The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature

“Like love, like wrath, like hope, ambition, jealousy, like every other instinctive eagerness and impulse, it adds to life an enchantment which is not rationally or logically deducible from anything else.”

In this passage, James develops a definition of religion and identifies the importance of studying religious revelations. He suggests that religion occupies a psychological state that is as important as other mental processes. James’s pragmatic view asserts that The Functional Value of Religion is worth the attention of the scientific community. The “enchantment” he describes in this quote refers to an important utility of experience.

“The sanest and best of us are of one clay with lunatics and prison inmates, and death finally runs the robustest of us down.”

James proposes that all humans experience a divisiveness that they often try to patch in other ways. Morality (See: Index of Terms), for example, serves as a bandage but does not heal the wound. Religion is unique in its ability to unify the spirit toward a singular aim.

“And beings they are, beings as real in the realm which they inhabit as the changing things of sense are in the realm of space.”

James applies his pluralistic principles to identifying and defining the divine in religious experience. He argues that divinity is indicative of any type of primal truth to which a person feels connected. The divine is as real to the individual as any concrete object, making religious revelations as important to study in science as any type of sense data. The theme of Radical Empiricism and Belief explores James’s assertion that the meaning humans create and take in has important information to offer scientific research.

“How to gain, how to keep, how to recover happiness, is in fact for most men at all times the secret motive of all they do, and of all they are willing to endure.”

Happiness represents part of the functional value of religion. James explains that conversion occurs when individuals supplant all other aims with a singular goal. The perimeters of this goal are outlined by religion. Those who experience conversion feel a great sense of happiness. In this passage, James argues that all humans are obsessed with finding and maintaining happiness. Healthy-minded individuals hold an innate sense of happiness, but morbid-minded individuals are divided and, therefore, must find it outside of themselves (See: Index of Terms).

“Here we have the interesting notion fairly and squarely presented to us, of there being elements of the universe which may make no rational whole in conjunction with the other elements, and which, from the point of view of any system which those other elements make up, can only be considered so much irrelevance and accident.”

In Lectures 6-7, James identifies the morbid-minded person who stands in direct contrast to the healthy-minded individual. Morbid-minded people are unable to shake their sense that the world is full of irrationality and evil. James explains that many in his audience probably hold this type of belief and asks them to set it aside in the same way that healthy-minded individuals turn away from thinking about evil. By refusing to see connection, they may limit their understanding, so it is better for James’s audience to allow whatever connections that seem to emerge in an otherwise unrelated universe to come to them.

“Healthy-mindedness is inadequate as a philosophical doctrine, because the evil facts which it refuses positively to account for are a genuine portion of reality.”

Just as morbid thinking limits scientists and philosophers from seeing the full picture, James suggests that healthy-minded people fail to see the whole realm of reality by consistently directing their view away from evil. True scientists must embrace open-mindedness through radical empiricism and plurality. Similarly, James suggests that the most successful religious institutions are those which emphasize both approaches, giving space for both the healthy- and morbid-minded.

“There are two lives, the natural and the spiritual, and we must lose the one before we can participate in the other.”

Morbid-minded individuals are divided: They have difficulty reconciling their existence with their dim view of the world around them. James proposes that a type of rebirth offers the unification of this division. Conversion (See: Index of Terms) bridges the space between the natural and spiritual selves.

“It may come gradually, or it may occur abruptly; it may come through altered feelings, or though altered powers of action; or it may come through new intellectual insights, or through experiences which we shall later have to designate as ‘mystical.’”

Conversion can occur either voluntarily or involuntarily, slowly or suddenly. The how is not as important as the outcome. What is important is the functionality of the conversion. In this same passage, James claims that people who experience religious conversion feel a keen sense of happiness. He utilizes several historical accounts to support his argument. He suggests that religion is unique in its ability to transform a person’s life, offering purpose and joy. This assertion reflects James’s belief in the functional value of religion.

“To be converted, to be regenerated, to receive grace, to experience religion, to gain an assurance, are so many phrases which denote the process, gradual or sudden, by which a self hitherto divided, and consciously wrong, inferior and unhappy, becomes unified.”

This sentence summarizes James’s pragmatic conception of religious conversion and experience. Humans who have divided aims are directed toward a singular goal through religious revelation and made happy—the function of the experience itself. James’s approach to radical empiricism and belief unifies the psychological workings of conversion and the utility of it within the individual’s life.

“All we know is that there are dead feelings, dead ideas, and cold beliefs, and there are hot and live ones; and when one grows hot and alive within us, everything has to re-crystalize about it.”

Although James broadens his scope and examines religion through the comprehensive lens of pluralism and the universal experience, he admits that there are elements to religious conversion that remain a mystery. He cannot explain why some experience conversion gradually, or coldly, and others encounter it suddenly; however, he presents a theory that may explain it partially. James suggests that all mental processes occur to achieve a state of equilibrium. When the mind becomes unbalanced, a sudden shock may help to realign it.

“Conversion is in its essence a normal adolescent phenomenon, incidental to the passage from the child’s small universe to the wider intellectual and spiritual life of maturity.”

As James explores the connection between the divided self and the unification of conversion, he points out that this process often occurs during adolescence. He explains that this is a time of great discord for humans, so it follows that adolescents would be more emotionally susceptible to religious experience. James suggests that one element of the functional value of religion is the unification of the divided self. For young people, religion brings a sense of purpose and singular aim.

“Yet the elementary mechanisms of our life are presumably so uniform that what is shown to be true in a marked degree of some persons is probably true in some degree of all, and may in a few be true in an extraordinarily high degree.”

The psychologist repeatedly reminds his listeners to maintain an open frame of mind and to accept the possibility that the principles which apply to one religious experience apply to all others. Pluralism and the universal experience reveal the pervasive elements of religious conversion and mysticism across religious traditions. These similar qualities are not confined to major religious institutions; they pervade all systems of belief.

“What is obtained is often an altogether new level of spiritual vitality, a relatively heroic level, in which impossible things have become possible.”

This quotation contributes another element to the functional value of religion. James suggests that humans often feel re-energized and renewed after a profound religious experience. The value of religion comes from its practical utility; in this instance, the emotions derived from the experience authenticate its worth.

“That it should for even a short time show a human being what the high-water mark of his spiritual capacity is, this is what constitutes its importance—an importance which backsliding cannot diminish, although persistence might increase it.”

James addresses questions about “backsliding”—those individuals who claim to have experienced a religious revelation but who then later returned to previous modes of action. The psychologist argues that the value of the actions directly following the experience outweigh the negative aspects of backsliding. Immediately following conversion, the individual gains an understanding of what they might achieve, both spiritually and emotionally. While some people may abandon religious belief, the feeling they achieved often drives them to return.

“The man who lives in his religious centre of personal energy, and is actuated by spiritual enthusiasms, differs from his previous carnal self in perfectly definite ways.”

The text constructs an image of the human mind as a type of steam-powered machine that needs equilibrium to function effectively. James proposes that religious experience helps dysregulated individuals to return to their emotional center. When they run according to their equilibrium, people live happier and more useful lives.

“The deity to whom the prophets, seers, and devotees who founded the particular cult bore witness was worth something to them personally. They could use him.”

James proposes that the value of religion comes from the function it offers the individual. He rejects the traditional examination of religious institutions and argues for an empirical approach which emphasizes the individual’s experience. The value of religion comes from the value it lends to the actions and emotions of the person experiencing the conversion.

“Mystical truth exists for the individual who has the transport, but for no one else.”

This quotation further emphasizes the theme of radical empiricism and belief. James argues that religious revelations are real to the individuals who experience them. While religions are highly individualized, they hold elements of similarities that transcend institutional boundaries.

“Feeling is private and dumb, and unable to give an account of itself.”

James asserts that there are some elements of religious experience and mysticism that will never be fully understood. One of the elements of mysticism is its ineffability. Philosophers and psychologists can examine the broader emotions described by the individual, but they can never tap into the processes that occur in the moment.

“Beliefs, in short, are rules for action; and the whole function of thinking is but one step in the production of active habits.”

Aside from the emotional output of religious experience, James proposes that another element of the functional value of religion is the action it incites. Mystical and religious experiences are deemed authentic when they produce positive good. The actions of the believer reveal the pragmatic nature of religion.

“Religion is nothing if it be not the vital act by which the entire mind seeks to save itself by clinging to the principle from which it draws its life.”

This passage summarizes James’s theory of religion as a unifier of the divided spirit. He proposes that all religions function to help the morbid-minded reconcile their lives with their perceptions of the world. Religion helps to bring people back to an emotional equilibrium and to restore a healthy-minded approach to life.

“When we see all things in God, and refer all things to him, we read in common matters superior expressions of meaning.”

James asserts that people experience the world through a variety of ways. Although they do gain knowledge through sensory data, they assign meaning and emotions to this data and develop complex connections. Radical empiricism proposes that meaning, emotion, and knowledge cannot be separated—they are all a part of the same experience.

“In other words, is the existence of so many religious types and sects and creeds regrettable? To these questions I answer ‘No’ emphatically.”

James decisively claims that the diversity of religious experiences among humans adds to the rich complexity and beauty of human life rather than detracts from the validity of particular religions. The psychologist promotes pluralism and the universal experience and the importance of embracing this philosophy for better understanding. 

“The religious individual tells you that the divine meets him on the basis of his personal concerns.”

Rather than focusing on religious institutions—an area that had previously dominated religious philosophy—James emphasizes the individual relationship with the divine. He argues that the world is shaped by people’s personal religious experiences.