Jeffrey John Kripal is a professor of philosophy and religions at Rice University in Houston. Some of his works include: Kali's Child (1995), Roads of Excess, Palaces of Wisdom: Eroticism and Reflexivity in the Study of Mysticism (2001), The Serpent's Gift: Gnostic Reflections on the Study of Religion (2006), Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred (2010) and Super Natural: A New Vision of the Unexplained (2016).