"I firmly disbelieve, myself that human experience is the highest form of experience extant in the universe" - William James (SSHM pg. 97)
What did William James exactly mean by this statement? In his study of consciousness and psychological habit, James arrived to a conclusion that even to this day is hotly debated. He was fully convinced that a full description of consciousness was virtually impossible. The research that James did in his lab at the Scientific School at Harvard illustrated that any attempt to reveal the scope of experience and the mind would always prove fruitless; the reality of experience would always defy a scientific explanation and/or definition of it. The mind-body problem is still an issue that psychologists study, stemming somewhat from the idea of Descartes's dualism, where the mind and body work as one. The inside, subjective feelings of consciousness is not an idea that can be fully explore through empirical methods. Additionally, James said dissecting the mind is destroying the very system that a scientist is trying to understand.
William James, as discussed in the previous chapter of "Sick Souls, Healthy Minds: How William James Can Save Your Life," came to the realization that we are "walking bundles of habits" that are formed in the "young plastic state." We are "spinning our own fates" (SSHM pg. 76). I'm not happy with this. There is no possible way that literally everything that we do in our early childhood and every single thing that our parents instilled in our heads (good or bad) is just stuck there forever. I don't think James was necessarily satisfied with this answer either. This is why he was so fascinated not only with consciousness but also transcendence. Before we get into the specifics of what James believed about these two ideas, I want to discuss why he became interested in transcendence.
William James was married to Alice Gibbons from 1878 all the way up to his death in 1910, and they had five children together. William James was born into a rich family, his father being Henry James Sr., a prominent American theologian whose works inspired James somewhat in his journey into discovering transcendence. Why do I mention his father being somewhat of an inspiration? Well, in 1884, James's father had passed away, which left him with studying his father's writings on mysticism and theology. James specifically took note of his father's mentions of human suffering and how there can be a spiritual and intellectual escape from this. This sounds similar to William James's ideas of consciousness and transcendence. Additionally, James's young son, Herman, who he called "Humster" passed away from pneumonia and was buried in the family cemetery plot in July of 1885. Herman was the "flower of their flock" (SSHM pg. 96).
Now, what did James think about consciousness? He believed human thought was personal, continuous, and changing - this is where the term "stream of consciousness" comes from in James's book, The Principles of Psychology. Thoughts, no matter how these arrive to you, are always perfectly unique and your own. This rivaled previous theories of consciousness developed by John Locke and David Hume, who argued that human thought was a chain of restricted actions or images. Because human thought is personal and never-ending, this brings us to James's notion of "this too shall pass." Any state of mind, good or bad, are temporary and fleeting; however, much of our lives end up being an endless cycle of habit. We confuse what is immediate and urgent as what is truly important, when these two things are not necessarily the same things.
So, how do we escape this trap of habit in our daily lives? Transcendence. Gaining the power of a higher consciousness is what James called our "higher vision of inner significance" where we are still and simply notice while being present in the moment. William James first experimented with the ideas of accomplishing transcendence by the use of nitrous oxide, inspired by his friend Benjamin Blood's descriptions of a "trip" using laughing gas. James experimented with different, even near-fatal, doses of nitrous oxide, and this experience spanning over 10 years led James to critique how we as humans view our everyday reality. It also gave him a warning against overblown philosophizing. Something that is common amongst James's and Blood's work is that reality seems to be something that is overlooked by knowledge, NOT beyond our knowledge (this reminds me of Plato's Theory of Forms).
Transcendent moments happen as though something about us has been shaken free, and we witness our surroundings truly as if for the first time. This struck a chord with me. Many times, especially during school, I go through the motions. Go to class, eat lunch, go to the next class, go home, go to work, study, do homework, go to bed at 1 am, wake up, and do everything over again. It's hard for me to truly feel things and the people around me as they are during the semester. Once the semester ends, it feels like every single emotion and feeling that I've held back for 5 months straight (positive or negative) is let loose for me to process once I have a freer schedule.
Now, our lives don't have to be broken to have this growth, this "higher vision of inner significance," but oftentimes the desire to see life anew is heightened by times of despair and crisis. We can see this through William James's life by his response to his father's and son's death. He purchased land in the small town of Chocorua, believing that the American countryside could open his eyes to the beauty of everyday simplicity away from the habits that our minds trap us in.
This chapter resonated with me, especially because I believe in some sort of transcendence from regular everyday actions. I just simply believe that there is something better out there than the "normal human experience." Yes, a majority of human life is shaped by our habits that have been instilled on us, but I don't believe that staying stuck on that part of experience is beneficial or pragmatic. I often miss what's so good about living because I'm so focused on accomplishing the next best thing.
If there's anything this chapter taught me, it's okay to slow down and truly feel the world and your experience with all five of your senses. This is how you transcend the habitual human experience: fully utilize what's given to you to comprehend the complex beauty of the world that you're surrounded by.
"a spiritual and intellectual escape from this" - From suffering? WJ never thought a total escape was desirable, since we need to confront its sources and try to ameliorate them. "I cannot blink the evil out of sight," he said.
ReplyDelete"transcend the habitual human experience: fully utilize what's given to you to comprehend the complex beauty of the world that you're surrounded by" - Yes. WJ thought we could achieve transcendence by connecting with nature. That's really more like what Thomas Berry has called "inscendence: not moving beyond the life we know but climbing into it, looking for its kernel.”