The Varieties of Religious Experience

480 Pages·1982·1.21 MB·English

by  William James

Varieties of Religious Experience
A Study in Human Nature
CENTENARY EDITION
First published in 1902, The Varieties of Religious Experience initiated the psycho-
logical study of religion, paving the way for Freud and Jung as well as for clinicaland
paranormal branches of psychology. Written with humour and erudition, itstheories
of conversion, saintliness, ecstasy and mysticism continue to provoke controversy
and enquiry. The book remains the best introduction to James’s thought, demon-
strating his characteristic insistence upon the importance of personal experienceand
his almost devotional respect for the mysteries of the human mind. Richlyillustrated
with personal accounts of belief and possession, intoxication and near-death experi-
ence, it is of central importance not simply to an understanding of religions, but to
modern psychology and psychiatric medicine.
The Routledge Centenary Edition, entirely reset from the original 1902 edition,
is prefaced with a specially commissioned foreword by the author’s grandson,
Micky James, and by new introductions from James specialists Eugene Taylor and
Jeremy Carrette. It also includes a new expanded index.
William James (1842–1910) physician, psychologist, and philosopher, was a founder
of American experimental psychology, and pioneer in psychical research, experi-
mental psychotherapeutics, and the psychology of religion. He launched C.S.
Peirce’s pragmatism, the first uniquely American philosophy to have international
consequences. His younger brother was Henry Janees, the novelist.
Eugene Taylor is an Executive Faculty member at Saybrook Graduate School and
Research Centre, Lecturer on Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and Senior
Psychologist on the Psychiatry Service at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He
was the 1983 William James Lecturer on the Varieties of Religious Experience at
Harvard Divinity School, and is the author of William James on Exceptional Mental
States (Scribner’s, 1982); the award-winning William James on Consciousness
Beyond the Margin (Princeton, 1996); and a co-editor of Pure Experience: The
Response to William James (Thommes/Routledge, 1996).
Jeremy Carrette lectures win religious studies at the University of Stirling, and
has written extensively on the psychology of religion. He is the author of Foucault
and Religion: Spiritual Corporality and Political Spirituality (Routledge, 2000) and
editor of Religion and Culture by Michel Foucault (Manchester/Routledge, 1999).
H
Varieties of Religious
Experience
A Study in Human Nature
CENTENARY EDITION
William James
with a foreword by Micky James
and new introductions by
Eugene Taylor and Jeremy Carrette
London and New York
First published 1902 by Longmans, Green, and Co., New York
This edition first published 2002
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004.
Foreword © 2002 Micky James
Editorial matter and selection © 2002 Eugene Taylor and Jeremy Carrette
This edition © 2002 Routledge
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN 0-203-39847-5 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-39936-6 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-27809-0(Print Edition)
Contents
Foreword to the Centenary Edition by Micky James Page xi
Editors’ preface by Eugene Taylor and Jeremy Carrette xiii
Introduction by Eugene Taylor: The Spiritual Roots of James’s
Varieties of Religious Experience xv
Introduction by Jeremy Carrette: The Return to James:
Psychology, Religion and the Amnesia of Neuroscience xxxix
Preface from the 1902 Edition 5
THE VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE
BY WILLIAM JAMES
LECTURE I
RELIGION AND NEUROLOGY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Introduction: the course is not anthropological, but deals with per-
sonal documents, 1. Questions of fact and questions of value, 4. In point
of fact, the religious are often neurotic, 6. Criticism of medical materi-
alism, which condemns religion on that account, 10. Theory thatreligion
has a sexual origin refuted, 11. All states of mind are neurally condi-
tioned, 14. Their significance must be tested not by their origin but by
the value of their fruits, 15. Three criteria of value; origin useless as
a criterion, 18. Advantages of the psychopathic temperament when a
superior intellect goes with it, 22; especially for the religious life, 24.
LECTURE II
CIRCUMSCRIPTION OF THE TOPIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Futility of simple definitions of religion, 26. No one specific “religious
sentiment,” 27. Institutional and personal religion, 28. We confine our-
selves to the personal branch, 29. Definition of religion for the purpose
of these lectures, 31. Meaning of the term “divine,” 31. The divine is
vi CONTENTS
what prompts solemn reactions, 38. Impossible to make our defini-
tions sharp, 39. We must study the more extreme cases, 40. Two ways of
accepting the universe, 41. Religion is more enthusiastic than philos-
ophy, 45. Its characteristic is enthusiasm in solemn emotion, 48. Its
ability to overcome unhappiness, 50. Need of such a faculty from the
biological point of view, 51.
LECTURE III
THE REALITY OF THE UNSEEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Percepts versus abstract concepts, 53. Influence of the latter on belief,
54. Kant’s theological Ideas, 55. We have a sense of reality other than
that given by the special senses, 58. Examples of “sense of presence,” 59.
The feeling of unreality, 63. Sense of a divine presence: examples, 65.
Mystical experiences: examples, 69. Other cases of sense of God’s pres-
ence, 70. Convincingness of unreasoned experience, 72. Inferiority of
rationalism in establishing belief, 73. Either enthusiasm or solemnity
may preponderate in the religious attitude of individuals, 75.
LECTURES IV AND V
THE RELIGION OF HEALTHY-MINDEDNESS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Happiness is man’s chief concern, 78. “Once-born” and “twice-born”
characters, 80. Walt Whitman, 84. Mixed nature of Greek feeling, 86.
Systematic healthy-mindedness, 87. Its reasonableness, 88. Liberal Chris-
tianity shows it, 91. Optimism as encouraged by Popular Science, 92.
The “Mind-cure” movement, 94. Its creed, 97. Cases, 102. Its doctrine
of evil, 106. Its analogy to Lutheran theology, 108. Salvation by relaxa-
tion, 109. Its methods: suggestion, 112; meditation, 115; “recollection,”
116; verification, 118. Diversity of possible schemes of adaptation to the
universe, 122. APPENDIX: Two mind-cure cases, 123.
LECTURE VI AND VII
THE SICK SOUL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Healthy-mindedness and repentance, 127. Essential pluralism of the
healthy-minded philosophy, 131. Morbid-mindedness — its two degrees,
134. The pain-threshold varies in individuals, 135. Insecurity of natural
goods, 136. Failure, or vain success of every life, 138. Pessimism of all
pure naturalism, 140. Hopelessness of Greek and Roman view, 142.
Pathological unhappiness, 144. “Anhedonia,” 145. Querulous melan-
choly, 148. Vital zest is a pure gift, 150. Loss of it makes physical world
look different, 151. Tolstoy, 152. Bunyan, 157. Alline, 159. Morbid
fear, 160. Such cases need a supernatural religion for relief, 162. An-
tagonism of healthy-mindedness and morbidness, 163. The problem of
evil cannot be escaped, 164.
CONTENTS vii
LECTURE VIII
THE DIVIDED SELF, AND THE PROCESS OF ITS UNIfiCATION . . . . . . . 132
Heterogeneous personality, 167. Character gradually attains unity,170.
Examples of divided self, 171. The unity attained need not be religious,
175. “Counter conversion” cases, 177. Other cases, 178. Gradual and
sudden unification, 183. Tolstoy’s recovery, 184. Bunyan’s, 186.
LECTURE IX
CONVERSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .150
Case of Stephen Bradley, 189. The psychology of character-changes,
193. Emotional excitements make new centres of personal energy, 196.
Schematic ways of representing this, 197. Starbuck likens conversion to
normal moral ripening, 198. Leuba’s ideas, 201. Seemingly unconvertible
persons, 204. Two types of conversion, 205. Subconscious incubation of
motives, 206. Self-surrender, 208. Its importance in religious history,
211. Cases, 212.
LECTURE X
CONVERSION — concluded . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .171
Cases of sudden conversion, 217. Is suddenness essential? 227. No, it
depends on psychological idiosyncrasy, 230. Proved existence of
transmarginal, or subliminal, consciousness, 233. “Automatisms,” 234.
Instantaneous conversions seem due to the possession of an active sub-
conscious self by the subject, 236. The value of conversion depends not
on the process, but on the fruits, 237. These are not superior in sudden
conversion, 238. Professor Coe’s views, 240. Sanctification as a result,
241. Our psychological account does not exclude direct presence of the
Deity, 242. Sense of higher control, 243. Relations of the emotional
“faith-state” to intellectual beliefs, 246. Leuba quoted, 247. Characteris-
tics of the faith-state: sense of truth; the world appears new, 248. Sen-
sory and motor automatisms, 250. Permanency of conversions, 256.
LECTURES XI, XII, AND XIII
SAINTLINESS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Sainte-Beuve on the State of Grace, 260. Types of character as due to
the balance of impulses and inhibitions, 261. Sovereign excitements,
262. Irascibility, 264. Effects of higher excitement in general, 266. The
saintly life is ruled by spiritual excitement, 267. This may annul sensual
impulses permanently, 258. Probable subconscious influences involved,
270. Mechanical scheme for representing permanent alteration in char-
acter, 270. Characteristics of saintliness, 271. Sense of reality of a higher
power, 274. Peace of mind, charity, 278. Equanimity, fortitude, etc.,284.
viii CONTENTS
Connection of this with relaxation, 289. Purity of life, 290. Asceticism,
296. Obedience, 310. Poverty, 315. The sentiments of democracy and
of humanity, 324. General effects of higher excitements, 325.
LECTURES XIV AND XV
THE VALUE OF SAINTLINESS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .255
It must be tested by the human value of its fruits, 327. The reality of
the God must, however, also be judged, 328. “Unfit” religions get elimi-
nated by “experience,” 331. Empiricism is not skepticism, 332. Indi-
vidual and tribal religion, 334. Loneliness of religious originators, 335.
Corruption follows success, 337. Extravagances, 339. Excessive devout-
ness, as fanaticism, 340; as theopathic absorption, 343. Excessive purity,
348. Excessive charity, 355. The perfect man is adapted only to the
perfect environment, 356. Saints are leavens, 357. Excesses of asceti-
cism, 360. Asceticism symbolically stands for the heroic life, 363. Mili-
tarism and voluntary poverty as possible equivalents, 365. Pros and cons
of the saintly character, 369. Saints versus “strong” men, 371. Their
social function must be considered, 374. Abstractly the saint is the
highest type, but in the present environment it may fail, so we make
ourselves saints at our peril, 375. The question of theological truth, 377.
LECTURES XVI AND XVII
MYSTICISM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Mysticism defined, 370. Four marks of mystic states, 380. They form a
distinct region of consciousness, 382. Examples of their lower grades,
382. Mysticism and alcohol, 386. “The anæsthetic revelation,” 387.
Religious mysticism, 393. Aspects of Nature, 394. Consciousness of God,
396. “Cosmic consciousness,” 398. Yoga, 400. Buddhistic mysticism,
401. Sufism, 402. Christian mystics, 406. Their sense of revelation, 408.
Tonic effects of mystic states, 414. They describe by negatives, 416.
Sense of union with the Absolute, 419. Mysticism and music, 420.
Three conclusions, 422. (1) Mystical states carry authority for him who
has them, 423. (2) But for no one else, 424. (3) Nevertheless, they
break down the exclusive authority of rationalistic states, 427. They
strengthen monistic and optimistic hypotheses, 428.
LECTURES XVIII
PHILOSOPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Primacy of feeling in religion, philosophy being a secondary function,
430. Intellectualism professes to escape subjective standards in her
theological constructions, 433. “Dogmatic theology,” 436. Criticism of
its account of God’s attributes, 442. “Pragmatism” as a test of the value
of conceptions, 444. God’s metaphysical attributes have no practical
CONTENTS ix
significance, 445. His moral attributes are proved by bad arguments;
collapse of systematic theology, 448. Does transcendental indealism fare
better? Its principles, 449. Quotations from John Caird, 450. They are
good as restatements of religious experience, but uncoercive as reasoned
proof, 453. What philosophy can do for religion by transforming herself
into “science of religions,” 455.
LECTURE XIX
OTHER CHARACTERISTICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
Æsthetic elements in religion, 458. Contrast of Catholicism and
Protestantism, 461. Sacrifice and Confession, 462. Prayer, 463. Religion
holds that spiritual work is really effected in prayer, 465. Three degrees
of opinion as to what is effected, 467. First degree, 468. Second degree,
472. Third degree, 474. Automatisms, their frequency among religious
leaders, 478. Jewish cases, 479. Mohammed, 481. Joseph Smith, 482.
Religion and the subconscious region in general, 483.
LECTURE XX
CONCLUSIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
Summary of religious characteristics, 485. Men’s religions need not
be identical, 487. “The science of religions” can only suggest, not pro-
claim, a religious creed, 489. Is religion a “survival” of primitive thought?
490. Modern science rules out the concept of personality, 491. Anthro-
pomorphism and belief in the personal characterized pre-scientific
thought, 493. Personal forces are real, in spite of this, 498. Scientific
objects are abstractions, only individualized experiences are concrete,
498. Religion holds by the concrete, 500. Primarily religion is a biologi-
cal reaction, 504. Its simplest terms are an uneasiness and a deliverance;
description of the deliverance, 508. Question of the reality of the higher
power, 510. The author’s hypotheses: 1. The subconscious self as inter-
mediating between nature and the higher region, 511; 2. The higher
region, or “God,” 515; 3. He produces real effects in nature, 518.
POSTSCRIPT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
Philosophic position of the present work defined as piecemeal
supernaturalism, 520. Criticism of universalistic supernaturalism, 521.
Different principles must occasion differences in fact, 522. What differ-
ences in fact can God’s existence occasion? 523. The question of im-
mortality, 524. Question of God’s uniqueness and infinity: religious
experience does not settle this question in the affirmative, 525. The
pluralistic hypothesis is more conformed to common sense, 526.
INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407