Mutants and Mystics

This book by Jeffrey Kripal was genuinely recommended once in the episodes we index, on Lex Fridman. The people who vouched for it on air: guest. It comes up in conversations about consciousness, psychedelics. Every quote below is verbatim, attributed, and linked to the exact second it was said. Sourced expert opinion, not medical advice.

"Account of how comic book heroes have helped their creators and fans alike explore and express a wealth of paranormal experiences ignored by mainstream science. Delving deeply into the work of major figures in the field--from Jack Kirby's cosmic superhero sagas and Philip K. Dick's futuristic head-trips to Alan Moore's sex magic and Whitley Strieber's communion with visitors--Kripal shows how creators turned to science fiction to convey the reality of the inexplicable and the paranormal they experienced in their lives.

• “there's a great one he's written called mutants and mystics where he talks about the comic strips”

  Why it counts as a recommendation: “there's a great one he's written called mutants and mystics”
  guest · Lex Fridman Podcast · Dec 202002:43:48

  Said during "Diana Walsh Pasulka: Aliens, Technology, Religion & the Nature of Belief | Lex Fridman Podcast #149". The episode features Diana Walsh Pasulka: Professor of philosophy and religion at UNC Wilmington and author of American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, and Technology. She studies belief, Catholic history, and how the UFO phenomenon functions as an emerging religion. A religion scholar argues UFOs are becoming a new religion, and that belief itself, in tech and aliens alike, manifests reality.