First-rate study of spirituality documents and discusses a variety of religious states of consciousness, covering the meaning of the term "divine," reality of the unseen, religion of healthy-mindedness, sick soul, divided self and process of its unification, conversion, saintliness, and mysticism. Studded with richly concrete examples; a classic of its genre.
LECTURE I RELIGION AND NEUROLOGY
and#160; "Introduction: the course is not anthropological, but deals with personal documents"
and#160; Questions of fact and questions of value
and#160; "In point of fact, the religious are often neurotic"
and#160; "Criticism of medical materialism, which condemns religion on that account"
and#160; Theory that religion has a sexual origin but by the value of their refuted
and#160; All states of mind are neurally conditioned
and#160; Their significance must be tested not by their origin but by the value of their fruits
and#160; Three criteria of value ; origin useless as a criterion
and#160; Advantages of the psychopathic temperament when a superior intellect goes with it
and#160; Especially for the religious life
LECTURE II CIRCUMSCRIPTION OF THE TOPIC
and#160; Futility of simple definitions of religion
and#160; No one specific 'religious sentiment'
and#160; Institutional and personal religion
and#160; We confine ourselves to the personal branch
and#160; Definition of religion for the purpose of these lectures
and#160; Meaning of the term 'divine'
and#160; The divine is what prompts solemn reactions
and#160; Impossible to make our definitions sharp
and#160; We must study the more extreme cases
and#160; Two ways of accepting the universe
and#160; Religion is more enthusiastic than philosophy
and#160; Its characteristic is enthusiasm in solemn emotion
and#160; Its ability to overcome unhappiness
and#160; Need of such a faculty from the biological point of view
LECTURE III THE REALITY OF THE UNSEEN
and#160; Precepts versus abstract concepts
and#160; Influence of the latter on belief
and#160; Kant's theological Ideas
and#160; We have a sense of reality other than that given by the special senses
and#160; Examples of 'sense of presence'
and#160; The feeling of unreality
and#160; Sense of a divine presence : examples
and#160; Mystical experiences : examples
and#160; Other cases of sense of God's presence
and#160; Convincingness of unreasoned experience
and#160; Inferiority of rationalism in establishing belief
and#160; Either enthusiasm or solemnity may preponderate in the religious attitude of individuals
LECTURES IV AND V THE RELIGION OF HEALTHY-MINDEDNESS
and#160; Happiness is man's chief concern
and#160; Once-born' and 'twice-born' characters
and#160; Walt Whitman
and#160; Mixed nature of Greek feeling
and#160; Systematic healthy-mindedness
and#160; Its reasonableness
and#160; Liberal Christianity shows it
and#160; Optimism as encouraged by Popular Science
and#160; The 'Mind-cure' movement
and#160; Its creed
and#160; Cases
and#160; Its doctrine of evil
and#160; Its analogy to Lutheran theology
and#160; Salvation by relaxation
and#160; Its methods : suggestion
and#160; mediation
and#160; recollection'
and#160; verification
and#160; Diversity of possible schemes of adaptation to the universe
and#160; APPENDIX: Two mind-cure cases
LECTURES VI AND VII THE SICK SOUL
and#160; Healthy-mindedness and repentance
and#160; Essential pluralism of the healthy-minded philosophy
and#160; Morbid-mindedness?its two degrees
and#160; The pain-threshold varies in individuals
and#160; Insecurity of natural goods
and#160; "Failure, or vain success of every life"
and#160; Pessimism of all pure naturalism
and#160; Hopelessness of Greek and Roman view
and#160; Pathological unhappiness
and#160; Anhedonia'
and#160; Querulous melancholy
and#160; Vital zest is a pure gift
and#160; Loss of it makes physical world look different
and#160; Tolstoy
and#160; Bunyan
and#160; Alline
and#160; Morbid fear
and#160; Such cases need a supernatural religion for relief
and#160; Antagonism of healthy-mindedness and morbidness
and#160; The problem of evil cannot be escaped
"LECTURE VIII THE DIVIDED SELF, AND THE PROCESS OF ITS UNIFICATION"
and#160; Heterogeneous personality
and#160; Character gradually attains unity
and#160; Examples of divided self
and#160; The unity attained need not be religious
and#160; Counter conversion' cases
and#160; Other cases
and#160; Gradual and sudden unification
and#160; Tolstoy's recovery
and#160; Bunyan's
LECTURE IX CONVERSION
and#160; Case of Stephen Bradley
and#160; The psychology of characterchanges
and#160; Emotional excitements make new centres of personal energy
and#160; Schematic ways of representing this
and#160; Starbuck likens conversion to normal moral ripening
and#160; Leuba's ideas
and#160; Seemingly unconvertible persons
and#160; Two types of conversion
and#160; Subconscious incubation of motives
and#160; Self-surrender
and#160; Its importance in religious history
and#160; Cases
LECTURE X CONVERSION?concluded
and#160; Cases of sudden conversion
and#160; Is suddenness essential?
and#160; "No, it depends on psychological idiosyncrasy"
and#160; "Proved existence of transmarginal, or subliminal, consciousness"
and#160; Automatisms'
and#160; Instantaneous conversions seem due to the possession of an active subconscious self by the subject
and#160; "The value of conversion depends not on the process, but on the fruits"
and#160; These are not superior in sudden conversion
and#160; Professor Coe's views
and#160; Sanctification as a result
and#160; Our psychological account does not exclude direct presence of the Deity
and#160; Sense of higher control
and#160; Relations of the emotional 'faith-state' to intellectual beliefs
and#160; Leuba quoted
and#160; Characteristics of the faith-state : sense of truth ; the world appears new
and#160; Sensory and motor automatisms
and#160; Permanency of conversions
"LECTURES XI, XII, AND XIII SAINTLINESS"
and#160; Sainte-Beuve on the State of Grace
and#160; Types of character as due to the balance of impulses and inhibitions
and#160; Sovereigh excitements
and#160; Irascibility
and#160; Effects of higher excitement in general
and#160; The saintly life is ruled by spiritual excitement
and#160; This may annul sensual impulses permanently
and#160; Probable subconscious influences involved
and#160; Mechanical scheme for representing permanent alteration in character
and#160; Characteristics of saintliness
and#160; Sense of reality of a higher power
and#160; "Peace of mind, charity"
and#160; "Equanimity, fortitude, etc."
and#160; Connection of this with relaxation
and#160; Purity of life
and#160; Asceticism
and#160; Obedience
and#160; Poverty
and#160; The sentiments of democracy and of humanity
and#160; General effects of higher excitements
LECTURES XIV AND XV THE VALUE OF SAINTLINESS
and#160; It must be tested by the human value of its fruits
and#160; "The reality of the God must, however, also be judged"
and#160; Unfit' religions get eliminated by 'experience'
and#160; Empiricism is not skepticism
and#160; Individual and tribal religion
and#160; Loneliness of religious originators
and#160; Corruption follows success
and#160; Extravagances
and#160; "Excessive devoutness, as fanaticism as theopathic absorption"
and#160; Excessive purity
and#160; Excessive charity
and#160; The perfect man is adapted only to the perfect environment
and#160; Saints are leavens
and#160; Excesses of asceticism
and#160; Asceticism symbolically stands for the heroic life
and#160; Militarism and voluntary poverty as possible equivalents
and#160; Pros and cons of the saintly character
and#160; Saints versus 'strong' men
and#160; Their social function must be considered
and#160; "Abstractly the saint is the highest type, but in the present environment it may fail, so we make ourselves saints at our peril"
and#160; The question of theological truth
LECTURES XVI AND XVII MYSTICISM
and#160; Mysticism defined
and#160; Four marks of mystic states
and#160; They form a distinct region of consciousness
and#160; Examples of their lower grades
and#160; Mysticism and alcohol
and#160; The anand#230;sthetic revelation'
and#160; Religious mysticism
and#160; Aspects of Nature
and#160; Consciousness of God
and#160; Cosmic consciousness'
and#160; Yoga
and#160; Buddhistic mysticism
and#160; Suf
and#160; Christian mystics
and#160; Their sense of revelation
and#160; Tonic effects of mystic states
and#160; They describe by negatives
and#160; Sense of union with the Absolute
and#160; Mysticism and music
and#160; Three conclusions
and#160; (1) Mystical states carry authority for him who has them
and#160; (2) But for no one else
and#160; (3) "Nevertheless, they break down the exclusive authority of rationalistic states"
and#160; They strengthen monistic and optimistic hypotheses
LECTURE XVIII PHILOSOPHY
and#160; "Primacy of feeling in religion, philosophy being a secondary function"
and#160; Intellectualism professes to escape subjective standards in her theological constructions
and#160; Dogmatic theology'
and#160; Criticism of its account of God's attributes
and#160; Pragmatism' as a test of the value of conceptions
and#160; God's metaphysical attributes have no practical significance
and#160; His moral attributes are proved by bad arguments ; collapse of systematic theology
and#160; Does transcendental idealism fare better? Its principles
and#160; Quotations from John Caird
and#160; "They are good as restatements of religious experience, but uncoercive as reasoned proof"
and#160; What philosophy can do for religion by transforming herself into 'science of religions'
LECTURE XIX OTHER CHARACTERISTICS
and#160; and#198;sthetic elements in religion
and#160; Contrast of Catholicism and Protestantism
and#160; Sacrifice and Confession
and#160; Prayer
and#160; Religion holds that spiritual work is really effected in prayer
and#160; Three degrees of opinion as to what is effected
and#160; First degree
and#160; Second degree
and#160; Third degree
and#160; "Automatisms, their frequency among religious leaders"
and#160; Jewish cases
and#160; Mohammed
and#160; Joseph Smith
and#160; Religion and the subconscious region in general
LECTURE XX CONCLUSIONS
and#160; Summary of religious characteristics
and#160; Men's religions need not be identical
and#160; "The science of religions' can only suggest, not proclaim, a religious creed"
and#160; Is religion a 'survival' of primitive thought?
and#160; Modern science rules out the concept of personality
and#160; Anthropomorphism and belief in the personal characterized pre-scientific thought
and#160; "Personal forces are real, in spite of this"
and#160; "Scientific objects are abstractions, only individualized experiences are concrete"
and#160; Religion holds by the concrete
and#160; Primarily religion is a biological reaction
and#160; Its simplest terms are an uneasiness and a deliverance ; description of the deliverance
and#160; Question of the reality of the higher power
and#160; The author's hypotheses:
and#160; 1. The subconscious self as intermediating between nature and the higher region
and#160; 2. "The higher region, or 'God'"
and#160; 3. He produces real effects in nature
POSTSCRIPT
and#160; Philosophic position of the present work defined as piecemeal supernaturalism
and#160; Criticism of universalistic supernaturalism
and#160; Different principles must occasion differences in fact
and#160; What differences in fact can God's existence occasion?
and#160; The question of immorality
and#160; Question of God's uniqueness and infinity : religious experience does not settle this question in the affirmative
and#160; The pluralistic hypothesis is more conformed to common sense
INDEX