William James (1842-1910)

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William James (1842-1910)
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Who Was William James?
Harvard psychologist and philosopher

• Developed the philosophical viewpoint called
  Pragmatism

• Experimented with nitrous oxide to induce
  mystical experiences

• Attended seances with Boston medium Leonora Piper

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Biographical Outline
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• Older brother of novelist Henry James
• Entered Laurence Scientific School, Harvard
  (1861), and Studied medicine at Harvard (1864-69)
  and in Berlin, Germany (1867-68).
• Received his MD from Harvard in 1869.

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• Taught medicine, psychology, and philosophy at
  Harvard University (1872-1907)

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List of Courses Taught By James
Comparative Anatomy Physiology The Relations
Between Physiology and Psychology Psychology Compa
rative Philosophy English Philosophy Locke,
Berkeley, Hume Psychology and Logic Descartes,
Spinoza, and Leibniz General Introduction to
Philosophy Cosmology Psychological Seminar
Questions in Mental Pathology Psychological
Seminar The Feelings Metaphysical Seminar A
Pluralistic Description of the World Metaphysics
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• 1875 established the first American laboratory
  of experimental psychology
• 1879 Began teaching philosophy Professor of
  Philosophy (1885)

Jamess Home, 1889, Cambridge, MA
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• Periods of ill-health 1869-72 1873-74
• 1890 Published Principles of Psychology
• 1892-93 Received the Ph.D and M.Litt from the
  University of Padua (in Italy).
• 1896 Published Will to Believe essay
• 1897 Published Will to Believe and Other Essays
• 1902 Published Varieties of Religious Experience
• Taught General Problems in Philosophy course at
  Stanford University (1906-1907).
• 1907 Published Pragmatism

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• 1901-1902 Gifford Lectures at the University of
  Edinburgh
• 1906-1907 lectures on pragmatism at the Lowell
  Institute and Columbia.
• 1908-1909 Hilbert Lectures at University of
  Oxford

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James passed away of an enlarged heart on August
26, 1910
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Jamess Interlocutors

• John Dewey, Sigmund Freud, Ralph Waldo Emerson,
  Charles Sanders Peirce, Mark Twain, Carl Jung,
  Helen Keller, H.G. Wells, and Oliver Wendell
  Holmes.

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William James The Pragmatist
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• Pragmatism Truth is the name of whatever proves
  itself to be good in the way of belief, and good
  for definite assignable reasons.
• The truth of a belief is measured by its
  usefulness.
• Absolute certainty is not necessary for beliefs
  to be rationally justified.
• Rational proof of any sort is not necessary for
  beliefs to be reasonable.

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William James The Nitrous Oxide Philosopher
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British Psychologist Edmund Gurney (1847-1888)
Gurney claimed that he had a sudden, mystical
insight into the nature of immortality.
Gurney told William James about his experience,
but he added one serious complaint. . . .
The moment of insight melted away gradually as
the nitrous oxide he had received at the
dentists office wore off.
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Effects of Nitrous Oxide (N20)
Disorientation (both spatial and
temporal) Pulsating auditory hallucinations Pulsat
ing visual hallucinations Increased pain
threshold Feelings of euphoria Out of body
experiences
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• William James experimented with nitrous oxide in
  the early 1880s.
• James wanted to have first-hand experience of
  mystical states of consciousness.
• James composed and published a brief essay
  documenting his experiences On the Subjective
  Effects of Nitrous Oxide (1882)

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There are no differences but differences of
degree between different degrees of difference
and no difference.
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William James The Harvard Ghost Hunter
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Society for Psychical Research
Founded 1882 in London, England
Sidgwick Group Henry Sidgwick, Frederic Myers,
Edmund Gurney, Lord Raleigh, and Arthur Balfour
Objectives of the Society Conduct a scientific
investigation of anomalous or paranormal
phenomena, e.g., telepathy and clairvoyance,
apparitions, mediums, and levitations and other
phenomena associated with seances.
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Jamess Interest in Psychical Research

• 1885 co-founder of the American branch of the
  Society for Psychical Research (SPR).
• 1885-1910 Pursued the study of paranormal
  phenomena. Published over 500 pages on the topic.
• 1894-95 Served as the SPRs President

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James took a particular interest in mediums,
people with the alleged ability to communicate
with the dead.
Together with Rev. Minot Savage, James visited
prominent mediums in Boston.
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Conclusion the mediums were frauds.
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Leonora Piper (1857-1950)
The first medium to provide members of the
British and American societies for psychical
research with convincing evidence of her
abilities.
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Trance Mediumship
The medium enters a trance-like state during
which a discarnate spirit speaks using the vocal
cords of the medium or uses her hands to write
messages.
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Mrs. Pipers Trance Mediumship
Like many other mediums, Mrs. Piper manifested
two different types of personalities in her
trance states.
Communicator The alleged discarnate spirit of a
formerly living person who sends messages to the
living through the medium.
Control A personality manifested during trance
states that assists with contacting the spirit
world.
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Methods of Communication
Mrs. Pipers controls and communicators spoke
through the medium by taking control of the
mediums vocal organs and/or producing written
messages by controlling the mediums arms and
hands (co-called automatic writing).
In some cases voice and automatic writing were
both used, sometimes simultaneously, by one or
more personalities.
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• James had 12 impressive initial sittings with
  Mrs. Piper in 1885 in which she revealed intimate
  details about Jamess family and his own life.

• He sent 25 different persons to Mrs. Piper as
  sitters, taking necessary precautions to ensure
  that they had never met Piper before. Sitters
  were also introduced on separate occasions and
  under pseudonyms.

• Mrs. Piper consistently provided correct and
  highly detailed information about the deceased
  relatives of the sitters and demonstrated an
  intimate knowledge of the lives of the sitters.
  James published the results in 1886.

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James wrote the following about his first
personal sitting with Piper My impression after
this first visit was that Mrs. Piper was either
possessed of super-normal powers or knew the
members of my wifes family by sight and had by
some lucky coincidence become acquainted with
such a multitude of their domestic circumstances
as to produce the startling impression which she
did.
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James went on to conclude My later knowledge of
her sittings and personal acquaintance with her
has led me to absolutely reject the latter
explanation, and to believe that she has
supernormal powers -Letter to Frederic Myers
(1890)
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Why Important?
1. The phenomenon of trance mediumship provides
data that are at least suggestive of the survival
of the personality beyond death.
2. Trance mediumship is of general psychological
interest.
Trance mediumship involves altered states of
consciousness, not wholly unlike what is observed
in cases of dissociative identity disorder.
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3. James believed that the study of altered
states of consciousness could help us understand
religious experiences since many of the latter
also involve altered states of consciousness.
4. James believed that through a study of altered
states of consciousness we could better
understand forms of anomalous cognition (ESP) not
presently understood by scientific paradigms.
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Many Different Kinds of Truth
If there are different kinds of truths, perhaps
we need different states of consciousness to come
to know these truths.
Openness to Possibilities
These possibilities are particularly important to
understanding the nature and implications of
religious experience.