcome Jeffrey J. Kripal, J. Newton Rayzor Chair of Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University. In this career-spanning chat 10:36 we discuss Kripal’s Catholic upbringing, psychoanalysis, and the ecstatic experience in Calcutta that changed the direction of his career. From there, we touch on Jeff’s role at Esalen, historical mystics and paranormal powers, telepathic insects, and how the study of religion and popular culture come together in film, comedy, and music.

NOTES

Peripheries No. 6 launch event
Jeffrey J. Kripal's personal website
Jeffrey Kripal, Mutants and Mystics
Kripal, The Superhumanities
Kripal, Authors of the Impossible
Kripal, Kali's Child
Kripal, How to Think Impossibly
The Archives of the Impossible
Hellier, season 1
Hellier, season 2
Esalen's Center for Theory and Research