The Varieties of Religious Experience - Penn State University

The Varieties of Religious Experiencevain success of every life—Pessimism of all pure naturalism— Hopelessnessof Greek and Roman view— Pathological unhappiness—“Anhedonia”— Querulous melancholy— Vital zest is a pure gift—Loss of it makes physical world look different— Tolstoy— Bunyan—Alline—Morbid fear— Such cases need a supernatural religion forrelief— Antagonism of healthy-mindedness and morbidness— Theproblem of evil cannot be escaped.LECTURE VIII THE DIVIDED SELF, AND THE PROCESSOF ITS UNIFICATION Heterogeneous personality—Charactergradually attains unity—Examples of divided self—The unity attainedneed not be religious—”Counter conversion” cases—Othercases—Gradual and sudden unification—Tolstoy’s recovery—Bunyan’s.LECTURE IX CONVERSION Case of Stephen Bradley—Thepsychology of character-changes—Emotional excitements make newcentres of personal energy—Schematic ways of representing this—Starbuck likens conversion to normal moral ripening— Leuba’sideas— Seemingly unconvertible persons— Two types of conversion—Subconscious incubation of motives— Self-surrender— Itsimportance in religious history— Cases.LECTURE X CONVERSION—concluded Cases of sudden conversion—Is suddenness essential?— No, it depends on psychologicalidiosyncrasy— Proved existence of transmarginal, or subliminal,consciousness— “Automatisms”—Instantaneous conversionsseem due to the possession of an active subconscious self by thesubject— The value of conversion depends not on the process, buton the fruits— These are not superior in sudden conversion— ProfessorCoe’s views—Sanctification as a result— Our psychologicalaccount does not exclude direct presence of the Deity— Sense ofhigher control—Relations of the emotional “faith-state” to intellectualbeliefs— Leuba quoted— Characteristics of the faith-state: senseof truth; the world appears new— Sensory and motor automatisms—Permanency of conversions.6