The Flip

Epiphanies of Mind and the Future of Knowledge

By: Jeffrey J. Kripal

Narrated by: James Lurie

“One of the most provocative new books of the year, and, for me, mindblowing.” - Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma and How to Change Your Mind

“Kripal makes many sympathetic points about the present spiritual state of America.... [He] continues to believe that spirituality and science should not contradict each other.” - New York Times Book Review

“Kripal prompts us to reflect on our personal assumptions, as well as the shared assumptions that create and maintain our institutions.... [His] work will likely become more and more relevant to more and more areas of inquiry as the century unfolds. It may even open up a new space for Americans to reevaluate the personal and cultural narratives they have inherited, and to imagine alternative futures.” - Los Angeles Review of Books

A “flip,” writes Jeffrey J. Kripal, is “a reversal of perspective,” “a new real,” often born of an extreme, life-changing experience. The Flip is Kripal’s ambitious, visionary program for unifying the sciences and the humanities to expand our minds, open our hearts, and negotiate a peaceful resolution to the culture wars. Combining accounts of rationalists’ spiritual awakenings and consciousness explorations by philosophers, neuroscientists, and mystics within a framework of the history of science and religion, Kripal compellingly signals a path to mending our fractured world.

©2019 Jeffrey J. Kripal. (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“A warmly vivid account of various science-minded people who have experienced the ‘Flip’.... Passionate and often funny.” (Guardian)

“[The Flip] will ignite conversations about the limits of science and the potential for dramatic shifts in perspective.” (Publishers Weekly)

“Offers plenty of points to ponder.” (Kirkus Reviews

This is a marvelous book except for one thing

and that is what seems now an obligatory left-wing Manifesto at the end of every book. Can't we just read philosophy without some sort of Republican derangement syndrome?

Good. But Kripal over sold it.

Good book overall. The author does a good job of presenting the evidence for the metaphysical experience of consciousness. But he lost me when he started drawing conclusions concerning the meaning of this experience. Kripal’s long winded explanation for it all might drain all the joy out of transcendence. I would rather be lead to the mystery and interpret meaning for myself.

This is the book I wish I'd written

Very well done. Especially good read if you lean toward science and fundamentalism and are looking for something to help you break from material thinking.

Decent explanation of the nuances regarding metaphysics

Pretty solid explanation of how mystical experiences, psi-phenomena & things that are incompatible with physicalism (aka scientific materialism) doesn’t & shouldn’t be lumped together with religious fundamentalism or new age “woo” & can be totally secular & still nonphysicalist/anti-physicalist.

I particularly liked how Dr. Kripal conveyed that these experiences & nonphysicalist metaphysical models themselves, are more associated with the humanities than with STEM & say more about existence than STEM fields do (not to downplay the importance of STEM industries of course). It really conveys the bias our capitalist system has for quantitative type of work over qualitative type of work/labor (no wonder why physicalism became the dominant metaphysical model among other reasons).

I would recommend this to anyone interested in metaphysics but doesn’t know about the different metaphysical positions & is “on the fence” about all of this/agnostic types.

Scholarly, entertaining, Informative

Expect lots of note taking... well worth the time. Nicely sprinkled with Historical tidbits, too!