Rating: 
Summary: A unique and fascinating book
Review: 1st Review: Important, illuminating, readable, though over-long. I regrettably felt it necessary to skip some of the later sections to get to the last couple, which are worth reading on their own. A necessary antidote to excessively "rationalist" views of religion. Atheists (of which I am one) need to read this book! Uniquely valuable and well worth reading again, at least in part. Read 9/16/902nd Review: Very worthwhile reading, insightful, almost consistently interesting and informative, and even persuasive that there is "something to" religious experience. The conclusion is useful in drawing science as far as possible in the direction of granting validity to religious experience. That is, he sort of equates the experience of communion with God with the awareness of the unconscious by the conscious mind. Worth reading, though a more recent treatment (psychology of religion, say) would help--if there is such a thing to compare with this. This time I read the whole thing. Read 4/25/99
Rating:
Summary: A Classic Worthy of the Word
Review: A hundred years after its first publication, James' "Varieties of Religious Experience" is still probably the best place to start a study of the psychology of religion. Based on lectures delivered at Edinburgh in 1901-2, it is supplemented with an astonishing wealth of extracts from religious writings. Although understandably biased toward Western, specifically Christian traditions, it is breathtaking in its scope. Nowhere else will you find such a wide ranging and thorough survey of all those experiences and attitudes - mystical, emotional, ethical, visionary - that we term 'religious'. You will never get around to reading all of the authors quoted in this book, so this is the place to sample them. Some readers will approach this work as believers seeking clarification, others as skeptics seeking to understand. Their viewpoint may be philosophical or theological or psychological. All will be rewarded. Critics voted this among the best 100 books of the twentieth century. If you want insight into humanity's religious dimension, it should be your number one choice.
Rating:
Summary: Demystifying mysticism and religion
Review: Contrary to many authors who either deride the beliefs of others
or promote their own beliefs, W. James does a fairly good job at
presenting an objective account of religious experience. W. James
tries to present experience as it is: subjective. So basically W.
James provides here factual accounts to various aspects involved
with the subjectivity of religious experience. W. James judges not
what he sees, but tries to understand and explain from the
standpoint of psychology to which type of subjective phenomenon
each experience can be seen to belong, without partiality in his
classification. So the interest of such a book is to give the
reader an opportunity to undo some of his personal beliefs about
religion, as we too often hear that "religion transcends the realm
of usual experience" so that nobody would be allowed to say
anything about it. W. James argues, but judges not.
Rating: 
Summary: Arduous, complex and erudite.
Review: Here is William James' extraordinarily dispassionate and narrowly empirical and pragmatic examination of a topic that has rarely been treated dispassionately. The reading can be difficult, actually tedious, but James' language is persistently non-colonized (he had little respect for the popular psychobabble buzzwords and delusionally simplistic conclusions of his day [and one expects that this would hold true a century later!]). By standards of 'originality'* (a word that must be qualified) and reputation, he probably remains America's most famed philosopher of mind (which is something of an affliction to his dogmatic detractors, with their -- yes -- arrogantly simplistic 'conclusions'). It seems that he was/is America's most famed psychologist/neurologist as well.
*(James says, "Originality cannot be expected in a field like this, where all the attitudes and tempers that are possible have been exhibited in literature long ago, and where any new writer can immediately be classed under a familiar head." Yet, while no single consideration in this work is strictly 'original', the work in sum remains highly unique.)
A large sampling of varied religious experience and psychological temperament is scrutinized. Many readers will find the sampling too large (this reader did). As is quickly apparent, a large number of cited experiences are 'extreme' -- we might say nutty. One might think the material is becoming a mocking of religious experience per se, but James warns us not to leap to conveniently simplistic conclusions: ". . . it always leads to a better understanding of a thing's significance to consider its exaggerations and perversions, its equivalents and substitutes and nearest relatives elsewhere. Not that we may thereby swamp the thing in the wholesale condemnation which we pass on its inferior congeners, but rather that we may by contrast ascertain the more precisely in what its merits consist, by learning at the same time to what particular dangers of corruption it may also be exposed." James finds what might be called the "religious temperament" to embrace a broad range of opinions:
"'He believes in No-God, and he worships him,' said a colleague of mine of a student who was manifesting a fine atheistic ardor; and the more fervent opponents of Christian doctrine have often enough shown a temper which, psychologically considered, is indistinguishable from religious zeal."
As a scientist, James proceeds in this study as a strict empiricist. As a philosophical pragmatist (practicably and on the whole, "the true is what works well"), he finds that objects, after all, can only be considered and "known" subjectively. To 'experience' a material 'object' or phenomena is to be in an intellectual state that is essentially subjective. Thus, although science is the interrogation of the material world, the "truth" content of a dogmatic materialism is a pretension at best and a delusion at worst. James says, "The further limits of our being plunge, it seems to me, into an altogether other dimension of existence from the sensible and merely 'understandable' world. Name it the mystical region, or the supernatural region, whichever you choose. . . we belong to it in a more intimate sense than that in which we belong to the visible world, for we belong in the most intimate sense wherever our ideals belong." To the extent that "religion" tends strongly to understand this while "science" today tends impulsively to deny it, religion may exhibit the clearer vision of reality (and of psychological 'healthy-mindedness'), regardless of science's impressive inventory of material 'facts'.
As the author instructs, the reader should patiently wade through these lectures. The conclusions toward which he labors are not generally apparent before they are reached. At points throughout the text, both the 'religionist' and the 'anti-religionist' may believe that James is given to championing their respective positions, only to soon understand him differently. While the study is one of empirical psychology, the conclusions are inescapably philosophical (conclusions always are). The author briefly considers the classic theological arguments (cosmological, teleological, etc) and finds them to be logically elegant, yet less than universally compelling. Where [psychological] temperament leads, thought tends to follow. More compelling to James is a theologic / religious / epistemic warrant that seems highly amenable to (perhaps identical to) so-called reformed epistemology. Dogmatic philosophical materialism is inherently an arbitrarily limited window to reality. For the naturalist and the supernaturalist alike, personal experience and 'temperament' are the arbiters of reality. The book is important, in large part, because it has no obvious partisan constituency. Empiricists and mystics alike may find certain aspects of this study to be of merit. Philosophical skeptics won't like it, but of course ultimately they won't like anything.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant; Actually, Beyond Brilliant
Review: I am always surprised when I am cruising around Amazon and take a look at a classic and find just 1 or 2 customer comments on a book such as James's masterful "Varieties". So, I just had to say something. This is one of the greatest and most readable books ever written on the subject of religion. Don't be surprised at what you find. WJ is not making a "case" for belief here, or any case for any particular religious "system". He is studying religious experience, trying to get to the bottom of what brings it about and what it means for human beings. Thus, he pays little attention to what we call "organized religion." He spends his time, rather, with the various ways that people have experienced God or the supernatural or the spiritual. James's style is very subtle, ornate, and powerful. Just let yourself soak in it for awhile and then try to learn. His metaphors are so stunning as to be memorable for the rest of your life. His discussion of the healthy-minded, the sick soul, and the mystic will entrall you and thrill you with his erudition, and they will become touchstones in your own religious experience and your own study of religion for the rest of your life. Religion is a living reality for WJ. He gives a powerful analysis of what it can, should, and does mean to men and women in the modern world. If you wish to understand modern thought on religion, by the way, you must read James, for much of it springs from his thought. Lastly, James is the kindest thinker who ever put pen to paper. For those of in the William james Society, this is why we love him so. He never chides or derides or condemns. He gently disagrees, looks for the best from every idea and every experience and every person, and lavishes praise on what he finds excellent and meaningful. His thought and writing and philosophical depth and style are an inspiration. Spend some time with one of the greatest thinkers ever. You won't regret it.
Rating:
Summary: You have to take this book in context.
Review: I found this an extremely valuable book, but I don't claim that it's an easy read. First, you have to get through the academic writing style of the late 19th century: paragraph-length sentences with triply nested clauses and extensive quotes from other, equally opaque writers. You'll eventually get used to this style, but it will never flow easily.
Next, you have to contend with James' model of psychology, which is different in many ways from our own. He wrote this book when the notion of the subconscious was a bleeding edge concept, Pavlov had yet to identify learned behavior, and experimental psychology was just starting up. So, although his psychology is sound, you'll have to mentally translate it into the more modern models.
But, if you can get through these barriers, it is a seminal book. James finds it natural to unite the notions of personal psychology and religious revelation without conflict (or at least not much conflict), while honoring both traditions.
Rating:
Summary: Good God, it's Brilliant!
Review: Objective and to the point, William James creates a framework for understanding. He explains the logic behind various ways of thinking without entirely condemning any of these views. James dips into sixth sense experiences and discusses the validity of these experiences based on their unanimity as well as the insignificance of unanimity and more importantly the changes personal experiences can cause in someone's life. Touching on various topics James leaves little unexplained and at the same time stresses the lack of scientific knowledge on many of these subjects and therefore our inability to draw specific conclusions. This book is carefully constructed and can be enlightening for those of us who lack in-depth knowledge of the subject or for the most seasoned researchers.
Rating: 
Summary: Dense for the Common Experience
Review: This is a classic work explaining in a remarkably objective manner the many varieties and possibilities of religious experience. It well avoids the common trap of falling into a polemic either for or against religion; nor does it become a tract supporting Protestantism over Catholicism or vice-verse; or even Christianity over Islam or vice-versa. The book is extremely well-reasoned and liberally dosed with examples of the extremes of religiousity. These extremes not only make for entertaining reading, but James argues that we can learn more from the people who have felt the religious impulse strongly than we can from those who neatly fit religion into their otherwise secular lives. An over-weaning theme of the book is James's respect for the individual's experience of religion. As a result, this is not a book about the varieties of religions, as it does not compare Protestantism and Christianity; nor Judaism and Buddhism, or any other forms of established religion. In fact, in his chapter about mysticism, he argues that the established religions customarily treat mystics and mysticisms as heretics and heresy. Mysticism then either succumbs or successfully survives to either break off to become its own established religion or becomes absorbed into an established religion. By the time that has happened the individual aspects of mysticism are lost and are replaced by still further dogma. This book should really have been titled "The Varieties of Christian Religious Experience," for it is only for Christianity (and to some extent Judaism) that James is well-versed enough to give a thorough examination. It is not that he does not respect Islam or Buddhism; it is that he doesn't know them well enough to draw them fully into the discussion.
Rating:
Summary: Truly - The 'Varieties' of Religious Experience
Review: This is a work of research. James gathers together accounts of the mystical meeting with God from the panoply of the world's religious traditions. One of his conclusions not surprisingly is that people often come to meet the conception or intellectual construct or content in regard to God that they have brought with them.
James in collecting the evidence and analyzes and attempts to give an overall definition of the structure of the mystical religious experience. The case- histories are the evidence upon which the empiricist James will draw his conclusions.
Among the famous distinctions that do make a difference in the work is the distinction between first- born and twice- born souls. The first born are those who are alright and happy in their lives. The twice- born are those upon whom James places the emphasis. These are the people who go through some 'dark night of the soul' in which they seem to lose themselves and their world, live in a blackness of Nothingness, until the miraculous transformation comes and they are born again as new beings. This being born again comes through their meeting with God. And again the God they discover is often the God of the religious tradition which they take in.
It is interesting that in many of the accounts there is talk of merger with and fusion with God, of being absorbed by God. This is somewhat different from the Jewish mystical conception in which one can only approach G-d closer and closer but never really hope to be identical with the One and Only One.
One interesting aspect of the work is James' use of his own experience, his own personal depression as one of the case - histories. In his case it was not the encounter with God which saved him, but ' the will to freedom' which he learned from the French thinker Renouvier. Paralyzed and loss his act of will to freedom would constitute in a deep psychological way a repudiation of the life of his own Swedenborgian mystical father, and lead to his own supremely active life.
James summary conclusions about these experiences and about the mystical encounter lead him not to one definite conclusion, but rather to something like Wittgenstein's family resemblance of overlapping categories of classification.In these he tries too to use pragmatic categories of judgment and understand what he calls the ' cash value ' of the experience i.e. its real benefit in the person's future life. James also talks about something which is certainly not the God most of the mystics have found. They believe and connect with an Infinite Power, but James in his own life and thought seeing the force of Evil in the world held on to the idea of a ' finite God ' who aims at good and needs the help of humanity to realize the right goals in history .This idea in someway parallels the Jewish religious idea of covenant partnership with God, in Tikkun Olam the transformation of the world for good.
It is impossible in a review like this to do justice to this great work, and the great mind and human being who compiled and composed it. It is a must for anyone who cares to better know and understand the religious life. The conclusions they draw may not be James' but they will be helped in understanding religious life better, nonetheless.
Rating:
Summary: An all-time classic: a "must read."
Review: To call "Varieties of Religious Experience" a classic is an understatement. What I find really amazing is that it was written in 1902. James was first known for his work with "functionalism" in psychology, essentially making him the first modern psychologist --- moving psychology away from the realm of philosophy. Thus, we have psychology becoming an empirical science. The empirical methodology was used to explore items of interest in psychology and religion. Many books on religion express an interest in religion from the point of view of a theologian or person who studies religion from the point of view of religious institutions. To many people, religion means different things. It could be from the point of view of a "born-again Christian," or it could be from a more personal point of view. We come to see religion as an existential phenomenon. We learn that it is an incredibly personal relation between the individual and his concept of the Divine. There is a definite emphasis on the personal aspects of religion. With experimental psychology, we deal in matters that are seen and are easily quantifiable. In the psychology of religion, we deal with how the individual deals with the reality of the unseen. We have a feeling of the presence of God. Some people can feel a mystical experience, whereas others have a more rational approach. People experience the divine in different manners - on the one hand, it can be impersonal and transcendental, and on the other hand it can be solemn, personal, and passionate. The religious tell us that religion can have the result of "healthy mindedness" -- in fact, it leads to a systematic sense of "healthy mindedness" diverting our attention from disease and death. This is more than just "faith healing," but rather a prescription for a life of action. It leads to practical effectiveness. Another area of interest is sin and the "sick soul", and the healthy effects of "redemption." Other areas of interest are conversion, religious "back-sliding," saintliness and living the good life, empiricism and skepticism, mysticism and philosophy, and aspects of religious worship service. I found that this book should have interest not just to students of the psychology of religion. It also has appeal to the religious, and those who want to find out more about the religious experience from a point of view that is a different from the views expressed in Church and Sunday School. The point of view is one that will appeal both to religious conservatives and to religious liberals. Its presentation is sensitive and logical. For some people, it may even produce the "aha!" response that they are now seeing religion with greater perspective. (This is a review of the paperback edition.)
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