The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human NatureJames, William
ReligionComparative
The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature
James, William
Conversion; Experience (Religion); Philosophy and religion; Psychology, Religious; Religion
“I could recount many experiences which prove a brand‐new
condition of mind, but one will be sufficient. Without the
slightest feeling of annoyance or impatience, I have seen a train
that I had planned to take with a good deal of interested and
pleasurable anticipation move out of the station without me,
because my baggage did not arrive. The porter from the hotel came
running and panting into the station just as the train pulled out
of sight. When he saw me, he looked as if he feared a scolding,
and began to tell of being blocked in a crowded street and unable
to get out. When he had finished, I said to him: ‘It doesn’t
matter at all, you couldn’t help it, so we will try again to‐
morrow. Here is your fee, I am sorry you had all this trouble in
earning it.’ The look of surprise that came over his face was so
filled with pleasure that I was repaid on the spot for the delay
in my departure. Next day he would not accept a cent for the
service, and he and I are friends for life.
“During the first weeks of my experience I was on guard only
against worry and anger; but, in the mean time, having noticed the
absence of the other depressing and dwarfing passions, I began to
trace a relationship, until I was convinced that they are all
growths from the two roots I have specified. I have felt the
freedom now for so long a time that I am sure of my relation
toward it; and I could no more harbor any of the thieving and
depressing influences that once I nursed as a heritage of humanity
than a fop would voluntarily wallow in a filthy gutter.
“There is no doubt in my mind that pure Christianity and pure
Buddhism, and the Mental Sciences and all Religions, fundamentally
teach what has been a discovery to me; but none of them have
presented it in the light of a simple and easy process of
elimination. At one time I wondered if the elimination would not
yield to indifference and sloth. In my experience, the contrary is
the result. I feel such an increased desire to do something useful
that it seems as if I were a boy again and the energy for play had
returned. I could fight as readily as (and better than) ever, if
there were occasion for it. It does not make one a coward. It
can’t, since fear is one of the things eliminated. I notice the
absence of timidity in the presence of any audience. When a boy, I
was standing under a tree which was struck by lightning, and
received a shock from the effects of which I never knew exemption
until I had dissolved partnership with worry. Since then,
lightning and thunder have been encountered under conditions which
would formerly have caused great depression and discomfort,
without [my] experiencing a trace of either. Surprise is also
greatly modified, and one is less liable to become startled by
unexpected sights or noises.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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