Exploring Unseen Worlds

G. William Barnard is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Southern Methodist University.

"William Barnard has written a comprehensive anlysis of James's works showing the centrality of his views of mysticism and their relation to his theories of consciousness and pragmatism; most innovatively, he also integrates James's own spiritual experiences into the story of hisscientific and religious quest for cosmic meaning. With Barnard's thoroughness, clarity, and sensitivity to the inner life of religious experience, he has composed a work that is refreshing for its ability to speak to both academic and religious audiences." — Paul Jerome Croce, Stetson University; author of Eclipse of Certainty: Science and Religion in the Era of William James"Barnard has given us a splendid critical exposition of James's philosophy of mysticism/religion—one that will be of interest and accessible to a range of readers from those who are primarily interested in James's thought to those whose concern is the character and varieties of mysticism. His study centers on the richconcrete experiential data presented in the Varieities of Religious Experience but radiates out to bothJames's earlier and later works. Hence, James's philosophy of mysticism/religion is persuasively shown to be organically related to his metaphysics of experience, psychology, epistemology, and pragmatism. Barnard does not uncritically accept all Jamesian claims nor does his overlook or sugarcoat serious omissions and inconsistencies in James's thought. His creative criticisms, however, invariably both illuminate fruitful Jamesian insights and open them to transactions with other philosophies of mysticism—both Eastern and Western." — Eugene Fontinell, author of Self, God, and Immortality: A Jamesian Investigation

• Preface Chronology Introduction 1. Establishing Foundations: Ladders and Laughing Gas, Phantoms and Fathers Expanding the Boundaries of the MysticalAn Unseen Definition of Mystical ExperienceJames's Mystical GermClimbing the Mystical LadderLaughing Gas RevelationsA Pluralistic MysticBack on the Ladder of Mystical ExperienceThe Reality of the UnseenAn Hallucinatory InterludePsychical ResearchMeetings with a Remarkable Woman: Lenora Piper"A Suggestion about Mysticism""On a Certain Blindness in Human Beings"Diabolical Mysticism: Mystical Experience and PsychopathologySaintly Fathers and Suffering Sons 2. Experiencing Unseen Worlds: Towards a Jamesian Epistemology of Mysticism "We Feel Sorry Because We Cry, Angry Because We Strike": James's Psychology of EmotionThoughts about Feelings: James's Emphasis on Religious ExperienceA Contemporary Critique of James's Theories of Religious Experience"Intensely More Real Than Any Ordinary Perception": Mystical Modes of AwarenessKnowledge-By-Acquaintance and Knowledge-AboutCarving the State Out of the Stone: Sensing and PerceivingMystical DiscoveriesSomething Old and Something New: Religious Geniuses and Cultural ChangeCountless Radiant WindowsPure Experiences and a Radical Empricism 3. "Fields within Fields within Fields": Mysticism and a Jamesian Psychology of the Self The Psychology of the Self: From the Outside In and From the Inside OutThinking through the Body and Seeing with an Ever-Changing IHow Does the "I" See Itself?"A Dome of Many-Colored Glass, Stains the White Radiance of Eternity"The Subliminal SelfThe Psychology of ConversionSalvation and the Higher SelfEarth Angels and Cosmic SelvesThe Compounding of ConsciousnessA Field Model of the Self and Reality 4. Beyond Words, Beyond Morals: The Metaphysical and Ethical Implications of Mysticism The Authority of Mystical ConsciousnessThe Transformative Power of Religious BeliefsThe Science of ReligionsWhat Sort of Oneness?Mystical NondualismA Dual AllegianceThe Moral Holidays of Monistic MysticismA Literally Finite GodBeyond OnenessAn Experience of the Problem of EvilA Spectrum Model of Ethical Life"Enlightened" Ethics 5. Telling Truths, Touching Realities: Spiritual Judgments, Saints, and Pragmatism Ambivalent Standards: James's Three Criteria"By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them"The Mind-Cure MovementA "Bad Speculative Omission": The Mind-Cure Movement and the Problem of EvilSaintliness: "Ripe Fruits of Religion in a Character"The Ever-Changing Value of SaintlinessA Critique of the Critique: An Examination of James's Assessment of SaintlinessA Philosophical Sleight-of-Hand: Valuable Mystical Experiences or Verified Mystical Truths?Prayerful "Differences in Fact"A Pragmatic Theory of TruthWorlds of Belief"The Fight is Still Under Way": Different Understanding of RealityThe "Cash-Basis" of TruthTransforming Visions Notes Bibliography Index