The varieties of Religious Experience by William James

VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCES

The relationship between science and religion has been difficult to explain over the years . It has not been feasible for many philosophers as well as scientists to explain the duality of this divergent phenomenon which seems to control the lives of men in many varied forms However one of the earliest proponents of harmonization of scientific thought and religion is William James , who through his observations on psychology of religion had in the early part of the 20th Century brought out the rationality of varieties of religious experiences

including mysticism , conversion , repentance and saintliness . The key issues indicate that science and religion can be harmonized when seen from an individual perspective by explaining the correlation between the mind and the body , study of existentialism and spirituality and an understanding of the middle passion as explained by James

The human body as per William James is the center of all being and happenings that a person undergoes . It is the focus of the identity of a person and is also said to be the driver of all conscious experience of man along with the mind . James has placed the body at the centre of everything that affects our vision , our action and our interests . This provides the in our expereinces . But the mind cannot be separated from the body and thus there is an integrated whole that is formed from a fluid interactoin between the body and the mind . James believed that the physical changes could take place due to ones experiences , but it could not be the other way around , in that physical changes cannot cause experiences to happen

The self in a being has to thus contextualize between the development of human temporal powers and interaction that the body has with the environment in the context of the activity that he undergoes . The self is thus in a process of evolution and is not a fixation which has been arrived at with ones growth . This continuous development of the self is governed by the practical requirements of an individual 's existence Thus the empirical has a very important part in the growth and development of the being . These life experiences build on the self to provide them the quality and character that determines ones individuality and doings . James believes that these dimensions cannot be explained by concepts and are far beyond verbalization . There is thus an effective connect as per James between the body and the mind and how these two interact with each other within the given environment

The mind body determination is further explained by clearly denoting experiences of real life persons particularly those who have lived a perfectly healthy and good life enlightening others . These thoughts were also the cause of his actively supporting the mind - cure movement . Thus it was felt that a person with a positive mind would foster a healthy body . The connection is also amplified by his determination on the question of medical materialism in that he believed that the medical proclivities of a person cannot necessarily determine his religious beliefs and that these were contained in the experiences that a person has had over the years in his life

The individuals on whom James based his findings were all exceptional and thus their experiences were used by him to provide a larger focus on the more common issues , an enlarged microscopic view of reality . They were also those who were fired by the need to explain their spirituality , thereby providing to James ideal subjects to indicate the veracity of his theories . These were such luminaries as Walt Whitman on whom he relied extensively to prove his mind cure theories along with Martin Luther , John Bunyan and finally Leo Tolstoy

The principal focus of experience as related to its scientific interpretation and the religious reliance on occurrence that James propagated is unique for his times . Thus he claimed that religious leanings of a person need to be determined by one 's experiences and not what the religious institutions consider to be right or wrong . In this he had very powerful rooting in the existential school which deems that there are no fixed beliefs from which one would or should act but a person is stated to be free to believe what he felt to be correct and these thoughts should provide him guidance . But unlike true existentialists , James did not disconnect with the spiritual but was to make an easy transcendence between existentialism and spiritualism . This duality explains why he was not a proponent of the religions dogmatic proclivities that guided men . Being a Protestant , could have also developed this greater sense of the rational in religion in James Though he did not dismissively reject religious canons but explained the dogmas as the result of experiences of those who mainly propagated these and thus could not be seen in isolation

James believed that people followed a religion based on their own experiences and were drawn towards it making the best interpretations of its dogmas , rituals and scriptures , determined by a person through the flow of life that he had undergone . However since not all happenings could be explained by science and there were many mystical experiences in which he extensively experimented , man had to use both the experiential and the spiritual to arrive at decisions . The experiences of mysticism of the higher however were not true for other persons unless they had personally experienced the same . The indications of mystic experiences is provided by their being beyond explanation providing greater insight , being impermanent or transient in nature and in which the role of the individual experiencing these is passive . James feels that men should use their own experiences and the vicarious mystical experiences of others to seek solutions to common problems and not through the dogmas and rituals of religion . It is those who have undergone mystical experiences who are able to cure their sickness of the soul and thus emerge much more powerful and capable than before

The correlation between science and religion is further amplified by James in that faith does not come merely by a positive belief but by rejecting its opposite . Just as in scientific practice , it is the rejection of the null hypothesis that provides verification of the fact under examination . So it is as per James in the field of religion and explains the varieties of religious faiths based on the empirical evidence of each religious protagonist

To amplify the psychology of experiences , James used the strange encounters which people had undergone rather than the usual run of the mill events that had occurred in the lives of ordinary human beings While critics continue to disfavor him for using exceptional experiences to explain his philosophy of duality or the Middle Passion or way , James felt that though these were out of the ordinary , they explained the phenomenon by enlarging it by what he termed as over-beliefs . He believed that these out of the world experiences assisted men to understand life better and thus in turn were also able to live it better

The understanding provided by James of the middle path is reasonable as it explains the duality of human nature . He explains this with the examples from religious experience including that of the Buddha thus giving a greater meaning to the sublime and the subconscious . While religion has a very significant correlation with the subconscious as denoted by the self automated actions observed in those whose religious senses are highly active or the great religious leaders , these have to be also explained by the period of incubation that many such ideas of change have undergone in a persons sub conscious which may finally manifest as the actual event or experience . The other aspect of the explanation provided is that of mysticism or higher consciousness . Based on these two factors , the religious experience is determined and evokes a corresponding response which emanates from such experiences larger in some and not so large in others . The middle passion is also one which explains the varieties in religion based on the spirituality and values that one attaches with it such as the importance and meaning of things vis a vis the physical of a thing which can be explained through the existential judgment of issues . Harmonization of these two facets explains the strength and essence of the philosophy propagated by James

James was forever concerned with experience for which empirical reason is considered the most powerful medium in his lectures and writing Human organization and understanding is based on empirical observation whether it is ones own or the enlarged mystical experiences of others which explain the unknown or unseen to us . However there is always a return to pragmatism in James writing and thoughts . The philosophical observations and thoughts as per James need to come to the reality of practical application of common sense . This is another of the key issues that have been indicated by James that of understanding of the essence of philosophy and its application in practical life . Thus life has to be as per James observed from the point of cause , continuity , self substance , activity , time and so on in terms of pure experience which is the radical empiricism with which he is primarily concerned

The essay has attempted to highlight the significance of the issues which indicate that science and religion can be harmonized through explanations of the correlation between the mind and the body , study of existentialism and spirituality and an understanding of the middle passion as explained by William James . Empirical observations which can rely on rejection of a phenomenon will also provide an explanation or greater understanding of the dualities which exist based on ones physical and spiritual experiences . Both body and mind need to function with effective coagulation and ideal blending of thought and action and mind body synchronization which can be linked to attainment of higher state of atonement and happiness in life promised by religion to ordinary men . James has provided the stimulant through his book , the first version of which was published in 1902 but one which remains a classic of all times

Reference

James , William . 1983 . The Varieties of Religious Experience (Penguin Classics . London . Penguin Books Ltd ...