46 pages • 1 hour read
William JamesThe Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature
William JamesNonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1902A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Lectures 16-20Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Lectures 16-17 Summary: “Mysticism”
In these combined lectures, James examines mysticism, often dismissed or used as a derogatory term in scientific circles. However, James asserts that religious experiences find their root in mysticism and advocates once more for an open mind. He invites his listeners to examine two critical questions: “What does the expression ‘mystical states of consciousness’ mean? How do we part off mystical states from other states?” (379). Another term for mysticism is “cosmic consciousness.” This term, coined by Canadian psychiatrist Dr. R. M. Bucke, suggests that mystical experiences cause the individual to tap into a larger realm of understanding.
James proposes that, like saintliness and conversion, mysticism is best understood through its characteristics. The psychologist identifies four qualities of mysticism. The first, ineffability, relates to the struggle many individuals have when trying to describe their experiences. Often, they argue that their religious experiences cannot be put into words. This means that religious revelations cannot be transferred from one individual to another; instead, they must be experienced individually. The second is noetic quality: People who undergo mystical experiences feel that they have been presented with great truth and knowledge. The third quality is transiency: Mystical experiences typically do not last more than half an hour, and in rare cases, they may last an hour or two. Despite the short period, the individual often struggles to remember the particulars of the experience. The final quality is passivity: The individual feels as though the reception of the experience is involuntary.
As the range of mystical experiences is vast, James presents limited examples, beginning with a few secular mystical experiences and ending with religious cases. The first examples he provides relate to common expressions. People often claim that they had heard specific statements but never fully understood them until they confronted a shift in thinking. Another example is the sense that one has experienced something before, a phenomenon now called “déjà vu.” James suggests that the reason people are so drawn to alcohol and drugs is the ability of these substances to produce mystical experiences: “Depth beyond depth of truth seems revealed to the inhaler” (387). James shows how every major religion adheres to a mystical tradition. The function for the individual is a sense of ecstasy and rapture. Validation of the legitimacy of the experience is derived from the following actions of the individual: If a person exhibits positive change, the mystical experience is authentic and religious.
Lecture 18 Summary: “Philosophy”
James directs a question toward his audience: “Is the sense of divine presence a sense of anything objectively true?” (430). Mysticism could not provide an answer to this question, because it is too individualized and personal. James then poses the question to the philosophical mind. James admits that his audience may already know his answer to this question. After determining that mysticism could offer little validity to the question, the audience may conclude that James intends to refute the ability of philosophy to lend an answer. James confesses that this is the direction he intends to take.
A study of religion is a study of emotions, but emotions operate outside of philosophy’s line of vision. Feelings are intensely private and mysterious. Philosophy, on the other hand, seeks to shed light on the mysterious and make sense of it. While James suggests that philosophy will never stop searching for answers about religion, he argues that there are elements to religious experience that are innately unknowable. He rejects recent attempts to create a total science of religion, claiming that religion does not always submit to the laws of reason. Philosophy and science are concerned with absolute truth, but religion supports a diverse range of individual truths.
James takes his argument a step further by suggesting that philosophy is another form of the divine: “I believe, in fact, that the logical reason of many operates in this field of divinity exactly as it has always operated in love, or in patriotism, or in politics” (436). Like religious converts, scientists seek answers that affirm what they already believe. If they believe in a god, then they develop arguments which support their belief; if they do not, they find arguments that prove they are right. James argues that philosophy is too limited and cannot determine the existence or attributes of a god.
In this lecture, James utilizes the term “pragmatism” for the first time in the work. Pragmatism aligns beliefs with action. The meaning and value of thoughts are determined by the actions they produce. James argues that the only question worth answering is the functional significance of the thought, not whether the thought is valid. The question of God’s attributes is only important if it relates those attributes to their utility for people. A science of religions may be useful in the field of philosophy if it takes a pragmatic approach.
Lecture 19 Summary: “Other Characteristics”
In this lecture, James addresses additional elements of religion and relates them to their functionality. Religions are valid only because of their utility: “[T]he uses of religion, its uses to the individual who has it, and the uses of the individual himself to the world, are the best arguments that truth is in it” (459). James addresses aestheticism in religion and acknowledges the important role it plays in individualized experience.
Humans feel compelled to intellectualize their religious experience, so they impose structures, routines, and expectations to create systems of worship. The aesthetic is a major part of this structure. James points to the patriotic aesthetic of ancient cultures and the ornate aesthetic of Catholic churches. Protestants and Catholics cannot understand one another’s aesthetic needs, and this creates division between the two institutions. Protestants view Catholic aesthetic as the worship of false idols, while Catholics view the Protestant aesthetic as morose.
Three elements are often outlined in religious texts: sacrifice, confession, and prayer. James analyzes the functionality of each element to the individual. The first element has transitioned throughout history from animal and ritualistic sacrifices to self-sacrifice. Many major religious institutions utilize a form of sacrifice as an exercise of faith, offering the individual the opportunity to participate in symbolic importance. Confession provides a sense of purification to the individual. It brings the inward struggles forward so that they may be released.
Similarly, prayer is internal and engages the subconscious. James responds to recent criticism of prayer and argues that it is essential to religious experience. Prayer allows the individual the opportunity to dialogue with the divine. The validity of prayer is determined by the emotion attached to it. Some people pray routinely, never involving their feelings. Others pray as though looking at a loved one, directing emotion toward the divine. In this latter group, prayer connects the conscious and subconscious regions of the mind.
James then examines the hallucinations or experiences of seeing visions. He renames these experiences as “inspiration” and recounts ways that these visions have led individuals to create new ideas and religious institutions.
Lecture 20 Summary: Conclusions
James summarizes the entirety of his lectures. First, there is no distinction between tangible and religious experience. Each endows the other with meaning. Second, all people seek happiness and unification. Third, prayer engages the individual with the spiritual subconscious. Fourth, religious experience offers functional uses for the individual, including energy and earnestness. Fifth, the individual gains the fruits of saintliness, such as a sense of safety and peacefulness.
James admits that his lectures are full of emotionality, but he argues that sentimentality is a major part of the radical cases of religious conversion and warrant examination. Religious extremists offer magnified understandings of how religion functions in human life: “To learn the secrets of any science, we go to expert specialists, even though they may be eccentric persons, and not to commonplace pupils” (486).
Having explored the positive fruits of saintliness, James now asks his audience whether religion needs to be restrained or is dangerous. All humans undergo religious experiences, even if those experiences are not attached to institutions. James sees value in the diversity of religious types, because he feels they serve a variety of needs and offer a wide range of functionality. Abandoning all religious institutions for a singular science of religion fails to invite the fruits of conversion: “Knowledge about a thing is not the thing itself” (488). Even if scientists uncover everything there is to know about religion, they cannot supplant the practical output of the experience.
James reiterates the importance of recognizing the role religion plays in an individual’s personal life rather than emphasizing sweeping religious institutions. He argues that religion is a manifestation of the egotism of modern humans; people seek answers to their individual questions and concerns. Science, which is concerned with the bigger picture, is not yet ready to address the personal.
At the end of the lecture, James reminds his audience that human experience is made up of two parts: objective and subjective. This makes radical empiricism an imperative part of the study of human experience. It is easy to examine the objective thoughts of individuals; it is more difficult to access and understand the subconscious parts of their minds, and the emotions and meaning that connect their thoughts to one another. Science seeks to suppress the ego by focusing solely on the objective, but humans are more complex than that. Their objective and subjective experiences are intrinsically connected and cannot be separated.
Lectures 16-20 Analysis
In these final lectures, James acknowledges that his audience may already know the direction he is headed. He focuses his attention on mystical states and the radical experiences of saints and major religious figures. He argues that these magnified states amplify the inner workings of the fields of consciousness. Mystical experiences have specific qualities—like ineffability and noetic characteristics—which validate their authenticity. All religions have their roots in mysticism, and James argues that philosophy, too, is a branch of this spiritual state. He recognizes that his audience, made up of philosophers and scientific intellectuals, may not be receptive to this argument.
He persists in his assertion that the spiritual and rational worlds flow into one another and they cannot be separated. He has repeatedly denounced attempts to limit religious study to objective experience. Philosophy and science fail to apply radical empiricism to understanding the big picture of the relationship between religion and action. James’s study of religion may best be described with a German word: Weltanschauung. This term translates as “worldview,” and it describes James’s encompassing approach to religious experience. He argues that one cannot separate the subjective from the objective or the emotional from the rational. Human experience is nuanced, layered, and complex. It requires a larger framework for understanding.
Radical empiricism, outlined in the theme Radical Empiricism and Belief, is this framework. Radical empiricism proposes that truth encompasses both subjective and objective experience. Something is only as true and valid as it seems true and valid to the individual. James connects radical empiricism to pragmatism by suggesting that truth and validity also connect to the practical functionality of the idea: If the belief produces action, then it is authentic.
Imagine a little girl who believes in Santa Claus. Her parents know that there is no Santa Claus, but they delight in watching their daughter experience wonder and belief. Whether or not Santa Claus really exists is immaterial to the little girl; she believes in his existence, and that is enough. James argues that the question of the validity of deities themselves is an unimportant inquiry. It does not matter whether gods exist, only that they feel real to the individual. The little girl’s sense that Santa Claus exists, relayed through her objective and subjective experience, renders her religious experience authentic.
Pragmatism takes James’s theory a step further. He proposes that the value of the experience lies in its ability to produce action. This is also illustrated by the little girl’s belief in Santa Claus. Since she has faith that Santa Claus knows whether she is doing right or wrong, she makes choices that will secure her a spot on the “nice list.” She helps her brother clean his room. She finishes her homework and puts away her dishes. Her belief translates to direct action. The Functional Value of Belief is found in the practical utility and outcomes of faith.
However, utility is not confined only to action. This is where radical empiricism and pragmatism form a circle of influence. Radical empiricism embraces emotionality as well as practicality. The little girl’s faith has many emotional uses. She feels excited for Christmas and enjoys helping her family make cookies and decorate. She gains a sense of wonder as they place decorations on the Christmas tree. James argues that all humans have an aim of happiness, and religion is a means by which they obtain it. The little girl obtains happiness through her belief. The importance is what her faith does for her as an individual, not whether it is consistent with scientific evidence.
These outcomes are the fruits of saintliness, and they represent the inherent value of the religious experience in James’s view. If the religious experience produces good fruits that direct the individual toward the aim of goodness, then the worth of the experience outweighs questions of its soundness.
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