Louisville Process Theology Network

William James and Human Consciousness

Aug 14, 2007

The current issue of The Wilson Quarterly shows us how much we can learn about process thinking from the works of William James, including his famous books Pragmatism and The Varieties of Relgious Experience; also his essays "Is Life Worth Living?" and "What Makes Life Significant?"

There are also a number of good biographies. See "One Hundred Years of Pragmatism" by Theo Anderson; www.wilsoncenter.org.

It's been written that James felt a deep personal connection to the fundamental questions of our existence. He'd suffered bouts of depression as a young adult and became obsessed with suicidal thoughts at times.

Later in life, he believed the source of this depression was his dread of being a totally determined creature. He had been dreadfully fearful of the idea that his personal behavior might be driven by processes beyond his conscious control.

Eventually turning to the study of psychology, he saw human subconscious activity as an indication that other forms of conscious activity might exist in the universe. "The whole drift of my education goes to persuade me that the world of my present consciousness is only one out of many worlds of consciousness that exist", he wrote.

Thus, our individual conscious interacts with the other conscious worlds and contributes something to the universe as a result.

How do we scientifically test that idea? James suggested that we study the effects of prayer. "Through prayer, so religion insists, things which cannot be realized in any other way come about. Energy, which but for prayer would be bound, is set free."

James apparently came to believe that we need the help of these energies to find "redemption" although he was vague about redemption's precise nature.