the value of individual religion: a psychological perspective

8/2/2019 The Value of Individual Religion: A Psychological Perspective

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The Varieties of Religious Experience William James

Shannon Elliot Scholars Electives 3304EThe University of Western Ontario

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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


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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


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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


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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.


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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).


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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,


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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.


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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


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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).


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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


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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


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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).


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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


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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.


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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 -


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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


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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).


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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


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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


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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


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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).


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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


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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.


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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


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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.


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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. .

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the value of individual religion: a psychological perspective

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