William James's The Varieties of Religious Experience || A Perfect Correlation Between Mind and...

A Perfect Correlation Between Mind and Brain: William James's Varieties and theContemporary Field of Mind/Body MedicineAuthor(s): EUGENE TAYLORSource: The Journal of Speculative Philosophy, New Series, Vol. 17, No. 1, William James'sThe Varieties of Religious Experience (2003), pp. 40-52Published by: Penn State University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25670441 .

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PJHU

A Perfect Correlation Between Mind and Brain:

William James's Varieties and the Contemporary Field of Mind/Body Medicine EUGENE TAYLOR

Soybrook Graduate School and Harvard University

"Perhaps philosophers should study physiology and physiolo gists should study philosophy/7 ?William James, 1 884

Two thousand and two marks the one-hundredth anniversary publica tion of William James's now-classic text, The Varieties of Religious

Experience (1902), and efforts are underway in the United States and

Europe to celebrate both the intellectual significance and the spiritual meaning of James's ideas by philosophers, psychologists, religious scholars, and educated laymen and -women alike. One of the most

important implications of James's work, in this regard, has to do with its effect on understanding the mind/body relationship, particularly

where there is evidence that a text on the psychology of religion has had a documented influence on a newly emerging aspect of medical sci ence. I refer specifically to the field of mind/body medicine, especially the investigations of Dr. Herbert Benson at the Harvard Medical School and the role his reading of Varieties played in understanding the phys iology of meditation. The implications of this work for philosophy are

potentially significant because they suggest the power that philosophi cal ideas have on the dramatic alteration of bodily processes, corrobo

rating James's observation that, while they do not assure its occurrence,

The Journal of Speculative Philosophy, Vol. 17, No. 1, 2003.

Copyright ? 2003 The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA.

40



A Perfect Correlation Between Mind and Brain 41

intention and systematic practice can favorably alter the conditions for the onset of mystical awakening.

James spoke to the relation between religion and medicine in the first chap ter of Varieties, saying that religion and neurology were linked, if only because all experience involves the mechanisms of one's biology. There is no experience without some chemical activity somewhere. Medicine, however, has persistently labeled religious experience as pathological. It is a fact of observation, for

instance, that religious types tend to be neurotic, and for that reason medical materialists universally condemn religion.

But this attitude does not give the enlightened scientist access to the objec tive study of religious states of consciousness, especially as far as their meaning for the individual is concerned. To get that, James said, one has to turn to the

phenomenology of interior events. Therefore, experience, James said, and not

biology, anthropology, or theology, was to be his focus. He intended to approach his subject as a psychologist of religion, he said, a task that included the analy sis of facts as well as the assessment of what value individuals placed on their own experience. His database would come not from an autopsy of the cadaver, the statistics of religious behavior, or the history of ideas in theology. Rather, his focus would be on what he called the "documents humains," that is, living human documents or personal accounts of lived experience (James 1902, 3).1

The historic significance of James's text lies in his position that the experi ence of the sacred, our sense of reverence for the divine, all awe and wonder, and even our moral compass, while certainly influenced by a complex of social and historical factors, familial lineage, and different temperaments of personality, are based ultimately on the depth and power of experiences that we can only call

mystical.2 The expansive sense of presence, the experience of no boundaries, the

revelation of knowledge through intuitive insight more vast than we have ever

known, the certainty of the eternal, the vision of all creation, a direct immersion in the Void?all of these have been associated at one time or another with mys tical awakening. And, as a result of such experiences, our lives have been changed forever. We become different persons. Suddenly it all makes sense; we have direction and meaning, the will to live, or, finally, the courage to die, as the case

may be.

James identified four characteristics of mystical states of consciousness: (1) They are always ineffable. Words cannot describe them because consciousness has expanded beyond words. To say that they defy expression is to say that they can only be described negatively. They are a state of feeling, not a state of intel lect that cannot be imparted to others in merely rational ways. (2) They always have a noetic quality, that is, they carry a sense of knowing unplumbed by the discursive intellect. Illuminations, revelations, "full of significance and impor tance, all inarticulate though they remain; ... as a rule they carry with them a curious sense of authority for all after-time" (James 1902, 380-81). (3) They are



42 EUGENE TAYLOR

transient?experienced for only a few moments or possibly for an hour or two. Yet their influence is permanent and enduring. In fact, when and if they recur,

they are "susceptible to continuous development in what is felt as inner richness and importance." (4) Finally, one must adopt a completely passive attitude toward their occurrence. They cannot usually be brought on at will, nor will specific practices or beliefs ensure their occurrence. Rather, the will is thrown into

abeyance and one feels compelled to surrender to the experience, as if held by a

superior power. He then gave numerous accounts of mystical awakening from

Christian, Hindu, Buddhist and Islamic sources, as well as under such varied conditions as nitrous oxide and alcohol intoxication.

The last chapters of his text were concerned with how we are to regard such

experiences. In the first place, James said, we should evaluate them by their

effects, not their origin. Second, he said, their objective study across cultures could be the foundation for a cross-cultural and comparative science of religions. Third, mystical states hold the possibility of understanding how lasting person

ality change within the individual can be effected, the very heart of which is a

change in the person's philosophical attitude.

1 Mysticism Since the Varieties

James commented on the reaction of scientific medicine in his own time to mys tical states of consciousness, saying, "to the medical mind these ecstasies sig nify nothing but suggested and imitated hypnoid states, on an intellectual basis of superstition, and a corporal one of degeneration and hysteria" (1902, 413). In

response, we might say that the attitude has changed little in the reductionistic sciences since James's time. One must admit, however, that within the last forty years there also appear to be signs of a sea change swirling around the meta

physics of scientific inquiry, now gaining more momentum. Neurophilosophy and neurotheology are some of the names that have been given to the new dis

cussions about the philosophy of mind now taking place in certain quarters of

the brain sciences. Churchland (1995), Fodor (2000), Dennett (1996), and Llinas

and Churchland (1996) represent one genre of literature that attempts to bridge the mind/brain gap using the models of scientific reductionism. D'Aquili and

Newberg (1999) and Persinger (1987) represent a more nuanced version of the same dialogue, except that they represent aesthetic and religious states as hav

ing validity, whereas the scientific materialists do not.

While these discussions have been going on among philosophers of science, similar questions are being raised about the relationship between philosophy, sci

ence, and religion from certain quarters of applied physiology. One such area is

the field of mind/body medicine.




2. The Example of Mind/Body Medicine

Different definitions of the field of mind/body medicine abound, both differen tiated from and overlapping with behavioral medicine and alternative therapies. The field is chameleon-like, changing its look depending on which way it is turned. Generally, when looking towards mainstream science, mind/body med icine presents itself as behavioral medicine?physiology interacting with a nar row definition of psychology defined only by the experimental literature in behaviorism and cognitive psychology, but with a long history of interaction between psychology and physiology in relation to the traditional medical spe cialties. In this historical guise, it could also be referred to as psychophysiology or physiological psychology. When looking toward the public, it presents the view of scientific medicine in support of physiology and classical and operant conditioning, but with strong yet unacknowledged elements of both depth psy chology and guided mental imagery implied in its techniques. When looking toward the psychotherapeutic counterculture, mind/body medicine looks more like meditation, alternative therapies, and complementary medicine, straddling the line between mainstream science and the psychotherapeutic counterculture.

While there may be various unresolved arguments put forward over how

mind/body medicine fits within the contemporary field of scientific medicine, one may at least say that the field is interdisciplinary, covering ground in both

psychology and physiology. At the same time, it stands apart from the normal

procedures in medical science that remain the exclusive application of the physi cian to the passive patient. Techniques in mind/body medicine, on the other hand, represent the application of the scientific method to innovative forms of psy chophysical healing in ways that tend to empower the patient. This includes the effects of belief on health, as well as character development, self-knowledge, and the spiritual life and their relationship to different systems of healing.

3. Herbert Benson's Debt to James

Herbert Benson's work is a particularly good example from mind/body medi cine of James's influence on contemporary developments in both the philosophy of religion and the neurophysiology of mysticism. Benson launched his medical career in 1963 with a surgical fellowship in cardiology attached to the United States Public Health Service, after which he was stationed in Puerto Rico for two

years. On his return he joined the Harvard Unit of the Thorndike Laboratory at Boston City Hospital and at the same time became a member of the Department of Physiology at Harvard Medical School. While performing routine clinical service at the Hospital, he also began a program of research on the effects of



44 EUGENE TAYLOR

stress under his old teacher, A. Clifford Barger, at the Medical School. This put him at the forefront of a long lineage of mind/body medicine at Harvard Medical School dating back to the 1830s and Oliver Wendell Holmes, humanistic physi cian and poet at the breakfast table, who was the teacher of William James, who in turn was the teacher of Walter Cannon, who had been the teacher of A. Clifford

Barger, who had been a teacher of Herbert Benson (Taylor 2000). Between 1969 and 1970, under Barger in physiology and Peter Dews in phar

macology, Benson published with Roger Kelleher, W. H. Morse, and J. A. Hurd on their work developing an animal model to show the operant conditioning of heart rate and blood pressure in squirrel monkeys. Then in 1971, with Shapiro, Schwartz, and Tursky, Benson began to develop a human model of autonomic control by demonstrating the conditioning of blood pressure in studies at the biofeedback laboratory at the Boston City Hospital (Taylor forthcoming).

While these studies in autonomic conditioning were going on, Benson had also initiated an investigation of transcendental meditators (TM) who practiced a form of quiet sitting derived from the Hindu yoga teachings of Maharishi

Mahesh Yogi. By 1971, with Robert Keith Wallace and A. F. Wilson, Benson had identified a consistent pattern of physiological responses associated with the

practice of TM: reduced heart rate, lowered metabolism, lowered blood lactate

(associated with lowered stress), and reduced respiratory rate (1971). Benson's findings, however, produced a growing crisis in his relation to

Maharishi and the TM community because TM is put forth as a unique set of

teachings with unique effects, while Benson believed the response was much more generic and could be produced by techniques other than those taught by TM practitioners.

Benson's big realization, virtually an epiphany experience, came one day while shaving. He was standing in front of the mirror in a steamy bathroom at

his home pondering the intensity of the issues at stake in the interpretation of his

data, when he remembered reading William James's Varieties of Religious

Experience in college. Suddenly a flood of images came back to him about

James's book, all related to the awakening of the mystical sense in the individ

ual and its cultivation in the world's contemplative traditions. Benson, who nearly cut himself shaving, distinctly remembers exclaiming to himself in the mirror, 'This must be what James was talking about!"

Over the next several months Benson and his staff embarked on a systematic

investigation of the world's major religious traditions, culling out any references

to meditative and contemplative techniques. They discovered a plethora of exam

ples from meditative and contemplative schools in both the Eastern and Western

religious literature resembling the data in his study. The fact that positive, health-giving, and rejuvenating effects of quiet sitting

were not unique to TM led Benson to further experimental investigations and to

the idea that he had identified a generic set of physiological responses associ

ated with lowered stress that stood in distinct opposition to the physiology of the




fight-flight response earlier identified by Cannon (1915). It is of some historical note that Benson was able to carry out these studies in the same rooms of Cannon's own laboratory at Harvard Medical School.

The physiological condition that Benson eventually identified he called the relaxation response, a hypometabolic state of parasympathetic dominance and concomitant sympathetic control, which, if practiced for ten minutes, twice a

day, could lead to consistent and measurable reductions in heart rate, blood pres sure, and general body metabolism (1974). Further, Benson has hypothesized that while the fight-flight reflex is an automatic, unconscious evolutionary mech anism of ever-increasing levels of adaptation to stress, leading eventually to the death of the organism, the relaxation response is a voluntary intervention of will ful consciousness that, like a thermostat, continually resets the nervous system at a level of functioning characterized by lowered stress. The characteristics of the fight-flight response are marked by heightened arousal and the dumping of chemicals into the blood stream in preparation for action. For the relaxation

response, exactly the opposite appears to be the case. Nervous activity ceases, chemicals that produce action are suppressed, breathing and heart rates drop, and

metabolism slows.

4. The Relaxation Response and g Tu-mo Yoga

Benson has gone on to document the benefits of the relaxation response for pain control, blood pressure regulation, various forms of heart disease, and other med ical conditions. Meanwhile, he has also continued his investigation of its rela

tionship to prayer and contemplation in the world's religious traditions, specifically regarding the correlation of brain states with concomitant states of

religious consciousness in advanced Buddhist meditators (Benson 1982; Benson et al. 1982; Benson and Malhatro 1990).

For his part, Benson arranged through the Dalai Lama to study the physio logical effects of advanced meditators in the field. Travelling to Dharmsala, India, a hill station in northeastern India at the base of the Himalayas, Benson was able to set up physiological monitoring devices to measure Tibetan monks practicing the technique of g Tu-mo yoga. In the most well-known descriptions of this exer

cise, the monks would traditionally gather outside in 40 degrees Fahrenheit weather in the evening and practice the technique all night until dawn. The exer cise involved entering into a state of deep meditation and generating tapas, or

spiritual heat, in which the skin temperature is raised sometimes more than 15

degrees. In a bout of friendly competition, each monk wraps himself in a sheet

dipped in cold water and then dries the sheet on his back while doing the medi tation. After drying each sheet, another is dipped in water and put on the monk's back. The one who dries the most sheets by sunrise is declared the winner.



46 EUGENE TAYLOR

Benson's initial investigations included the study of three separate monks, each living in isolation by themselves in separate hermitages up in the Himalayas. Benson's first subject, the Venerable GL, was a fifty-nine-year-old monk who had entered the monastery at thirteen. He held the title of Geshe, the equivalent of a Ph.D., which indicated highest attainment of Buddhist teachings. In the iso lated hut up in the Himalayas, he had practiced g Tu-mo yoga for fifteen min utes a day for the previous ten years.

While his internal body temperature remained stable throughout the experi ment, the temperature in his fingers rose 9 degrees Fahrenheit and his toe tem

perature, which should have been falling, rose 13 degrees above the control level. Thermistors in his back and navel registered an increase of only 2 degrees. During the recovery phase the finger temperature returned to premeditation lev

els, but the toe temperature remained high for some time. Meanwhile, the air

temperature outside appeared unrelated to these changes, rising 2 degrees from 71.6 to 74.3.

The second monk, the Venerable JT, was forty-six years old and lived in a

solitary hut closer to Upper Dharmsala. He also had entered the monastery in Tibet at a young age, before the Communist invasion, and had been living in iso lation for the past seven years. He had been practicing the Fierce Woman yoga four times a day, devoting an hour each time to the practice. The control period to establish baseline measurements was 10 minutes; his meditation was 80 min

utes, and his recovery period was 30 minutes. The results showed external air temperature increasing from 60 to 66.5

degrees Fahrenheit. The finger temperature rose 13 degrees, with the highest level of heat being recorded during the recovery phase. The toe temperature rose

7 degrees, while the skin temperature in other areas of the body showed only modest increases. Meanwhile, the core body temperature remained stable.

The third monk, the Venerable LT, was fifty years old. He had been a farmer and then a soldier in India, but he renounced the world at age forty-one to become a monk. He had lived in complete isolation for eight years and had been prac

ticing g Tu-mo yoga for the previous six years. He said he achieved the bliss state

and the heating effect often lasted an entire day. The effect returned sponta

neously every time he sat down, so preliminary measurements were recorded

while he was standing. The measurements were confounded by the ambient heat

of the sun, however, and had to be rerecorded at a later time. During his once-a

year trek to hear the Dalai Lama speak in Upper Dharmsala, he consented to be

re-measured in a hotel room.

There was a five-minute control period, a forty-minute meditation, and a

thirty-minute recovery. His finger temperature increased only 6.4 degrees Fahrenheit, but his toe temperature rose 15 degrees, the largest difference meas

ured. The other measures remained relatively stable. His internal body temper ature remained unchanged, and the outside temperature decreased from 68 to 65




degrees, indicating that his finger and toe temperatures were at their highest when the temperature was at its lowest.

Overall, results showed a dramatic rise in topical skin temperature, but with little effect on basal metabolic rate or heart rate alone, suggesting differential control over vasodilation of the circulatory system affecting not only the skin but

likely the cerebral blood flow in the brain as well. Benson was later able to both confirm and extend these findings. At first, on

yet another trip, they had witnessed numerous rituals where homage was paid to

the method of drying the sheets but where no actual physiological exercises were

involved. Later, under somewhat hurried conditions, they were summoned from the United States on short notice when word came from Dharmsala that the actual

practice of the drying of the sheets was to take place in an isolated monastery up in the Himalayas. Benson's team of researchers made it to the ceremony and

made videotape recordings of the proceedings. In ambient temperatures of only 39 degrees Fahrenheit, monks were shown to begin drying wet sheets within three to five minutes after starting the practice. The film footage shows visible

evaporation in the form of steam coming off their bodies. In approximately forty five minutes the sheets were totally dry. They repeated this procedure twice more.

Then, in a later study conducted at Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim in 1988, the

physiology of three monks was again closely studied while in g Tu-mo meditation. Results showed that resting metabolism could be raised up to 61 percent and low ered down to 64 percent, the reduction from rest being the largest ever reported. On the EEG, marked asymmetry in alpha and beta between the hemispheres and increased beta activity were also found to be present. The implication of these

widely disparate findings is that g Tu-mo meditation can be used to achieve dif ferent results, either raising or lowering basal metabolism, which is entirely con

sistent with instructions imparted by the classic texts of Tibetan meditation.

5. Where the Philosophy of Mind Meets the

Physiology of the Brain

If Benson's agenda was to correlate mind states with brain states, as he indicated that it was in his original publication of The Relaxation Response, it can be said that he has indeed captured some of the physiology of g Tu-mo yoga, at least as far as the EEG activity is concerned (1975). The question remains, however,

What is the mind state that correlates with his physical measurements? He is

only willing to say that the relaxation response is the generic first step to achiev

ing these advanced states of meditation. When asked at one point, he declared that he was only a simple cardiologist and did not want to presume to transmit the iconography of Buddhist states of consciousness.



48 EUGENE TAYLOR

In Beyond the Relaxation Response, however, where he gave his own descrip tion of the g Tu-mo studies, he also included the following explanation that was

given to him by the Buddhist meditators, which included a description of what

the monks were visualizing:

In the perfected practice of g Tu-mo meditation, prana (wind or air) is thought to be gathered from the fragmented condition of normal human consciousness.

This wind is then directed into an alleged main channel through the central part

of the body, where the swirling winds ignite an intense "internal heat." The

heat proceeds to "melt" a "generative" fluid that is supposed to be located in

the head. Finally, as the generative fluid is drawn down and then up through

the central body channel, the meditator produces succeedingly greater states of

bliss. (Benson 1984, 53-54)

Benson was perhaps wise to avoid a technical explanation of the Buddhist point of view, as it represents an epistemology far more complex than the Western

model of the brain and a radically different philosophy of mind/body interaction.

The Tibetan Vajrayana tradition, for instance, embraces the chakra system of

Tantric Hinduism, which means that the movement of energy in the body is con

ceived in terms of ascending and descending forces that are believed to activate

specific chakras, or energy centers at specific levels. Tibetan medicine is thus

also influenced by numerous principles of Aryavedic medicine derived from the

Hindu tradition. For instance, Tibetan Buddhist Sanskrit, the language of all their

technical treatises, is a hybrid of classical Indian Sanskrit. The spoken form of

colloquial Tibetan comes from the Sino-Burmese family of languages, however, which means that indigenous medical practices have been long influenced by traditional Chinese medicine. So the Tibetan doctors sometimes diagnose using the Chinese techniques of the pulse and Chinese herb lore, as well as conceive

of the effects of the Tibetan equivalent of the Chinese Qi energy in terms of the

classical acupuncture meridians.

The Tibetans have their own form of medical practice, however, which

includes a strong mix between physical and psychological interventions. One

major difference is that they do not separate psychology from medicine, so there

is no specific technical term for psychology. The language of physiology and the

language of consciousness are inextricably blended.

The point is that the Tibetan monks did not join the sangha just to learn how

to dry wet sheet packs. They joined because they were pursuing the arduous path of the mendicant seeking the goals of spiritual liberation common to Buddhism.

Also, they obviously had neither our conceptions of science nor our tools of

measurement. The question then becomes, How were they able to persistently enter an advanced meditative state to produce the same effect reliably each time?

In its most simple form, the answer is the use of controlled breathwork and

meditative visualizations, understood within the context of a complex theory of




states of mind and their effects on transforming the very ground of conscious ness. The physiological changes, however, which we make such a clamor about in Western medicine, turn out to be merely by-products and not the main goal of a well-known interior process whose end instead is the highest wisdom and

compassion. Benson's outward observations tend to corroborate this. Each one of the

monks would enter the meditative state through different means, usually idio

syncratic to the individual practitioner. Each one knew beforehand which med itative state they were heading for, that of g Tu-mo, as they were all adept at

differentiating one state from another that they have experienced over and over

again during their years and sometimes decades of practice. This involved specific kinds of intense breathwork and only certain specific

visualizations associated with generating the inner heat. The power of the inner heat is symbolized by the mantric syllable known as "the short AH," a Sanskrit

participle that looks like an exclamation mark in English. But more complex visualizations of energy traveling up and down the central channel of the body are also required. In short, the principle elements for igniting the inner heat are meditation on these channels, meditation on the mantric syllables, and medita tion guided by controlled breathing techniques.

We treat these phenomena as esoteric in the West and marvel at their demon strations because we are seeing such effects for the first time, while the Tibetans are seasoned veterans and perform something that is all too familiar. Indeed, the Fierce Woman yoga is known to many adepts and is a common practice in Tibetan Buddhism. Although there are numerous texts that describe these tech

niques, the most famous and well known within the Tibetan canon is Naro Cheo Druk, or "Naro's Six Dharmas," rendered into English most often as "The Six

Yogas of Naropa."3 The six techniques are inner heat, illusory body, clear light, consciousness transference, forceful projection, and the bardo yoga, which refers to the after-death state, since inner exploration while alive in the body is classi

cally most closely connected with the karmic planes of existence one passes through at the moment of death.

While the practice of generating tapas, or ascetic heat, comes from Hindu

yoga, the Tibetans developed their own, more sophisticated interior science of consciousness in a way that has become indigenous to their culture alone. In this

regard, the most well-known description of the Six Yogas comes from the Tibetan

adept Tsongkhapa, who lived at the end of the fourteenth century and was guru to the First Dalai Lama. Tibetan scholars consider his treatise on The Stages of Training in the Profound Path of Naro \s Six Dharmas one of the most important to come out of Tibet. It influenced particularly the Gelugpa school and served as the guiding treatise to the Six Yogas in more than three thousand monasteries and hermitages across Central Asia for well over five hundred years.

According to this text, the purpose of the inner heat practice is to bring the

energies into the heart chakra, melt the "drops" of the bodhimind, and create a



50 EUGENE TAYLOR

special state of bliss that can then be used in numerous ways. However, the texts indicate that these practices are usually only witnessed at the culmination of retreats that last sometimes as long as three years, which would explain the dif

ficulty Benson's team had in finally arriving at an out-of-the-way monastery at

precisely the right moment to film the event of drying the wet sheet packs. In

any event, these should be accounted as important studies of extraordinary human

phenomena, learned by the monks as a complex philosophy of consciousness and applied as a daily living practice and a lifetime spiritual path.

The fact that they all enter the meditative state in different ways suggests the operation of the relaxation response at the initial stages of trance induction

(see Taylor 2002). The fact that they can consistently enter advanced states of consciousness guided only by the philosophical teachings of their lineage and then achieve the same physiological results is corroborated by Benson's fur ther measurements. On a more abstract level, the two together represent the

possibility of a perfect correlation between a philosophy of mind and the phys iology of brain states.

6. Some Implications for Philosophy

Interdisciplinary communication between psychology, physiology, and religion presents a number of interesting implications for philosophy. First, it raises the

question about the function of philosophy and its relation to psychology. Traditionally, the trend in Western philosophy has been toward the mathemati calization of thought, which addresses the basic epistemology underlying the

philosophy of the natural sciences, of which psychology has tried mightily and with mixed results to become a part. However, the new revolution in the neuro

sciences, which is about the biology of consciousness, has generated humanis tic implications far beyond the reductionistic mentality that engineered the revolution in the first place, raising both new and old questions about the phi

losophy of mind as well as ultimate questions about the nature of reality that, in

turn, have implications for the way science itself is conducted. Philosophy again is becoming important, but in ways that present-day Western philosophers might not be entirely prepared to address.

Second, such interdisciplinary communication poses the possibility that

mind/body medicine, meaning the dialogue between physiology and psychol ogy, could become a bridge in the larger dialogue between science and religion. This is because the dialogue between psychology and physiology generates its own philosophical implications with regard to the effects of the techniques. The

question is, Will philosophers drive this discussion, or will the philosophical questions be addressed through a more sophisticated development of one's own




personal phenomenology regarding the voluntary control of previously involun

tary physiological states?

Third, at the very least, the dialogue between psychology, physiology, and

religion posits a role for comparative philosophy in the construction of an objec tive science of religions. Western philosophers have largely ignored the impli cation of other non-Western philosophical systems that address some of the same

questions they are struggling with. Comparative philosophy holds the promise of translating non-Western ways of thinking into Western terms in such a way that the religious and psychological elements, which are not usually teased out of these systems, can be more feasibly tolerated by Western logical reduction ists who still dominate the mainstream.

At the end of Varieties James had posited the development of an objective sci ence of religions as a way to address this task. He did this by calling for a cross

cultural psychology of subconscious states that had at its core a comparative mysticism (Taylor 1988 and 2003). Physiology, it turns out, by defining a generic human response across cultures to what each tradition has defined as its highest human potential, may be a key that unlocks that door, ushering in a new under

standing of mind and brain, and hence the relationship between science and reli

gion, in the West.

Notes 1. Here we have James's metaphysical doctrine of radical empiricism?his focus on the mean

ing and importance of pure experience. See Taylor 1998 and Taylor and Wozniak 1996.

2. James also championed the metaphysics of noetic pluralism, or the centrality of unitive, trans

forming experiences within the individual while maintaining the difference in meaning and content of these experiences from person to person.

3. See Mullin 1996 and 1997; and Rinbochay and Hopkins 1979.

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-. 1982. "Body Temperature Changes During the Practice of g Tum-mo Yoga (Matters

Arising)" Nature 298: 402. -. 1984. Beyond the Relaxation Response. New York: Times Books.

Benson, H., J. F. Beary, and M. P. Carol. 1974. "The Relaxation Response." Psychiatry 37: 37^16.

Benson, H., J. W. Lehmann, M. S. Malhotra, R. F. Goldman, J. Hopkins, and M. D. Epstein. 1982.

"Body Temperature Changes During the Practice of g Tum-mo (heat) Yoga." Nature 295: 234-36.

Benson, H., M. S. Malhotra, R. F. Goldman, G. D. Jacobs, and P. J. Hopkins. 1990. "Three Case

Reports of the Metabolic and Electroencephalographic Changes During Advanced Buddhist Meditative Techniques." Behavioral Medicine 16.2: 290-95.

Churchland, Paul M. 1995. The Engine of Reason, The Seat of the Soul: A Philosophical Journey Into the Brain. Cambridge: MIT P.

d'Aquili, Eugene G., and Andrew B. Newberg. 1999. Mystical Mind: Probing the Biology of Religious Experience. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress P.

Dennett, Daniel Clement. 1996. Kinds of Minds: Toward an Understanding of Consciousness. New York: Basic Books.



52 EUGENE TAYLOR

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-, trans. 1997. Readings on the Six Yogas ofNaropa. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion.

Persinger, Michael A. 1987. Neuropsychological Bases of God Beliefs. New York: Praeger.

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