Unsettled Minds Psychology and the American Search for Spiritual Assurance, 1830-194°

CHRISTOPHE R G. WHITE

Q3 ForClay alld Carole Wlt ilr alld ill //Irmor!! of Arlhur IlndNl4ra lOllS olC.lifornil Press,one of the most diStingui shed ~I n the UnitedStares. enri ch~ s lives aro und the Idwnci nS Khol.rship in the humanities, social sciences, ..-KienCtS. I~ .clivilies are supported by the UC Pres s IIIdbyphilanrhropic conrribut ions from individuals ...... For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu, Contents

List of l/Iuslrations ;, Acknowledgments " Introduction ,

't , Minds Intensely Unsettled ' ) a. Fragments of Truth ).

). Nervous Energies 75 ,. Neuromuscular Christians ", ,. "A Multitude of Superstitions andCrudities" ')4 ,,8 6. Suggestive Explanations ,,. Epilogue: Intensely Unsettled-Again

Notes ") Index ... Illustrations

1. Henry Ward Beecher and Lyman Beecher, circa '1845-60 • 2. Mapp ing splti tual and religious capacities on the head " J. Seei ng secret inn er th ings on the outer self » 4. An drew Jackson Davis's map of the spiri tual self 5. Experimentally probing the senses and the soul " 6. Faith lowers the heart rate "88 7. " Faith Generators and Fear Destroyers" 8, 8. Puck cartoon lampooning America's athleticobsessions u, 9- The ergog raph measured muscular work and fatigue

1.0. Theodore Roosevelt illustrating how neuromuscular control facilitates the proper expression of emotions ", n . "Moral and spiritual vivisection"; Starbuck's first conversion survey ')9 12. The Harvard Divinity School class of 1895 ,,0 1-). The neurology of revival and self-control ,,8 14. Testing suggestibility with electr ic shock '15. Pamphlet promoting scientific ways of Ihinking about '" religious ccnvereon 16. M.pping the_ of sol_ '7 P10tnng 'mob- ~ 18. Advenbcment forHoward Hisginf.lecture "Among the Spirits" 1:9. E.L. House'slecturt' "The Psychology of Rehgion"

20. Applying spiritual forces to the body ox XII I Ackn(IwltJSmrllB Introduction .od""",,,Iofyio, ,"","'y and h" d woek. David H, lI in particular helped .a.pe the book III almost every stage along the way. I.bo than k the communIty of students and scholars at Qumcy Hou se, .,hom Tracy and I lived for seven years while in graduate school, We tlO U~ of conviviality, intellecl\lal stimulation, and [not least)

"""litdthere,ng helpwe. rt' research librarians and stude nt assistants who I racked ~ sources. gave advice, and in other ways helped prepare book- I thank librarians from the followin g archives and libraries: the """"""_H.",,nl ",oolog,,,,1 Lib"'y, ,10, c l" k Univ",i'y Archives, tue ConB"S'"on.' Lib",y . ndM,h;v" (BMWn, Mass.]. ,10,Epi"op.1 Diocese A.a.',. ("""on, M",.j, H" v" d Un;v,,""y A"loiv", Houglo' on Library, the Oberlin college Archives, the Ohio Historical Society, the Springfield Whath is the fate of young people wh Coll~ Archives, Widener Library, the University of Southern California 'hemselves exhausted or bewildered\"y earnestly <0 believe but find t ese unsettled young believers y their parents' religions] Can ArchiveS, the Yale University Archives, the Yale Divinity School Archives 'hildha:;~m~'ll y and Special CollcCi ions, and the University of Iowa Special Collections. A ,;g or useful from ,10", recover somethi ng comfort- ~rch a together on older theologies se k" all s? Can those who have given u ,.....bet of assistantS did difficult detective work and even less ng taSks without complaint-Jeannie Alexander, Scott Hodgman, Fmd new ways of achieving relig'O,u: no: to reform but obliterate thel: what.raw w materialsmater! can wholl new ~ c..ertamty or assurancezHow? QUI of' LoJtottO. Kat Milby. Holly Phillips, Ari Stern, and Trig Thront veit. ~f my edItOrs at the University of California Press were Issues such as the meaning th views on Issuesof crucial importance pofeHi0n8 and patient. I am g rateful especially for Reed ties of human nature, and the problmoral life, the nature and possibili: o.ped? This book examines these :m. so unsolvable, of death, be devel­ 0JI80ifI8 enthusiesmL for the project, Kaficia Pivirorr o's help in 1Jv~s.of nineteenth- and twentLeth~e~:~ons by t~rning to the religious ,.orill8 this book toWard product ion , a nd Jacqueli ne Voli n's incredible rellglous traditions and turned I . ry ~mencans who rejected older v IttfJItiO" to det ail as publicati on deadli nes neared. It is a privil ege to pub­ formulate new ideas about the se~/cledntlfl c psychologies to help them lith thlf book with the University of Ca lifornia Press. rual growth. It begins with the ani new pracnces concerning spin- nin t 10 un serr ed reflect ' f My greatest personal debt s a re to fam ily and friends, who over the e cent -century Christians wh f Ions 0 a group of early- mnforced my flagging en ergi es and always supported my work. All 10 their parents' evangelical Cal .a. ound themselves unable to conform of self-doubt and anxious r I' . us refle Chrisnans In this situation full Whites and Bagleysand our m any friends-the Ahdiehs. Avanes­ .. e IglOUs re leetions I. J(janis, Sharifis, and Ya ma r tinos in particular-have sup­ ~USPIClOns outward, pronouncin thei ,eventua lyredirected their WIY through. Collea gues at Georgia State University's irranonal, or in other way' d f g . err natal evangelicalism unhealthy older tradiItions propelled heem ecnve.i Qu ickly. the erri intense- dislike for' especially o ur cha ir, Tim Renick. lIII;ioo" Studies and 10 I ... t emm oovel di - ~r to support m e m ake t ime available for t eo ogica! reformulat ions d dati rrecnons, fueling a range of and of th an emen anon s and es e seIf and spirit ual growth I f II 10' ' peCla' IIy new views MyfsDuty, andespecially my wife, Tracy, will never tion d . 0 ow t elf chang ino . .. Jd ,;;~n ~ew foemul"'on' carefully. -e-e "m_,..pira- my grantude; she has be,n unfailingly support;" of e liberal believers were aided in hei . - myoademiccareer more generally, even when bo,h rook three principal ways b hi. t err sptrll ual innovations in for mapping and contr Y, PSycho ogical sciences and their new methods ~=~;oth,l .bout mental and nervous functioning, di fferent psychologies resu lt was unexpec.te.d, strangely ironic, or the end liberal, fashion new guidelines concern ing: spiritual health, over­ The gro up of religious Americans in which I am interested d . cnce Ior new m h f .. turne tOSCI­ GIn'll em. .nd resisting modem temptations. In short, religious liberals .. _ etap ors or spmt and spiritual growth. Essentially roman- ncs, religious that rve f .....tdrentific psychologies to develop d earer ways of th inki ng abou t the self 5 . hliberals believed nature was , I' ~ WI',h SpJrlIUa I orccs oence was t e way to probe carefully these forces and the eternal truths and betu'r methods for developing its spiritual capacities. The powerful they reflected. For example, in the case of phrenology, the first scientific newdiscoutses they produced changed how twentiet h- cent u ry Americans psychology, sciencehelped liberals establish an alternative mental philoso­ thought.bout healthy and unhealthy forms of religion , fai th and healing, phy, one anchored no~ i~ dogmatic truths about depravitybut in the struggle p:ndet', irrationality, and race. ~o un cover .'~ ter~al divine-human correspondences that could be discerned 1he stories I tell in this book present alternat ives to conventi on3 l narra­ In the physl.ologlcal self. When phrenologistslooked at human nature, they Pouttdence, religion, and therapeutic cult ure in the United States. saw not a sinfulness to be disciplined but a set of capaci ties-for "venera­ AIInrivef on science and religion tended to treat these en tities t ~ o n " a n~ morali ty, for example-to be developed and expressed. Religious euences always in conflict with one another. Historians liberals m general were certain that scientific reflection on nature would flict'W narratives recalled clas hes betwee n ne w scten­ yield powerful religious insights. ' Theology cannot remain content with aid reIisiouJ doctrines, examined acrimonious debates repeating the old phrases for Iaith," one liberal proclaimed,"when science ...... udsb:ptks, and chronicled how reli gion wa s displa ced, offers a richer naturallanguage for the expressionof spiritual truth."These ~ byIncreasingly powerful publicly fu nded sci­ new perspectives often were expanded into more comprehensive "natural styles" that reoriented how liberals thought about mind, body, and spiri­ ~~~~::: 11Iough conflicts, sharply drawn debates, a nd ex treme tu alit y. Many embraced natural personal styles thai incorporated a range 'lII both tides) continue to captu re scholarly and popula r atte nti on, of things- freer modes of emotional expression, unaffected spontaneity ...... tItOU recently have wondered if the rheto ric o f co nflict and creativity, and interest in outdoor or casual forms of ....o rship. That this fie and religious leaders has d istracted us from the natura] style contrasted with older norms of decor um and restraint is illus­ use to negotiate their various commitments. Most trated well in twa photographs, taken between 1845 and 1860, of Lyman and live with ambiguity. In this book I am Beecher and his progressive son, Henry Ward (figure 1). The natural style of intolerant extremists than I am in the that Henry cultivated liberated him from both the artificial con5lf1ints of ~=~:, employ. I am interested in effOtts Calvinism and rheunnatural, urban environment he inhabited. • methodt,. incorporate its promises Other religious liberals borrowed thenatural for similar purp05C5. utln8 nature and its study to identify the unhygienic orvitiatingaspects ofmodem tlOI\tfOIns meanings. In the end I ~fying ~ I8e IUCXeStful ways believers used life and find alrcrnalive mental and spiritual Religious "'r,I. generally) to produce new forms of fa manyCltet, believers used psychology n .. I 'ntroductio power of Ch ' Introduction I 5 nsuamry as well F II argued that h~era l relig ious mlss~: as I t~ e s e reasons, commentato rs have the margmabz3tion of rhcolog I~ \ to tl,le secularizallon of religion. the assumption (In American CU~t puh ill: discourse, and the decline of cared liberals m another de l ure) t at God exists Others have rmpli- stud h c me narra tive mer d 1 u y, I I.' transformation of Ch e rrecr y relevant to this R 1 nsnan salvario " eccnt y, evangelical histcna n Into self-realization n) the I'mk Lbetween_ religious I bns InI part icular havc successfuIly promoted or an other form of dccli w' h'~ la s (~s pecla[Jy liberal Protestants) and one ne. I e It rs uupos bl h ItS of these decline narrat h SI I.' ere to evaluat e th e mer- rves, t ere Is no , . h attention away from I b I 1 uesnon t at they have turned I era re 1810US sub d h am not the first to COIll I h h jeers an t err spiruual lives 4 I piam r at t e scholarsh h , . ecome "dark with meta I f ' Ip on lese bchevers has b p tors 0 spirit ual decay" d h 1b lions, beliefs, and endunn I an t at I cral asplra- A Hna Iword needs to be~ r~ 18~ OUS ch,n1ceptlons have been obscured.s al a OUIt e nerarure on TKy h I 1 an t erapcunc cult ure 10 A I' r - c 0 ogy, re IglOn, h d h f menca, a rrerat ure that also ha ad d Figure 1, Fro m older forms of restraint 10 newer, natura l styles. Henr y Ward snare 0 decline narratives and nosral i I s pr uce ItS including T.]. Jackson Leers ha g d amentanons. Several historians, Beecher (lefl) and Lyman Beecher, circa 1845- 60. The image of Henry Ward Be«ht-r i' from the YaleCollection of American Literature, Heinecke Rare Book m the early tw entieth cen;ur;::~~~~ ::~:::~::~0:consu1mer cUlrlure unde rstand ch or un ess we ust and Manu script Library, call no. Za 5178 869A; th e image of Ly man Beecher u anges In America n religious cultures, and es eciall th Iffrom rhe Librar y of Congress, Prints an d photographs Division, call no. LC- shift from a Protestant ethos of salvation th rough self demaito a t~era~ ../ \JSZ6>·,09964 peuuc ethos streSsing self realization In this world, which was focused on psychic and physical health " The most ambitious effort to document ~el t:rn ~o the therapeutic In American Christian cultures was E. Brooks I6eaIt such as Luther Gulick and Josiah Strong called fo r recu pe rative play 01 ield 5 book on pastoral care, a dehninve book that examined Prates- ,J .-ural environments and a new strenuosit y that might enhance neuro­ rant clerics ~ho borro wed psychological insights as they reconceptuahzed ""-rmatS and. by extension, nervous and spirit ua l health. O the r psy­ ways of cun ng and edifying fellow believers Holifield's IS a complicated an d nuanced book, but it, too, mes to persuade readers that liberal believ­ dullplly informed believers developed normative d iscourses of religious ers were .o~e rl y eager to reduce theological categories to psychological ..,.nmoe byidmtifying haw all human beings naturall y develop th rough ones . Holifield also remonstrates agains t liberals who were 100 willing 10 litiecyde. Religious systems that artificially stim u late d or retatded these exc~ an~ e older styles of salvation for a newer cultu re of solipsism and self­ rea l l za tl ~ n. ~5~,.~"",~~et were seen as unhealthy and irrational. These were some Holifield and historians with similar preoccupations may have .. rdigious liberals used conceptions of the na tural to develop tIMt b.een laking cues from the wider critical environ ment, an environment 2 tIlta:Jurses ofsp.arit and spiritual development. tinged with consternation about psychological discourses that seemed to ~ believen reflected on nature (o r its st u dy ) to under stand cann ibalize all other sy mbol systems, Philip Rreff was not the first to point to this problem, but his rrenchanr Triumph of the Thera peutic (1#) set ..... diYine opuated in the world and the self, later observers ral the tone for Ameri cans increasingly an xious that psychology, and specifi­ ii~~P'~llJ«~"~to cally Freudianism, usurped our sense of rhe transcendent and forced us differentpointedformsto differentof religiOUSliberaldeclinedeficienciesor cu h u. have By to exchange meaningful religious comm itment s that mculcered rnponsi­ it revelation and nature, or too willing to inter­ bility for therapeutic ones ,hat encouraged indiVidualism and the ,dfim msaentificidioms, or tOO adept at translating the~­ i if d their J'lIYChological ones, these believerS sacn Ice. I . stitUtLona MrrJil8e and, the argument goes, th e iI1 6 I Int roduction . . f en conservative, continue but even hi ' /utrodlUlion I 7 pursuit of gain. Several scholars and crHICS, 0 t bli ted more Ira ~ ere am mrerested m . I ' di urses have 0 tre ra to control and measure it. am y rn lechniquesthat believers developed to lame nt the fact that psychologicaI lsco ·b·l· d ry and rcsponsl I Ity'. f In summing up this book's . ditional re igious or civic t radttions 0 u . I din especi II I . . I ks however, rrtc u I g CI a y religion, and American cu lt u r:e lt,onsl~ i P to other workon psychology A couple of more recent h.Istond ca .wor, ., . TranCiS an d V··/SIOIlS, have th ~ counterseculari zati" n narrallVe.' wou say' that book represents a• Ann Taves's brilliant and WI e-rangtng I s, .ch I . . .BT s treated psyc 0 og)' as an truer- enlightenme nt discourses min ".a ; arratlve that namines not how opened upotherpossibiImes. ecauee ave bl b h - I e was better a e to pro c ow how they abetted reltgtousness m u or obliterated religious belief but pmivt' syst...m that changed over nrne, s I n h ' tn unexpected I hoIogical and religious glosses of apparently involuntary acts (such as at appre, en sion about psych I . I h ways. rs staning point is ~ .nd fies) weresituated in specific historical cont~x t s . ~ s ych ol ogy in that religion and psycholo 0 og1C~ I es.emony but a dawmng awareness ished together. To me rh gy, es~cla ly In the twentieth century Flour- Tawt:" ytis is not . hegemon ic system but Il changIng dlsc? u rse that, ' e ccnsprc cous fe r f . lUI l t us the featu re that mu t be I' a ure 0 modern America and libother hum.n discou rses, orde rs and accountS for human life. Taves's h , S ~palnd ' I . as to niehmg American r 1-' ffl ec, IS not re igsous decline but an innowtIon was not in interpreting psychology as a full y hi st orical phe­ e tgrcus e orescence fCl tressed by psychologicaland I' an e norescence often but- nom..-no ; th is is a commonplace in the histor y and philosophy of science. . h popu ar psychological W n c ann t at America es . II h ncnons. auld anyone Her rt'a l contribution was in using thi s idea 10 u nderstand how compet­ ,_I ' peaa y w en compared h IS particularly or even notabl . I" to ot er Western nations ing discou rses, psyc hological and religiouS, acro unted for people's ecstat ic " y Irre IglOUS1 I ' . ' not Christian decline but h I" . sn t It more urgent to probe experiences during different periods in America n h isto ry. My book builds ow re sgrousness has g b forms, changed over time a di _J rown, ursr out of older on Taves's work in particular, for I tOO am interested in reli g ious and psy­ .. n mcorpora tec ne I I questions we must und ..w e ements Toanswer these chological glosses on ex perience. But the issues [ deal wi th, and my ar g u­ by relig ious liberals ov;;:t:::tbetter the spirituality first cobbled together JIItRl', are different. My focu s is less on the h istory of int er pretations of world religious teachings andury a~o-an amalgam ofChristlan themes, ecJtIrk n periences than it is on the ways reli gious believe rs tried to use self-cultu h .' popu ar psychological glosses on self and ~:~~C~s ~ s~ i~tual ~ ~=::;;':IJld:~psye~ hoJogy in particular, to im prove their religious positions tian and " powerful tradition pulsing through Chris- ns nen ccmmurunes. a tradition we need 10 I J« mort' dearly the self and its religious possibilities? I relate 10 other currents in American history Th-s _ h 1 ana yze and makes my analY'is differ ent from Taves's in several additional in this book. . I IS W at attempt to do mostlInportanr of which is that it is less focused on the uncon­ and how peopJe have reflected on that part of the self. This is the d1R partIy because I am less inte rested in peo ple's explanat ion s of ecstatic The most enthusiastic borrowers of psychological notions ....ere liberal PrOI­ csper-.ences and partlybecause I am cu rious about o the r mediating catego­ ~stants, post-Protestant metaphysical believers, and a collectionof spiritual­ ries, including free will (chapters 2 and 4), n ervous e nergies (chapter 3), IS t~, men tal healers, theosophists, deists, and others on the religious left. In .....conoept ofthe "mind" itself. Believers used each o f these categories, this book I cast a.ll of them into a single calegory-rtliS;ous liberals-even sc ~o l ars to resist fully physiological accounts of the se lf. A final reason thoug h III the past have tried to sort them OUI. Some haveattempted to categorize them by their levels of Christian commitment. Henry Van iii~.,:the~u:n

maThnagede sixthandandovercome. final chapter takes a last look at the ambiguities of psy- chologica l perspectives on faith by turning to a single. c ~: e, to how, in the early decades of th e twenti eth century, human suggesnhliity was measured by S("ienti' ts and developed into faith therapies by liberal believers. There In 1841, at a Congregational church near G 'I are two parts to rhis chapter. The first an alyzes how believers and scien­ regre llable incident occurred Al t h ranvifle, Massachuseus, a tiItJ used personality inventories and experimental tests to measure lev­ named Nelson Sizer said he c ec urer.t en tounng New England, I man be blindfolded whohh oudld see mto people's heans_ He o(fel'f:d to eft of suggestibility. Individuals involved in this process were fashioning . • Ice was, an tWO men stepped forward as volunteers. • debunking discourse, a way of redesc rih ing religiOUS experiences (and Sizer touched th.eirbodles.and.heads, running his hands through their hair human susceptibility to them) as the consequences of biological o r ps ycho­ and around their ears, alighting on particular locations the s· .,,--­ of which was known I , h' Th " agntuuu...", logiCiI forces. Th e second part of the chapter, however, shows how psycho­ on } to tm. e congregation wailed silently. When logicalcategories like suggestion were difficult to control and how religious done,"he announced thath the first man was "a harmorncus,'-G care],.. u I,upng hI man, an assessment t at appeared to pleasethe congregation 8U1 the case figures in this situa tion, as in others, borrowed these categories and used of the second man was more complicated. At first Sizer used terms such as them to their advantage. Many religious liberals developed techniques for tal~ll~ and self-reliance to.describe the man, burquickly his tone changed. building sugge'5tibility in th e self. Others developed el aborate systems of ThIS :>e c ~nd man ~howed s ~ gn s. o f prideand selfishness. andSizer thought he ~ and affirmations that, when administered over t ime, built up seemed tOO low In ConSCientiousness to beJUSt and honest in hisdealings, .-sitMties,ln the end, this was a nother situation in which reli­ and tOO large in Secretiveness to be open. frank and tru tnful.~ That mo­ tdentificnotions to reorganize a nd rebui ld spiritual sen - elation st unned Ihe congregation-for everyoneknew that thai both men sbed ~ere "well related by blood and maniage. and had unWemi npa­ -Vithan epilogue that examines how scient ific psy­ nons." Sizer noticedpeopleshiftins in their seatland loakiDs"··'" tftddiYersified in the twentieth cent u ry. I also look at and at me with round eyes." He triedtoexpWn. ·Bywbatilknowa" .... men Isuppose you all think I h l~ made l mistake in ~~~:=: fragmentation encouraged an efflorescence of new tbelutonr-lflftY­ else had made the examination, and saidthe samethings I haw... • ofUlJng psychological notions to think about t he self and sboWd it must be a mistake, but l rcld you when you pul on the blind I wouW gtve ...... - ..ace. my true opinions hitor miss.Those are the indications, and Ishouldsaytbe same thi ng if 1were to meet the same form of head anywhere: He had IIid his peace, but he left the place full of Ydnt». "1regrettrd the ~ as it placed me andmy subject in an unpleuant 1isht-" Though Size' left Granvillo ~ by ...... P-­ ...... W-...... vi!II.....d.IiII.O!V'~.". 74 I Fragments o/ Trut/l Nervous Energies...... d.""lop, 0 ' . mploy ,h" e " a;" Ior ,he good of rhe ;nd;v;dual ;n 3 _,hey are found, .nd Ior t he welf" e of ,he k;ngdom of God."" Wrinns in the Bapti st Quarterly Rev iew, C. L. Her rick drew on some ,-.lnaiB .. '0 .pO'ul'" about how ,h. new p,yehology m;ght help 4JIriII!la'ftS developh the- proper thought pat ter ns and habits. Borrowtn ~"'llan8ua8e (hom lame>, p,obably), j-Ierrick "gued that bot~ ....,..al ..n"ti and ;meenal ;de" we" ,he ";mmediate parents f o", not . 0 voluntaeY ",,: and·that the bg"at'" I a" entionhe " ,houldI be pa;d JUSt eo t e " tee env"onmen, ut a '0 10 t e men" p;tru,,' whkh fI naI CtUtes ,hrough the m;nd." The gwoved pat" rn, in the m;nd ,hOI ehese pi It createdh,ould.'" ,;l y be ,can' formed tnro "tion" "You IoU" chc n.sht he image of a "nful pk "ure or vtoleru act only" yom ,o",,,nt haza " for a "specific evil acr [im agined}, or one like it, may suddenly spn rd, xistence ~ Except in the m inds of the m . f h . d d d f f mg our response sel f never came ' OS! ~ale rialistic scientists ofthe mirror 0 t e min as a rea act 0 your own present ext we have "en J" mto """1'''. Foe eve , a fullysumulus- So the "concepts of our mu,;ng hou,"," the "vi,;on' of wavward fan' '" freed oms, u~m,~:~,:~te~'It theself,I", ;nm,~:~:,~I:' , including-as -"not "phantoms of a harmless dream but the real actors in 0 y, --lIJ " h d ur Own able states that came andhoices, . kl transcendent eI ements aimly d perceived ...... __• future. HoW soul we watc h and gu"d these inner "" 01 rhe self had I qurc Y evaporated Th " n unpredict- ofthe soul'l" enues phy,;ologkal ,,:o~~;: o~,;::ed, I;u, interest " the:: ';::;~; :~; p~" European end Am . se were tested and m d w en that are best kno ",,,\un;v,,,;t;,,. Th, ;nmurabt' e cpereucnal tn Hall and James represent tWO different HajeclOries among ps cholo­ where' and . wn, sue as the unconscious h vo .: pam of the self ,"lru,~ onl m any case, the unconscious b,;am: co analyzed else· 100" gistS who also were int eeested in religion. Hall was of a de;" who . y In the early decadesof th popular In American d.lighted in " ploting " perimen"lly the endlessly complicated andbeau­ 3t1ng categories represented the. e t~entieth century. Other medio tiful aerongements of nature and hum' n nature designed by the Cr"wr. efspeciall , nervous energies Thillscrutab c. selfmuch earlier, indudin • erenr y . esc were imagi d d'ff ~ But as Hall d.veloped this system and reposed ,erenely in the midst of ages, and though scm . . d me I erently in dil ' ph . I . e mnste that hi . • If. James Wiggled uncomfortably in its itonclad spaces. To him, thiswas ySIO ogical. its association withth d t IS category too was fully universe" that obliterated creativity and freedom. meant that it was identi fied . he ,eepesl,mostvitalparrsofthestH --.-4>Jock N"'" po h W it universal ...... thai differences on these m, tt ers should no' distract us from tbe . wen.t or u ndergirded life, faith . scmenmes m,raphy';

]6 / Nervous Energies in the self, an cquilibriu.m that had to be maintained for good health . I S, I e earl , wonder ing precisely how nerves earned messages through the body "There exi sts a mutual Influe nce between celestial bodie h h ani~ated • n.d ~ used muscles to contract. Agents considered responsible for trans­ and .bod.jes," .he pointed out, an influence operating because mntln~ m~f'"gdes in the nervous system varied, ranging from "animal of a - fl Uid whic h IS universally widespread and pervasive In a manner which allows for no void. subtly permits no comparison, and is of a $plnrs. or Ul] s,lOtH according he Greeks, to oscillations of the et her natu re wh ich is susceptible to receive, propagate. and communicate exIpIosrons,d b- I or_.e ecn-icei powers. Wher1 d!rscovere d as a property of physi-• all ca an 10 ogrceilife, electricity was tho h r bId impressions of movement." His was an imperialistic project, subsuming flu id, and man thinkers d . ug 10 as a su t e an pervasive rifled rhts fI id: _h unng the Enli ghtenment lind afterward idee- all operati ons of mind and body in to one system-his own. "There is," I. Ul WI! nervous function. Toward the end of the . h ' he said, "only one illness and one healing. " When applied 10 the body, century In particular. 1I number of d ". CIS tecnth magn etiC powers and anificinl electrici ty might help, but their effectS eleenergy"_ e Individual had a ridicUled such fancif ul noti ons, doctors toe were keenly inter­ OS I e maten lu d energ y In a ~ .,eel in human vital fo r~5 . They tOO ten ded to Judge the health of an most I not use rhr fda eep In the , Ir str ata of d d 5 un of e e He w _nl,m by it. levels of n" vou' energy. Though no' rhe [irst ' 0 "It habitually use only a II nergy, certain that h as sure that gist aboUtnervo us forces or thei r chronic depletion, the New York neurolo sess and whtch they nah part of the powers wh .h lrh IS words. "men was nervous dlsord~lgf I use under appropnare ," d ey actually pes- ~rge Beard (18)9-188) made these mailers into a topic of Amer ican ..r, angue d on mons." Th national debale. The son of a Congregational minister, Beard suffered a energies were connee d ,an mental collaps Be e result • youngm. [rom d,p",.ing religious and vo,,"o",' un certatnnes th s economy of forces' te h to both mind and body~' cause nervous n mind "When I rk t e self that involved ' t ere was a complex Jed precisely 10 thehkin ds of nervOUS ailmenth s he lat er saw with alarmat- spea of huma nerves, muscles d h ing: frequ ency in oe cr Americans. (Thot is tWO brothers had joume d therefore unde rsta nd th n energizing 10 generalsom~ th , an I I' doWn exp"'"d pa,h" bo,h tnro rhe minimy, made him feel worse, .nJ ~ inn er, some muscular s:t sum-roral of activities, 0: reade; must . remy chlSdted himself in his jou rnal for religious indifference But app' I' whose waxm d ' me ernono nal, some mo I rer an some Outer and inner. waning In himself he IS at all ra , some spiritual, of he Iud other tastes- for instance, for tobacco and cha mpagne- th at also er, muscular d .. nrnes so well w " . L ~_' htm In uncharted dtrecnons-l After nervous recovery end di energies were both h an spmtual-m James' a are ,...,.u.d~ at YaIe, Bear d turn ed with zeal to writing popular booksmef t- fort h from body to ~P i~::c~~::~ :;taphyslcal. They :l:;~ ' b::~v~~~ _ suffering from p.y,holog" .I .ilm, n" . Hi, diagnosis of the A 0' nervous ene rgy levels at "an a ommended different ways to kee ",n conattng the old phrases f f · - eology in the pews and ~OaXl ng others, rea.dy or not, into new formulations. An Though Smyth andO! a forthe expre-ssion orf al.th when sci­ the self less with ner her Christian romanticsidem·'fOd ' hP lrltual truth . " ~ succes ses he had In these m ntte rs eVIdentl y had less to do with his rh t " Y ~_vousene ncrano n . . le t ev t I .b,li",,-h" "voice is no' good," on' ebeerver noted. "hi. enu '0".',1 thei r approach was~ sumIar to trgresh and more with emene. ns lheloei a pans of was an econom f . I' approaches usedb ' r I' ogre of or articulation not very clear, his bodily movement somewhat awk II y o forces m the self th h y other liberals The .n0' found it to beml centuryh 'me asured the speed of nerve conduction and' IroaeoIth "",sciou.ness in ,he deep th ings of God, vib" dng wi,h man" the twentiethffiUc slower than electr icity flOWing through a wire (In in/1utn«S, and tremulous wi,h the Light in which its lif, bl o,,,,m' resulted fcent ury ' scientists demonstrated th at nerve conduction. ""...... f m rational· nerve b a physicochemi .caI process, th transfer of ions across the Sdentilic psychologistS, he thought, were turOing ro , " m rom e ~, ~::w.:- em rane.) In any case, though the precise m~hod s of nerve of mental capacities to glimpses 0 f ·snsomeessatthin' '0" Vlt~hbrauns"" sCIO U ut, something "at work beneath con ' .-A and ~ "b h' h Vie are shsp"" our thInking," a supernatural force Yw IC notion m dramatic f h NervollS Energ;I'S I conduction remain ed mysterious, most be lieved that basic srimulus­ as lonmh I " w IC essentially Salldt hal ou .I S a ready dirscussed ~ponse palterns underg irded all our se nsorimotor act iviries, from the acnonh hs and how w r lOner health emotions theory co~np lex. I' use th ese IS a prod f • iNrnpJest to th e most Reflex a.eriO," remained the ke y category. nervous lives And h acnons to <:00 dUCt 0 our outer Asl have already described, reflex action Included every th ing from t h w en James I k d r male or sr at revea mg slgn s a11 00 I' carefull rengthen our ,,;, n ul~' I around hi h d YInto I'll d en,",,,om,n,,1 a nd I'.' ,ff",nl (Incoming) scnsation 10 Ih: Amencans were b m, e ISCOver di Sau renee and ecorrung ne I e a arrrun ld COItillUmmllUOl1 of th at Im pulse In an efferent, muscular di scharge. movements, and gest h rvous y unhealth g eVI ence that fJealust' this was the basic unit of the self, and because all nervous . k ures, e said y. Amenca an Jer mes s and breath] ' were <:ha racte,- db n manners, leY .... p"'''; ~ ir was ,"ud,1 n0110 di"upllh", incoming and OUl':-"· d " essnes d Ill' y " ch ~dmg Ame rica ns smiled f s an IntenSItya d ny over-tension (t.ln in fants and children, these circuits were developed as of the problems of rowned, and fidge red nervo: lago of expression." ~ .bour.. tried to talk, engaged in play, and developed their r~n our mner I 1 5 y. Was rhr h making us nervous d lVI'S, Was Ou ter b Sf e source ____ ••Ch-Id _.J" enUre , I' gy and usyness a d ~_r sys.tems. I fen encou nrer ec. stimuli' and naturally , xpressed over-contraction [01,h' even SplTi tually de I d n agrranon recofI'i , JOy. or some othe r appropnate e motion, Their nervous e muscles] b pete 1 "The I hon - I d d trans. poun s," he worned lib may e small when genera III tsfonl were t ere ore re_m orIce an strengthened,I But adults didI not d h I effects on the o v e r _ ;o n t ~; cltt;dl mpo rt a,n c e is I mm e n se::a :~ ;:d In foot- . a ngon alwaY' manage nervou S rmpu ses proper y, They worked teo I There was somerh I person s spJrllual lIfe "11 unr of Its mg a armmg abo II - monot_,onouS tasks,_ theyhdid d nidot eat or rest h ' properly, their lives were spe_ nervouh s agihtations W as Amenc' a rnenrUI IIa thesed twu chCS, frowns and cializcu and rounne- T cy I tOO muc Intellectual work and I I- _ d h I h hi 00 mil' muscular exerCise, an t ere ore' t ey atrop .led crucial nervou s c:apao', tles ~ : s -::s::: ~ d e ~~ :Yi: p to m.s asI unassa llab~e:v~dnen:::7:~a~y si~k? ~1any ., h parncu ar Geor B rnenca n mner They also experience se nsations and e motio ns th at they then repressed' d I e und~rlymg condition; neu r~st he ge Nl'ard, popularized a name for Adults needed to m anage more carefully the econ omy of nervo [- L If 10 us orces an elastic set of symptoms tncludi r na eurasthenia itself represented ., and mysteriou s nl'ura lgia ~ and f~ng e Xh~ us tl o n, obsessions, lrmabiluy In tne5e . ~&I_ranee_ .bout such issues a nd ab out nervous health in generaI was caused by the city's cecophonoc, an Beard thought the ( ondltlo~ ..... lead to' number of m ental a nd s piritual health catast rophes, Phy­ Nineteenth-century CIVilization ma~e sou;ds and unceasing agnauons. tI<...~ .nd psychoJogists responded wi t h a sense of u rge ncy, Because one constant factor without hi h h pe ple sick "Civilizanon IS the knew howthe reflex arc worked- because t hey k new, for exam Ie and under which in ItS moow 1<:£ t ere can be little or no nervousness - I- d P. m~s t , ern orm nervousness ., • that environment.I snrnu I an m otor responses always were close! arrse inevitably." Assuming lh . d' .d In Its many varieties with a finite amount of ne at In IVI uai human beingsopereied related-these exp"ts i",isted that individuals preserve the ,""gdly:r dVOUS energy d ' I <- eard warned that civil-_ d , an uSing e ectrical metaphors inner.nd outer processes. If you felt something, you needed to act on it, Bu h Ilallon emanded ' c arge" on our internal batteries I ktcs l nervous output than the " Ew ry tim resolve or a fine g low of feeling evaporates without bearing e a a list of causes of neura sth _ h : 0 mil Ing his case. Beard polmed to fruit is worse than a ch a nce lost," James once wrote, "It works . cma t at me1uded h· h practical flng sound or stressful conditi . ,everyt Ingt at produ<:ed a jar­ to . 5 potitiveJy to hinder future re solutio ns and cmotions from taking telegraph, long work hours I~:~-Industr,lal machinery,loud noises, the .. nonnal path of diocharge- There is no more conto~ E ut w let eseb I' s nergies I 8 B h e levers W 7 P'fC'hoJosk. pressures and othe r forms of nervous agitation led not to 1 religious doubt, they were JUS' eresut rethatdefi"cenr ner dw deep pl8 .ures of religious contentment but to an intractable type of problems, Using nerv as sure that Slro f. vOuSenergies fed . ousness an . ng alth d said explicitly tha t th" '. Xlely, and Worry Cure nervous relJPni' morbidit y. e SOvereign synonym I t oug 0 course he I.k h cure for wcrro ' ,ous y, James For our purposes the essential characteristic of a fatigued nerve IS ItS h h r ',leOlel'~1 ·1 IS rel " r as evangelical Calvi' r I ra s. knew th IglOUS aitl,~_ increasedirritability; it reacts to lessthan the normal stimulus, and hl.'nce msrn. stoked h at some rei' . more or less spasmodically. For example, in a state of fatigue one is more ing them. There were un ealthy weer h rgsons, such arguments h . es rat er h likely to start at small noises; furthermore, one's re!lction is likely to be prevented.. psychologicald.rsordenI atdreligion augmerned nervet an rSOOth· ill_d irected, uncertain, prolonged. Let the same cause produce its natural re 19LOns the world has ,an quashed won NTh us orces, effects in the workings of rhe intellect, the feelings, and the will, and we I na. IIy anri-worrylng Iever" seen,uB ddh'ISm and Ch·y. _.e twogreatesr shall have, among other things, an important group of morbid moral and . " re rgrons ~ I· . TlSllan llY a religioUS Stlltes. The following may be enumerated as examples: worr negations of desire ando:I~lv~ng..' one re IglOUS liberal w;; t ~-e,reve nessen­ detpondency, bad temper, emotionalism of various kinds, overse nsitlv:~ than the affirmations found in Buddhism If the .....lack of decision in small ma tters, morbid Introspection, hypercon .,1 doubting, restless, distrus 0 's g~dness in Christianit e w~s ap~a1ing eJltIOU , increased susceptibilit y to temptations of appetite and se: and confidem faith in C ~uL falthless, attitude to G~ beplace your enm His promises,:nd your w~ r ; i :sa :i l ~ ~a ;: his ",:ord. Acc;pt Ya:d I ~ ~;:~~ Nen'OU' or ps ychological irritability led to religious irritability; ps ch ~ ec~~: ~e~,_ p~omis:~IY d l sa p pe ~ r, Iogkal upset cont ribute d to reli giou s upset; generalized auxier red 0­ Christ himself had and all life will art . a t mgs whatever you ra many ehings to those with morbid re ligious states. He nry Wa rd Beecher, Kin g, Coe, and o~er I '~~ P receive. them,, you shall have tbern.vh y andAnd asIk for, if you beliecve t hat you en ls we re o bsessed w it h diag nosing and curing these morbid states a d autho r ities were scientific ones d I" . ast on the heelsof scrip tural R'lated forms of reli gi,' ou s "hyperconscientiousness," COl' reviewed'- cases" tressed by diagrams and tables p~ I:ie~m~ confident proclamations but­ r amty he had encou nte red In his resea rch- a woman "tortured by unce , . cure d worry and nervous fat"' yTOogjcal evidence showed that faith .5 to what she was created for"; a "very ne rvous and very religious" girl ta~qu ~ .lecturer William Sadl~~~:8 ~~ psychiatrist and popular Chau­ who "'became a me nt al an d physical wreck with the delusion in her head scientific studies showing ho f. h75 969), for one, could recapitulate h w att -states I d that she had,.committed t he unpardonable sin" (she had not]:' ' ycung eart rates, bette r circulation a d I be to more regular andslower HI ' n ower lood conttnually In a state of un rest and trouble, magnifying . ., per­ I' a so could draw on m pressure (see figure 6) ibi any years of obser .. " innocent things into si ns of t he deepest dye," Like King and other prescrr ing prayer and other I'. . vmg panents in his clinic . re IglOUS exerCIses d . ~tients ' ' ...... hbe-ral , Coe was co ncerned in particular abo ut adolescents, ress In nervous and h . I Iuncrl an notmg ""8- l p ysrca uncuons ReI - . I ,- ecumenical but in his vi E f . IglOUS llJt:rals tended to be a1reIdy were enduring a time of severe nervous strain. Thei r bodies , ", views a "aith Sadler outdid all of them UA d generators and fear destro)'ers" Mil. DUnd, were changin g; this itself taxed their sys tem s, And a young , . ny an all proced . nons, religious beliefs or rh I' ures, pracuces, supersri- man With . nervous system already "overburdened" was not helped by U • systems 0 ea mg" i I d' ··d 1 oriental sophistry" d U' ~ nc u mg 10 worship," , an even nommal pra i U _J plRON and parents "multiplyi ng the doubts:'"adding blacker hues 10 and worry and abet h . I h I h y ng -c-seemec to reduce fear p YSlca ea t as well (see figure 7).16 1M outlook on life, N "appealing to his fears," or telling him to wexamine his hea rt frequently.. '. The victim of such teaching may be religious, _ K ill pretty certain to be spiritually deformed also." The sad result WORK AND PLAY daat untoJd sp irit ua l treasure is slipping from our hands" simply t~e Cwaeneres b l rItrerar ' . ure~ on nerves and nervous fatigue were used in specific ChnttJans had not thought enough about how the body, cit y o y el,lglOus liberals wondering how to find their way in the modern _ .....nd spirituality were linked. Of course, embedded In rawmg on scientific notions such outlined ,. bl' S.CIU" 'L!' as those above eh..... ""....were dear g uidelines for American e lever , eIlberalral d'ffes belirevedt hat nervous and splOtual. . fatigue WlS caused by' sev-­" '--moe about intemperate (rea d: evangelical) religioUS prtC" l rent sources. First, civilized morality and social oodes.l$ l neud .. . d . g ..""ons on ."",. amceming damnation and fear-IO uCln l _J'hd! W.U off_limits ' FAITH GEN ERATORS AND FEAR DESTROYER.S A N CI ENT MODER N

M(D ICIN( MEN MESHERISM

I DOL WORSHIP HYPNOTISM

RE LI CS !1=-- (L.,. / MUH"L TEL( P....TKY /V V FAI TH CHARMS SUGG ESTION NORMAL PULSE OF THE HEART " ORIENT" L SOPHISTRY F"ITH HE.... L1 NG

FIG.18. AST ROL OGY CL A1 RVOYANC E "\ ~FTH' Al TH DEMONOLOc,y o HEALTH THE CHR15TlM'l SCIENC E '0;{ 1_, MASTER CD M"5 ; ~ TEMPLE SLEEP K E Y KEY ~SP 1RITU AlIS M

PAGAN SUPERSTITION MAG II(TIC IlEAUNG

HOLY SHRINES P"TEN] MEDICINE

L"YINGONOf HANIJS PLACE BOS

CHINESE TOMTOMS fETISHES

I QUACK OQCTORS PULSE TRACING OF SACRIfiCES MOMINAL HEART " N OI1 'N'" L. PRAYING PRAYI NG no, IS FIG. 19. DIAGR AM SHOWING ANCIENT "NO MODERN FAITH GENERATORSAND FEAR DESTROY ERS

~~u re 7: .All kinds of religious faith s promoted psydlOlogiaol wrll-being. m WilhamSadler, Tht Physiology offaithllnJ Ftll', 19.10.

dl The Physiofogl/ of W·II· 111 Sa ei, JowerJ the hdrt rate. Front I 18 "",. .ff Nervous E . 1 90 I NervOusErrergies I erem cases withe t k ' nergliS I 9 d u nowlOg wI h d r!ieT, madl!' it impossible to exp ress emotional states properly. Cert ain t ey were prescribed let erorhowthe differedh , the rest cu (It alternating intervals. Tho"yhworked Sometimes elYlotions had 10 be rep ressed in unhealthy ways, and thi s led to ner vous ... re was wid I . "'8 specif . deadening routines "I k i e y practIced as a c . , .ICregime ns f.t ig . Second, and related to this, was the problem of civilized amuse ­ v wor 10 md . I ruoa anudo ments-ue the theater, the symphony, the modern novel. Th ese amusements A second set of d! usma America 17 re to the rscourses recoverin he r ' could be problematic because they stimulated inner states without provtd, for children, also pointed to the h . g t e Irnportanceof la . ing proper channels for their expression. Third, religious liberals .....orried rured leisure and rest Th. I' calmg and even savm p y, especially . IS uerature g powerof 5t • bou "sd mulanrs" such as alcohol, tobacco, and sexuality. All rhese tern ­ tal ps?,chology of scientists like G Swas undergirded by thedevelo rue­ I.tion't artific ially excited the neuromuscular system and drained nc r vo~ s on child development in add' , , tanley Hall, who did pmen- cne rgi ~ - h men to the ' many studies In layi ng ou t th ese temptatiOns and their remedies, Christians c apter a. Hall anperdohenco~r:~suaded :h~t chilexpemnenlald~e n oversworklimIu~:t~erd ~n in this, era,. as. in others, developed sophisticated ways of evaluatingtn h .r loud, artificial, a n en vlr onweremem 5t hey l i v~," JHIrtiClpaUOn In the world. didproblems had to be addresssseo.dOnrewas ' 1 ...5eYverat e There was one remedy for nervous Iadguc that , once it caught 0 d d h ncre- 1 not provide venues for physical S l~ P y thaI urban envtronrnems . ,ements m_deally change ow religious Americans thought about arnus play, Reformers involvedin h A .exerCise or cooperative whol enlUry d rne mertcan PI y M , esome and other secular pursuits- By the latter half of the nineteenth , co.nstfucte urban playgrounds and tout a . ovemementhuslasricallv the "rest cure" was so pervasive that even Protestan t moralists who h d atln ~ healthy, moral citizens, But while ~ the Importanceof play in ere­ e It as resisted rest as indu lgent and unproductive gradually embrac d . • hygl e ~e and cooperative values[0 childre ese ~efo r ~s would bring better heahh y and spiritu ally helpful. more Important aims in mind The n, SOCIal scienns ts haddeeper and Several pervasive physiological and psychological discourses promoted and young peoplebetterman.g· play movement would hel , childr," e nervous aedcmon " this change. The first was a clinical literature that aut horized rest as the so ecause p ay helpedindivid I emononalenergies .... ' db I nmvicuarsconn irh . IOlS was w l to overworked nerves, a literature th at began in Europe but was "' emouonsc--ro fight, struggle d7' WIt original.creative instincts expandedudon in Am erica by George Beard and another popularizer of ner­ mner states in sociallyapproved , an ove-and learn to express these vous diagnoses and th eir cures, a Philadelphia physician named Silas Weir the recapitulation theory of h w'dYS, The psychological theory here was . I v uman evelop Mitchell, Mitchell is well known for popularizing the "rest cure" es~­ recaprtu eted in his life stages th I' ment-namely, that each child Children and youn, people theeear rerstages of human social evolution. dilly for wom en ex hausted by modern life, Sin ce wome n were viewed es P ' n, were savag ho · d roper y, ad to express prim', ' . . s w , m or er to develoo more susceptible to fluctuating, uncontrolled, or int emperate emotions, 10 h.I h lIve Lnstmets and ,- -r r t IS, they needed less civilized d .. , emonons m play activities; many neurologists, incl udi ng Mit chell, thought th e rest cure particularly were not allowed to mani] h an . artificial environments. If children f HI est t esc primiti " important for th em. The rest cure, according to Weir, involved avoiding orces and potentials w ld b ive.crearlve instincts, theirvital . ~ ou e repressed d . . excess in all things-intellectual overwork, "excit ement or perversion" of tnner selves a "spiritual . an minimized, leaving their the sex instinct, excessive grie f or shock, emotional intemperance, morbid individuals build the w~ste ..".desrccared of all meaning," Play helped cised muscular ern ~motllonally Intense parts of the sell.Play also exer- or excessive subjectivity, and roo much religious emotion. The treatment , otlona and s .. I . . involved isolation, bed rest, m assage, a diet rich in nerve-building proteins, work, allowed cv k d. pmrua eapacoes not activated during nervous reser ~~wor e organs to rest, and called into action unknown and even having physicians or others assist with simple tasks such aseat­ ves. ing. The .ff«t of the "e"ment was to make female p"ien" ""lIy d,!,,'­ opedThatere rh also . we r~ dirennet Iy religious.. discourses of restandpassivityde"'- denton (male) physicians. "It is not surprising," one hi,,,,,,, has wn"to, TLIlioughl ande tiome,rh includingllbe es.r:c .laIIy d·~srourses af self-surrender in New \hot Mitchell'. most norable therapeutiCfailures were wom,n like c;~ leaders s h er I ral rel'8 lOus traditions. By the IB90s, Newlhought Gilman and Jane Addams, wh o rejected both the patht r.na~ . son Ca ll ;~ a~;;lph Waldo Trine, Orisen S~tl Marden, and Annie Pay­ lotte Perkin. ·gned 10 t err . I SI ~laxalion inherent in the rest cure and the subo rd[nate ro e aS ,g~~ Cline W' h Iul power and success loall who masteredtM this: . h h ·' profession,' It ully__r_ " lOg· to Ihed I··Vlne m. flow. In power through RtpoU But MItchell's failures point to ot he r probI ems Wit.f I d by net'''..."'', ~"" ofdimcaJentrepreneurs who essentia lly were m ySti Ie k d est cures ill. and how 10 restore them . Neurologists prescribed war an r 92 I Nervous Energies f dd Nervous En ocus, an edication "Th d ergirs f 93 . e emand oi] (189 ), ' very popu lar book even among protestant clergy, Annie Call helped bor, or regarding enhstrneemnrini Hi csus. touching 10ve ctf Cod . m. ket resr an accepted part of spiri tual health. Rest helped us access divinit y. o the IOtaI self. Posubl s cause, is a dema d f or nr lgh- f . y no other si I ' n or prom . to app tcancn than rhe abil f tng e Virtue has pt aCllon - j'he greatest act, the only action which we know be power in itself. is the I .. I tty or d~ IS..1 V(' whole- ~'"a more va lcd f act of Creation. Behind rhar action there lies a great Repose. We are part of consta ntly cultivatad.. ·m aII p hysi I and souseI dactio ' n luteld of Creation, we shou ld be moved by its laws. Let us shun everything we see tlve athletic games ~ Th . h .1Ca training, and este . II .n, w ich is . I' fig t kind f I pecta y m ca . to be in the way of our own best power of action in muscle , nerve, senses themh' selves 10 greater tdeaIs,such asSO fairpI ay helped peapreII earn to submitrnpeu­ minet and heart. w ho knows rhe new perception and strength, the increased t IS,d [too, would eventually Ieed to ".mupayh, andi to the common gU<.JU__J and power for use tnat is open to us if we will but cease to be an obstruction ?Nt'l an exercise] another set of spiritual mp m a yet more searchin 't Rest worked because it put people in contact with vital energies that were at iti current psychology, one theolo ia mus~les . ~ There was nodoubt~:~' the MIme time supe rnatural and indigenous to the self. When the self was revelations of the function of pia; innr:~~ I ~ l m ed, wasNgiving us wonderfui righdy Rlned, these forces could r ush in to consciousness. replen ish ing Our rgious mental economy.N!Q entrgtesand righting nervoUSimbalances. O f cou rse, New Though t authors were not rhe only ones reflecting on th e deeper aspects of the self. Mor AM USE MENTS mainstream religiouS liberals and even psychologists like James s uspe c t e ~ Comm·entators di used rhe se teas ld to fashion a se f . that our e<:onomies of nervOUS forces were connected to supernatural ener­ nons fI.'gar Ing amusements A to specific reccrrunenda- b ild Hi . musemerus wer I . , gies tapped in rest. James thought that alternating forms of exercise and ur an e icien t balanced Chri I.f e egmmate if they heloed · d h h ' nsnan I e But ifbel , - pIC wit t em, spending h' reversbecame preoccu- rest, activity and passivity, drew in nervous en er gies. '00 muc money or ri h So for the fi rst t ime, a wide ra nge of believers was willing to embrace tent was explicitly immoral or ir I" . ime on t em,or if their con- h . .. re tglous (as for e I t esc acnvnres cou lddissioarerh .. I ' xamp e, mrhe theater] rest and leisure as a means of increasin g religiousness.At about the same ,,- '" e sprruua self h h ' t ere were ot her preble . rat crt anbutldnup And rime and for so me of the same reasons, they embraced play and sports. h rns to constder Though . u y exercised unu sed me t I . . . some amusements use- bligiou5 liberals recovering the im porta nce of these act ivities often f II. dna capacmcs and released ~ trans] i _ emonons, for support to physiological noti ons. "All our powers of body and excite emotions were not pas:i~e.ed IN:~I r~uettve pent-up if Jnind. depend on activity for thei r development and for their continued could be left passionless and activities, itl?ividuals our effectiveness our pow" egttlmate amusementincreases efSciencY. But work never em ploys all our faculties," the social gospel ,• ~r to serve n Joseph5 . amusements which are follow.' h' d Irongonce pcintedout. NAIl ref'onner Josiah Strong wrote, "a nd sometimes very [ew : while it spurs ec t e next aybyl . d d· work," on the other ha d N • I h assnu e or masre for some It tiet up others, and the natural desire to play is sim ply the impulse n , VtO ate t I' law of servi • Wh stimulated the inner self wit. h out providing . . somekiceod f en amusements[ to let t hem loose. Play affords a ch ang e of activities; it permits the facul ­ expression of th . m 0 outer muscular) ties or muscle! which have been at work to rest," and thus "by equalizing than replen ish t~:~;~er states, they could consume vital energies rather .nd hlrmonizing our powers it re -creates us." Alternating rhythms of 'h,.A,musemenhts like concerts and the theater were problematic for just work and play kept vital forc es flow in g properly. If we Americans, Strong reason.. meY uncoup led eemori emonons from the neuromuscular self This 1Unnised. "'WIth our nervous temperame nt," would "relax somewhat the Was )ames's rompI"amt m t hI' Prmclples,. to which [ have already alluded. ,21 iIdI!Iltlt'Y ofour living and obey more often n at ure 's impulse to play, there aJames d hiwas not the 0 nIy one concerned.""ThI' stage, the dance, the games .....ItI. fewer thattered nervoUS systems, fewer madhouses, fewer deaths ~ t mgs of like nature," the liberal Congregationalist pastor Theodore Th~nge r worried, "consume vitality rather than furn ish a channd for it: ..,..,.recautef." ~~~;§ even en IS wa~ so partl y because they Nca nnot, from tbeir nature. be closely be fewer unbelievers.·Thoseh .denI ied. opHt yportunitiesbudn ,h"'" to --rt "'lack not on y In YSlca v ita I, ..' · ough tngrafred with daily life." Religious liberals Irened about music ...,.... _ I P . d ati"e abthn" __lmesos-Lof enthusiasm, spontaneity a n ere -ta. In parn.cuI ar. Vida Scudder, a liberal Episcopalian and socialist rewnner, ..- . bo h were spen wroeein ehe A ndover R·eV lew that, "more tllilnc_ any other power onelnIt. tIIIt play wasgood practice for worshiP: t f '..ttl1al 1 the" ld nge 0 spl" eelf~ res s ion. fomu of Others po inted to a WI I' raCl.3II bedience...... culdnted byorgan ized play, which included espe yO 94 I Nervous C'le rgies Nervous cner helpful action, and when n bod. gits I 95 music arouses emotion without furni shing any hint of IHI end to which h ot ern ledin d t chara ctcr ~ 0 h d" , the emotion shall be drrecrcd." Looking back, th is might seem an odd con­ e energies of . t ers sharedConh UCt tends toa ISSJpanon of cern, but In the context of broader an:eodoch<,s~~ h .'dfie kno ge Christian and YMCA thinkers discussedalcohol within the even broader IDXkity and its effects on nervous. ti ssues an ,perts 8greed tbeterond halfofthe nineteenth cent ury, I.' . d' ectly , lee qUite rr i Jatt OftIUX the ne rvous systemi It a ___ ..._ _ ~~,• •~,,. rrlpt"" _ ,, Nervous En er . contexts of physical fitne ss and neuromu scula r health. 1explore these con­ rhinking also informed Josiah 5 gles I 99 , h' 88 ' trong when h ' I teXts in the next chapter. m ISl 5Jeremiad,0l1 rCOIl71 try H eSlng I'd OUt Nintempera N Believing with new psychologists that body, mi nd, and spir it were because they were highly ci ' 1· d I' toowasWorried that Angl S nee " VI rze and thu hi 0- axons, overlapping entities, liberals like Washin gton Gladden worr ied tha t alco­ 109 to sti mulants like alcoh I s Ighly nervous 0 to recover n ' were turn- holic poison might also atrophy our moralend religious powers. Gladden strategy, for though alcohol might ik ervous energies_a backw d . hi sp1eour ' ar reviewed the "accu mulation of weighty evidence" against alcoho l in pas­ In t e ong run the result wa energlcs in the shorr I s nervous fati 0 h errn, .... on the vitality of arhle res, military men, an d others, finally con­ pastor Elwood Worcester and th p gue. t ers, like the libe I d d e rcrestam wr! F ra cluding dun science demonstrated that "strong drink is man's foe.. .. Life uce graphs and charrs showin h h mer fllnccs Iewen pro- gOW teeffecrflh' &om every station and every calling, disease by every destroyer in its down th rough generations Th II so a co 01 were passed ', ,eovera effectof ) hol-t WItarmy, and death itself from every graveyard in the land, uni te in the depIeuon was Idiocy, infertility d h a co 0 -induced nervous -an t e exrerm! , f .aimony that alcoholic liquors are the deadly foes of the human race, Worcester tho ught alcohol was rh " matlon 0 the familyline e pnnclpal causeof A' ' deepolling men of their strength, and joining hands wit h th e dark slayer ness, an d he arg ued that intemue mencan nervous- h h perate parents passed n to do his terrible work." This was bad indeed. A lcohol also injured the aIco 0 I ab it to their offspring, JO ervousness and the morallUltun, working to "stimulate th e lower appetites and propensities, Con cern s about alcohol and rae f d · bo I' uness rew strength f h toaagnvate the animalism of the nature, and to pa ralyze the nobler senti­ drecourses a ut debauched imrni ff' rom ot er rgranrs, e emmate boy, d d ments.wlt was "well known that se ns ua lity of t he foulest type is nourished unma rr ied women, All of these u f d an men, an h .I bl n ortunate egencretes were sign f ..,. ardent spirits.'" Alcohol led to other imm oral an d indecent behaviors. t I" cruna pro em of the era: loss f 'T H' , s 0 dtff 0 vm Ily, rstonans haveshown h OB matter, Gladden drew on common se ns e: "G o into any bar-room 1 erenr ways that the discourse on alcoh I I d t e this ' , , 0 was re ate to the "problem" company ofmen are drinking to ge th er, a nd you will not stay long of t hI" mtemperate Catho1Jc unmigram ' and C 'I B d where. . d ' ,al I" ennen recently has examine connecnons between physiological studi s . f vi I· wtIIIout hearing the vile jest or the indecent all uslon. : .. Int emperance," d " es, notions 0 vm lty an gendcr. But the discourse on alcohol also was related to 1,'- I d • Dew, "'it always the prime minister of lu st," A lcoh ol stirred lusts and di f h oeraruneer- tJlill'_ ecI higherimpulses, beating down,Gladden said, "every sentime nt stan m gs 0 anor er type of stimulant, a particularly threatening stimu- ~sed ;arttyand honor." Might alcohol even destroy our pure and hon orable lant by Americans addicted to extreme religious experiences,Around r­ th e,t lme of th e Scopes tr ial, David Starr Jordan remarked that evangelical ~ .... 1Certainly it decreased our powers of self-control a nd willpower, revivalism was "simply a form of drunkenness no more worthy of respect struggles against sin and worldline ss.P ...... ns our than th e drunkenness that lies in the gutter!" This was a common senti- of scientific temperance glossed a nxie tie s about alcohol as ~ent among religious liberals, who often associated dangerous drugs and an antiquated and repressi ve ort hod oxy; but in fact, lare- from mtoxt cen ng religions , Faith could be an exciting stimulant that aroused th e conscience in momentary fits that led quickly to deep depressions, by scientific discourses linking alcoh ol consumpno n to The se depression s weakened our nervous and spiritual powers, To find and caltonl decay. The problem was o ften ex plicated in the best path through extremes on both sides, liberals had 10 seekexact- KJellti6c vocabulary of the da y : evolut ion, Alcohol ing combinati on s t hat involved balancing cautious emotional stimulation t apeatiet, a process that led to declin ing nervous and moral relaxation. "The true concept [of Christianity] must minister lUId, toborrowG. Stanley Hall's urgent phrase, enure evenly both to th e conscience and the heart, and thus, while it builds up .oJ.._.-'-t the lower birthrates that portended "ra<'d' moral character, im part spiritual love and rest/ another liberal counseled, ...,,".... d I· d ,Ioohol" This was a ca refully bala nced prescription: moderate excitement followed .liIIiIi. ecI .-:, _I-M...,.but nervous e p euon an , • ~_.., ki n notions by spiritual rest, The "animalizing and selfish tendencies" of a t he'i~ m ol .. problem.)29 Relying on Lamarc he: s insisted and the irritating and depre ssing consequences of revivalism, he contm- ~~:~::..'red characteristics, Hall and at er hi defi- ued, both had to be avoided. More rboughr had to begiven to rhe menul .-,- b 10 that t IS ~ our nervoU5 supply ut aSk' n notions COnsequences of frightening doctrines, certain kinds of pruching. and . (Lamare ,a f 10 amaing generations. This kind 0 docode of the twentieth cenlury.) 100 I Nervo us Energies NerlJOIl SEller res I such as psychology and child d 8 1:01 drawn-out emotional meetings. These, 100, made their imprint in the very I stu y Hall . spent nervous capital needed 10 hei,' bo WOrned that sexualtemptau" Uneaments and sinews of the body. Un for tunately it had not occurred to H ld ys matur .. ens men. ow cou enervated bo I' Intovirileand pew f i manyAmericans that wrongheaded doctrines and practices were tracing a dst " ys malure into f Il wer u (!)lIne along the lines of [one's] nervous system, an d depositing there in ban .S Between the ag" af tweIve and siXteenem e and respon SItble hus- receives from nature a new iral f ' . . the young .'-i everyol'gillnism a transcrip t of itself."31 capi ta 0 ener • crescent in life depends upon the care and isd g.y,Hall wrote; "and sucees If it possible to talk about all of these ill icit enjoyments and l ntem, b " Ad i wlsomwLlhwh·hh' ' anddc . 0 escenct: was the mo IC t IS energy is hus- perate' excitements without a lso talking about sex? For religious liber_ uh . .. ment when you WI! prrrrunvc, sexual energies I' . h ng men Were flooded al. in this period, the a nswer was dearly no, for th ere was little doubt ' nergres r at co Id i ' them. I f t he energies of youn u repenlshand vitalize that sexual activity, and especially mast urbat ion, led [Q all ma nn er of g men were handl d I their strength would contribut ..,.. e proper y n this stage denngements of body and spirit. Repressed Victorians had nothing on ,, h e to ClVI IUnOn'S d ' meSS lamc r etoric, "the salva,' d lri a vance-to, in Hall's nin«eenth- a nd twentieth-century liberals when it came to the lit­ Ionan u nma te d I aim of creat ion and of history . M b. eve opmene andend and eratUres of sex and self-control. The differe nce was that by the early . . astur anon and oth f f gence Imperiled this process at tr d ,. cr orms 0 indul- twentieth century these conce rns were being sustained by powerful rts mosr eucate me M l . had enduring consequences. (Hall f I.. menlo asrurbatkm ~cal and psychological theories, theories that em phasized how s use 0 re IglOUS and li I guage, especially when talking.OO h.. . mora ISUC an- ....Item.ptations, if indulged, unhinged physiological mechanisms and . . Ut t IS ISsue, irrrtated man bs Reviewing Hall's ideas on sex in II ll' _ yo ervers. ~ oIf preeious nervous for ces. We do not usually think of James a s 1904 claSSIC Ado/est E L Thorndike, a leading American psycholo . d eece, .. ;.rucu1.rJy prim, and in most ways he was no t rigid , but on the mat­ di ' f gISt, warne reade rs Ihal Hall's ISCUS SLO n 0 sex was highly unusual "T li h ' chutity he was unbending. " No one need be told how depe ndent ... • 0 rea rze I I" matenal presented .. Th.o~ndlke d'1ltuaan elevation is upon the prevalence of cha stity. Hardly any wrote, .one.mu.st combine his memories ofmedical text-books, social erotic poet ry and inspirational prcaching- Priva i Th dtk i lIleaJure5 more than this the differen ce between civilization and dlolcmaric. comolai . te y, oronxe wasiess rp cmanc., complatning to a friend lhat th,book wa s •chockfuii 0 f errors, ~ . Physiologically interpreted, chasti ty means no thi ng more mast urbau.on and Jesus." Hall, he said, "is a madman."))) the fact that present solicitat io ns of se nse are overpowered by sug­ Thorndike was only partly right. He was right Ihat fears about mas­ 10-10111 of aesthetic and moral fitness which t he circumstances awaken tu rbat ion and Jesus haumed Hall'sbook,but hewasmistaken in thmking 4leRbrum•• Jame' was in good company on th is matter, believ­ Ha ll was mad or marginal. Tobe sure, there weremanyothersconvinced ether experts that adolescents in pa rticular had .to turn th.eir th at adolescent passions had to be controlled, and manyreligious believ­ ers in part icu lar whose beliefs on this matter were reinforced by what iiE~~toWt~~rd productive channels-to education, exercise, that would generate strength a nd power. Over time seemed a clear connection between adolescent successes in suppressing Hild and be passed to succee di ng gene rat ions. One sexual impu lses and victories in developingreligiousones.The new ener­ i Ulilitted the many eminent ind ividuals, profes­ gies released at adolescence were also energies that built religious sen­ detc:ended from Jonathan Edwards. Another widely sibilities. Adolescence was a crucial time for religious commitment, and sc ll depending on how they were handled, sexual urges could quash these M8dwith endorsements by Josiah Strong, Rus. ~:~::~. iD fluen t ia l J ~ st commitment s or abet them. Several psychologists noted the prevalence liberal Protestants, argued. resnot~~Il ~e~ of sexual temptations in youthful accounlS of conversion experiences iii were caused by sexual sin but also that and emotional struggles preceding them. Though he assured readers ..knesses would be passed (Lam arckian. y that he had not in his survey s "sought for revelatiOns of experience "":'- , [romG, on this point," George Coe also could not keep such experil'nCfiout of [ thetorkon this subject came, a course, i· the dinical picture. "A considerable portion of the young men (o~d It d knew Irom exptr re h~oU5 '.....,rlgid personal styIe an blem thal, lltC'e&sary to mention such temptations in order to make their ofIIltiturbation . Here was a p~ I of our experiences dear to me.. .. It is perfectly dellr that the most sertOUf hMJth and eventually the s.urv::,cipUne5 .ha. he h

,=~~;. Ift:sorung on the masturbation ques tion was similar • to l'8.orung about the other temptations and nervous I have discussed in this chapter. All th ese activ ities artifi-

iii~~ofnervou.""~ith~'~"~rvoenergiesus system- Alcohol,, a proforcess instanthatce,ledbecause eve ntuallyit over- to brain functions, degraded capacities for self-control; ; nervou~ force~ tated sexual organs, drained iIRpoteIICf'i and religious revivals over stl~ula~e 10 spiritual incapacities and even infldehty, NfYOU' forces instead of husbanding them. _d • greater risk for youth, bee.I'" r-~- . turt " t IS ogieal .ystems were UlUl~' h·· h is f nctlon W Ie wrote, "th at any u dis certain re --'UClng it are fully m.tU ,I ...,5 For y'- f h t function. Dr even extinction a t a . ial tlo'" from trw ' Of Mr90UJ energies was far Sugg"ltv, Ex I p anatlO ns I ' 59 6 Suggestive Explanations U NCON SC IOUSC REDU LITY The history of the unconsCio h b . 1 us as een d Th~ story of th ~ conquest of a realm of fable by a campaign of \'Intlngs. J recapitulate here I ocumentedex y believers pa~t s thal hl In enlightenment IS always a tale of interest. psychologists and on Y of stor tenhs,vel Other . II h were rethlnkin h y t altell us h J O S[PH J.... ST RO W, Fa ct and Fable i ll PsyclJofogy especI3 y ow their reflecne h 8 t e spintual If ow ns On t e une se In this tee no ogl es of self-control th t I vnscious SUrred era, h I a aSSOCiate h Interest In rh Ideas about the unconscious have a IOn hiWit suggestion. e have been Important in different I g IStOTY, and though h Ch .. cu tures and i I I ese Ideas evaI rrsna n sources, the unconsc'lous emerg dn seeel anCient and mc(h· West 10 two princ ipal locations' i h .e powerfUlly In the od hil h . n t e wrnmg f m ern p. I asapI ers such. as Schopenhauer and Schellin5 0 modernhpost -K anuan irnpu ses, memories, and desires g, w 0 speculated abo . d operatingoutsid f ut and In mo ern therapeutic traditIo h e 0 conscious COntrol - For the most part it was consciousness or will-orient ed psychologies that . d ns t at employed h ' unconSCIOUS to un erstand and au t e C3lcgory of the helped religious liberals rethink different dimensions of the moral and reli­ ·- empr to treat se The key fIgu re In the modern phil hi I vere memal illnesses gtous life. In theearly decades of the twentieth century, however, asdynamic hil h h asap rca tradition a G. P I asap er w am Ame ricans like Hall and a , erman rOmantic psychologies and not ion s of th e un conscious became prevalent in American von Hartmann. (Hall had become Jdmes knew well, was Eduard acquamte With H d J culture, ways of thinking about spiritual matters cha nged. The unconscious stu ent ays in Germany.) Drawin I artma nn urlng his i ~ d d g oncar ter specul ti be became a powerful source of imaginative renections about the transcendent scious philosophers such as Sch a Iona uttheuncon- by openhauer, Harrma perts of human nature. Here was another category, like nervous energies, mane examp les of the ways unc . f nnputtogetherdra_ . .. onectous actors Influenced that believersused to imagine a place for spint in an Otherwise physiological associano n of Ideas, habit formation andoth d I memory, the . d . I ' er 31 yactlvltles Hehyporh self. Even so,and even though liberals and others embraced the unconscious eslze a umversa unconscious that fed th .. - forehese reasons, their yearnmgs for the divine, and the freedom and ere­ Hartmann's ideas appealed broadl to e unconscious Ineachindividual atiVity the divine provided, had limits. Many worried about the unpredict­ Late in hfe H II b I' d Y psychologists and otherAmericans. , a . e reve Hartmann's "proof of the eccentric .. mar mal .we. and potentially explosive, forces contained in the unconscious. Some ~:tu~e of consc iousness makes hima modern Copernicus.The erec,,:nof lIIfOCiMed it with unseemly evangelical irr uptions and ecstatic behaviors. e nhconsclous as a world principle marks the greatrevolution of V I~ J:arliB generations of liberal believers had similar concerns about irratio­ Since t e Renaissance, W hiic h was .ItS preIude, in ernannpenng the world 1lIIiAn. for, as we have seen, they both insisted on spiritual dimensionsof hfrom the views of the past.." HIa I'S emancipauons.. were complex. as we dieteIfand worked hard to contain, measure, and control them. The cat­ abve seen. For him, the unconscious undoubtedly served the dual role of f!IIK1 theyused to contain and measure the unconscious when it appea.red &HaU Vorting tradimona I Chri nsnan. categories and pointing the way 10 what l .,~ _ Nsuggestion: a concept that secularizing scientistS ong ­ rf'~ann though, of as a more refined"spiritual monism." Hall pursued """ed to explain away all religious intuitions and inner prompt- • re ined monism as weIl, as we have seen.2 11Ioa8b fearless scientific debunkers such as Joseph JastrOW employed The Other source of modern notions of theunconsdous wasaser 01 . f . h andother therapout" di . . 1 Ia .a- in their wider campa'gns to conquer all I ' 1 c:hia' IC tra mons that priests, exorcisers, and slighty ter, poy- --r-"nnn h ycho 08"a t,,",s used to explain and treat dissociated mentalstalet and other ~ the history of the category shows I ar ps h . t rs Ihat! ey ItIental pathologies. Though Franz Anton Mesmel, bypositing the exis­ __in unexpected ways. Shrewd IOterpre e . belief n aga,nSI =: of a pervasive magnetic fluid, successfully tedescribed a set of ...... employed suggestion not as a wea,: self They used toal conditions (for example, possession) in naturaliJtic terII\f, his IdmuIate the most credulous parts of rh itadevtlop tened explanations weresoonsupplanted byotM'" espeeiaUY Ihr ranfuI and measured ways, as another toO 16 0 / Suggestive Explanations Suggestive (xpl h Qnaltons I states as P cnomena produc db h'. 161 J mentalist catego ry hypnosis (a term used first by Jam es Braid,a nineteenth­ h did I e YSifung e century Scottish surgeon). This did not stop an army of itinerant lec­ t ey I not.ru e Out the possibility that nergy.centers Within h were powering this sh,· ft lam d external [i.e SUIl<> I C sel f, turers and expert manipulator s of magn eti c fluids from fanning out in . es an M ., r ... rnatural)( unconscious not merely as a set- If yers both tended to h· k orees Europe and Am erica, astou nding audiences with magnet ically induced .I. 0 pan of . t 10 of the meraph YSlca entity, a reservoir of conSCIOusness bu 1 trance state s, and miraculous healin gs, mental and ot herwise. But hypno­ · d h transcend I t a so as a and enIrvene t e self, and one that rh ema POwer that COOl I I ~ ' sis became the more acceptable expla nation of th ese phenomen a. French f "6 I ' e conscIo us . d ro co aware a . y p acmg the pa tholo I h mi n wasonly d I neurologists working at the Salperriere an d at the Nan cy School used . h g·rca , I e norm I d rm y supra normaIWit in a common [r f f a , an the pot . II hypnosIs to understand better what was involved in altered states of arne0 re erence," 1: entia y a roit y, Myers "created a theoretical S h ' aves has Su mmarized consciousness, trances, sleeplike sta tes, and the appea rance in some people d I influences beyond the individual hould (t esubliminal)through wh· h ., of what seemed to be "secondary selves." Pierre Janet was the most impo r­ , s ou they . IC 10 man ifest themselves," Though eX ISt, might be expected tant French clinician working in these areas ; he had many admirers and many psycholo . ,-- research and wor ried that talk of di . d gists resisted psychical correspondents among American physician s and psychologists, including .. ssoctate states0 ed h superstitions, they could do nothin . pen t edoorto new those in the Boston school of psychotherapy-james, Henry Bowditch, . g to stop re!lglOu n . was admittedly a baffling part of the self.S s re ccuon on what v Richard Cabot, Morton Prince, james jackson Putnam, and Boris Sidis Some of them didtry. Some ofthem t . d (the latter would write an influential dissert ation on suggestion under fie toquellthe I clatter ab out dissociared states and tra d regnant re igious james). As Taves has written, in an 1886 arncle janet published the first ... nscen er upansof h If of posmvrst psychologists and debunke f h t .ese . Agroup widely acknowledged experimental evidence for secondary selves. In hIS rs. u w om morewdlbe dl used di fferent strategies. Some sought f ' sal ater, Varieties fifteen years later, James pointed to janet's discovery as "the ways 0 experimentally sh . t hat consciousness was a single more 0 I . d _ owmg I " ' r e 5S unite , entity. One panic- most important step forward that has occurred in psychology since have uIarIy teII1118 episode had to do with th .. I·· been a student of that science." James had different reasons for embracing . d the di e spmtua ISl1C medium Leonora Piper an the discourses that-quite Iiterally-surro ded h 3 d h b f h un er. James the unconscious, as we will se e. an ot. cr mem ers 0 ~ e society for psychica l research We re persuaded There was a lot at stake in arguments about th e unconscious, and neu­ th~t . Piper had. extraordinary abilities. While shesat in trance states, the rologists,clinicians, and others deeply disagreed over whether this obscure spmts that an imated her offered astonishingly accurate private tnfcrma­ pen of the self existed. Some of them were sure that it was imaginary, tio~ about seance attendees. After investigatingPiperandeven havingher end they set out to explain unremembered actions and other phenomena trailed by a detect ive, key members of the America n Society for Psychical attributed to a secondary self by showing how intelligent action proceeded Res e~r ch , including James, found themselves persuaded. But others were physiologically without being conscious. This was the theory of " u nc~n­ convinced neither of Piper'S sincerity nor of the fact thatconsciousness IdoaJ c:erebratiol\-" Thinkers embracing this position, includmg POSItl Vci could be invad ed by separate, supernatural communications. In1909, G. _ 1iIIe Joseph JastrOw and many other American psychologiSts, reJecte Stanley Hall financed six sittings with Piperin he rhome, whereheand a ... ida that consciousness was divisible.4 A second group believed that research associate conducted a battery of psychologicaland physiolog...1 CiOUS hvsteri I d states of cons - to Ai] I d i nt states 0 consciousness, ystert3, a rer e tests. Hall set out disprove the spiritualist claim that channeled voces f ·ff h t consciousness IDd phenomena pointed to I erent ways t a . w.ere :n no way connected to physical realities [i.e, bodies). To show that _ other d ....-1.. divided into pans. This group believed that dimenSloh~ s Piper schanneled spirits actually were produced bynormal neuromuscular -1"7 hi · tS rn t IS Processes, he conducted a series of sensory tests on Piper wlule she was lloJI.._ ..- could be split off or dissociated. Psyc a ogts J et .. holog"al as an entranced. Would these spiritsfeel orcomment on thesesensaltonsl Wh~e ,..... aIIout whether dissociative states were pat ' Fw. ~. ~Jp~ '" hi I searcher . .Uetmg routine tests on vision, taste, odor, pressure. aoupall\, ~ ...U y l and useful, as the British psyc rca re .. e ",ode! . he disSOClatlv !~nts did not report sensations. Hall persiSted. Finally, w~ ~~ III&iltion. some ofthose accepting t for religiOUS -III . sln. gl sore ...... alUmum twenty-five pounds to Piper's increa Y...... A.d uIdn8 ~d_ JIII!Ilt81aetivity might beller account. ",uni- .. dsplllt eom I!Iirit Hall was trying to find in Piper'. body finally teSl""-- ...... c:JuMryance, trance states, an . d "ane< 1i .. posseSSIon an l1kIimlibMyers explained splrtt '162 I Suggestive £xplatlatians SII8gest itleEx I Religious liberals often qu d d. Panat,on, / 16) . ore irecr] r for relief. This was proof enough for Hall, who reported his results and mentatlve strategies dcvel d Y rom James bo interpreted them as evidence that the Piper phenomenon was a product of . I ' . . ope sermons usin h' .' rrOWed his ar - out hIS ectures to panshlOners Lik g IS Ideas d gu a single neuromuscular consciousness-even if it was a consciousness that . I e James h ' an even d contain ivine forces just as rh . d ' t ey used th be pa sse d . . e rtun was be" e su onSCIO was "impulsive," "impressionable," "hysterical," and "neurotic." psychologists Insistingon the st' I Ing emptied orm us to But as others would remark in the aftermath, there were different ways tmu us-respo yStery by ne This was precisely what belie nseself. s W of seeing Hall's results . Durin g most of the tests, Piper's spirit seemed to . vers needed . soul In the natural body.The lib I .away tolocateas transcend Hall's painful pricks and proddings. Moreover, did the spirit's . . d I era Congreg · I' upernatural for one, mstsre in 1910 that psy hi ' atlona 1St Horace W r intervention at the end prove definitively that there were no such things .. c 0 ogica! anal arner, wcuId e, irrunate "misunderstandin d ysesof the uncon 85 ghosts? Couldn't a channeled spirit perceive danger and tr y to protect Iorrn mrsl gsan unreliabl SCIOUS o ten orm nus eading standards of' eexpectations wh h f saving expe . If Ie so its host? For all their vigorous testing, as the historian Deborah Coon has older, hazy nonons a "dea r and lu . nence and SUbstitute f . d mmous ., . pathwa f '. or noted,"Hall and [his research assistant] Tanner proved little with their Warner evise elaborate diagra f yo Splruual$lates " . ' d ms 0 ascending .. . J tests except that they could do physical damage to Mrs. Piper. Her daugh­ mstructlons on how to practice the H I spiritual states With ter wrote to protest her moth er's sore palms, blistered lips, and numb fin­ . m. e potted olde Ch ·. stages on top, In waking forms of consci r nsnan salvation gers.N6 Right up to the end of james's life (he died the next year, in '910), nSClOus ness and h ld f terranean ocations the operationsof .' e I enn led in sub- I a cooperating Hoi 5 ir] he and Hall battled over the meanings of psychology: Hall insisted that the . 6). Warner's eIaborate descriptionsof . Y pirn seeligure Wlconscious merely was the source of our primitive instincts, emotions, consc ous Christ' unIike analyses of other liberal Christta',ns pursuingdee Ia"lned.statesd wa. s not J drives; james thought it signified openings to larger, possibly tran­ and 'IWhat we are essaying to do /I he wrot '" d at escnptions, ' e IS to erectand def fa scrndent powers. The unconscious, then, was contested territory. thef acts now in hand will permit, the sc''renn f'rcsueeessio fdme, as rbas Hall's efforts to quash the supernatural with twenty-five-pound weights psychicstates in the typical Christianexperience "S bnk, emonstra Ie ..Ded forth congratulatory cheers from oth er scientists. But many oth­ ers already had taxonomizedChristian ex perien~ i~::la~~ Cae, awnd orh­ listed f . I d ·1 d ways. arner ers were unimpressed. Especially in popular culture, James was having air y erai e sequences ofemotiona l states. his way, and partly as a result, the subconscious swiftly took shape as B~t there was ~ I wa ys a dilemma in scientifica lly parsingevery moment qua~i-transcendental • .eparate, part of th e self. james did most of the of faith. Where did the Holy Spirit operate? Was there room for It? Admu­ persuading in his Varieties . Attempting to produce a "reconciling hyporh­ nng that the Holy Spirit could not bediscerned directly 10 consoous acts _ " th.t restated religious truths in scientific form, james tu rned to the Warner solved the dilemma by inscribing thealways operallngHolySptn; III!Jamscious as the key mediating category. Religions posited a transcen­ In a vast su bconscioususrea regioni , a separa te butconrintiguouspartoftheself.The deBt "more" in different guises, as gods and angels and forces, but the HolySpirit drove the process from underneath, insert ingitself las It had 10 --..aous, James thought, might be "a way of describing the 'more: earlierChristian schemes) especiallyincrucia lbreaki ngpoints:atdramatic peyehologists may also recognize as real. The subconscious self ~s ::ents of co nv i~t ion , .conversion, and ~ nc t i£ ica t ion . The Holy S ~iril well-accredited psychological entity; and I believe that In It .e cross-border incursions on Warner's diagramstoo. The subconSCIOUS ••dIl,. . loUS I· ' 1I. 1~.. exacdy the mediating term required. Apart from all rehg :an ~as difficult to penetrate intellectually, and Warner's dJaglUlls kit there is actually and literally more life in our total soul ~etglon undeveloped. What he knewof it came from scripture.Healso , " h en scientists ~Itanyrune aware of: Here was a "more t at ev Ind hat thi s subconscious regionwas thesource ofall ronSOOUS IlCl1VItY . . I iousneSS to I wuthe engine that drove salvation. In Warner's maps. the subeonscioUS 01 _...... 'tuv~_.--I Myen's article on sub munadconsc hica! layerS. ~li,*r: Ead1 person had deep, unexpresse psyc ·n Bthe way to reinsert the divine in scientific maps ofse1£.9 II! d · beyanCe, I ~t if liberals like Warner embraced the subconscioUs IS • way of peltofthe self that was unmanifeste , In a nded bing the Holy Spirit in the self, they also worried tM~ the '~ ...... manifesto for religious liberals, Jame~, e~';,tifY' could be unpredictable and potentially explosive. 11Us poll~ . ... !ylIDCe in "The Energies of Men,. I" th.t '.f!:tlll\ed to produce extravagant religiOUS notioJlS. CIDIIlbustible or explosible materta. es7 Wltf!l!t'· ....." ,of . ' technlqu · ....tlon. and other rehgJous 164 I Suggest ive Explanations ,' SII8gestive Ex fa ' of religIO US, spiritistic, telepath' P nallOns / 165 . d" h f IC, or 01he b I' rnm so unger or the occult? Wh r e Ids: Why did Ih " themselves to mind reading hYhad so many derg e popular . ' teI epar y d ymen co ' greater caution with regard toour deaearer, anb I ol' herodd belte' fs.'"I mImllled d f /I To rest them upon such ground h sr ,e iefsandhopes " h p e,a or · hi s as t escIS t .' e conunued T e so uno n to t IS extreme cred. I' 0 invitedisbeli f ' h . · h II ' Ulty was to b " e ln teend'" Into C oser, relationships with cconsclOnsr-i US [rati nI)ng the subeonsclOU' Sback subconscIO us had to be regular d b . ana ComroIs. The ed I , I fey conscIO US ct U ous enurehi y ree unconscious wasan unpredlctabl . processes, d tO For many, an somet lIlg that, led to belief in all manner of rhe an Indiscriminate force, the uncon scious opened out into di mgs. And SO discour f \'- 1\...... J. \ _.\ ) tscourses ofcomroland reguIanon.ses 0 ./ <.. ( ...w..... -t.,. ~ M<04 ACCOUNTI NG FO R THE IRRATIONAL

The discourses of control that the d ' ·S ' I wor suggestlOll coniured . mg. ocia psychologists used suggesnon" to control i ' wIere Wide rang- I psychologists used suggestive tech ' rrauona crowds; child ruques to control unr I hild at ers t ought thesetechniquesmightt '" uy C I ren; still · dh fhh amepnmlllvepeopIes d In ex 0 ow pervasive these discourseswere can be found inan d rae,es.One in ustr y that at the turn of the cent ' f a vernsmg.an Ftpare ~6. Mapping the external, conscious, and subconscious stages of salva­ dh ioues of ury was rurnmg rom rational appeal _ From Horece Emory Warner, The Psychology of tlte elmstian Life, 1910. t~ DIquesa .manipulatingirrationaldesires, instincts,andneeds,EVlde;:: ca m ~~ rsu a slO n , carefully reasoned appea ls-none oftheseseemed towork ~'I~~ as suggesnng something to the unconscious. In 1908 Wailer 1, cott, one of the most influential advertising schola rs andrhe first tnMIation of unconscious forces into Christian salvation stages, and his tO Import psychological insights into the field, wrote that"theactualeffect ..., __ that these stages be confirmed by scripture, betr ays a concern af modern advernsm.. g I.S not SO much to convince astosuggest," Scott used thit matter. he was regulating and domesticating the unconscious's : .temporary psychological theory to understand better how conviction. ""'-dloBaI paIJes. But.s spiritual seekers traveled farther out on the reli­ theIre, and Finally, action were produced by incomingstimuli. He follo...d __ 'left. they ~ len likely to take these cautious steps. Some turned psychologICal tradition fairly closely, arguingthatincoming stimuli were , ...edoat for moments of inspiration, stra nge intuitions pre­ automaticallhe y routedt hroug ht he self and int' o muscular aetlon-a. slong as CXIDIJt\unications, discussions with departed spirits, ~ success ful adverti~ng telept:hlC re Were no inhibiting ideas. Thekey to was ensur­ .., al1IiJinllllPl',.nd trances. These more radical liberals couldwax ?'8 ~t this "reflex arc" moved efficiently from advertisement10 purchas­ MI 1he powers of the subliminal self. These radical VISIons, ~ havior. SCOtt outlined asetofrecommendations thaIuscdthe Ianguase ... t scientistS pNdiaable reactions not just from POSltlVIS Ina"8gestlon.Advertisersfirst hadto raise consumer suggestibilitY by aat· bte£ully, from sober progressives and Protestants, a pleasurable advertising environment. Then they had to implant l .. M£end belief from unsophisticated handlers on :~nds or other enticements in the self that ~~ ~ 10 se 1l.r·:llI!Intry hal been flooded with hasty interprtl' men to buy products. Finally they had to m,n_ Utrerferill8 ... "APparent y, • -lIIbItiOna and competing images. Controlling thetotal envinJIlIIMI" 01 George Cae worried in 1907· 1zlng. ' h. • mphas t ....ion. and seneations was not easy. Scott jnsimd dill•- 11I8..... - PI ifIntent,6..,t, upon e nd he IlI0rt I operatioN of the mind a . t .u port subJeaed to influencesofwhich we had nobol. '" the fUbc:onJCiOUI .5a speerll P 166 / Suggestive Explan at ion s Suggestive f. :rpla"at' James's named Boris Sidis bo d Ions I 167 , rrowe sorn f retained by the unconscious and used to for m opinion s, jud gments, and even P O SS i bi l ~t~ philosophies of life. ln some ways, Scott 's work represent ed th e end of the hi m, focused on the d2,5 . And Si nceeach prOminent A . e scope of SCIentific psychology, many of the rnencan ps ch I most individual awakens 12,500 units of suggestive energy, and since there ace ~uch practices fraudul ent~ 7 ooglsts could not resist anempung 10 prove 1,000 individuals, the total units of energy can rise to 12,5' 5,000, whiWch lnatorof psych I ' . Joseph[astrow, thesingle most prolificc1i,sem- III indefatig ble ogical knowledge to the pubhcbetween 1690 and 194" and v is the sum of the original energy generated by the mIIaster'and thI'keeaggother . ns "'a. certai a he opponent of irrationalism andbelief in most of its forms. gate energy p uced by auditors. Though these cacu atlO , I rod ve 1»o~r...U1OL logyn "t atde accordimg to Heinze, "the enure enterpriseof popular calculations I have analyzed in this book, stri ke us as oThdd andculTl PU'lrh.lIuPS "'Ptntition " I~ pended on persuading Americans to abondon myth.nd nonleJ\slC&L they nicely represent Sid is's main concern. e wak ••. '-____ f ntroI_a .nloe- "- been ' Suggestion washis mainweapon, ·UnconsciouS'''88""'''''' ....- of the unconscious were careening out a co I'k wildfir<· one of the most potent influences for the production of oIJeaed cIitinhibitin& Inciting people to frenzy. Mob energy grew I e s 'U/re . _iNl lt feeds on human being ."15 1 7 0 / Suggestive Explanation s Sugg'st ive [xpl . ib di " anallon I marvels and pseudo-phenomena:' jastrow complained. "All the series of ascrr e tvme ong lns to amazi h . S 171 . h I mg ealtngs" "W experiments brought forward at irregular intervals du rin g the past century IS not t e so emn value of the reli . . e must ( , 1b ' f ' Iglous revelau nat fOrget that it to establish supernormal sensibilities have depended for th eir apparent suc­ phySl ca ean ng 0 ItS objects, which b . on, nOtlheelhica l d ." M - nngs sucees b an meta- cess (apart from trickery) upon un conscious suggestion of the operators, the emotion, unsterberg Insisted ' hi s, ursolely th d h dL" () D In IS Immen I e epr of combined with the shrewd assimilation of the desired or expected result on all IJe 1 99 · eep emotions, not divine bein ese Ypopular Psychology the part of the subjects." jastrow thought spiritualist performances, tele­ denee, wholeness, and healing. It did gs, ffectlVelysuggtsted f d wr net matter who COn 1- pathic communications, trances, and visions could be explained by analo­ eveke . ,0 murmurthe Greekalphab . h Or what power ' " et wf thetouh - } OU gies to hypnotic and non hypnotic suggesti ve processes. Perform ers could gesture 0 f suppIicanon is JUSt as stren h ' c 109 intonationand gt enmg for th h t create suggestive environments, impl ant ideas in peop le's heads, and pres­ Iimest prayer; and f or the man who bel' . e eathas the sub- ., reves 10 the m h sure and coax them into believing, acting, and th inking in certain ways. mayb e quite urumporm nr whether th I etap ysical CUre It hi I b I e ovecurer at hisb dsid ' the psyc rca A so ute or of the springh h 'l e SI Howells and Robert 0 , Sinclair, these students correlated ~ty : ~-r--- r- 1 • - bli ' I matu traih With religious styles, Howells's study, published in 9)0...... lIi!llllaltflblDCl!ofvalue, the concealed and su ImIna , .30 .diviJ

, In ~owell's cas,e, psychological too ls were used to critique evangelicals 10 particular; but 10 fact psycholog ical tools were employed ecumenicall and suggestion in particular was dispatched as a refining fire for a ra Y, of beliefs that seemed aberrant or excessive, Such was the case with Ii ;e~~ als who argued again st t~ e strange revelations of spirituali st mediums, fortl~ne -tell ers , and psychic prognosticators. Combining in lecture demon­ strations lithe technic o f a scientist" with the skills of an entertainer and "a speaker par exce llence," the psyc hologist Howard Higgins toured Chau­ tauqua circuits in t~ e 1.9 2 0 S, show ing how the psychology of suggestion ac~ounted for psych ical phen omen a (figure 18), For rhetoric and content, Hlggms dr ew on psycholog ists of decept ion such as [astrow, The first pan of his program was a seance that "demonstrated spirit forces, spirit vision writing by an invisible hand, spirit slate writin g," and so on. Careful! ' Higgins crafted a seance in which doctors , psychiatrists, Catholic p ri es t~: and others in even "the most sophisticated audiences .. . are led to believe in

the possibility of fon une-telli ng !# But this was merely a setup. "Dramatic, intensely interesting, educational and ent ertaining," the surprise ending that followed was one "in whi ch th e technics used to establish belief in for­ tune-telling are exposed." Moreover, in revealing the principles underly­ ing psychic phenomena, Higgins engaged his audi ence in a "scientifically sound discussion of the psychology of suggestion-in an effort," Higgins hoped, "to protect the public against fraud : Higgins was interested in the psychology of public speaking and per suasion and thus crucially interested in suggestion: "ln order to influence people's beliefs it wou ld seem wise to understand how they get th eir beliefs," Dr awing on psychological stud­ ies, suggestion theory, advertising, and psychology of religion texts such as Davenport's, Higgins created a powerfully suggestive environment: he invoked prestigious authorities, spoke with confidence, and repeated points hypnotically. Apparently, his lectures persuaded , ReligiOUS listeners in particular were convinced, One "nor so easily pleased" seminary .class from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis "com mented again and agaIn on [Higgins's] excellent program," while other Christians thought the show Figure '18. Advertisement (or HowardHigginS's lecture -Among the Splr­ hri hi ki " " constr UC tive pIece It~ , " was M a reaI contriburion to C rrsttan t 10 109 or a j ec~urcd 1920 5. From the Redpa th Chautauqua Colleclion.UOl \"ersltyofIOl'o a of religious and education work.,,)7 Other popular psychologistS h LIb ran.ee, Iowa City. Iowa, imila ' d wi h "\ \ pastor of a Baptist c ure on SImi r tOPiCS, an wit Simi ar resu ts. a ne ' f iri- . Chica ' ' h \ ', xplanatlon 0 Spl m go thought another jrirter'ant psyc 0 oglst s e h same , \ ' and at t e l\18llsm "clean, amusing, mystifying, disllnct y unIque, f I j'l,ions ' ns dasete o against one of the worst de \USlO an _ J' ust ume. telling blow , f' I of course ofthe day: This pastor was not against belle in genera " sauhs on bri ' their as tIti. kind of belief. Lecturers like these were nng,ng 18 0 / Sugges tive Explana tion s S·8geSl" e upl . anations I spiritualism and oth er illegitimate systems to towns all over Amer ica. The for ten to twenty mtnUtes "0 1.81 . 0 not merely I k credulous and the misled beware!38 YOUR SElf UPTO IT, until ir fills and fI 00 Upon It bur wh II Then readers were to close "the ey °fve r owsthe e n tir~ conse" 0 YGIVE .. h h es Or ['We IO usness It behold It W i t r emind's eye and I ' my to thirty m lnut . PRACTICES OF GOD' S PRESENCE I et It perm h es more ' and, Iarer, to ca II I t to mind dunng k f eate t ewhole Or . ' . ib wa e ul hour f h ganlsm" Tho~gh its uses and explanatory powers had lim its, as we have seen, sug­ had to mscn' e those suggested ph rases In theSO t e night. BIe leVers gestion remained a key way to think about how spirituality worked in the phrases affirmed that God was irn . IT consciousness Th . " manem In th If ' ese belOgs were recepuve to diVine imp I " e se I and that huma modem age. A range of religious liberals used this concept to helpthemselves u ses_ COD n sin and achieve spiritual assurance. FILL SM E," "I AM NOT BODY." Though f IS Ii[R E," "'D1VINl lO V[ overcome . . h f Con used de d (,834­ behevers mi g t IOd these suggestion ff ' " presse . or afflicted One of the most important of these liberals was Henry Wood . 5 e IcaCIQUS onl d should not despair, The spintual gro h h Ygra .ally, Ihey '908), a successful businessman who found relief from neurasthenia and wr I at result d Id instanraneous. This was not supersritio . e wou nOI be dyspepsia in New Thought. Turning his prodigious energies to publish­ n or magic Wood a naturaI and rhus spiritually legitimat ' wrote. It was ing, Wood wrote a number of influential popular books on mental e process of growing I h healing and spiritual growth. Like others bathed in the light of new books, he rnad e th is point more emphaticall . control. The religious problem In America was precisely that believers were engaging in irrational and "hypnotic" behaviors.Thoughdistressed souls were quite willing ro put aside their reason, subduing bel ievers in REV_ ELWIN LINCOLN HOUSE. D. 0 hypnosis only made them "irrational and unconsciou s" end too recep. tive to make clear religious judgments. Hypnosis wasan"unnatural"and .J !tOOD RIVER. OREGO!'J extreme form of suggestibility that weakened the wilL This was dises­ trous because, in order [Q cultivatethe proper kindsoffaith, behevers had MSpi.. NAI. s..-.w ~ l:plohi,,( fot.._bc." Rn J-- N Plu«. D 0 W••lotn,t.". D, C to both accept suggestive aids and, more important, focus theirattention on th em .f ? In his outline of the four stages of suggestion, the pastorand (later) dean of the Hartford School of Religious Education, Karl Stolz, Figure' 9. E.L. House was certain that psychol­ began by saying that a "distinct effort ofthe will" usually was n"essary ogy, when used properly, could strengthen Christian to "lodge the requisite idea in the mind." Always there wert' ideas and faidt. From an advertisement for House's lecture emotions that competed with the suggestion."Uncritical attitudes, ideas "The Psychology of Religion: '9205.From the whichate emotionally toned instinctualdrives and basic wishes are held Redpath Chautauqua Collection, University of Iowa in lItental focus without conscious effo rt: Stolz wrote. Inorder for the Lihrarieo, Iowa City, Iowa. suggestion to penetrate the self, it "must be a sse nt~ to as drs;:; overpowering," and the will had to force Il to "dammate_the hen hal he " yer of faith is lecturer William Sadler pointed out that t e pra _ d f the 'Iy." Once fixed in the self with willful a!lenrion, the beloewr t.- J . the rtun 0 to .- s new ;dtoa, _ new fawnble and powerful auto-suggestion to h- hly expect the automatic reactions-newconviction . 110wed D1CJIIltIUS of become ,g wIII1e the prayer of doubt and fear may " Sadler lICtions instantiating the suggestion- Finally, there fo . oeIf. In . Prayer, 01 Its power of adverse suggestion. .-. I weakness Plltlvity, when the suggested ideal ripened in the u'=deWed ~~ ted as 10 become a source of mOlr~ r chapters­ lIIIlerol.1houah, the processwasdependent on 80Jd _III win ear ie _ Coe's eoncem. aswe sa he range ~- for exercising the Will. The Reve _ or~OII · !ism from t I th.t Individuals couldpractice focusing attef\liOll 4Ukk to exclude evangeI.C8 menica . =J.....IIl.., In other ways they were eeu 186 I Suggestive Ex planations Suggestive E,rp/. d' b ' h nations I 8 Go s cauty Wit disease" and h 1 7 certain small acts, The y could focus on one part of the body and Con­ 'ff I t e ways God' in dJ erent ayers, spiritual and h . s POwer man'f d centrate on the idea of heat, Did a warm glow come to that part of the body? he self ' 9 P ysical, layers that d ' OS « Itself r .: Bra ually built up They might stand motionless for five minutes; open and close fingers slowl y Similar ways of relating healin d and attentively; gaze steadily at an object for a minute without win kin IM g an salvatio . Emm anue overnenr, a therapeutic " n were apparent in th (and gradually lengthen the time); touch someone in pain and say, "I will y Episcopal Church that would be irni rnd,nlst,r at BoSton's Em manu ~ J the pain to depart"; or "close your eyes and constr uct the face of a friend nate na uonw'd ' h e rieth century. Toughh the movemem usuaIly i J. e 10 I e early twen- feature by feature.,48There were differ ent ways to do it, but most agreed chological ministry to the sick and h ~s Interpreted as a psy- that strengthening the will helped believers have a healt hy and temperate . neurast erttr it see It as a movement to restore spirhu I , IS more accurare to religious experience. ' a Pcwertc the h h Th i undaub tedly r h e Intention of its founder, EIwood IV C UTe. hISwas a doctorate in psychology and had bee d areester, w 0 had n a Slu ent ofW,lhl W d ' Worcester wanted to revive the church and ff d e m un. t HEALING AND BELIEVING stave 0 efecti h tia n Science and other new psychological a d I" IOnsto C n s- ,· n re Ig lOUS movements "As, Because liberals borrowed psychological insights about the coextensive student af reItgron, I could not help seeingth f h ' nature of body, mind, and spirit, they saw ment al and physical health as " I lif I Chr: , at some 0 the powersand spmtu'a Iup I t o hnstd s religionhadbeenlost."' Thetwenner. h-century indicators of saving spiritual states. For this reason, commonplace assump­ Church s ow.estate a resulted from the aba ndonrnent0f i ItS minISt, ry of tions that liberals exchanged spiritual styles for therapeutic ones must be heI pf u.Is' e"50rvice, as well asfrom a ' lossoHaithin the rea IIt' yand po w~ r o f qualified in some cases and rebutted in others. Often, interest in therapies th~ ~plnt , These were co ~s t a n t refrains in Worcester's writings .As. and psychological states was an indication not of religious decline but of minister he confessed to feelings of sad ness that"'insome way something religious seriousness. has evap ~r ~t e d out of the gospel of Christ, and theChristian religion." "Spiritual healing," Horatio Dresser, for exam ple, once wrote, was "a Many rmrusters, Worcester admitted, "have thesad feeling . ." hal it is regenerative experience accompanying natural processes," a "change of gelling harder and harder for them year byyear todo thework of the bean .. . from fear or hate to trust or love." Thi s experience was partly a ministry and to produce the spint ual effect on their people that they chanse in one's consciousness and partly a supernatu ral interventlon- a long so much to do." Worcester saw two pa rts 10 spintual restoranon: divine-human cooperation that could result in both inner calm and physi­ healing the church of false and archaic beliefs, andhea ling mdrviduals cal heahh, "The restoration of the physical organism," Dresser thought, suffering from disbelief, nervousness, and other illnesses. Becausehe aseernng the primacy of the interior, "is incidental to an interior processof Was influenced by the body-spirit mon ism of psyrhology, Wor",t., ~tion to which the therapeutic process directly leads." Words like saw the two tasks as intimately related. To heal thechurch, Worcester IJtllling were often used to talk about these new therapies, but the "process prescribed a dose of biblical criticism:he recognIZedonly the "thtOlogy _ guided by spiritual insight and activity:' and this fact made it,more of the New Testament as modern critical scholarship has disclosed it'" ' I b I' ' particular and turned his attention to discarding beliefs thatdid not pus cridcal _ mere heaUns or psychotherapy, MetephYSica e levers rn , f tests. As Worcester saw it biblical criticism would nOI only excist the ...lJIiedthat the state of the body, in health and sickness, was a reflection 0 _ irrational accretions of rhe church but also isolate Important ISpect' of drcumttanees. faith produced not just optimism. happiness, anidbconI ,"F . h /I another I era Christianity that had been Ignored or lost,"Asa student oldl< N,ew Ir aho created health and physical vigor. au , ' f Test J I k thlt som an s.WII _ thIs .. , eart. ease do that 59 an 5. Here 51 h ters divided those in liberal religious circles, psycholog ical discou rses . .. omac r o o As powerfu l as t hey we re, some t] . often encouraged believers to think in physiological ter ms. Even the . messuch SU . Sometimes mental actions did not ggestlO nswerenote h sober and well-educated dean of Yale Divinity School, Cha rles Reynolds move physi I f noug . these cases, these forces could be mo d b h ca orceswith alacrity I Brown, affirmed in 1910 that "thoughts are things, and thei r power for . " ve y and S . n prOVided detailed Instr uctions on the .. 1 . prague, for instance good or ill can be accurately weighed and measu red." By linking thoughts Splritua and h .' therapeutic healing (figure 20). The ' 11 . p ysica] dYl1ll mics of to physiological processes, Brown's scientific colleag ues at Yale helped him . h .. I ustraUon show "rh . applymg t e spiritual forces to the ba f h h 5 t l"- d d repeattng t . -e...... unity to utter the final wordon mattersspInt and psyehict. and .- rctiriD8 at niSh" Sprague recomm en e h hile Munsterberg had studied and debunked JD~ acaJUllllor these tbDIP. willimprove in health and s~ren~;llw[)ear YtlIII 1 )astrow, used categories such as suggesnon he the morning refreshed and feehng . ·on.' like death spob ...... hi detertTIInatl Y ~upernatural phenomena.Iust after~ what ~ ..finn and to carry out t IS I had si",i- • thia time to a Boston ",edium. who Oiliertimes of day. Other peo~:rgsns had aped that cens, nerves. an . ' Sllgge stive Ex I . 194 / Suggestive Explanations Yo rk Tunes, As his bicgraperaswh h ' p ana/IOns I 19 ~ was appropriated , , , by the publ ICtom" nuen,' in thisone final· ' Su examples of a publl eet ItS OWn n --.1 .. moment, "he ch, ' Ica tt~ ' ~s,1 of a SCientist might strike us as perveptlngbto undo the card I, f example of how ordinary Am'encans rse, uL t this is merelUy a i ework courses- especially when thes d reworKed or resisted . n extreme . e ISCOurs 5(lcntif di cally red ucn ve, or destructive of deeplv esh Iseemedd beli hegemOm" . a"lCm ,. 15. - less underhanded ways of turn109' "'enu£''" e di lefS And the publPI hSUd- The brief history, of suggestion t hat I havIC kIscoursestoth err. ecva_ J inrac a of how categori es originally Iashionedesto Ietched.he" re is 0ne examplg" to religiousness · e terms could also be used refoeman d, In' expmanyamcases In secula r , promote belief.

HOW TO HEAL BY LAY1~G ON 01" HANDS

J\pUe 1Do AfpIyins opirituallorces '0 rhe body, From E,W, Sprague, Th . Sci"'" ~M.nfGI. Gn. Spirit••1H•• ling, 19)0, Reprinted wrth permission

~ reversal. "When I was an inhabltan' of ehe earth I did 6JId any proofs that exearnale beings communicate wirh thrl,r • MUDfrerbergconfessed, "Allhough I havebeenin ,he,p,n' dine, I haw received absolute proofthat excarna,e being' ._dade 'with their earth friends." "However valuable ,he ill future rIme/ he continued, "this one IO·day IS .lIItl " a trUth. I am HUllo Munsterberg." There was D d'blestate· ~ -. , or refute his awnI' incr' 1lhe Ne'" aad printed in a small cournn In . h Epilog" I that were cit er not hostile to f . h e 197 di eu Or clear! man y imen srons to this projecr YsUPPOrtive of' TIt Epilogue . h ' as we hay It. ere w borrOWing P renological notions to h e ~een, ra nging fro lobe ere demv srif 0[ ers USIO 1 m I rats Intensely Unsettled-Again to map. and..emys n y the inner'spi mrua, irn. I g ater sCient ,'f'rc met hods In rhts earlier period and even rhr h pu ses that confound d h oug OUt the f e t em [ W • h century, these borrowers sensed tharpsyc h010 ICSth half ofthe enner fully. that its meanings had to bemonienitored andgy ad to be handled care- tieth century wore on, however, Arnencanri beIr'eversaCOntrolled Asthe twen• about psyc 0 ogy. Their uses of it di 'f' ppea red less worried . . h I tverst led and b with anxiety. By the middle of the t . h 'came less ringed ' wentlet cem u Iibera t eo aglan even noted that "to h ry, one perceptive I h I . a many t eolo ' pay but passIng attention to psycholo H hi ki gla ns are COntentto gy. t 10 mg "th he i alread y settI ed" Why had the urgen t need toh armoniat t e ISs ues are the issues been settled? Why were rhecloei d mze wa ned? Had There are several possible endi ngs to thi s story. On e is that, in the end, cgra nsan other dd 1 I anxious about using psychological insights?1 5 su en y ess believers mishandled the sharp edge tools of science and abetted secular­ ization in its different American forms. In fact, this has become a conven­ tional way of thinking about this period and about religious liberals in The answers have. to do wirh a remarkable set 0rchanges In. psycholog panieular. as I pointed out in my introduction. Though I find this way of that began early In the century. changes related to rh d l! r y thinking about science and liberal religion problematic. there is no ques­ . . d h e ecme a POSi- tivi. sm.. an t e emergence of a broader cultureofprobabliIsm anduncer· tion that science unsettled American believers and prompted or helped tamty In SCIence, The role of the revolution in physics in all of this can sustain intellectual journeys out of old-time religions. Some individuals ~ e overstated, but the dramaticnature ofnew discoveries in that field did left their childhood faiths behind forever. But as I have tried to show in Influence psychologists and other intellectuals through indirect and direct this book. psychological traditions could aid faith as well as obliterate it channels. The works of Albert Einstein(,879-1955). Max Planck (18;8­ n.e... traditions were used to reform and revive religion-to purify irof 1947), and Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976)are usua Uy pointed roas rru­ _ettentials. to make its spiritual objectives comprehensible and plain. cia], for these men in the early decades ofthe twentiethcentury shattered Historians have too often ignored psychological strategies that Americans the Newtonian model that had for somany yea rsanchored the positivist _ 10 reconstruct older forms of faith or develop new ones. For these worldview. Planck was the first to noticethat Newtonian mechanics could RllIOIIS. I think the story here is more complicated than clear conflict not explain certain phenomena. such asthe odd behavior of"gh~ whi and thousand, of F ptlc.and subtle. As a result, positivist scientist s made fewer confident students have y ielded precisely nothing. ' , . In the fi fty-threeyearssince that 'momentous' occasion [John Watson's 19') behavlollst manifestol ..oIematlOl\S in the 19205, 1930s, and 1940s. Many wondered about the "til_ a.:iorwaf these new uncertainties and the breakdown of the older, can one positive contribution towards any increased knowledge ofmanbe POinted to? None such can be found.") . .-cbanistic framework. Z d l.n Others sensed difficulties with behaviorism much earlierand ..pen" hInI sciences in this period experienced a loss of conH ence. h h h . nces whl( With alternatives Some of the most vigorOUs ..sauilS ':':::: '"'iIi.1et, there was no possibility that t e uman '1 :=:: ... Id"Ie .d 'Sillll ar . came from the founders of the Ges18k schooL many __...._ ... UIIy mocIeIed themselves on physics, cou aVOI ad of Wert dee . ph ' Max w=­ ~ded (t ply influenced by developmcnts Il1 ,y>KS. WoIfsan8 KDhIer , .... time in the second, third, and fourth dec ce , . and pro ~943) Was a dose friend of Albert Ein.rcll1; and thiJd foundcr of MII.ry; ~sts ignored uncertatntles " was h 205 behaVIOrIsm 96]) was profoundly influenced by PIancl ~ his dIIIiC 19» llIiIiir...... wu poasible. By t e 19 , I' positiVist CesWt school was Kurt Kaffka (1886-194' )' w UI .itl!iIiI;'fI,dilolO8''1 and the inheritor of ear lel;haviori.tS ....tIel:t IIXOUJIt of human nature. B 200 / Epilogue · f I' Epilog" I resuIt IS a ee mg of disappo' e 2.01 statement, the Principles of Gestalt Psychology, took up quite directly the Intment S . ger fork now ledge nor does t . Clence dots no problems with psychological posit ivism . " If there is any polemical spirit It demands the investment 0' f sup~ly thedemand fort~iilJsfy thehun- Ones full "rSOn.1 I in this book," Kaffka wrote, "it is directed not against person s but against reward . Such disappointment ' id strength and off cu ture. a strong cultural force in our present civilizat ion for wh ich I have chosen IS WI espread. ers but scam the name positivism ." He defined positivism as efforts to use the concepts Paulsen was no Gestaltist, but the "di . id d ' IsapPO'ntm " h WI esprea I stemmmg from the fact . ern eacknowled d and methods of th e phy sical sciences in all other fields of inqu iry, and he hat i I notJUst tho b h '. ge was but t at ItS cu rural consequences di t e aVlonsm ....'a considered this procedure illegi timat e int ellectu ally and harmful morally, . d . were ISastrou G " s wrong agam an agam to th e same theme D ' s. estahlsts reru -, as did other Gestaltists. All Cestaltists insisted not ju st th at positivist psy­ . Ullng th I "f rned chologies disintegrated human valu es and impoverished us but also that learn ing and research have fought any hi e ast ew hundred years · d" . b sta e menta l 0 .. cornpIainec: can It e mere accident th ' nemanon," Kohler the fundamental tenets of positivist psychologies (especially behaviorism) at, In thepast . to destroy any conviction to which it f d .' SCience ha s tended were patently false . Psychologists had made a "cult" of the fact and fact­ . oun mankind cI at present rt seem s eager to destroy wh . lnglng, and tha t finding, and had not considered interpretation s, contexts, and how facts .'11 " at m.y stili be leftl"; usemble into cohesive wholes; th ey redu ced comp licated hu man thoughts 0 151 usronment With older, positiVist psychol ies . Some intellectuals kept hopes alive fora og I proceeded unevenly. and actions to the categories of physics, which were them selves unstable; morecamp ete sc - .f they collapsed the human self into a set of preposterou s maxims concern ­ of the self; others developed new ways of hi ki ,lentl ".ceou", new psychological schools were born t '~ 109 psychologica lly, end ing behavior; and they developed overspecialized experimental sub disci­ -cogOltlve, gestalt h .. These schools prolife rated as did their m d I f h i ' umamsnc. plines. But the harshest critiques blam ed positiv ism in its variou s form s for . h f' ' a e SO t e se f. The genera l trend 10 t e ield, tho ugh, was that psycholcg! [ik h thecultural malaise that gripped Western societies.' Scien ce and indu strial . gists, I e at er SC ientists, b IOClety were driving unprecedented cu ltural changes, undercutting older .ecame mor e reflexive about their work. This pom' t was made persua- idealist, religious, and humanist traditions withou t, it seemed, providi ng sively by James Capshew in ' 999. One markerof thrs reflexive turn Caps~ ew n ~ t e d , was the American Psychological Association's cornpre ~ tultable replacements. Dismay was particularly powerful among academics in the bir thplace hensive review of psychological fields, a massive self-study project rnin­ ated 10' 952. Th ere were two parts to the study, bothof which took many ei modern psychology, Germany. Friedrich Paul sen (1846-1908), a phi­ years to complet e: Projec t A, on the "methodologica l, theoretical, and IoIopher and educator who had studied with Gustav Fechner and who was empirical statu s of psychological science," andProject B, whichexa mi ned Ieeding authority on German education at the turn of th e twentieth "occupat ional, educational, and institutional problems." Project A was -.y,diagnosed what seemed a critical situation. .nthusiasticall y di recte d by Sigmund Koch ('9 '7-'996),. psycholog ISt \~=::' ng Hire disappointment is perceptible because scientific at Duke Universit y who embraced the self-studyasaway of"lIingm.n­ ~ does DOt seemto redeem its promise to supply a complete and fton tok ey psychological concepts that could beusedtoadvance theheld dIeoryoftheuniverse and practical world-wisdom grounded in as a whole . Koch solicited, reviewed, and editedalmost eightydifferen' _Ity of thought. Former generations had beensupplied lltanuscripts for the projected multivolume series. By 1~) , .ixvolumtS __A by religion or theology. Philosophy IOherued had appear.d. As he di rected the project, he came to believe whal crilics -r-'- . n as dis- a the ei8hteenth century. .. . Then a new generallo , f ofthe regnant behaviorism had come to believe: that the resuh.ofmuch __ (Hesehan metaphysics) as the former had been fd tzperimental work amounted to trivia . Healsocame to ...1ha1bopes for tID ICienee with expectations that exact research wtUh a.....nl. " red kl dof bIutd faith that had L-oa "vIsion; progressive science requi a 1R .. fsotias and .upply us with a true theory 0 t e -me I the seriel. aQ1uque d more eVI- Untenable. He planned a seventh vo to .. , (QIIOt do, It has become more an . w lhat ef... ume ycboIogJ ' 'IICh an ali_comprehensive world vie d field and a contribution (h. said) to a "post . POSlnv~lIea1 of ilia '_.".natWn It only discovers thou.sanh' e that he never completed. Still, Koch ~~~~RN!IllI rD.JIf)" --0' 'ally,nt e them tolerably certain, e.pecl f them ~r WOrking on these criticisms and on I""""'~ IlIpp1y a bu••for practice; SO?,' 0 Th' directions.6 r.t.rtlilln. II In the historical sciences. 202 / Epilogue most per vasive feature of W Epilog ue I Koch's life reveals how un serrlin g rhese inr ellecrual changes could estern sensib'l" 20) be, Koch described rhese cha nges in terms usually found in religious Or century through the present." L ate I'n n I Ity Irom Ihe I ate . psychologist, He was still he s id ' I e Koch rem.. d nlnereen,h theological conte xts-delusion, spiritual malaise, doubt. "In my earli­ , 31 , Wltho" rne an old, that would unify or reorient psy h J Ut any messianic id unsettled est years qu a psychologist I was myself vict im to the delusion-complex id c oogy h I ea 'ne ' eral, or prav1 e a convenient key h . or urna n kno I d' . Wor I have sought to describe, But between 1942 (when I started to teach at to r eCosm' We ge mg why sueh a key cannot be found " B h , 'C ontology, Ora I ' en- Duke University) a nd th e ea rly 1 9 5 0 S, th e scales fell gradually from my h '. . ut e didk n U tImare to h0 I eyes.... Before th e scales fell, he was an immatu re u nde rgraduat e, vulne-, psyc ogy, e said, with more self-deprecat' nowhSOmet hing'Imporrant' " WOfks toward5 attenuation andd ' I I Jng umor than b' . able to the assured proclamation s of professors and advisors. " In no time: 'Id .. enla 0 the ver '. Itterness, which cou render their Inquiry w h h' yquah"es In itsinq , at all, I was a confirmed positi vist, with conf ident answers to the Con­ on \V de"7 Ul f ers There were other reasons for this di 'II " veniently narrow range of qu estion s that the [field] accredited as 'mean­ bli lSI uSlOnment ith the generaI pu ICwas picking up on th B Wit psychology, and ingful:" As a graduate student at Duke, Koch plunged ent husi astically ', em, y thf1960 tu red on behavrorisr adv ice came of d . sa generationnur- into experimental work-"naturally, my companion in the venture was to " I hi age, an , as DaVid B k h a most as soon as t IS generation co ld si hei a an aswritten be the rat"-and his early publication s marked h im as an up-and-coming . ' U SIngt elrown .. h ' ch annng sa rcastica lly about soundpro f songs [ ey were figure, "I continued in my ea rly post-doctora l yea rs to percolate happily O , germ-proof Sk bo other ridiculous mechanical child-rear' d . inner xes and as a comparative analyst of theor y and sententious logical positiv ist law­ hei I 109 evices. These w h b b bocmers, and t elf aidback programs I l'f ' ere tea y giver." He stridently critiqued others who engaged in "in formal, sloppy, or I e expenrnema( d h laboratory experimentation of psycholo ' . .. Ion rna e t e or indeed 'literary' theorizing." But in private he was having doubts, The . . gistsseem artifkial and quenual. This generation was hard on scfence II mconse- problems that troubled him were th e same ones others worried about-the .. . nee In genera. Had sci ' vISIOnar y premises been kept? Hadscience deli d bo ' ences universality of scientific, and specificall y behaviorist, laws; the influence . vere on ro nchousehold servants, flying automobiles, personal helicopters a d h f ofbeliefs or thoughts (also called "intervening variables") on experimental 1 H d i . ' n c eap sources a energy, a, It Improved the quality of life or offered greeter national procedures; and the limitations of observation and measurement, Though secunty? SCIence, for many Americans was atom bombs poll ' h he remembered his psychological doubts as being related less to the general I'd ld " uuon, t a­ J orrn e, and napalm, The prototypically rationa l man was also the one "attrition upon positivism that began to becom e evi dent, , ' in philosophic sending them to Vietna m, Robert McNa mara. Prophecies of a scientific IIId other contexts external to psychology" th an to "an incipient feeling golden age now appeared ludicrous, as did encouragements, such asthose that the dominating theories of the pre-war era and their post-war sue­ of the anthropologist Alfred Kroeber, to continue believ ing in scientific -.were disappointingly unproductive of knowledge that was worth pr~gres s . "In proportion as a culture disengages itself from reliance on" haviJls," both factors probably had a role in altering hi s conceptions: Th ~r: thmgs like magic and superstition, Kroebe r wrotein1948, Mi t may be said vtahtl -'.welL the personal cost of producing such expen menta l trI ." ' to have registered an advance." Setbacks came from atavistic attitudes Ia tbe 194D' and 19505, Koch felt a dawning spiritual mala ise not unlike ~chieny among indi viduals whose social fortune is backward or who are NIt by other psychologists, European and Ameri can , in the early ~chotic, mentally deteriorated, or mherwise subnormal." d early the , f " whIch I ',." IIIil!th cemury. "1lIere was in me a severe malaise a spmt me idea. of the "most ignorant, warped and insane" in society,houldbe dis­ r.-!IlIe4 of£ by an excess of certitude: he remembered, He had beco regarded, "O r," Kroeber asked rhetoncally, "are ourdiscards, in"", and , herished before IIIlftllt" tIO culture, literature, and the arts, pasSIons c hypersUggestibles right and the rest of us wrong?" By mickastrology. Jung differed from Freud in his evaluarion of the metaphysical, and they continue to sell well, A mort recent study found unconscious, which Freud associated with prim it ive in stincts but which these themes in best-sellers in the ' 9905-in everything from Gloria )aDs thought connected us to symbolic and mythical truths about the uni­ Steinem's Reooilltion from Within to Robert Schuller'sevangelical Peoct --. truths that American believers could easily associate with God or ofMind throllgh Possibility Th inking. lt is no exaggeration '0sal', as J. tbe uansc:endent. And of course, Jung is only one theorist among many StillsonJudah has, that by the 1960sthemind hadbecame Amenca'smost eIher "humanistic" psychologists who resolutely turned from positiv· powerful religious motifn and behaviorism. Many others in this trajectory-Abraham Maslow . One development buttressingthis powerfulturnto "mind" among reh­ 1970). VICtOr Frankl (1905-1997), Rollo May (1909-1994), and Carl 810us Americans has been the already mentioned revolution In physics, IiIlIIlIa (1902""1987), for instance-glimpsed in the self either transceo- • rethinking of the basic properties of physical realiry that, to behevers _ «peakhuman experiences and taught us how to realize them. any.""'y, suggested ways that mind, not mailer. undergllded . II ,h,ngs. louS ...are ubiquitoUS in popular self-help books, manuals of rehg Exatement about quantum models has moved in several different direc­ 1Ip1lll-. andputoral settings as well. Their ideas also are crucialfor tion•. First, a number of Christian thinkers, especiolly hberal and "pro­ cas" heal . ed .. have __ ...I that • IlIY" nchurch . I ' h who loca" • rgeu ed Amencan popu anon . t ose ot t ogians and theologicaUy inchn setnnslS, "5- . I101rJt,rimthe self and often self-identify as ' spiritual but n the new phYSlCS. makes possible. a reenthontmen, 0fthe -td, • - pe- II . narha­b tbetl'8J\JCt!fldent out of irs older, institutlo rn tIIre of physical reality as something alive, inre~~= bi . s modern ;"dloIogists helped create this u IqullOU I8tlIe at least, conscious, One crucial ingtedirnt inthis dWIi­ ~lICy" ~ . d in other, human and divine and in thinkin8 about: to thepower ofthe min d ~ depended on quan;um metaphors. (It iS~':'_al tfliiidhee tumed h . I heelersan adll lIVWld. older metap ySlca h 19505 fI-ed James would have been.] 50Jne have ~ 1I1it have felt vindicated, for by t e 20 8 / Epilogue ' epilog. I quantum warId . Refernng to E· I! 209 Heisenb erg and others, calling attention to the observer's role in produc­ , ines rh Jnstem, who " flUid things t at merge into each h made time a d . Ot er." d h n space ing reality and argu ing that the messiness of matt er and energy, and their dissolved mnt rer Into quantum e ' an w 0, like oln h . m lO interchangeabilit y, suggest ways that consciousness shapes all thi ngs, One ' nergy packets Ch " p YSlClSts up the worJd Into three zones: maten.aI (matter )Opra wem 0 n to dIVlde' theologian and eth icist, David Ray Griffin, for insta nce, has observed tha and virtual (pure spirit), Admittedl r , quantum (10 be shado;~ . . y, traveling ' h tween], as "physicists became aware that physical theor y gave them only a spintually unstable practice; most f In t e quamumZO n and symbols of realit y, rath er th an reality itself, they became freed from , ,. d .' 0 usWere able .mpst e was den mtu Itlons an fleeting momems ofbliss Bu togb it In sud- t the materialistic worldvicw and hence open to taking th eir own conscious "quantu m navigators" had the skill to a h · h mystics and Otherexpen experience as real and revelatory." Mapping out the vectors of conscious­ , ' f I' nc Ott emselv h fee1 H 5 sign s- ee lOgS of weightlessn h . es In I IS ZOne and ness in the world ha s taken thinkers in different direction s impossible to , h b d ess, e'ghtened energy 10 t e o y, and the sense of seee!mg the " I lgh. se"Chnses, I sense of summarize here, but one crucial area has been understanding different like those of ot her New Age gurus such I opra's books, ,' , asw ayneDye d I · kinds of mentalist (or psychokinetic) effects in the world, something ew on devotIonal pracnces, including Easte f f r, rawececucally Age scientists and consciousness-studies people have been interested in. ki d f f rn orms 0 medllallona d to create. the In s 0 ocused intentions and Imagmallven'. ess hn yogi ha, I will say more on thi s in a moment. Mind- our mind and, sometimes, keep aspi rants always in this lighl 15 It isstriki ho f I .. mig t ', . Ing W 0 ten Chop ra an ultimate Mind- shapes so-called mater ial things, Griffin and others research an.d key figures In phy. sics. , psychology,andconSCIOu _ sness stucuesdies also have been interested in the matter-mind collapse implied by the new to create h IS powerful new religious vision.

physics, believing that thi s new way of thinking suggeSts an "implicate" Liberal believers have flourished in these In' determmate energet ic order in which all things are "mutually enfolded into each other: Though worlds, p rodu ~ in g different maps of metaphysica l vectors a~ d ways of things appear separate, at deeper levels they are integrated, Some think­ mentally moving them along. William Tiller, a retiredStanford Uni ver­ ers are expand,og this idea into new theological and ecological visions of sity mcreriels science professor and New Ager, IS representatlve In howhe a living, interconnected universe, a vision some quite deliberately use to uses science and psychological notions to makemetaphysical calculations. battle against "old" dualisms in psychology, science, and theology, ew In all his books, Tiller's main concern is understanding how people (an 1 4 pantheistic or panentheistic theologies have result ed perceive and control the "vasr information territories" ofsupersensible The most expansive imaginings of the uni verse-as-mind-stuff come domains-howl in oth er words, people can"see" thebits of information from New Age believers, who have embraced emphatically the new phys­ and energy that undergird the world. "Practicesofinner selfmanagemtnt ics as a source of new metaphors for the divine energies that pulse through at menta l, emotional and physical levels appear to develop additlonallatl!nt all things. Quantum healing, quantum slales, quan tum brain- these ~n sory systems in us that allowcognizingofnew information by100klng have become pervasive refrains among New Age and metaphysical believ­ Inward./I His list of self-management techniques is simila r to Chopra's: ers. 'From the scientific books I've been reading:' the New Age celebrity yoga, chi gong, and Eastern meditative practices, BUI T,Il" adds tolhose Shirley MacLaine has written, "I've learned that the field of subatomic his OWn technical procedures, which he e1 aboralCly describes In math· ..,.ntum physics has opened up a whole new world for modern sClfntistS ematical formulas and illustrates in chartsand tables thatprobe Mferem . I' k d" dime ' f h . h ... ismostly . nsmns 0 matter. Unfortunately, the mat emaucs eu , .. apIore." The quantum world shows us that "everything IS in e , ~mprehensible ... the 'universe i. a gigantic, multidimensional web of influences, or to lay readers and probably utterly confounding '.': aahsts, an esote ric translation or nature's energltS imc I symbol IC ld I, : awdon, light particles, energy patterns, and electromagnetic 'fieeldses ~~T'll .y ~~~­ here y I er and a few like-mindedsouIscanenJO ' of the ,"'Willt1r,, :"Ofcourse, MacLaine has been mostly tntereste' d irn whatlh ad F ourie~~:::m~ .n us abow .pintual living. ·We are literally made up of G IlJle for photon fluxes, physical light cones, and 6IIefoJe wecan create whatever we want in life because we ar~ physwave-all marshaled to show that scienet Itself ,.lIpi"" wbon h akes the un' ~I ~at~er, The remarkable resultsshow th~01ind a of pftyti: with the energy of God-the energy ~ at m d Vedanta WIth Intention, determine the qualities . I~ -' 'l!tliwd'1jl 01\ quantum physics, neurosCIence, an d best· ~ 0J0pn, an earnest former endocrinologist an , ag this •. All of this could be confinnedas wei by aUn .... has even offered instrUctions for "avig 21 0 / Epilogu e the health benefits of all the world' I" EpiloS"' I '" neurological studies of meditative states, which, to be sure, produce dis­ s re Ig lOU was not th e onI y one. There h L Spractices )B tinctive ECG and EEG signatures. Mental states produce particular bodily h aVeoeen rna . enscn of ping t he eaI th benefits of relig' ny Others im , course, , IOUS practlc erested In p signs. But the effects of int enti onal mental actions go beyond the body. cited unceasingly by religious lib I es, and thiS sci ·f' ma .- States of mind have even been shown to influe nce the propert ies of water , I era 5 po I enn IC work dans. Chopra agam provides a good ' puar authors and IS and biological matter, such as DNA, even when held at an ann's length hi b k example b h " metaphysi_ many. In IS 00 s, he culls from a dl , Ut e IS merely 0 from meditators. Tiller and other New Age think ers are keenl y interested .f' EEG ' n en esslist f di ne among ing speer IC signatures and wil]i 0 stu res: work I in showing this to be true-that psychological forces reach outsid e of the t mgness (or abrl! corre et- exper iences," stud ies that show the h I h b I ny) to have "spiri I self. If all matter really is mental energy, why not ? Psychokinetic effects , ' ea t enefi f . irnua logIcal work that links good posture 0 h IS a meditation psych can be traced in different form s-precognition, telepathy, clairvoyance, " r or erouterbeh ' _ ' c- emotions, conscious ness Studies that , aVtOts With elevated healing, levitation, and homeopathy. All these phenomena point to the di f d h argue aga inst . I' stu res 0 near- eat experiences and h matena Ism, clinical elusive effects of subtle energies and th e ways that the mind can move .' libe I ' . unu soon.T eseare ' reIIglOUS 1 ra S uSing psychological knowled e I again, examples of them into the world.16 lar form s of belief.l8 g to buttress theirparucu- As the Tiller example makes plain, Am erican believers are still bor­ Though liberals often h h religious bor rowwn. t e rnosr h rowing from the human sciences to prove, or at least suggest, the exis­ range of psychological studies has so b d d h en, u5lasm,.the tence and usefulness of different spiritual states. And, it should be said roa ene t at ev I have tu rned to scientific studies to gain eredenee for thei en.eva ngeI icals neurologists, psychologists, and medical doctors are giving them an Even the left-leaning New York Times r I r spmrua states, astonishing amount of material to work with . Especially in the last thirty f I' I ki ecent y reported that brainscans o evange lea s spea 109 In tongues seemed t bel! years, psychologists and others have pointed to a wide ran ge of positive f h h 0 SUpport levers' accounts a w at was appening. While speaking in tongues, subjects h db ' effects of religious belief in clinical stu dies of stress, substance abuse, pattern s that looked strikingly different fromsimilar od a.,drain mortality, immunity, heart disease, blood pressure, happiness, achieve­ , dirari scanspr ucec ur­ log me iranon, Dunng meditation, a highly focu sed mentalactivit h ment, and mental illness, among other things.J7St udies considered under frontal lobes lit up; but when a subject was speaking intongues, the lrontal the moniker of "mind-body medicine" in particular have flou rished, with lobes were quiet . All regIons controlling the thinkin g, will ful partofthe mind-body centers and institutes now established at prestigious medical brain, and the language centers, were quiet, while theregions controlling school. in the United States and abroad. The subj ect matter ranges from self-consciousness were active, It was unclear what part ofthe brain was psychoimmunology to studies of stress, yoga, and medit ation- a signal, if ~ntr ollin g th is process, Was a nonphysical entity drivingitl "The amaz­ there ever was one, that mental events, those "inte rvening va riables" that Ing thing was how the images supported people's interpretation of what poeItiYists shunned, have come back with a vengeance. Studies confirm­ was happening," one of the investigators said. "The way lheydescribe It, tItlJ the posItIVe effect. of meditation and prayer have the longest history, ~ What they believe, is that God is talking through th'm.' Therehave ~ with biofeedback studies in the 1960s and expanding recently n studies of other specifically Christian practices as well, meluding ~~..illtddm. .uch u the Harvard cardiologist Herbert Benson have popu­ D1a~y Studies of int ercessory prayer, of the neurosCientificfoundariOllf of die 1Dlportant physiological effects of meditative states. Benson ~tlo."al Christian conceptions of faith or spirit, and even ItgumenlS the physiological states-heart rate, respiration, blood pres- a:.::nune conception of the brain. Somebelievers arecobMing togeth .~ iI1llnlillWlM! ac:tivity-of different believers while they engaged unaglt~ Hindu~ tIvt nts of a .new Christian apologetics usmg brsm orcos:. pnayas. Cathobcs said "Hail Mary, full of grace," "':;~ologlcal studies. It should be saidthltthe SCI~lIfic~ Protestants offered short prayers. Benson even ha _ ubJ~s, and especially on whether Godor religiositY wbo 1iIl••• ample word. for religious phrases, words like the bra,n, cuts two ways. There is still no shortage of ~ la elidted what he famously called the "relaxah"on . "fig tor performing the New Age reductionin reverse, tNtspirt! <- -tel that line up oppoSite our E ed for noridlI8. sea cba1JlII - . - . f Iigi°us !len so, believers cannot be blam iuuMhed ,... eufier...yehological stud"sare. f pronouncements of theorists Freud. e- I reciatlon 0 P 6de"" like l distinctly ecumenica app 212 / Epilog ue who believed religion was an unhealthy neurosis, to the psychological Notes studies today that link it to health, happiness, and longevtry.l" It is worth recalling, finally, that these contemporary appropriations of psychological motifs and experimental results are not so different from the strategies used by earlier believers-people who, like Henry Ward Beecher and George Coe, used psychology to reconsider the spiritual self and understand better how it worked. Liberal believers dur ing the time of the first scientific psychology-phrenology- for example, saw that psychology offered a clearer way of peering into the self, a way of see­ ing confounding inner forces by measuring their traces on the Outer self. When the "new psychology" emerged in the last decades of the nineteenth century, it was an improved way of doing the same thing- of seeing in the body the basicelements of the self. Though this psychology and others I N TR O DUC TI O N incorporated possibilities that could cut away at religious conviction, such dangers could be controlled or qualified, at least provisionally, by believ­ 1 . The literature on the conflict between scie d I' · h nee an re igionis vast es ing interpreters such as Stanley Hall, William James, and Edwin Starbuck. a reI ated I tter at ure on t e Victorian crisisof fa ith Ar _' IS . I d A d D' kson w h! . ewrepresennnw works IC After the rise of the new psychology, a cascade of religious believers, and Inc u e n. rew . son While' A History of t"nt Warfare 0{SCltnu . WIth I I especially religious liberals, used psychology in creative and often quite T lea ogy..'" ChrIStendom (NewYork..' D Appleton''J>j,1" 6)' WaItterH oug h ton Th e Yictorian Frame of Mind 1830-]870 (New Haven CT' v I U . ' ClUUting ways-to point to transcendent elements in the self; to under­ P d ' ". rae mversuy ress, 1957); an . Paul Carter;TheSpiritual (risosofth,GuildedAg, (Dekalb: ItaIId better how to control emotional and spiritual energies; to increase Northern Illi nois University Press, 1971). Revisions to the "warfa re" model nlisious vitality; and to develop faith-pro ducing schemes, suggestions, also have been fairl y extensive. See James Moore, The Pos/·Darwmian Can ­ -.I affirmation•. These traditions represented powerful ways of using ~ro v ersie s ; A Stlld y ofthe Pro testant StruggletoCome toTermsWith Darwin jWjddogy to seemore dearly both the transcendent elements of the selfand t~ GreQt Britain and Am erica, ]870-]9°0 (Cambridge: Cambridgellniver­ possibilities, which were always elusive, of achieving a greater measure suy Press, 1979); John Hedley Brooke, Science andReligion:So me Hi storical Pers pectives (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 199'): lohn Hed ley Gftpiritual assurance. Br~oke and Geoffrey Cantor, Reco115tructing Nature : Th e Engagement 0/ Sc,ence and Religion (Oxford: Oxford Umversir y Press, 1998); Jon Rob< ns, Darwinism and the Divine in America: Pro testantIntellectuals and Organrc Evolution, 1859- 1900 (Madison: University ofWI""ns;n Press, '988); and Paul Croce, Science and Religion in the Era o{ WilhamJ.mes (CNp<1H& Umversity of North Carolina Press, 1995)' . , •. NewmanSmyth,"Orthodox Rationalism: Prinre". R,vr"" 58(11181). 312. n~' On the marginalization of theology, see, for,xa.:~u:.: ~Han, eds., Religious Advocacy and rhe Wntrng af oJ a/ ht,4mtrl­ "" Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, '996);George Man4et>. TIre ~ U.:.u" (NtW ~ " If>e r' i t y : from Protestant Establishment to Est.W,sh ~ liM ~rd UniversityPress, 1994); George ~ ~:.... '9Wl' GeIlF h .... Scholarship (New York; oxford Univenay ,.,...£Do '" Tlte Evangelical Mindandthe New School ~...... IIa/ThoughtandTheology inNint't...,h- WiIA""',GoI"....IIIIl'~ en: ¥aIe Univenity Prets, 197"); j1me11\IIIl'I'