Upload
shannon-elliot
View
219
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
8/2/2019 The Value of Individual Religion: A Psychological Perspective
1/28
The Varieties of Religious Experience William James
Shannon Elliot Scholars Electives 3304EThe University of Western Ontario
1
The Value of Individual Religion: A Psychological Perspective
A Review of William James The Varieties of Religious Experience
In this age of modern science, the multiple proclamations of faith in our
society have dwindled, a result of the decreased value placed on the religious
experience. Author of The Varieties of Religious Experience , William James
argues in the defense of religious sentiments. Adopting a psychological stance
on the study of religion, the author focuses on the phenomenon of individual
experiences of faith and disregards any discussion of the religious community.
Breaching topics including the invalidity of medical materialism in the context of
religion, the reality of the unseen, the conflicting perspectives of the optimistic
and pessimistic religions, and the unification of self, William James works to
confirm his reasoning. Through his lectures it becomes evident that the religion
experienced by an individual has the capacity to enhance a persons perception
of the world in a positive way. This enrichment of self provides a deepened
understanding of the place of the individual in a seemingly meaningless
existence. This significant impact gives individuals the tools to cope with lifes
trials in a quest for personal growth, providing a significant contribution to the
human race as well. Due to the significant benefits of the individual religious
experiences illustrated in The Varieties of Religious Experience , the scientific
8/2/2019 The Value of Individual Religion: A Psychological Perspective
2/28
The Varieties of Religious Experience William James
Shannon Elliot Scholars Electives 3304EThe University of Western Ontario
2
community must be urged to consider this studys value. Further research into
the significance of this phenomenon will allow health psychologists, physicians,
and patients to place scientific proof of value onto these claims, facilitating the
benefits and cultivating belief in the significance of religion to the individual.
Collected from a series of lectures delivered at the Gifford Lectures in
Great Britain, William James The Varieties of Religious Experience provides a
psychological perspective on the topic of religion. Offering a science-based
defense of the religious outlook, James claims that the presence of religion could
have a significant effect on a persons life ( Fonda). The au thors definition of
religion focuses on the experiences, behaviours, and emotions of the religious
individual, ignoring what he deems to be the secondary growths of religion
(Lott). Acting as a restraint to personal freedoms and the innovation of religion,
these secondary characteristics of religious experiences include the study of
theology and philosophy surrounding this topic (Lott). In addition, due to this
controversy, James chooses to eliminate the study of religious institutions andthe discussion of the role of the ordinary religious believer from his lectures.
His religion has been made for him by others, communicated to him by tradition,
determined to him by fixed forms by imitation, and retained by habit. It would
8/2/2019 The Value of Individual Religion: A Psychological Perspective
3/28
The Varieties of Religious Experience William James
Shannon Elliot Scholars Electives 3304EThe University of Western Ontario
3
profit us little to study this second- hand religious life (James 6). Instead, the
author develops a focus on the occurrence of personal experiences of religion
and continues to expand on what the concept of religion entails for the individual
being.
In his study of the religious experiences of the individual, James takes a
pragmatic approach to his lectures, using this system of thought to determine
whether a persons experiences are true and valuable to themselves ( Johnston).
James believes this philosophical method of analyzing ones experiences is very
much in alignment with the real way in which people think (Johnston). When
choosing a path for ourselves, James believes that our minds take a unique
pragmatic approach in making the right judgment ( Johnston). These judgments
are not universal, but instead focus on the benefits, costs, and values for the
individual personality (Johnston). Belonging to the scientific school of thought,
James believes that our decisions, our emotions, and our experiences are
consequences of our own personal biology (Johnston). As individuals, human
beings are driven by the unique make up of our experiences, our desires, our
unconscious motives, our culture, and our particular circumstances giving us the
autonomy to make our own individual choices (Johnston). It is the personal
beliefs of an individual that construct the way they act, the experiences they
8/2/2019 The Value of Individual Religion: A Psychological Perspective
4/28
The Varieties of Religious Experience William James
Shannon Elliot Scholars Electives 3304EThe University of Western Ontario
4
undergo, and the future decisions they will make in relation to their past
experiences and values (James 369 ). Beliefs in short, are rules for a ction; and
the whole function of thinking is but one step in the pro duction of active habits
(James 369). It is because of this belief in the value of personal experience that
James chooses to study religion as a test of individual religious experiences and
their consequences.
If the enquiry be psychological, not religious emotions, but rather
religious feelings and religious impulses must be its subject, and I must confine
myself to those more developed subjective phenomena recorded in literature
produced by articulate and fully self-conscious men in works of piety and
autobiography (James 3). In The Varieties of Religious Experience , James
argues that there are no emotions specific to the experience of religion, but
instead human emotions can be discovered in the context of what we can reason
to be religious (Fonda ). Religious awe is the same organic thrill which we feel in
a forest at twilight, or in a mountain gorge; only this time it comes over us at the
thought of our supernatural relations (James 27). These powerful emotions can
therefore be interpreted as divine experience, guiding the individuals sense of
faith and the values they place on their future encounters with their religion.
8/2/2019 The Value of Individual Religion: A Psychological Perspective
5/28
The Varieties of Religious Experience William James
Shannon Elliot Scholars Electives 3304EThe University of Western Ontario
5
When considering the classification of the divine in the religious sphere,
the topic is faced with much confusion and differing views. The human race
follows a multitude of religious outlooks, making the nature of the divine a
heavily debated topic. The whole outcome of these lectures will, I imagine, be
emphasizing to your mind of the enormous diversities which the spiritual lives of
different men exhibit (J ames 109). As James research is concerned primarily
with the individual religious experience, the author is able to encompass all of
these religi ous views. We must interpret the term divine very broadly, as
denoting any object that is godlike, whether it be a concrete deity or not (J ames
34). Some religious structures assume faith, values, and spiritual experiences,
but do not celebrate a specific deity or God, Buddhism being an example (James
50). Due to these differences in religious systems of thought, James fears that
defining the boundaries of religion would result in a loss in the value of individual
experiences and therefore treats the w ord religion as a classification label for a
huge number of different experiences ( Johnston). This increases the value of
personal experiences of religion in his argument and supplies James with his
defini tion of religion for the purpose of his study. R eligion, therefore, as I now
ask you arbitrarily to take it, shall mean for us the feelings, acts, and experiences
of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand
in relation to whatever they may consider the divine (J ames 46).
8/2/2019 The Value of Individual Religion: A Psychological Perspective
6/28
The Varieties of Religious Experience William James
Shannon Elliot Scholars Electives 3304EThe University of Western Ontario
6
As James focuses on the value of individual experience in religion, he
touches on the origins of the great religions stating that these bodies arose
from the personal religion of their founders.
It would profit us little to study this second -hand religious life. We must make search rather for the original experiences, which were the pattern-setters to all
this mass of suggested feeling and imitated conduct. These experiences we can only find in individuals for whom religion exists not as a dull habit, but as an
acute fever rather. But such individuals are geniuses in the religious line; and like many other geniuses who have brought forth fruits effective enough for
commemoration in the pages of biography, such religious geniuses have often sho wn symptoms of nervous instability ( James 6).
These religious geniuses are described by James as being susceptible to
obsessions and fixed ideas, and have been known to have fallen into trances,
heard voices, seen visions, and presented all sorts of peculiarities which are
ordinarily classed as p athological (J ames 7). The correlation James makes
between the genius sense of religion and their biological abnormalities i s
important to note. James describes these symptoms as crucial to their level of
religious authority and influence allowing them to be productive in their role of
producing a new religious institution (James 7). As a rule, religious geniuses
attract disciples, and produce groups of sympathizers. When these groups get
strong enough to organize themselves, they become ecclesiastical institutions
(James 9). A prime example of a religious genius, the founder of Quakerism,
8/2/2019 The Value of Individual Religion: A Psychological Perspective
7/28
The Varieties of Religious Experience William James
Shannon Elliot Scholars Electives 3304EThe University of Western Ontario
7
George Fox is quoted in James lectures. The author quotes a passage from
Foxs journal , illustrating his psychological instability and identifying him as a
psych opath or dtraqu of the deepest dye (James 7). After a particular
episode, Fox believed that he was visited by the divine (James 7).
As I was waling with several friends, I lifted up my head, and saw three steeple - house spires, and they struck at my life. I asked them what place that was? They
said, Lichfield. Immediately the word of the Lord came to me, that I must go thither Then was I commanded by the Lord to pull off my shoes. I stood still,for it was winter: but the word of the Lord was like a fire in me. So I put of my
shoes and left them with the shepherds; and the poor shepherds trembled, and were astonished. Then I walked on about a mile, and as soon as I was got within
the city, the word of the Lord came to me again, saying: Cry, Wo to the bloody city of Lichfield! So I went up and down the streets, crying with a loud voice, Wo
to the bloody city of Lichfield! (James 7-8).
James justifies that with such evidence of pathological aspects within religious
geniuses, these effects cannot be ignored in the field of religion as they would
not be ignored in a non-religious individual (James 9). However, the author did
not believe that the recognition of psychological pathologies in religious figures
should be translated as discredit towards the value of religion. James recognizes
the tendency of the scientific community to degrade and minimize religious
experience in what the author refers to as medical materialism.
8/2/2019 The Value of Individual Religion: A Psychological Perspective
8/28
The Varieties of Religious Experience William James
Shannon Elliot Scholars Electives 3304EThe University of Western Ontario
8
Medical materialism is the tendency to reduce subjective phenomena to
the banal by claiming that it has nothing to do with any sort of real experience but
is rather to do with ones body ( Fonda). James argues that the claim that
biological origins of religious experience can act to reduce that experiences
value is invalid (Fonda). In his first lecture, James describes two different orders
of inquiry: existential judgment and proposition of value (James 4). Existential
judgment considers the nature of things, its origins, and its history while
proposition of value discusses the importance, value, or significance of a
phenomenon (James 4). James claims that the use of medical materialism to
describe the value of a religious experience is insufficient because it overlooks
the proposition of value and therefore the significance of a religious experience
once it has occurred (James 10). Merely describing the origin of a religious
experience is not enough to evaluate how that experience affects an individual
as a whole. The application of medical materialism to the study of religion would
act to destroy its significance and undermine the authority of many religious
leaders (Fonda). Therefore, despite any pathological changes that may act to
supplement a religious experience, the reasoning and the significance behind the
experience itself is unaffected. James depicts the comparison between the origin
and the value of a religious experience in his lectures by stating, by their fruits
ye shall know them, not by their roots (James 12). This metaphor describes that
8/2/2019 The Value of Individual Religion: A Psychological Perspective
9/28
The Varieties of Religious Experience William James
Shannon Elliot Scholars Electives 3304EThe University of Western Ontario
9
though the seed acts as the origin of the plant, it is the experience of consuming
the fruit that signifies the value of the plant to the individual. Therefore,
discovering the historical foundation of a religion does not automatically solve the
question of its value (Johnston).
A major area of study in James The Varieties of Religious Experience is
the question of the reality of the unseen in religious individuals. Once again the
author takes a psychological perspective in the study of the belief in an object
we cannot see (J ames 53). Religion can often be described as carrying a faith in
an unseen order where the concrete aspects, deities, and laws of sai d religions
are not material but instead are formed by ideas (Fonda). These unseen ideas
appear as more authentic than the realities we observe through our natural
senses (Fonda).
"It is not only the ideas of pure Reason as Kant styled them, that have this power of making us vitally feel presences that we are impotent articulately to
describe. All sorts of higher abstractions bring with them the same kind of implacable appeal. [...] The whole universe of concrete objects, as we know
them, swims, not only for [a transcendentalist], but for all of us, in a wider and higher universe of abstract ideas, that lend it its significance. As time, space and
the ether soak through all things so (we feel) do abstract and essential goodness, beauty, strength, significance, justice, soak through all things good,
strong, significant and just" (James 71).
8/2/2019 The Value of Individual Religion: A Psychological Perspective
10/28
The Varieties of Religious Experience William James
Shannon Elliot Scholars Electives 3304EThe University of Western Ontario
10
Philosopher Immanuel Kant stated that the individuals notions about the world
surrounding themselves would require the involvement of the senses in order to
maintain a sense of reality in relation to an idea (Fonda ). Words such as God,
Immortality and Soul however provide no senses to prove their existence
(James 55). Although these words are not united with reality through the organic
senses, the individuals ex istence can still be affected by these words, making an
indisputable difference in their lives (James 55). James goes further to explain
that the ideas formed by the individual has the ability to create a stronger, longer
lasting effect on the individual than purely sensory inputs. These ideas may
motivate our behaviour, experiences, values, and decision-making, truly making
an effect on our everyday lives (James 57).
An abstract idea or a memory of a religious experience has the ability to
elicit an increased amount emotion in an individual and can therefore create a
powerful reality for them (James 58). It is as if there were in the human
consciousness a sense of reality, a feeling of objective presence, a perception of
what we may call something there, more deep and more general than any of the
special and particular senses by which current psychology supposes existent
8/2/2019 The Value of Individual Religion: A Psychological Perspective
11/28
The Varieties of Religious Experience William James
Shannon Elliot Scholars Electives 3304EThe University of Western Ontario
11
realities to be originally revealed (James 58). The sense that many rel igious
individuals experience an unseen presence is an impe rfectly formed
hallucination (J ames 59). These mystical experiences are seen as brief
moments of heightened reality, acting as proof of their religious belief in
replacement of an abstract idea. James writes of a clergyman s personal account
of a religious experience:
I remember the night, and almost the very spot on the hill -top, where my soul opened out, as it were, into the Infinite, and there was a rushing together of the two worlds, the inner and the outer. I could not have doubted that He was there.
My highest faith in God and truest idea of him were then born in me. I have stood upon the Mount of Vision since, and felt the Eternal round about me. But never
since has there come quite the same stirring of the heart (James 70 ).
Other examples that James presents provide further proof that the experiences
and emotions felt by the individual can be highly influential. Overcome with the
reality of the moment, the subject becomes connected to the divine (James 62).
The experiences felt in a personal religious experience have the ability to change
individual perspective and be long lasting.
"I spoke of the convincingness of these feelings of reality, and I must dwell a moment longer on that point. They are as convincing to those who have them as
any direct sensible experiences can be, and they are, as a rule, much more convincing than results established by mere logic ever are. [...] Probability is that you cannot help regarding them as genuine perceptions of truth, as revelations
8/2/2019 The Value of Individual Religion: A Psychological Perspective
12/28
The Varieties of Religious Experience William James
Shannon Elliot Scholars Electives 3304EThe University of Western Ontario
12
of a kind of reality which no adverse argument, however unanswerable by you in words, can expel from your belief" (James 72).
Though the many experiences of religious or mystical moments in
individuals are significant and powerful, they are not identically perceived. In the
close of his third lecture, James discusses the two attitudes of individuals faced
with significant religious experience: pessimism and optimism. In the fourth and
fifth lectures, James focuses on the optimistic religion of healthy mindedness.
Divided into two main streams, both the simple and complex optimistic outlooks
on religion focus on the hedonistic ethic in a search for continuous happiness
(James 82). Simple religious optimism describes individuals whose optimism
appears to be organic in nature. Naturally optimistic, these individuals are
resistant to negative emotion in which their capacity for even a transient
sadness or a momentary humility seems cut off form them as by a kind of
congenital anesthesia (James 83). James provides an illustrative exam ple in the
instance of Walt Whitman, a man indifferent to sin and sadness. As a religious
leader, Walt Whitman became an inspiration for the formation of religious cults
and the disciples of his message (James 85). With the message all things are
divinely good, Whitman lived in a genuine existence of optimism, stating, What
is called good is perfect and what is called bad is just as perfect (J ames 85-87).
8/2/2019 The Value of Individual Religion: A Psychological Perspective
13/28
The Varieties of Religious Experience William James
Shannon Elliot Scholars Electives 3304EThe University of Western Ontario
13
It is clear however that this defiant brand of simple healthy mindedness was not
well liked by James and the author spends a small amount of time expanding on
it, moving quickly on to the issue of complex religious optimism. Individuals
experiencing this brand of optimism are fully aware of the evils in this world and
make a conscious effort to dispel it from their minds and their daily lives (James
87 ). To the man actively happy, from whatever cause, evil simply cannot then
and there be believed in. He must ignore it; and to the bystander he may then
seem perversely to shut his eye s to it and to hush it up (James 88). Complex
religious optimists like simple optimists strive for happiness, but instead of
harvesting ignorance towards evil these individuals work systematically to be
consciously aware of the good surrounding themselves and minimize thoughts of
evil. We divert our attention from disease and death the world we recognize
officially in literature is a poetic fiction far handsomer and cleaner and better than
the world that really is (James 89 ). The religion of healthy mindedness dispels
negative emotion, constructing for the individual a near utopian perspective on
the world in which they live.
This conscious effort to create a positive mindset in complex religious
optimism acts as the foundation to the mind cure movement, a deliberately
8/2/2019 The Value of Individual Religion: A Psychological Perspective
14/28
The Varieties of Religious Experience William James
Shannon Elliot Scholars Electives 3304EThe University of Western Ontario
14
optimistic approach to the practical and speculative sides of life (Fonda ). With
influences in Emersonianism, Berkeleyan idealism, spiritism, and Hinduism, the
mind cure movement asserts that the belief that the healthy mind has the ability
to resolve a multitude of problems (Fonda). Now most commonly known as
faith healing, the mind cure movement allows in dividuals to focus on feelings of
hope, trust, and love while dispelling negative emotions such as anxiety, doubt,
anger, etc (Fonda). This state of continuous positive emotion allows the
individual to create a union with the divine and to become subject to a multitude
of benefits (Fonda ). In just the degree in which you realize your oneness with
the Infinite Spirit, you will exchange dis-ease for ease, inharmony for harmony,
suffering for abounding health and str ength (James 101). James plays particular
attention to the mind cure movement in his lectures due to a considerable
number of individuals who this sense provided wellness for (James 101). The
author believes that the roots of the mind cure are set within the power of
suggestion phenomenon (James 103). In order for the mind cure movement to
become successful, the individual must exhibit a form of personal faith,
enthusiasm, have witnessed a previous example of a successful faith healing,
and be excited about the novelty of the movement (James 103). The experience
provided by the mind cure movement creates a positive reality for the individual
and in turn creates a significant positive affect on their health and lifestyle.
8/2/2019 The Value of Individual Religion: A Psychological Perspective
15/28
8/2/2019 The Value of Individual Religion: A Psychological Perspective
16/28
The Varieties of Religious Experience William James
Shannon Elliot Scholars Electives 3304EThe University of Western Ontario
16
This awakening of spiritual energy has the capacity to create an increasingly
positive effect in the life of the individual and in their religious experiences.
Recall that in the close of his third lecture, James discusses the two
attitudes of individuals who experience religion: optimism and pessimism. The
author refers to the latter individuals experience of religion as the morbid
minded or the the sick soul. The healthy minded response to religion is to
minimize evil in an unconscious or conscious manner (James 82). The religions
of the sick soul challenges that of the healthy minded by accepting its existence,
which according to James acts to add further complexity to the study of religion
(Fonda). According to James, those in the healthy minded religion who try to
ignore evil often find themselves face to face with it, while those who
acknowledge the existence of the worlds evils are rarely caught by surprise
(Fonda). Similar to the religion of the healthy minded, James divides the
individuals of the sick soul into two main groups, creating different intensities for
the pessimistic religion (Fonda). The first group views the occurrence of evil as a
mal -adjustment with things, a wrong correspondence of ones life with the
environment (Ja mes 134). According to James, this belief states that through
the adjustment of ones self or the things considered evil, that the mal -
8/2/2019 The Value of Individual Religion: A Psychological Perspective
17/28
The Varieties of Religious Experience William James
Shannon Elliot Scholars Electives 3304EThe University of Western Ontario
17
adjustment may be alleviated (James 134). The second groups perspective on
evil however, is not so easily mended. For individuals in this group, the incidence
of evil is more radical and general, a wrongness or vice in his essential nature,
which no alteration of the environment, or any superficial rearrangement of the
inner self, can cure and which requires a supernatural remedy (James 134). For
the individuals of this group, the application of the mind cure is insufficient to
alleviate such deep-set morbidity (Fonda). Individuals such as these often
require a significant mystical experience to alleviate this evil, which often results
in a conversion (Fonda).
In The Varieties of Religious Experience , James prescribes a greater
sense of value to the pessimistic form of religious experience in comparison to
the religion of the healthy minded. It is evident from these lectures that the author
places less importance on the happiness seeking or hedonistic method of
religious experience and explains that the benefits provided by a deep
understanding of the nature of both good and evil are much greater than the
avoidance of evil altogether (James 136). There is no doubt that healthy -
mindedness is inadequate as a philosophical doctrine, because the evil facts
which it refuses positive to account for are a genuine portion of reality; and they
may afte r all be the best key to lifes significance, and possibly the only openers
8/2/2019 The Value of Individual Religion: A Psychological Perspective
18/28
The Varieties of Religious Experience William James
Shannon Elliot Scholars Electives 3304EThe University of Western Ontario
18
of our eyes to the deepest levels of truth (James 163). From the point of view of
the religion of the healthy minded individual, the pessimistic nature of the sick
soul would appear contaminated with negativity (James 165). The individual of
the sick soul doctrine however consider the religion of the healthy minded to be
lacking and without proper depth (James 165). James describes the value of
those intensely affected by pessimism, stating that the insights that these
individuals attain may be profound (James 136). Let us see whether pity, pain,
and fear, and the sentiment of human helplessness may not open a profounder
view (James 136). This deepened understanding of the evils of this world allows
the individual to fully appreciate the good and the truth in their lives. James
quotes Robert Louis Stevenson in saying, whatever else we are intended to do,
we are not intended to succeed; failure is the fate allotted (James 138). In
quoting this, the author means to illustrate that the burden of life is in fact
beneficial in creating a deeper sense of meaning in ones life and therefore a
possibility of the unification of the soul. The authors stance on optimistic versus
pessimist ic religion clear, he states, the completest religions would therefore
seem to be those in which the pessimistic elements are best developed.
Buddhism, of course, and Christianity are the best known to us of these (James
165).
8/2/2019 The Value of Individual Religion: A Psychological Perspective
19/28
The Varieties of Religious Experience William James
Shannon Elliot Scholars Electives 3304EThe University of Western Ontario
19
Further into his lectures, James continues his discussion of the difference
between the religion of the healthy minded and the sick soul. He describes
individuals within the optimistic form of religious experience as the once -born
and sequentially describes those within the pessimistic form of religious
experience as the twice -born. God has two families of children on this earth,
says Francis W. Newman, the once -born and the twice- born, and the once born
describes as follows: They see God, not as a strict Judge, not as a G lorious
Potentate; but as the animating Spirit of a beautiful harmonious world, Beneficent
and Kind, Merciful as well as Pure (James 80 -81). James depicts the once-born
as possessing a childlike quality in which they read the world in a wondrous
and happy manner, unbothered by the imperfections surrounding them (James
81). After identifying the once-born as optimists, the author goes deeper into the
discussion of the twice-born individual and the conflic t within themselves. The
psychological basis of the twice-born character seems to be a certain
discordancy or heterogeneity in the native temperament of the subject, an
incompletely unified moral and intellectual constituti on (Jam es 167). Twice-born
individuals view natural and unrequited good as misleading in nature, and while
they accept the good in themselves, they are also highly aware of the potential
8/2/2019 The Value of Individual Religion: A Psychological Perspective
20/28
The Varieties of Religious Experience William James
Shannon Elliot Scholars Electives 3304EThe University of Western Ontario
20
evils they contain (James 168). James uses prominent examples to illustrate this
struggle between th e individuals sense of evil and good within the self and
includes a quote from Christ to solidify his position: The spirit is willing but the
flesh is weak. Filled with noble intentions, individuals of the twice-born group are
often struggling with their perception of their natural selves and their struggle to
live in their spiritual selves, or what they envision as the perfect image of
themselves (James 170). The mans interior is a battle -ground for what he feels
to be two deadly hostile selves, one a ctual, the other ideal (James 171). The
result of the resistance between these two views of self is substantial guilt,
sometimes leading into a depression (James 170).
This link between the noble image and the reality of self within a religious
experien ce can often result in a profound depres sion in the twice- born (James
172). When studying the twice-born from a psychological perspective, it is clear
that there is an inner co nflict or heterogeneity present, consisting of the higher
and the lower feelings, the useful and the erring impulses (James 170). Due tothe unsoundness of the inner self, individuals of the twice-born religion question
their own worth as well as the futile or meaningless nature of the world we
inhabit (Fonda). This presence of variety within ones self can be characterized
8/2/2019 The Value of Individual Religion: A Psychological Perspective
21/28
The Varieties of Religious Experience William James
Shannon Elliot Scholars Electives 3304EThe University of Western Ontario
21
by the existence of significant unhappiness or pathological depression (James
172). In the mind of the religious individual, this unhappiness will take the form
of moral remorse and compunction, of feeling inwardly vile and wrong (James
170). According to the author, the presence of misery or depression can lead to
a significant religious experience or unification of self (James 170).
In order for this unification to occur, the individuals sense of depression
must also be paired with the desire to find meaning in the world surrounding
them (Fonda). James describes the process of unification and the individuals
state of being following their second birth. The author also discusses their
advancements to a new plane of thought and understanding from their original
condition (James 156). A popular example of the return to mental health and the
unification of self can be found in Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy. The process is
one of redemption, not of mere reversion to natural health, and the sufferer,
when saved, is saved by what seems to him a second birth, a deeper kind of
consciousness being than he could enjoy before (James 157). The unificationof selves in born again individuals results in the liberation from unhappiness to a
greater understanding of their lives and their individual significance (Fonda). It is
due to this discovery of rebirth that James claims that in order for individuals
8/2/2019 The Value of Individual Religion: A Psychological Perspective
22/28
The Varieties of Religious Experience William James
Shannon Elliot Scholars Electives 3304EThe University of Western Ontario
22
within the sick soul religion to achieve happiness, they must also experience
rebirth (Fonda). This metamorphosis may occur suddenly or at a gradual pace,
but in both instances the act transforms the individuals understanding of their
religious experiences and releases them from the life of the ordinary to one of
enlightenment (Fonda).
It is in this moment that we can truly appreciate the role that religion plays
in the life of the individual. The way in which one experiences religion can have a
significant effect on the way the individual perceives and resolves the evils that
they face. William James concludes that a person who is truthfully religious will
be aware of lifes trial s , will accept these trials with a sense of divine purpose in
a positive way, recognizing these struggles as an opportunity for personal growth
(James 180). Although there are different varieties of religion, the impact that
these experiences have on the individual is significant. In support of his findings,
James reasons the case of the religious experience to be an essential part of
life (Johnston ). The authors views on religion are realistic, applicable , flexible,and cater to a strong sense of individualism, and he maintains that the
experience of religion can provide the individual with a multitude of essential
benefits (Johnston).
8/2/2019 The Value of Individual Religion: A Psychological Perspective
23/28
The Varieties of Religious Experience William James
Shannon Elliot Scholars Electives 3304EThe University of Western Ontario
23
A considerable portion of the benefits of the religious experiences of the
individual can be seen within the field of health. Expanding on great thinkers
such as James, further study should be put into this phenomenon in order to
supplement the success of doctors and their patients (Basu). It is clear that
religion has the capacity to provide healing powers to the individual through
multiple areas of the religious sphere (Oman and Thoresen). The presence of a
community, a meaningful life purpose, and the additional comfort of a guiding
divinity or force provides ill patients with the support they need and with a
powerful antidote to possible anxiety (Oman and Thoresan). It is also common
for a religious community to value the sanctity of the body and to therefore
promote a healthier lifestyle (Basu). It is important for health practitioners and
psychologists to note the benefits of religious experience, study them these
benefits, and to continue to attempt to harness their effects.
Researchers are now examining the effects of the religious experience in
the health of the individual in many groups, including Christian, Jewish andIslamic practices (Seeman et al.). Studies have been implemented to prove the
positive effects that faith and religion can produce and have found associations
between religious practices and lower blood pressure, better lipid profiles, bette r
8/2/2019 The Value of Individual Religion: A Psychological Perspective
24/28
The Varieties of Religious Experience William James
Shannon Elliot Scholars Electives 3304EThe University of Western Ontario
24
immune function, and lower all- cause mortality (Seeman et al.). A study
completed by Koenig et al. discovered a relation between those who practice
faith and a consistently lower blood pressure than non-religious persons. Those
who took part in prayer and attended services were regularly found to have lower
blood pressures than those who did not take part in these activities, took part
occasionally, or listened to religious radio or television programming (Koenig et
al.). The practice of religion also had a positive effect in patients taking part in a
study of the immune system. A selection of women with metastatic breast
cancer were examined and grouped by their level of religious commitment
(Sephton et al. ). After controlling for demographic, disease status, and treatment
variable, women who rated spiritual expression as more important had greater
numbers of circulating white blood cells and total lymphocyte counts (both helper
and cytotoxic T- cell counts included) (S ephton et al.). Studies have also been
conducted in order to discover if there were a relationship between an
individuals religious life and lipid levels in the ir bloodstream. In a particular
study, Orthodox adult Jews were compared to nonreligious individuals and were
found to have lower blood cholesterol levels (Basu). These and multiple other
studies have taken the proposed benefits of the religious experience and have
placed a scientific proof of value onto these claims, creating further belief and
value of the potential significance of religion to the individual.
8/2/2019 The Value of Individual Religion: A Psychological Perspective
25/28
The Varieties of Religious Experience William James
Shannon Elliot Scholars Electives 3304EThe University of Western Ontario
25
Over the course of The Varieties of Religious Experience , it becomes
evident that the individual experience of religion can enhance a persons
perception of the world in a positive way. These perceptions can in yield many
benefits for both the individual and the human race. A person who is truthfully
religious will be aware of lifes trials, and with a sense of divine purpose will
accept these struggles as an opportunity for personal growth (James 87). The
practice of religion can make a considerable contribution to a human life, which
is why James urges us to value the study of this phenomenon. Though there
never may be sufficient evidence of the divine or the presence of the unseen,
the significant effects that these experiences may bring to an individuals life are
what needs to be valued in study and in practice. According to James, it is this
belief in a higher power alone that provides us with the reasoning behind the
natural drive for morality and the active concern we have for other individuals
(Johnston). Religion provides inspiration for proper conduct between individuals
and urges one to dedicate ones self to a life in which values generosity and
kindness to others (Johnston). The religious experience provides a deepened
understanding of ones self and the significance of the world we live in. Author
William James urges the scientific world to value the study of the religious
8/2/2019 The Value of Individual Religion: A Psychological Perspective
26/28
The Varieties of Religious Experience William James
Shannon Elliot Scholars Electives 3304EThe University of Western Ontario
26
experience, and with good reason. Without such a phenomenon, the finer
potentialities of the human spirit would never be encouraged to blossom, and
many positive actions taken by humanity would never have taken place.
8/2/2019 The Value of Individual Religion: A Psychological Perspective
27/28
The Varieties of Religious Experience William James
Shannon Elliot Scholars Electives 3304EThe University of Western Ontario
27
Works Cited
Basu, Iulia O. "The Influence of Religion on Health." Online Academic Journal
Student Pulse . Web. 05 Apr. 2011.
.
Fonda, Marc. "The Varieties of Religious Experience." 22 Apr. 1996. Web. 30
Apr. 2011. .
James, William. The Varieties of Religious Experience . Ed. Martin E. Marty.
Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin, 1982. Print.
Johnston, Ian. "A Brief Introduction to The Varieties of Religious Experience."
Web. 05 Apr. 2011. .
Koenig, H. G., L. K. George, J. C. Hays, D. B. Larson, H. J. Cohen, and D. G.
Blazer. "The Relationship Between Religious Activities and Blood
Pressure in Older Adults." The International Journal of Psychiatry in
Medicine 28.2 (1998). Print.
8/2/2019 The Value of Individual Religion: A Psychological Perspective
28/28
The Varieties of Religious Experience William James
Shannon Elliot Scholars Electives 3304EThe University of Western Ontario
Lott, Jeremy. "Variations on James." Touchstone Magazine . Web. 05 Apr. 2011.
.
Oman, D., and C. E. Thoresen. "'Does Religion Cause Health?': Differing
Interpretations and Diverse Meanings." Journal of Health Psychology 7.4
(2002): 365-80. Print.
Seeman, Teresa E., Linda Fagan Dubin, and Melvin Seeman.
"Religiosity/spirituality and Health: A Critical Review of the Evidence for
Biological Pathways." American Psychologist 58.1 (2003): 53-63. Print.
Sephton, S. E., C. Koopman, M. Schaal, C. E. Thorensen, and D. Spiegel."Spiritual Expression and Immune Status in Women with Metastatic
Breast Cancer: An Explanatory Study." The Breast Cancer Journal 7
(2001): 345-53. Print.