I have just finished reading Secret Bodies. Given that this book was what prompted the interview with Jeff I thought it might be worthwhile sharing the review I am about to post on Amazon - kindle.
SECRET BODY REVIEW
My first impression of Secret Body was that this isn’t a book to be read by those who sensibilities are politicized and prone speedy angst. At the end, that’s still the case for me, but there are a few others I’d also discourage.
Secret Body is an autobiographical tour of critical points in our culture’s efforts to break through the determined grip of dogma exerted by the religious and materialist conservatives alike over the last 50 years. It is a tour guided by a professional scholar of religion who traces his own significant adventures, and those of key thinkers and players, many of whom he has known, and knows, personally.
Kripal has elected to follow a particular trajectory, one that steps away from the theme of traditions and what is good to think, based upon them. That trajectory traces one path through the revolutionizing influences that came into the Western psyche – the Eastern influences of yogic, Tantric and Buddhist traditions, the passion to investigate psi and paranormal phenomena, psychotropic drugs, the UFO/ET phenomena and more.
How do these have anything to do with religion? If you are sitting up and paying attention this book is for you – but only if you value the scholarship on a professional who inquires into these things for a living.
There are many fine writers on these themes who have benefited from an academic education, but who then write for a wider audience with the skill and discipline they gained. It should go without saying that Secret Bodies must be read by any student or academic wanting to follow a similar pathway. This logic is reflected in the asking price, which is 3 times what you’d pay for it - if the book was aimed at a wider, more popular audience.
But Kripal brings another level here. His scholarship is exemplary. His writing is well crafted and a pleasure to read. Even so the real treat is that here is a thinker who has boldly placed himself as an embedded observer, and participant, at the messy and still disreputable frontier. That frontier will become the homeland for those who are dedicated to comprehending human consciousness beyond the safe constraints of dogma and the persistently reinforced cultural norms.
So if you are wondering whether this book is worth the $50 odd I say it is worth twice the price – provided you meet the conditions I have stated above. This is for the serious thinker.
Kripal and I are close enough in age for me to have that uncanny sense that he has written a beautifully crafted personal version of the same essential story of my life. However I am not a professional thinker on religion – just a dedicated amateur. I know this story, and, as a consequence, I know that Kripal has told his version with deep integrity, passion and insight.
I must caution the reader that Secret Bodies is not an encyclopedia of the past 50 years or so. It is a personal account of a particular body of experiences and thought. It is unique and, I think, a singular contribution to the accounting of an extraordinary period in our culture’s history.
