William James on Mystical Experience

Mystical!

• Ineffable, inexpressible in language. But metaphors and poetry can get close.
• Felt as a direct experience of reality.
• Transient, but can become deeper and richer with repeated experiences.
• Happen to people, rather than people making them happen.
• Feeling of unity. Optimistic, uplifting.

The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902) William James (1842-1910)

James is considered the first philosopher of mysticism.

James highlights four major defining traits of mystical experience, in addition to mentioning other common characteristics. The first two characteristics alone make for a mystical experience.

• 1.1. Ineffable
  • mystical experiences are partly ineffable or inexpressible in language.
  • metaphors and poetic language can sometimes be used to express what a mystical experience is like. In this way, mystical experiences are like emotions: people must directly undergo the experience first-hand for themselves to fully understand them.
• 1.2. Noetic Quality
  • it nonetheless seems to experiencers to be a state of knowledge, understood as a perception of objective reality, whether it really is or not.
  • genuine knowledge (i.e., noesis)

However, James highlights two other important traits which, while less universally present than the first two characteristics, are nonetheless commonly found in mystical experiences.

• 1.3. Transiency
  • James notes, however, that mystical experiences tend to deepen and become richer, including persisting for greater lengths of time, with each subsequent experience a person undergoes.
• 1.4. Passivity
  • mystical experiences seem to happen to people rather than people making them happen.

Additional Characteristics

• These include that the boundaries separating oneself and the “ultimate” reality seem to dissolve in a profound sense of “oneness” or unity. As a result, mystical experiences are typically “monistic” (i.e., all appears to be interconnected from within the experience) and “pantheistic” (i.e., everything appears to be one with the divine).
• mystical experiences are usually “optimistic” in the sense that they are emotionally positive and uplifting, characterized by a sense of bliss.

Most philosophers of mysticism after James argue that his list of defining characteristics for mystical experience is incomplete or inaccurate in some way. However, despite its alleged flaws and limitations, James’ theory of mystical experience was the first of its kind and continues to influence the philosophy of mysticism to this day. His theory is thus an excellent starting point for anyone seeking to understand how to define mystical experience and its relationship to beliefs based on it.

From William James on Mystical Experience on 1000-Word Philosophy

Added 2024-11-28.