Western Washington University Western CEDAR WWU Graduate School Collection WWU Graduate and Undergraduate Scholarship Spring 2019 Wandering Between Worlds: The uH xleyan Undercurrents in Human Psychology Adam Harrison Smith Western Washington University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://cedar.wwu.edu/wwuet Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Smith, Adam Harrison, "Wandering Between Worlds: The uH xleyan Undercurrents in Human Psychology" (2019). WWU Graduate School Collection. 888. https://cedar.wwu.edu/wwuet/888 This Masters Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the WWU Graduate and Undergraduate Scholarship at Western CEDAR. It has been accepted for inclusion in WWU Graduate School Collection by an authorized administrator of Western CEDAR. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Wandering Between Worlds: The Huxleyan Undercurrents in Human Psychology By Adam Harrison Smith Accepted in Partial Completion of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts ADVISORY COMMITTEE Chair, Professor Jennifer Seltz Professor Hunter Price Professor Michael Mana GRADUATE SCHOOL Kathleen L. Kitto, Acting Dean Master’s Thesis In presenting this thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a master’s degree at Western Washington University, I grant to Western Washington University the non-exclusive royalty-free right to archive, reproduce, distribute, and display the thesis in any and all forms, including electronic format, via any digital library mechanisms maintained by WWU. I represent and warrant this is my original work, and does not infringe or violate any rights of others. I warrant that I have obtained written permissions from the owner of any third party copyrighted material included in these files. 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Adam Harrison Smith May 26, 2019 Wandering Between Worlds: The Huxleyan Undercurrents in Human Psychology A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of Western Washington University In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts by Adam Harrison Smith May, 2019 Abstract This thesis explores the early history of psychology, from the late nineteenth century to the 1960s, and the life and ideas of public intellectual Aldous Huxley (1894-1963). I argue that, in his role as an interdisciplinary outside observer, Huxley framed a new humanistic approach for psychology decades before the Humanistic movement emerged as a legitimate disciplinary approach in the 1950s and 1960s. By focusing on Huxley’s considerable body of non-fiction relating to psychology, including his many books of essays, critiques, articles, letters, and lecture transcripts, as well as the formative contributions of major psychological theorists, this thesis demonstrates how ideas from diverse fields influenced the evolution of a discipline and how Huxley was an integral part of that mixing process. In doing so, this thesis challenges the accepted historical origins of the Humanistic psychology movement while introducing an original take on Aldous Huxley’s historical significance. Finally, this thesis illustrates the value of viable relationships between science and the humanities; shows the power and utility of ideas once disentangled from dogmatic systems; indicates how dynamic social trends determine which ideas, or sets of ideas, will take root and flourish; and lastly, how ideological momentum eventually dissipates, opening doors for new paradigms to emerge. iv Acknowledgements The idea for this thesis originated from a section of a historiography on spiritual trends of the 1960s counterculture that I wrote for professor Hunter Price’s “Topics in American Religious History” class during my first year as a graduate student. My premise and arguments went through several iterations before arriving at this final product. But the final product would not have been possible without the feedback, suggestions, and vast knowledge of my committee members. First and foremost, I owe a big thanks to my thesis chair, Jennifer Seltz, for agreeing to lead this committee and for continuing to ask the question: Why should historians care about my thesis? Professor Seltz never once allowed me to slip out of that important responsibility and I am confident that my abilities as both a writer and researcher improved because of it. For this, I am extremely grateful. Ample thanks is also due to psychology professor Mike Mana for agreeing to be a part of this project. As the only committee member from outside the history department, professor Mana’s expertise was especially crucial in the early stages as his suggestions pointed my research efforts in the right directions. Hunter Price also deserves a great deal of gratitude. Besides the fact that it was his course that inspired this project, his ongoing support, approachability, and openness truly allowed it to take shape. Lastly, but most of all, I’d like to thank my family and friends for their ongoing support of my academic ventures. v Table of Contents Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………iv Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………………..v Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………….. 1 Chapter I: Impressions………………………………………………………………………… 19 Chapter II: Theories…………………………………………………………………………….48 Chapter III: Methods………………………………………………………………………….. 99 Chapter IV: Manifestations…………………………………………………………………….129 Conclusion.……………………………………………………………………………………..151 Works Cited…………………………………………………………………………………….155 vi Introduction The sun’s afterglow gracefully faded to twilight along the California coast—it was the spring of 1960. A man driving southbound along the Cabrillo Highway caught a glimpse of those dying golden rays that, for a flickering moment, reflected a coral luster upon the ocean’s dark horizon. The peaceful gloaming seemed to counterbalance a dawning enthusiasm radiating within his mind. He rolled down the window and drew a lungful of cool, salty air. Wiping his glasses on his shirt he thought to himself: so this is inspiration. Indeed, his imagination was flowing with possibilities, his sense of enterprise awakened: earlier that day he had attended Aldous Huxley’s “Latent Human Potentialities” lecture at U.C. San Francisco; now he was itching to return to Big Sur and tell his friend all about it.1 The driver’s name was Dick Price, his friend was Michael Murphy, and within two years the Stanford grads cofounded the Esalen Institute, an educational retreat and new-wave psychology center with a mission statement based on the two-part message of Huxley’s lecture: First, that vast human potentialities—such as creativity, insight, and inspiration—lay dormant within the oceanic expanse of the human unconscious. And secondly, by practicing mind-body techniques designed to expand awareness and strengthen perceptions, individuals can condition themselves to tap these potentialities.2 In short, inspired by Huxley, the founders of Esalen built a center for the realization of human potential. “Latent Human Potentialities” was the most popular of nearly twenty lectures Huxley had 1 Jeffrey Kripal, Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007), 85. 2 Ibid., 86. prepared in the late-1950s. Appearing at schools and institutions such as Harvard, U.C. Berkeley, the Menninger Foundation, and even the Los Alamos nuclear facility, Huxley’s speeches were so popular that he was often joined on stage by hundreds of spectators who had arrived too late to secure a seat.3 When M.I.T. contracted his services for a semester by offering a generous cash advance and the prestigious title of “Carnegie Visiting Professor,” his weekly talks “jammed traffic all across the Charles River into Boston and extra police were called out to cope on Wednesday nights.”4 Huxley spoke about a variety of humanistic themes, but one subject, human psychology, vastly outweighed the rest, accounting for roughly 40% of his total material.5 His thoughts about the human mind resonated with the crowds in the early 1960s, not because he had developed any sexy new material, but because his old bag of insights had finally aligned with an impending cultural zeitgeist. Truth be told, Huxley’s ideas on psychology were not always so popular—over the last three decades they were often dismissed and labeled eccentric—but he was aware of the premature arrival of his thought; in a 1931 interview he admitted, “I believe that mankind is working towards some definitive and comprehensive outlook on the world, and I regard my work as contributing towards that.”6 But what exactly was this evolving outlook? In 1935, a prophetic Harvard professor suggested, “the salient difference” between Huxley’s mode of thinking and his contemporaries “is found in Mr. 3 Sybille Bedford, Aldous Huxley: A Biography (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1973), 649. 4 Ibid. 5 All lectures are compiled in Aldous Huxley, The Human Situation: Lectures at Santa Barbara, 1959, ed. Piero Ferrucci (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1977) 6 J.W.N. Sullivan,