…all this philosophy stuff, but actually that person who says that is what's called a pragmatist and he's in the tradition of William James and Bentham and he but he's a bad pragmatist because he hasn't examined his premises, he hasn't thought it out and…

…many, many years, more than thirty years, I've been interested in the psychology of religion, pretty much as a disciple of William James, who was really the first outstanding psychologist of religion who tried to understand what is going on when people have…

…the words. And therefore there's always a good laugh in this against the mystics. You know the sort of attitude that when William James took nitrous oxide to see whether he could get a mystical experience he certainly did. But he made some funny remark…

…to the study of comparative religion and the psychology of religion, saying that I was really in the following of William James, who tried two things: to give a description of the psychological dynamics of religious experience as brought about by what…

…so awareness is the one who's aware of it. You could say this awareness if I say I am aware, the word I, as William James suggested, is simply a word of position, like this or here. Awareness here and your awareness there. Yes, sir, yes, life is like…

…I will talk to you about the psychology of mystical experience. I have, through all my life, really been a disciple of William James who as you know wrote a book called the varieties of religious experience. I was always fascinated by his approach to…

…of grief is grief. And so when you see that there comes a point which we could best call giving up, surrender William James pointed this out likewise in his study of the varieties of religious experience and the psychology of conversion there's the point…

…it eternal or non eternal, is it separate or is it one with etc. Etc etc and all these are silly questions. The word I as William James said is a pronoun of position like this or here, or like the it in it is raining. So when I say I know, I do,…

…being whatsoever is I. I is simply the universe aware of itself at a particular place and time that's what the word I means. William James once said the word I is a noun of position, like this or here, and so the feeling that we call I is how…

…is you has the capacity to focus itself at ever so many different here and nows. So when you use the word I, this, as William James said is really a word of position like this or here. Just as a sun or star has many rays, so the whole cosmos…