![]() ![]() A belief in this optimistic mental approach to life is what motivated the ‘mind-cure’ movement influenced by Ralph Waldo Emerson and others in the United States. He terms such individuals as ‘once-born’. ![]() Some people are born with an inherent optimistic outlook on life and do not generally consider the evils of the world. ![]() This should not be taken to mean through hedonistic living, but through attaining an inner happiness. A religious experience, then, may be produced by the experience of sustained happiness. James argues in his fourth and fifth lectures that finding and maintaining happiness is the purpose of life. Chapter 3 establishes that people seem to have the capacity to experience the unseen and also a propensity to perceive it as being more real than things seen, heard, touched or tasted. In fact, it is out of the intense experiences of a small few that most religious movements (or ‘sects’ as he terms them) have developed. ![]() Moreover, as he explains in his second lecture, the focus must be on personal religious experience rather than corporate, because it is more fundamental. Instead, he chooses to focus the study on ‘religious geniuses’. He explains that it would be of little benefit to base the research on common individuals who have confined religious experiences and imitate traditions which have been passed on to them. In his opening lecture, James describes the methodology of his study. ![]()
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