Posts Tagged ‘http://www.bookrags.com/wiki/The_Varieties_of_Religious_Experience#Healthy-mindedness_versus_the_sick_soul’

I found this article that summarized William James’s thought on the healthy vs the sick minded person:

The healthy mind, (described in Lectures IV and V under the title of “The religion of healthy-mindedness”. The healthy-minded have a naturally positive outlook on life. Perhaps influenced by the popularity of the Mind-Cure Movement, a social pressure group of the day that promoted positive thinking as a cure for disease and depression, James assumed that some people simply are happy. “We find such persons in every age, passionately flinging themselves upon their sense of the goodness of life, in spite of the hardships of their own condition, and in spite of the sinister theologies in which they may be born. From the outset, their religion is one of union with the divine” says James. In the lectures, Walt Whitman is a favorite example of healthy mindedness. James quotes Francis W Newman, describing such individuals as seeing God, “not as a strict Judge, not as a Glorious Potentate, but as the animating Spirit of a beautiful harmonious world. Beneficent and Kind, Merciful as well as Pure”.

The sick soul, (described in Lectures VI and VII). Those people having a sick soul are those who are depressed and see the evil in all things. James focused on this “divided soul” personality as the candidate for the benefits of conversion. He believed that the only way for a sick soul to cure itself is to undergo a powerful mystical experience, or religious conversion. He argues these so-called “twice born” souls turn out to be the most healthy in the end, since they have seen life from both perspectives.

I personally believe in what William James says, that in order to be a truly intellectual and wise person, or healthy as it is put, then you must be a “twice born,” or sick soul. He states that the sick soul has seen both perspectives and therefore can make decisions in an unbiased and truly thought out level, and I feel that without thinking about all sides, which in turn would mean to experience all sides, then we cannot really break into a truly individualistic and higher intellectual train of thought. Not saying that it is bad, but without the adversity, the bad, negative outcomes and experiences, and just bad with the good we cannot truly say that we have life or any aspect completely figured out. If I had just experienced nothing but the good, everything I wanted, and never really had the challenge of failing in my beliefs, thoughts, actions, and desires then I would not be the person I am today, nor would I try to thoroughly try to think out and analyze what is presented to me. Not saying that I’m the model intellect mind you, far from it actually, but I know I wouldn’t be on this level of thought without the bad, and wouldn’t try to keep a neutral view in anything, therefore I don’t miss things based on focusing only on positive light. I am sure that many other people feel the same way, that phrase, “wouldn’t change a thing,” in this term because we have all experienced bad, and I just think that we are better minded, better acted, and just better people for them.

reference: http://www.bookrags.com/wiki/The_Varieties_of_Religious_Experience#Healthy-mindedness_versus_the_sick_soul