ABSTRACTS
Carlos S. Alvarado &Stanley Krippner
Nineteenth Century Pioneers in the Study of Dissociation:William James
and Psychical Research
Abstract: Following recent trends in the historiography of psychology and
psychiatry we argue that psychical research was an important influence
in the development of concepts about dissociation. To illustrate this point,
we discuss American psychologist and philosopher William James’s (1842–1910)
writings about mediumship, secondary personalities, and hypnosis. Some
of James’s work on the topic took place in the context of research conducted
by the American Society for Psychical Research, such as his early work
with the medium Leonora E. Piper (1857–1950). James’s work is an example
of the influence of psychical research on several aspects of psychology
such as early models of the unconscious and of dissociation.
Correspondence: Carlos Alvarado, Atlantic University, 215 67th Street,
Virginia Beach, VA, 23451 Email: carlos.alvarado@atlanticuniv.edu
Stanley Krippner, Saybrook University, 747 Front Street, 3rd floor,
San Francisco, CA, 94111–1920. Email: skrippner@saybrook.edu
G. William Barnard
The Ever-New Flow of Time: Henri Bergson’s View of Consciousness
Abstract: Henri Bergson created a rich and detailed theory of consciousness
beginning with the publication of Time and Free Will in 1889 and continuing
through the publication of The Two Sources of Morality and Religion in
1932. His theory had much in common with William James’s views in that
both emphasized consciousness as a continuous process. James’s famous ‘stream
of consciousness’ is strikingly similar to Bergson’s early notion of duration
(durée), even if Bergson more strongly emphasized the temporal qualities
of consciousness. Bergson later modified his understanding of consciousness,
creating a metaphysical vision that he hoped might not only overcome determinism
and materialism, but also offer a sophisticated way to understand parapsychological
phenomena such as telepathy and clairvoyance (topics of concern to many
major theorists of the time). During his life, Bergson’s ideas were widely
celebrated in the United States and in Europe.
Correspondence: G. William Barnard, Department of Religious Studies,
Southern Methodist University, P.O. Box 750202, Dallas, TX 75275-0202,
USA
Email: bbarnard@smu.edu
Jonathan Bricklin
Consciousness Already There Waiting to be Uncovered: William James’s Mystical
Suggestion as Corroborated by Himself and His Contemporaries
Abstract: ‘Is… consciousness already there waiting to be uncovered and
is it a veridical revelation of reality?’ William James asked in one of
his last published essays, ‘A Suggestion About Mysticism’. The answer,
he said, would not be known ‘by this generation or the next’. By separating
what James wanted to believe about commonsense reality, from what his ‘dispassionate’
insights and researches led him to believe, I show how James himself, in
collaboration with a few friends, laid the groundwork for adopting his
mystical suggestion as veridical. ‘Consciousness already there waiting
to be uncovered’ — not ‘generated de novo in a vast number of places’ but
existing ‘behind the scenes, coeval with the world’ — is consistent with
James’s ‘neutral monism’, his belief that Newtonian, objective, even-flowing
time does not exist, and his belief that parapsychological and other transpersonal
phenomena had ‘broken down… the limits of the admitted order of things’.
Specific parallels between James’s veridical revelation and the veridical
revelation of his young contemporary Einstein, are also considered.
Correspondence:Jonathan Bricklin, New York Open Center, 22 E. 30th St.,
NY, NY 10016
Email: jonathan@opencenter.org
Allan Combs
Neurology and the Mind: at the Turn of the Century
Abstract: Trends in thought about consciousness, the mind, and the brain
at the turn of the century were surprisingly similar to major trends in
thinking about these topics today. For instance, some psychiatrists as
well as physiologists considered all actions of the human mind, as well
as all behaviours, entirely the product of the electrochemical actions
of nerve cells, while others emphasized the importance of consciousness,
free will, and even the soul. The action of nerve cells, and thus the brain
itself, was understood largely in terms of electrical activity, energy,
and resistances, all leading to views of mental health and pathology based
on energy and the loss of energy. Modern metaphors for understanding the
brain, and along with them mental health and illness, emphasize information
processing and neurochemistry. Such differences are reflected in the differences
between typical treatments at the turn of the century and today.
Correspondence:
Allan Combs, California Institute of Integral Studies Email: ACombs@ciis.edu
Allan Combs, Stanley Krippner& Eugene Taylor
Is there Awareness: Outside Attention? A Psychological Perspective
Abstract: This paper approaches the question of awareness outside of attention
through a broader psychological examination of human consciousness. Questions
regarding the boundaries of conscious awareness, as well as the possibility
of ‘subconscious’ or ‘unconscious’ mental processes, were widely discussed
100 years and more ago when they played a central role in the thinking
of turn-of-the- century theorists such as William James, F.W.H. Myers,
Jean-Martin Charcot, and Pierre Janet, all of whom were interested in dissociative
phenomena suggestive of consciousness, or awareness, beyond the margins
of attention. Such phenomena included hypnosis, hysteria, trance states,
and motor automatisms, and for many scholars also sleep related conditions
such as dreaming and hypnogogic states.
Correspondence: Allan Combs, California Institute of Integral Studies
Email: Acombs@ciis.edu
Stanley Krippner, Saybrook University Email: SKrippner@saybrook.edu
Eugene Taylor, Saybrook University Email: Etaylor@saybrook.edu
Arthur Hastings
William James, Conversion and Rapid, Radical Transformation
Abstract: This essay briefly considers the psychology of radical psychological
transformations, sometimes termed ‘quantum change’, such as religious conversions.
Such transformations are the focus of two of William James’s chapters in
The Varieties of Religious Experience. They can occur abruptly, resulting
in a restructuring of the entire personality, sometimes in the direction
of greater health, or recovery from drug addiction. The author summarizes
seven reported aspects of quantum change such as positive shifts of values
or attitudes, widening of perspectives, and increases in self discipline.
Correspondence:Arthur Hastings, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology,
1069 E. Meadow Cir., Palo Alto, CA 94303 Phone: (650) 493-4430 Email: ahastings@itp.edu
Gary E. Schwartz
William James and the Search for Scientific Evidence of Life After Death:
Past, Present, and Possible Future
Abstract: William James’s historic fascination with psychic phenomena,
including the possibility of life after death, has become more widely known
with the publication of recent books and articles on this controversial
aspect of his scientific legacy. However, little is known about the emerging
evidence suggesting the possibility that James’s scientific interest in
these topics has not waned since he died. This paper reviews preliminary
observations, including two exploratory double-blinded mediumship investigations,
which are consistent with the hypothesis that James (with others) may be
continuing his lifelong quest to address the question of the survival of
consciousness after physical death ‘from the other side’. These proof-of-concept
investigations illustrate how future systematic laboratory research is
possible. The limitations of current neuroscience methods are explicated
in terms of investigating the hypothesis of the brain as a possible antenna-receiver
for consciousness. If James’s tentative conclusions about the nature of
the relationship between consciousness and the brain turn out to be accurate,
then it is logically plausible (if not essential) to posit the possibility
that his efforts have persisted in the recent past and present, and may
even continue in the future. Scientific integrity plus the pursuit of verity
require our being open to this important theoretical and empirical possibility.
Correspondence: Gary E. Schwartz, Laboratory for Advances in Consciousness
and Health, Department of Psychology, The University of Arizona, Box 210068,
Tucson, AZ 85721-0068, USA. Email: gschwart@u.arizona.edu.
Eugene Taylor
Who Was Frederic William Henry Myers?
Abstract: The scientific study of consciousness in the late 19th century,
which took place in Western countries across disciplines such as neurology,
physiology, neuropathology, psychology, psychiatry and philosophy, appears
to have striking parallels to current cross- disciplinary developments
in the neurosciences. The 19th century period, however, has received little
scholarly attention from historians of medicine, psychology, or science.
Historians of depth psychology have investigated the area as part of the
history of psychiatry, but cleaved most closely to the versions presented
by early psycho- analysts-turned-historians, who have consistently portrayed
Freud as the only legitimate history of the period, thus marking the territory
of the late 19th century as inherently Freudo-centric. More recently a
new line of historiography emanating from the work of the late Henri Ellenberger
has launched a post-Freudian perspective in which the classical depth psychologies
of Freud, Jung, and Adler may now be understood in a wider and deeper historical
context defined by the development of a so-called French, Swiss, English,
and American psychotherapeutic axis between 1881 and 1918, before the advent
of psychoanalysis. Chief among the prime movers of this axis was Frederic
William Henry Myers, graduate of Cambridge University, and co-founder of
the Society for Psychical Research in England in 1882. Myers’ grasp of
the literature of the day regarding the scientific study of consciousness
was both profound, and highly influential, particularly on such figures
as William James. Since the period itself has yet to be fully reconstructed,
the identity of Myers and his contribution to the scientific study of consciousness
remain obscure, but are also receiving new attention in the area of modern
consciousness studies.
Correspondence: Eugene Taylor, Saybrook University, 747 Front Street,
3rd floor, San Francisco, CA, 94111-1920, USA. Email: Etaylor@saybrook.edu
Christopher Mole
The Content of Olfactory Experience
Abstract: Clare Batty has recently argued that the content of human olfactory
experience is ‘a very weak kind of abstract, or existentially quantified
content’, and so that ‘there is no way things smell’. Her arguments are
based on two claims. Firstly, that there is no intuitive distinction between
olfactory hallucination and olfactory illusion. Secondly, that olfaction
‘does not present smell at particular locations’, and ‘seems disengaged
from any particular object’. The present article shows both of these claims
to be false. It shows that naïve subjects find it quite natural to
draw a distinction between olfactory hallucination and olfactory illusion.
And it argues that the phenomenology of normal olfactory experience is
of particular objects as having smells. Two confusions are responsible
for Batty thinking otherwise: (1) Batty’s examples are cases of extreme
pungency, and she mistakes a peculiarity of intense perceptions for a property
of olfaction more generally; (2) Batty focuses on very short time slices
and so confuses limitations on the information carried by a single sniff
for a limitation on the logical form of all olfactory content.
Correspondence:Christopher Mole, University of British Columbia, Department
of Philosophy, 1866 Main Mall E370, Vancouver BC, V6T 1Z1, Canada
