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THE VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE<br/>BY WILLIAM JAMES<br/>Lecture I Religion and Neurology<br/>Introduction: the course is not anthropological, but deals<br/>with personal documents. Questions of fact and questions of<br/>value. In point of fact, the religious are often neurotic.<br/>Criticism of medical materialism, which condemns religion<br/>on that account. Theory that religion has a sexual origin<br/>refuted. All states of mind are neurally conditioned. Their<br/>significance must be tested not by their origin but by the<br/>value of their fruits. Three criteria of value; origin useless as a<br/>criterion. Advantages of the psychopathic temperament<br/>when a superior intellect goes with it; especially for the<br/>religious life.<br/>Lecture II Circumscription of the Topic<br/>Futility of simple definitions of religion. No one specific<br/>"religious sentiment". Institutional and personal religion.<br/>We confine ourselves to the personal branch. Definition of<br/>religion for the purpose of these lectures. Meaning of the<br/>term "divine". The divine is what prompts solemn reactions.<br/>Impossible to make our definitions sharp. We must study the<br/>more extreme cases. Two ways of accepting the universe.<br/>Religion is more enthusiastic than philosophy. Its<br/>characteristic is enthusiasm in solemn emotion. Its ability to<br/>overcome unhappiness. Need of such a faculty from the<br/>biological point of view.<br/>Lecture 111 The Reality of the Unseen<br/>Percepts versus abstract concepts. Influence of the latter on<br/>belief. Kant's theological Ideas. We have a sense of reality<br/>other than that given by the special senses. Examples of<br/>"sense of presence". The feeling of unreality. Sense of a<br/>divine presence: examples. Mystical experiences: examples.<br/>Other cases of sense of God's presence. Convincingness of<br/>unreasoned experience. Inferiority of rationalism in<br/>establishing belief. Either enthusiasm or solemnity may<br/>preponderate In the religious attitude of individuals.<br/>Lectures IV and V The Religion of Heaithy-mindedness<br/>Happiness is man's chief concern. "Once-born and twiceborn"<br/>characters. Walt Whitman. Mixed nature of Greek<br/>feeling. Systematic heaithy-mindedness. Its reasonableness.<br/>Liberal Christianity shows it. Optimism as encouraged by<br/>Popular Science. The "Mind-cure" movement. Its creed.<br/>Cases. Its doctrine of evil. Its analogy to Lutheran theology.<br/>Salvation by relaxation. Its methods: suggestion: meditation,<br/>"recollection"; verification. Diversity of possible schemes of<br/>adaptation to the universe. Appen dix: Two mind-cure cases.<br/>Lecture VI and VII The Sick Soul<br/>Heaithy-mindedness and repentance. Essential pluralism of<br/>the healthy-minded philosophy. Morbid-mindedness — its<br/>two degrees. The pain-threshold varies in individuals.<br/>Insecurity of natural goods. Failure, or vain success of every<br/>life. Pessimism of all pure naturalism. Hopelessness of Greek<br/>and Roman view. Pathological unhappiness. "Anhedonia".<br/>Querulous melancholy. Vital zest is a pure gift. Loss of it<br/>makes physical world look different. Tolstoy. Bunyan. Alline.<br/>Morbid fear. Such cases need a supernatural religion for<br/>relief. Antagonism of healthy-mindedness and morbidness.<br/>The problem of evil cannot be escaped.<br/>Lecture VIII The Divided Self, and the Process of its Unification<br/>Heterogeneous personality. Character gradually attains unity.<br/>Examples of divided self. The unity attained need not be<br/>religious. "Counter conversion" cases. Other cases. Gradual<br/>and sudden unification. Tolstoy's recovery. Bunyan's.<br/>Lecture IX Conversion<br/>Case of Stephen Bradley. The psychology of characterchanges.<br/>Emotional excitements make new centers of<br/>personal energy. Schematic ways of representing this.<br/>Starbuck likens conversion to normal moral ripening.<br/>Leuba's ideas. Seemingly unconvertible persons. Two<br/>types of conversion. Subconscious incubation of<br/>motives. Self-surrender. Its importance in religious history.<br/>Cases.<br/>Lecture X Conversion — concluded<br/>Cases of sudden conversion. Is suddenness essential?. No, it<br/>depends on psychological idiosyncrasy. Proved existence of<br/>transmarginal, or subliminal, consciousness.<br/>"Automatisms". Instantaneous conversions seem due to the<br/>possession of an active subconscious self by the subject. The<br/>value of conversion depends not on the process, but on the<br/>fruits. These are not superior in sudden conversion.<br/>Professor Coe's views. Sanctification as a result. Our<br/>psychological account does not exclude direct presence of<br/>the Deity. Sense of higher control. Relations of the emotional<br/>"faith-state" to intellectual beliefs. Leuba quoted.<br/>Characteristics of the faith-state: sense of truth; the world<br/>appears new. Sensory and motor automatisms. Permanency<br/>of conversions.<br/>Lectures XI, XII, and XIII Saintliness<br/>Sainte-Beuve on the State of Grace. Types of character as due<br/>to the balance of impulses and inhibitions. Sovereign<br/>excitements. Irascibility. Effects of higher excitement in<br/>general. The saintly life is ruled by spiritual excitement. This<br/>may annul sensual impulses permanently. Probable<br/>subconscious influences involved. Mechanical scheme for<br/>representing permanent alteration in character.<br/>Characteristics of saintliness. Sense of reality of a higher<br/>power. Peace of mind, charity. Equanimity, fortitude, etc.<br/>Connection of this with relaxation. Purity of life. Asceticism.<br/>Obedience. Poverty. The sentiments of democracy and of<br/>humanity. General effects of higher excitements.<br/>Lectures XIV and XV The Value of Saintliness<br/>It must be tested by the human value of its fruits. The reality<br/>of the God must, however, also be judged. "Unfit" religions<br/>get eliminated by "experience". Empiricism is not<br/>skepticism. Individual and tribal religion. Loneliness of<br/>religious originators. Corruption follows success.<br/>Extravagances. Excessive devoutness, as fanaticism; as<br/>theopathic absorption. Excessive purity. Excessive charity.<br/>The perfect man is adapted only to the perfect environment.<br/>Saints are leavens. Excesses of asceticism. Asceticism<br/>symbolically stands for the heroic life. Militarism and<br/>voluntary poverty as possible equivalents. Pros and cons of the<br/>saintly character. Saints i^ersus "strong" men. Their social<br/>function must be considered. Abstractly the saint is the<br/>highest type, but in the present environment it may fail, so we<br/>make ourselves saints at our peril. The question of<br/>theological truth.<br/>Lectures XVI and XVII Mysticism<br/>Mysticism defined. Four marks of mystic states. They form a<br/>distinct region of consciousness. Examples of their lower<br/>grades. Mysticism and alcohol. "The anaesthetic revelation".<br/>Religious mysticism. Aspects of Nature. Consciousness of<br/>God. "Cosmic consciousness". Yoga. Buddhistic mysticism.<br/>Sufism. Christian mystics. Their sense of revelation. Tonic<br/>effects of mystic states. They describe by negatives. Sense of<br/>union with the Absolute. Mysticism and music. Three<br/>conclusions (i) Mystical states carry authority for him who<br/>has them. (2) But for no one else. (3) Nevertheless, they<br/>break down the exclusive authority of rationalistic states.<br/>They strengthen monistic and optimistic hypotheses<br/>Lectures XVIll Philosophy<br/>Primacy of feeling in religion, philosophy being a secondary<br/>function. Intellectualism professes to escape subjective<br/>standards in her theological constructions. "Dogmatic<br/>theology". Criticism of its account of God's attributes.<br/>"Pragmatism" as a test of the value of conceptions. God's<br/>metaphysical attributes have no practical significance. His<br/>moral attributes are proved by bad arguments; collapse of<br/>systematic theology. Does transcendental idealism fare<br/>better? Its principles Quotations from john Caird. They are<br/>good as restatements of religious experience, but uncoercive<br/>as reasoned proof. What philosophy can do for religion by<br/>transforming herself into "science of religions".<br/>Lecture XIX Other Characteristics<br/>/Esthetic elements in religion. Contrast of Catholicism and<br/>Protestantism. Sacrifice and Confession. Prayer. Religion<br/>holds that spiritual work is really effected in prayer. Three<br/>degrees of opinion as to what is effected. First degree.<br/>Second degree. Third degree. Automatisms, their frequency<br/>among religious leaders, jewish cases. Mohammed. Joseph<br/>Smith. Religion and the subconscious region in general.<br/>Lecture XX Conclusions<br/>Summary of religious characteristics. Men's religions need<br/>not be identical. "The science of religions" can only suggest,<br/>not proclaim, a religious creed. Is religion a "survival" of<br/>primitive thought?. Modern science rules out the concept of<br/>personality. Anthropomorphism and belief in the personal<br/>characterized pre-scientific thought. Personal forces are real,<br/>in spite of this. Scientific objects are abstractions, only<br/>individualized experiences are concrete. Religion holds by the<br/>concrete. Primarily religion is a biological reaction. Its<br/>simplest terms are an uneasiness and a deliverance;<br/>description of the deliverance. Question of the reality of the<br/>higher power. The author's hypotheses: i. The subconscious<br/>self as intermediating between nature and the higher region;<br/>2. The higher region, or "God"; 3. He produces real effects in nature.<br/>Postscript<br/>Philosophic position of the present work defined as<br/>piecemeal supernaturalism. Criticism of universalistic<br/>supernaturalism. Different principles must occasion<br/>differences in fact. What differences in fact can Cod's<br/>existence occasion?. The question of immortality. Question<br/>of God s uniqueness and infinity: religious experience does<br/>not settle this question in the affirmative. The pluralistic<br/>hypothesis is more conformed to common sense. |
