The Varieties of Religious Experience

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The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature

Author	William James
Original title	The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature, Being the Gifford Lectures on Natural Religion Delivered at Edinburgh in 1901–1902
Country	United States
Language	English
Subjects	Philosophy of religion Psychology of religion
Publisher	Longmans, Green & Co.
Publication date	1902
Media type	Print
Pages	534
LC Class	BR110.J3 1902a
Followed by	Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking (1907)

The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature is a book by Harvard University psychologist and philosopher William James. It comprises his edited Gifford Lectures on natural theology, which were delivered at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland between 1901 and 1902. The lectures concerned the psychological study of individual private religious experiences and mysticism, and used a range of examples to identify commonalities in religious experiences across traditions.

Soon after its publication, Varieties entered the Western canon of psychology and philosophy and has remained in print for over a century.

James later developed his philosophy of pragmatism. There are many overlapping ideas in Varieties and his 1907 book Pragmatism.

Contents

The book has 14 chapters covering 20 lectures and a postscript.

Lecture I. Religion and Neurology.

In this first lecture, James outlines the scope of his investigation. Neither a theologian nor a historian of religion, James states that he is a psychologist and therefore his lectures will concern the psychology of religious feelings, rather than the institutions of religion. This further limits his enquiry to religious phenomena that have been articulated and recorded by individuals, limiting his study to either modern writers or sources from history which have become classic texts. James then distinguishes between questions concerning something's origin and its value, insisting that his purpose is to understand the origin of religious experiences and not to pass judgement on their value. This means that if James finds some material or natural cause of religious experience in his study, this should not lead anyone to conclude that this undermines their religious or spiritual value.

Lecture II. Circumscription of the Topic.

In his circumscription of the topic, James outlines how he will define religion for the sake of the lectures. Religious institutions are found wanting in this regard since they are not primary but rather depend on the private religious feeling of individuals, especially those of the founders of such institutions. James thus defines the essence of religion as "the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider divine". He then distinguishes religion from moral or philosophical systems such as Stoicism which also teach a particular way or living, arguing that religion is distinguished by the presence of a sentiment which gladly assents to it. Religion is thus that which combines a moral system with a particular positive sentiment.

Lecture III. The Reality of the Unseen.

James begins his third lecture by noting that all states of mind involve some kind of object but that religious experiences involve an object which cannot be sensibly perceived. This ability to be aware of insensible objects in the mind, such as being aware of a presence in the room, is an ability particular to human beings. These experiences are sometimes connected with religion but not always, and James insists that they are not at all unusual. For those who have had such experiences, they are irrefutable and no rational argument will dissuade someone of their reality, even if the subject cannot explain or answer for the experience themselves.

James criticizes the rationalistic and scientific approaches, which would question these experiences, as being rarely convincing in the sphere of religion: rational arguments about religion are compelling for someone only if they already believe the conclusion. This is just a fact of human psychology for James, not a value judgement: humans are more persuaded irrationally and emotionally than they are by reasons. James concludes his lecture by noting the different kinds of responses such experiences can elicit (joy and sorrow), the variation of which will occupy his following lectures.

Lectures IV and V. The Religion of Healthy-Mindedness.

In these lectures, James outlines what he calls healthy-minded religion. Healthy-minded religion is one branch of James's two-fold typology of religion (the other being sick souled religion, discussed in the following chapters). This kind of religion is characterised by contentment; it is a life untroubled by the existence of evil and confident in its own salvation. For the healthy-minded individual, one's happiness and contentment is regarded as evidence for the truth of their religion. James follows Francis William Newman in calling this kind of religion 'once-born', referring to the lack of religious conversion or second birth experience. James presents a number of examples of healthy-minded religion throughout these two lectures and offers the mind-cure movement as an exemplar of healthy-minded religion. The philosophy of healthy-minded religion is not one of struggle but of surrender and letting go; this is the route to physical and spiritual health. James finishes his fifth lecture with a note about positivist scientists who simply regard religion as an evolutionary survival mechanism. While not explicitly endorsing mind-cure, James argues that its growth should warn against the most positivistic and sectarian scientists who see nothing of value in religion.

Lectures VI And VII. The Sick Soul.

Lectures VI and VII complete James's typology of religion by considering sick souled religion. James makes the contrast between the two religious approaches by considering their different responses to the problem of evil: whereas the healthy-minded believer is untroubled by the existence of evil and simply chooses to have no dealings with it, this option is not available to the sick souled believer, for whom the world's evils cannot be ignored. For the religion of the sick soul, evil is an unavoidable and even essential part of human existence and this makes straightforward religious acceptance of the world difficult. James describes an experience of the world utterly stripped of all its emotional valence, transforming all experience into melancholy. To illustrate this, James quotes from Leo Tolstoy's short work My Confession, which describes Tolstoy's experience of utter meaninglessness, and John Bunyan's autobiographical account of melancholy, which was bound up with Bunyan's perception of his original sin. James's third example is an unnamed source (which is in fact autobiographical) who describes overwhelming panic and fear who felt utter dread at his own existence. Throughout the discussion of these examples, James indicates that all three recovered from their melancholy but that discussion of this will be postponed until later lectures. James concludes the lecture by considering the possible disagreement that could arise between healthy-minded and sick souled religious believers; James argues that, while healthy-minded religions can be completely satisfying for some people, they are ill-equipped to deal with suffering. Therefore, the best religions are, in James's view, those such as Buddhism and Christianity which can accommodate evil and suffering by teaching a path of deliverance.

Lecture VIII. The Divided Self, and the Process of Its Unification.

James begins this lecture by rehearsing the arguments of the previous lectures on healthy-mindedness and sick soul. He notes that, while a healthy-minded individual can achieve happiness through a surplus of positive experience over negative, this is not available to the sick soul. The sick soul is so burdened by the despair and transience of natural life that it takes a spiritual transformation to overcome this melancholy. James argues that the experience of a sick soul is psychologically rooted in an individual having a disordered constitution, presented in the lecture as the presence of two conflicting selves in a person. Normal personal development consists in the unifying of these two selves but this is not always successful and the period of unification is characterised by unhappiness. James notes that for those with a more religious disposition, this disunity will be experienced as religious melancholy or conviction of sin, and suggests Saint Augustine and Henry Alline as examples of religiously divided souls who eventually achieved inner unity through religious conversion. James notes that religious conversion can occur either gradually or suddenly, before returning to the examples of Tolstoy and Bunyan, who both exemplify the gradual approach. The root of the sickness of these two souls can be found, James argues, in their inner disunity and thus was overcome by a process of unification — or religious conversion. Despite the unification of their souls, neither Tolstoy nor Bunyan have become healthy-minded: James argues that the previous experiences of both preclude this categorisation; rather, they are twice-born.

Lecture IX. Conversion.

After discussing the unification of the disordered soul, James moves on to discuss the specifically religious instances of this phenomenon, the phenomenon of conversion. Two lectures are devoted to this subject which, in the published volume, are presented as two separate chapters. To introduce the idea of conversion, James begins by quoting at length the testimony of an individual named Stephen H. Bradley, who experienced a dramatic conversion experience at the age of fourteen after attending a Methodist revival meeting. James then proceeds to discuss the ways in which an individual's character can develop according to the specifics of their life and argues that such changes occur as a result of changing "emotional excitement" in one's life, whereby things which once excited an individual's emotions no longer do so, or vice versa. Therefore, for James, to be converted means that religious ideas move from a peripheral place in one's consciousness to center stage and that these religious ideas begin to take a central role in the convert's energy and motivation. As to why this change takes place, James notes that psychology cannot provide a clear answer but suggests the symbolism of mechanical equilibrium could help to provide an answer. Following E. D. Starbuck, James makes a distinction between volitional conversion, wherein a convert consciously chooses to convert, and self-surrender conversion, which involves a convert letting go and allowing themselves to be converted. Volitional conversions are more gradual than self-surrender conversions, the latter of which are more likely to involve dramatic conversion experiences and, James argues, are the more interesting objects of study. Since all religion involves reliance on a power higher than oneself, James finds that a degree of self-surrender is a necessary part of all religious conversion — and that theology and psychology agree on this point.

Lecture X. Conversion—Concluded.

The second lecture on conversion continues the discussion of sudden and dramatic conversion, which involves a radical transformation from the old life to the new, supported with a number of examples. Sudden conversion experiences can be noted, James argues, for the sense of passivity felt by the convert during the process, a sense which Christian theology interprets as the action of the spirit of God in which a wholly new nature is given to the convert. James then compares different Christian traditions on the notion of instantaneous conversion: more traditional Protestants as well as Catholics do not value instantaneous conversions, whereas other groups — such as Moravian Protestants and Methodists — invest high value in such experiences. To explain the human capacity for dramatic conversion experiences, James refers to the notion in nineteenth-century psychology of consciousness as a field. The field of consciousness is analogous to a magnetic field, with the conscious subject at the center, the borders of which are hazy and indeterminate. Events which occur at the margins of the field of consciousness, or subconsciously, can in James's view explain various kinds of mystical and religious experiences. Taken psychologically, the individuals who experience instantaneous conversion can be described as having unusually large margins in their fields of consciousness. Anticipating an objection from religious listeners, James then refers to his earlier comment concerning the distinction between a phenomenon's value and its origin: the value of a religious experience is established not by tracing the source of its origin but in evaluating its fruits. On examining the fruits of conversion, James finds that, while there is nothing which positively distinguishes converted people from their non-converted counterparts as a whole, for the individual converts, such experiences precipitate a renewed spiritual and moral life. James finishes this lecture by noting key characteristics of sudden conversion experiences: a sense of assurance in submission to a higher power, the perception of truths not previously known, and a change in how the perceived world appears to the individual. James finally makes a brief note on the issue of backsliding, arguing that conversion experiences present a kind of "high water mark", which cannot be diminished by backsliding.

Lectures XI, XII, And XIII. Saintliness.

Having concluded the preceding lecture arguing that the value of a conversion experience can be judged according to the fruits it produces in an individual's life, James proceeds to evaluate these fruits in his lectures on saintliness. James analyses a person's character as derived from the interaction between the internal forces of impulse and inhibition; while these are often in conflict, inhibitions can be overcome when emotions reach a certain level of high intensity. The religious disposition is interpreted in this way: religious emotions form the center of an individual's emotional energy and thus have the power to overwhelm one's inhibitions. This is why conversion can result in individual character change, and James offers various examples of individuals cured of vices such as drunkenness and sexual immorality following their conversion.

A saintly character is one where "spiritual emotions are the habitual centre of the personal energy." James states that saintliness includes: "1. A feeling of being in a wider life than that of this world's selfish little interests; and a conviction … of the existence of an Ideal Power. 2. A sense of the friendly continuity of the ideal power with our own life, and a willing self-surrender to its control. 3. An immense elation and freedom, as the outlines of the confining selfhood melt down. 4. A shifting of the emotional Centre towards loving and harmonious affections, towards 'yes, yes' and away from 'no,' where the claims of the non-ego are concerned."

This religious character can be broken down into asceticism (pleasure in sacrifice), strength of soul (a "blissful equanimity" free from anxieties), purity (a withdrawal from the material world), and charity (tenderness to those most would naturally disdain). The rest of the lectures are devoted to numerous examples of these four kinds of saintliness, exemplified by numerous religious figures across various traditions. This includes an extended discussion of various ascetic practices, ranging from a resistance to excess comfort through to more extreme forms of self-mortification, such as that practiced by Henry Suso. James then discusses the monastic virtues of obedience, chastity and poverty, and finishes the lecture by noting that the value of saintly virtues can only truly be understood by those who have experienced them.

Lectures XIV And XV. The Value of Saintliness.

In these lectures, James considers the question of how to measure the value of saintliness without addressing the question of the existence of God (which is prohibited by James's empirical method). This can be done, James insists, by considering the fruits (or benefits) derived from saintliness. James then restates his decision to focus on the private, inner experience of religion; he quotes a personal experience of George Fox, noting that such experiences will initially be treated as heterodoxy and heresy but, with enough of a following, can become a new orthodoxy. Responding to the question of extravagance, James notes that saintly virtues are liable to corruption by excess which is often the result of a deficient intellect being overcome by the strength of the saintly virtue. Saintly devotion can become fanaticism or, in gentler characters, feebleness derived from over-absorption, to the neglect of all practical interests. Excessive purity can become scrupulosity and can result in withdrawal from society. Finally, James finds the virtues of tenderness and charity ill-equipped for a world in which other people act dishonestly. Despite these tendencies to excess, James finds that the saintly virtues can often operate prophetically, demonstrating the capacity human beings have for good. Even asceticism, which James acknowledges can often appear to be an excess with no redeeming virtue, can work in a similar way. The excesses of the ascetic can be an appropriate response to the world's evils and remind the more healthy-minded individuals of the world's imperfection. After briefly rejecting a Nietzschean critique of saintliness, James concludes that, while saints may often appear ill-adapted to society, they may be well-adapted to the future heavenly world. Hence, the value of saintliness cannot be answered without a return to questions of theology.

Lectures XVI And XVII. Mysticism.

James begins his lectures on mysticism by reiterating his claim that mystical experiences are central to religion. He then outlines four features which mark an experience as mystical. The first two are sufficient to establish that an experience is mystical:

Ineffability — "no adequate report of its contents can be given in words. […] its quality must be directly experienced; it cannot be imparted or transferred to others. […] mystical states are more like states of feeling than like states of intellect. No one can make clear to another who has never had a certain feeling, in what the quality or worth of it consists."

Noetic quality —"Although so similar to states of feeling, mystical states seem to those who experience them to be also states of knowledge. They are states of insight into depths of truth unplumbed by the discursive intellect. They are illuminations, revelations, full of significance and importance, all inarticulate though they remain; and as a rule they carry with them a curious sense of authority for after-time."

The second two are very often found in mystical experiences:

Transiency —"Mystical states cannot be sustained for long."

Passivity —"the mystic feels as if his own will were in abeyance, and indeed sometimes as if he were grasped and held by a superior power."

During a discussion about mystical experiences precipitated by the consumption of alcohol or psychoactive drugs, James comments that he regards ordinary waking sober consciousness as just one kind of consciousness among many and he goes on to argue that the kind of consciousness brought about by the consumption of psychoactive drugs is the same as that which has been cultivated by the mystical traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and Christianity. Having surveyed examples of mystical experience, James proceeds to consider their veracity. In mysticism's favour is James's observation that mystical experiences across diverse traditions tend to point towards the same kind of truth, that is, the existence of a greater, incomprehensible reality, beyond human experience. The knowledge imparted by mystical experience is, on the whole, "optimistic" and "pantheistic". Regarding the authoritativeness of mystical experiences, James makes three points: first, mystical experiences are authoritative for the individuals who experience them; second, they have no authority over someone who has not had the experience; third, despite this, mystical experiences do indicate that the rationalistic consciousness does not have sole authority over matters of truth.

Lecture XVIII. Philosophy.

James's lecture on philosophy returns to the question of whether religious experiences can justify belief in God, having found in the previous lecture that mysticism can only validate religion for those who have mystical experiences. James then argues that feelings are fundamental to religion: philosophy and theology would never have started had there not been felt experiences to prompt reflection. His intention is to challenge intellectualized religion, the view of rationalist theologians such as John Henry Newman that religion can (and must) be rationally demonstrated, independent of any private feeling. Following a discussion of Charles Peirce's pragmatist philosophy, James argues that neither the traditional metaphysical nor moral characteristics of God proposed by theology can be supported by religious experience and thus they must be disposed of. James's conclusion with regards to philosophy is that it is ultimately incapable of demonstrating by purely rational processes the truth of religion. Transformed into a "Science of Religions", however, philosophy can be useful in critiquing various extant religious beliefs by comparing religions across cultures and demonstrating where these religions are contradicted by the natural sciences.

Lecture XIX. Other Characteristics.

In this penultimate lecture, James considers some other characteristics of religion left over from the preceding lectures. The first in that the aesthetic sentiments involved in religion can make religions appear more attractive to people: the richness of complex systems of dogmatic theology can be equated to the majesty of religious architecture. After briefly commenting that sacrifice and confession are rarely practiced in contemporary religion, James discusses at greater length the phenomenon of prayer which, he argues, is the means by which religious people communicate with God. Acknowledging challenges to the authenticity of petitionary prayer, James argues that prayers are often answered through some inner resourcing of the individual (such as strength to endure a trial). Thus, prayer does effect real change - whether than change is objective or subjective is of no consequence to James. In the final part of the lecture, James draws parallels between what is often regarded as spiritual inspiration and the manifestations of psychopathological symptoms; he rejects the notion that religious experiences can be explained away as psychopathology and rather insists that both religious experiences and psychopathology indicate the existence of a reality beyond what is normally experienced by sober, awake, rational consciousness.

Lecture XX. Conclusions.

In the final chapter James identifies a two-part "common nucleus" of all religions: (1) an uneasiness ("a sense that there is something wrong about us as we naturally stand") and (2) a solution ("a sense that we are saved from the wrongness by making proper connection with the higher powers").

Postscript

James finds that "the only thing that [religious experience] unequivocally testifies to is that we can experience union with something larger than ourselves and in that union find our greatest peace." He explains that the higher power "should be both other and larger than our conscious selves."

Themes

Religious experiences

In the Varieties, James explicitly excludes from his study both theology and religious institutions, choosing to limit his study to direct and immediate religious experiences, which he regarded as the more interesting object of study. Churches, theologies, and institutions are important as vehicles for passing on insights gained by religious experience but, in James's view, they live second-hand off the original experience of the founder. A key distinction in James's treatment of religion is between that of healthy-minded religion and religion of the sick soul; the former is a religion of life's goodness, while the latter cannot overcome the radical sense of evil in the world. Although James presents this as a value-neutral distinction between different kinds of religious attitude, he in fact regarded the sick souled religious experience as preferable, and his anonymous source of melancholy experience in lectures VI and VII is in fact autobiographical. James considered healthy mindedness to be America's main contribution to religion, which he saw running from the transcendentalists Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman to Mary Baker Eddy's Christian Science. At the extreme, the "healthy minded" see sickness and evil as an illusion. James considered belief in the "mind cure" to be reasonable when compared to medicine as practiced at the beginning of the twentieth century.

James devotes two lectures to mysticism and in the lectures outlines four markers of mystical experience. These are:

• Ineffable: the experience is incapable of being described and must be directly experienced to be understood.
• Noetic: the experience is understood to be a state of knowledge through which divine truths can be learned.
• Transient: the experience is of limited duration.
• Passivity: the subject of the experience is passive, unable to control the arrival and departure of the experience.

He believed that religious experiences can have "morbid origins" in brain pathology and can be irrational but nevertheless are largely positive. Unlike the bad ideas that people have under the influence of a high fever, after a religious experience the ideas and insights usually remain and are often valued for the rest of the person's life.

James had relatively little interest in the legitimacy or illegitimacy of religious experiences. Further, despite James' examples being almost exclusively drawn from Christianity, he did not mean to limit his ideas to any single religion. Religious experiences are something that people sometimes have under certain conditions. In James' description, these conditions are likely to be psychological or pharmaceutical rather than cultural.

Pragmatism

Although James did not fully articulate his pragmatic philosophy until the publication of Pragmatism in 1907, the approach to religious belief in the Varieties is influenced by pragmatic philosophy. In his Philosophy and Conclusions lectures, James concludes that religion is overall beneficial to humankind, although acknowledges that this does not establish its truth. While James intended to approach the topic of religious experience from this pragmatist angle, Richard Rorty argues that he ultimately deviated from this methodology in the Varieties. In his lectures on saintliness, the intention is to discover whether the saintly virtues are beneficial for human life: if they are then, according to pragmatism, that supports their claim to truth. However, James ends up concluding that the value of the saintly virtues is dependent on their origin: given that the saintly virtues are only beneficial if there is an afterlife for which they can prepare us, their value depends on whether they are divinely ordained or the result of human psychology. This is no longer a question of value but of empirical fact. Hence, Rorty argues that James ends up abandoning his own pragmatist philosophy due to his ultimate reliance of empirical evidence.

James considers the possibility of "over-beliefs", beliefs which are not strictly justified by reason but which might understandably be held by educated people nonetheless. Philosophy can contribute to shaping these over-beliefs — for example, he finds wanting traditional arguments for the existence of God, including the cosmological, design, and moral arguments, along with the argument from popular consensus. James admits to having his own over-belief, which he does not intend to prove, that there is a greater reality not normally accessible by our normal ways of relating to the world which religious experiences can connect us to.

Reception

The August 1902 New York Times review of the first edition ends with the following:

Everywhere there is a frolic welcome to the eccentricities and extravagances of the religious life. Many will question whether its more sober exhibitions would not have been more fruitful of results, but the interest and fascination of the treatment are beyond dispute, and so, too, is the sympathy to which nothing human is indifferent.

A July 1963 Time magazine review of an expanded edition published that year ends with quotes about the book from Peirce and Santayana:

In making little allowance for the fact that people can also be converted to vicious creeds, he acquired admirers he would have deplored. Mussolini, for instance, hailed James as a preceptor who had showed him that "an action should be judged by its result rather than by its doctrinary basis." James ... had no intention of giving comfort to latter-day totalitarians. He was simply impatient with his fellow academicians and their endless hairsplitting over matters that had no relation to life. A vibrant, generous person, he hoped to show that religious emotions, even those of the deranged, were crucial to human life. The great virtue of The Varieties, noted pragmatist philosopher Charles Peirce, is its "penetration into the hearts of people." Its great weakness, retorted George Santayana, is its "tendency to disintegrate the idea of truth, to recommend belief without reason and to encourage superstition."

In 1986, Nicholas Lash criticised James's Varieties, challenging James's separation of the personal and institutional. Lash argues that religious geniuses such as St. Paul or Jesus, with whom James was particularly interested, did not have their religious experiences in isolation but within and influenced by a social and historical context. Ultimately, Lash argues that this comes from James's failure to overcome Cartesian dualism in his thought: while James believed he had succeeded in surpassing Descartes, he was still tied to a notion of an internal ego, distinct from the body or outside world, which undergoes experiences.

Cultural references

The famous 1932 dystopian novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley has a passage where Mustapha Mond shows this and other books about religion to John, after the latter has been caught for causing disorder between Delta humans in a hospital.

The book is referenced twice in the 1939 “The Big Book” of Alcoholics Anonymous, which is the basic text for members in Alcoholics Anonymous.

In 2012 the Russian-American composer Gene Pritsker released his chamber opera William James's Varieties of Religious Experience.

The 2015 The Man in the High Castle TV series season 2, episode 2, includes this as a book banned by the Japanese, who occupy the former western United States after World War II. One of the characters studies the book as he tries to understand his brief transport to what, for him, is the alternate reality of the United States having won World War II.

Enlightenment (spiritual)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlightenment_(spiritual) 

 

Enlightenment is the "full comprehension of a situation". The term is commonly used to denote the Age of Enlightenment, but is also used in Western cultures in a religious context. It translates several Buddhist terms and concepts, most notably bodhi, kensho and satori. Related terms from Asian religions are moksha (liberation) in Hinduism, Kevala Jnana in Jainism, and ushta in Zoroastrianism.

In Christianity, the word "enlightenment" is rarely used, except to refer to the Age of Enlightenment and its influence on Christianity. Roughly equivalent terms in Christianity may be illumination, kenosis, metanoia, revelation, salvation, theosis, and conversion.

Perennialists and Universalists view enlightenment and mysticism as equivalent terms for religious or spiritual insight.

Lord Mahavira attaining enlightenment.

Asian cultures and religions

Sree Narayana Guru, enlightened one from India, with Mahatma Gandhi

Buddhism

The English term enlightenment is the western translation of the abstract noun bodhi, the knowledge or wisdom, or awakened intellect, of a Buddha. The verbal root budh- means "to awaken," and its literal meaning is closer to "awakening." Although its most common usage is in the context of Buddhism, the term buddhi is also used in other Indian philosophies and traditions. The term "enlightenment" was popularised in the Western world through the 19th century translations of Max Müller. It has the western connotation of a sudden insight into a transcendental truth or reality.

The term is also being used to translate several other Buddhist terms and concepts, which are used to denote insight (prajna, kensho and satori); knowledge (vidhya); the "blowing out" (Nirvana) of disturbing emotions and desires and the subsequent freedom or release (vimutti); and the attainment of Buddhahood, as exemplified by Gautama Buddha.

What exactly constituted the Buddha's awakening is unknown. It may probably have involved the knowledge that liberation was attained by the combination of mindfulness and dhyāna, applied to the understanding of the arising and ceasing of craving. The relation between dhyana and insight is a core problem in the study of Buddhism, and is one of the fundamentals of Buddhist practice.

Deep down in people’s minds, there is an underlying dissatisfaction with the way things are. People want many things to be different from the way they actually are. There is a craving for becoming something that one is not and there is a resistance to the way things are. Everyone is moving towards a goal, a destination that is in the future. The hopes of arriving at that destination seem to give some solace and if those hopes and dreams are threatened, we tend to suffer. This burning uneasiness and dissatisfaction can be likened to a fire that is burning. The extinction of this fire is enlightenment. The word ‘Nirvana’ means extinction.

In the western world the concept of spiritual enlightenment has become synonymous with self-realization and the true self and false self, being regarded as a substantial essence being covered over by social conditioning.

Hinduism

In Indian religions moksha (Sanskrit: मोक्ष mokṣa; liberation) or mukti (Sanskrit: मुक्ति; release —both from the root muc "to let loose, let go") is the final extrication of the soul or consciousness (purusha) from samsara and the bringing to an end of all the suffering involved in being subject to the cycle of repeated death and rebirth (reincarnation).

Advaita Vedanta

Advaita Vedanta (IAST Advaita Vedānta; Sanskrit: अद्वैत वेदान्त [ɐdʋaitɐ ʋeːdaːntɐ]) is a philosophical concept where followers seek liberation/release by recognizing identity of the Self (Atman) and the Whole (Brahman) through long preparation and training, usually under the guidance of a guru, that involves efforts such as knowledge of scriptures, renunciation of worldly activities, and inducement of direct identity experiences. Originating in India before 788 AD, Advaita Vedanta is widely considered the most influential and most dominant sub-school of the Vedānta (literally, end or the goal of the Vedas, Sanskrit) school of Hindu philosophy. Other major sub-schools of Vedānta are Viśishṭādvaita and Dvaita; while the minor ones include Suddhadvaita, Dvaitadvaita and Achintya Bhedabheda.

Advaita (literally, non-duality) is a system of thought where "Advaita" refers to the identity of the Self (Atman) and the Whole (Brahman). Recognition of this identity leads to liberation. Attaining this liberation supposedly takes a long preparation and training under the guidance of a guru, however Ramana Maharshi called his death experience akrama mukti, "sudden liberation", as opposed to the krama mukti, "gradual liberation" as in the Vedanta path of Jnana yoga.

The key source texts for all schools of Vedānta are the Prasthanatrayi—the canonical texts consisting of the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita and the Brahma Sutras. The first person to explicitly consolidate the principles of Advaita Vedanta was Shankara Bhagavadpada, while the first historical proponent was Gaudapada, the guru of Shankara's guru Govinda Bhagavatpada.

Philosophical system

Shankara systematized the works of preceding philosophers. His system of Vedanta introduced the method of scholarly exegesis on the accepted metaphysics of the Upanishads. This style was adopted by all the later Vedanta schools.

Shankara's synthesis of Advaita Vedanta is summarized in this quote from the Vivekacūḍāmaṇi, one of his Prakaraṇa graṃthas (philosophical treatises):

In half a couplet I state, what has been stated by crores of texts;

that is Brahman alone is real, the world is mithyā (not independently existent),

and the individual self is nondifferent from Brahman.

Neo-Vedanta

In the 19th century, Vivekananda played a major role in the revival of Hinduism, and the spread of Advaita Vedanta to the West via the Ramakrishna Mission. His interpretation of Advaita Vedanta has been called "Neo-Vedanta".

In a talk on "The absolute and manifestation" given in at London in 1896 Swami Vivekananda said,

I may make bold to say that the only religion which agrees with, and even goes a little further than modern researchers, both on physical and moral lines is the Advaita, and that is why it appeals to modern scientists so much. They find that the old dualistic theories are not enough for them, do not satisfy their necessities. A man must have not only faith, but intellectual faith too".

Vivekananda emphasized samadhi as a means to attain liberation. Yet this emphasis is not to be found in the Upanishads nor in Shankara. For Shankara, meditation and Nirvikalpa Samadhi are means to gain knowledge of the already existing unity of Brahman and Atman, not the highest goal itself:

[Y]oga is a meditative exercise of withdrawal from the particular and identification with the universal, leading to contemplation of oneself as the most universal, namely, Consciousness. This approach is different from the classical yoga of complete thought suppression.

Vivekenanda's modernisation has been criticized:

Without calling into question the right of any philosopher to interpret Advaita according to his own understanding of it, [...] the process of Westernization has obscured the core of this school of thought. The basic correlation of renunciation and Bliss has been lost sight of in the attempts to underscore the cognitive structure and the realistic structure which according to Samkaracarya should both belong to, and indeed constitute the realm of māyā.

Neo-Advaita

Neo-Advaita is a new religious movement based on a modern, Western interpretation of Advaita Vedanta, especially the teachings of Ramana Maharshi. Neo-Advaita is being criticized for discarding the traditional prerequisites of knowledge of the scriptures and "renunciation as necessary preparation for the path of jnana-yoga". Notable neo-advaita teachers are H. W. L. Poonja, his students Gangaji Andrew Cohen,, Madhukar and Eckhart Tolle.

Yoga

The prime means to reach moksha is through the practice of yoga (Sanskrit, Pāli: योग, /ˈjəʊɡə/, yoga) which is a commonly known generic term for physical, mental, and spiritual disciplines which originated in ancient India. Specifically, yoga is one of the six āstika ("orthodox") schools of Hindu philosophy. Various traditions of yoga are found in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism.

Pre–philosophical speculations and diverse ascetic practices of first millennium BCE were systematized into a formal philosophy in early centuries CE by the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. By the turn of the first millennium, Hatha yoga emerged as a prominent tradition of yoga distinct from the Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. While the Yoga Sutras focus on discipline of the mind, Hatha yoga concentrates on health and purity of the body.

Hindu monks, beginning with Swami Vivekananda, brought yoga to the West in the late 19th century. In the 1980s, yoga became popular as a physical system of health exercises across the Western world. Many studies have tried to determine the effectiveness of yoga as a complementary intervention for cancer, schizophrenia, asthma and heart patients. In a national survey, long-term yoga practitioners in the United States reported musculo–skeletal and mental health improvements.

Jnana yoga

Classical Advaita Vedanta emphasises the path of jnana yoga, a progression of study and training to attain moksha. It consists of four stages:

• Samanyasa or Sampattis, the "fourfold discipline" (sādhana-catustaya), cultivating the following four qualities:
  • Nityānitya vastu viveka (नित्यानित्य वस्तु विवेकम्) – The ability to correctly discriminate (viveka) between the eternal (nitya) substance (Brahman) and the substance that is transitory existence (anitya).
  • Ihāmutrārtha phala bhoga virāga (इहाऽमुत्रार्थ फल भोगविरागम्) – The renunciation (virāga) of enjoyments of objects (artha phala bhoga) in this world (iha) and the other worlds (amutra) like heaven etc.
  • Śamādi ṣatka sampatti (शमादि षट्क सम्पत्ति) – the sixfold qualities,
    • Śama (control of the antahkaraṇa).
    • Dama (the control of external sense organs).
    • Uparati (the cessation of these external organs so restrained, from the pursuit of objects other than that, or it may mean the abandonment of the prescribed works according to scriptural injunctions).
    • Titikṣa (the tolerating of tāpatraya).
    • Śraddha (the faith in Guru and Vedas).
    • Samādhāna (the concentrating of the mind on God and Guru).
  • Mumukṣutva (मुमुक्षुत्वम्) – The firm conviction that the nature of the world is misery and the intense longing for moksha (release from the cycle of births and deaths).
• Sravana, listening to the teachings of the sages on the Upanishads and Advaita Vedanta, and studying the Vedantic texts, such as the Brahma Sutras. In this stage the student learns about the reality of Brahman and the identity of atman;
• Manana, the stage of reflection on the teachings;
• Dhyana, the stage of meditation on the truth "that art Thou".

Bhakti yoga

The paths of bhakti yoga and karma yoga are subsidiary.

In bhakti yoga, practice centers on the worship God in any way and in any form, like Krishna or Ayyappa. Adi Shankara himself was a proponent of devotional worship or Bhakti. But Adi Shankara taught that while Vedic sacrifices, puja and devotional worship can lead one in the direction of jnana (true knowledge), they cannot lead one directly to moksha. At best, they can serve as means to obtain moksha via shukla gati.

Karma yoga

Karma yoga is the way of doing our duties, in disregard of personal gains or losses. According to Sri Swami Sivananda,

Karma Yoga is consecration of all actions and their fruits unto the Lord. Karma Yoga is performance of actions dwelling in union with the Divine, removing attachment and remaining balanced ever in success and failure. Karma Yoga is selfless service unto humanity. Karma Yoga is the Yoga of action which purifies the heart and prepares the Antahkarana (the heart and the mind) for the reception of Divine Light or attainment of Knowledge of the Self. The important point is that you will have to serve humanity without any attachment or egoism.

Jainism

Jainism (/ˈdʒeɪnɪzəm/; Sanskrit: जैनधर्म Jainadharma, Tamil: சமணம் Samaṇam, Bengali: জৈনধর্ম Jainadharma, Telugu: జైనమతం Jainamataṁ, Malayalam: ജൈനമതം Jainmat, Kannada: ಜೈನ ಧರ್ಮ Jaina dharma), is an Indian religion that prescribes a path of non-violence towards all living beings. Its philosophy and practice emphasize the necessity of self-effort to move the soul toward divine consciousness and liberation. Any soul that has conquered its own inner enemies and achieved the state of supreme being is called a jina ("conqueror" or "victor"). The ultimate status of these perfect souls is called siddha. Ancient texts also refer to Jainism as shramana dharma (self-reliant) or the "path of the nirganthas" (those without attachments or aversions).

In Jainism highest form of pure knowledge a soul can attain is called Kevala Jnana (Sanskrit: केवलज्ञान) or Kevala Ṇāṇa (Prakrit: केवल णाण). which means "absolute or perfect" and Jñāna, which means "knowledge". Kevala is the state of isolation of the jīva from the ajīva attained through ascetic practices which burn off one's karmic residues, releasing one from bondage to the cycle of death and rebirth. Kevala Jñāna thus means infinite knowledge of self and non-self, attained by a soul after annihilation of the all ghātiyā karmas. The soul which has reached this stage achieves moksa or liberation at the end of its life span.

Mahavira, 24th thirthankara of Jainism, is said to have practised rigorous austerities for 12 years before he attained enlightenment,

During the thirteenth year, in the second month of summer, in the fourth fortnight, the light (fortnight) of Vaisakha, on its tenth day, when the shadow had turned towards the east and the first wake was over, on the day called Suvrata, in the Muhurta called Vigaya, outside of the town Grimbhikagrama on the bank of the river Rjupalika, not far from an old temple, in the field of the householder Samaga, under a Sal tree, when the moon was in conjunction with the asterism Uttara Phalguni, (the Venerable One) in a squatting position with joined heels, exposing himself to the heat of the sun, after fasting two and a half days without drinking water, being engaged in deep meditation, reached the highest knowledge and intuition, called Kevala, which is infinite, supreme, unobstructed, unimpeded, complete, and full.

Kevala Jñāna is one of the five major events in the life of a Tirthankara and is known as Keval Jñāna Kalyanaka and celebrated of all gods. Lord Mahavira's Kaivalya was said to have been celebrated by the demi-gods, who constructed the Samosarana or a grand preaching assembly for him.

Western understanding

In the Western world the concept of enlightenment in a religious context acquired a romantic meaning. It has become synonymous with self-realization and the true self, which is being regarded as a substantial essence which is covered over by social conditioning.

As 'Aufklärung'

The use of the Western word enlightenment is based on the supposed resemblance of bodhi with Aufklärung, the independent use of reason to gain insight into the true nature of our world. As a matter of fact there are more resemblances with Romanticism than with the Enlightenment: the emphasis on feeling, on intuitive insight, on a true essence beyond the world of appearances.

Awakening: Historical period of renewed interest in religion

The equivalent term "awakening" has also been used in a Christian context, namely the Great Awakenings, several periods of religious revival in American religious history. Historians and theologians identify three or four waves of increased religious enthusiasm occurring between the early 18th century and the late 19th century. Each of these "Great Awakenings" was characterized by widespread revivals led by evangelical Protestant ministers, a sharp increase of interest in religion, a profound sense of conviction and redemption on the part of those affected, an increase in evangelical church membership, and the formation of new religious movements and denominations.

Illumination

Another equivalent term is Illuminationism, which was also used by Paul Demieville in his work The Mirror of the Mind, in which he made a distinction between "illumination subie" and "illumination graduelle". Illuminationism is a doctrine according to which the process of human thought needs to be aided by divine grace. It is the oldest and most influential alternative to naturalism in the theory of mind and epistemology. It was an important feature of ancient Greek philosophy, Neoplatonism, medieval philosophy, and in particular, the Illuminationist school of Islamic philosophy.

Augustine was an important proponent of Illuminationism, stating that everything we know is taught to us by God as He casts His light over the world, saying that "The mind needs to be enlightened by light from outside itself, so that it can participate in truth, because it is not itself the nature of truth. You will light my lamp, Lord," and "You hear nothing true from me which you have not first told me."

Augustine's version of illuminationism is not that God gives us certain information, but rather gives us insight into the truth of the information we received for ourselves.

Romanticism and transcendentalism

This romantic idea of enlightenment as insight into a timeless, transcendent reality has been popularized especially by D.T. Suzuki. Further popularization was due to the writings of Heinrich Dumoulin. Dumoulin viewed metaphysics as the expression of a transcendent truth, which according to him was expressed by Mahayana Buddhism, but not by the pragmatic analysis of the oldest Buddhism, which emphasizes anatta. This romantic vision is also recognizable in the works of Ken Wilber.

In the oldest Buddhism this essentialism is not recognizable. According to critics it doesn't really contribute to a real insight into Buddhism:

...most of them labour under the old cliché that the goal of Buddhist psychological analysis is to reveal the hidden mysteries in the human mind and thereby facilitate the development of a transcendental state of consciousness beyond the reach of linguistic expression.

Experience

A common reference in Western culture is the notion of "enlightenment experience". This notion can be traced back to William James, who used the term "religious experience" in his book, The Varieties of Religious Experience. Wayne Proudfoot traces the roots of the notion of "religious experience" further back to the German theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834), who argued that religion is based on a feeling of the infinite. The notion of "religious experience" was used by Schleiermacher to defend religion against the growing scientific and secular critique.

It was popularised by the Transcendentalists, and exported to Asia via missionaries. Transcendentalism developed as a reaction against 18th-century rationalism, John Locke's philosophy of Sensualism, and the predestinationism of New England Calvinism. It is fundamentally a variety of diverse sources such as Hindu texts like the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita, various religions, and German idealism.

It was adopted by many scholars of religion, of which William James was the most influential.

The notion of "experience" has been criticised. Robert Sharf points out that "experience" is a typical Western term, which has found its way into Asian religiosity via western influences. The notion of "experience" introduces a false notion of duality between "experiencer" and "experienced", whereas the essence of kensho is the realisation of the "non-duality" of observer and observed. "Pure experience" does not exist; all experience is mediated by intellectual and cognitive activity. The specific teachings and practices of a specific tradition may even determine what "experience" someone has, which means that this "experience" is not the proof of the teaching, but a result of the teaching. A pure consciousness without concepts, reached by "cleansing the doors of perception", would be an overwhelming chaos of sensory input without coherence.

Nevertheless, the notion of religious experience has gained widespread use in the study of religion, and is extensively researched.

Western culture

Christianity

The word "enlightenment" is not generally used in Christian contexts for religious understanding or insight. More commonly used terms in the Christian tradition are religious conversion and revelation.

Lewis Sperry Chafer (1871–1952), one of the founders of Dispensationalism, uses the word "illuminism". Christians who are "illuminated" are of two groups, those who have experienced true illuminism (biblical) and those who experienced false illuminism (not from the Holy Spirit).

Christian interest in eastern spirituality has grown throughout the 20th century. Notable Christians, such as Hugo Enomiya-Lassalle and AMA Samy, have participated in Buddhist training and even become Buddhist teachers themselves. In a few places Eastern contemplative techniques have been integrated in Christian practices, such as centering prayer. But this integration has also raised questions about the borders between these traditions.

Western esotericism and mysticism

Western and Mediterranean culture has a rich tradition of esotericism and mysticism. The Perennial philosophy, basic to the New Age understanding of the world, regards those traditions as akin to Eastern religions which aim at awakening/ enlightenment and developing wisdom. The hypothesis that all mystical traditions share a "common core", is central to New Age, but contested by a diversity of scientists like Katz and Proudfoot.

Judaism includes the mystical tradition of Kabbalah. Islam includes the mystical tradition of Sufism. In the Fourth Way teaching, enlightenment is the highest state of Man (humanity).

Nondualism

A popular western understanding sees "enlightenment" as "nondual consciousness", "a primordial, natural awareness without subject or object". It is used interchangeably with Neo-Advaita.

This nondual consciousness is seen as a common stratum to different religions. Several definitions or meanings are combined in this approach, which makes it possible to recognize various traditions as having the same essence. According to Renard, many forms of religion are based on an experiential or intuitive understanding of "the Real"

This idea of nonduality as "the central essence" is part of a modern mutual exchange and synthesis of ideas between western spiritual and esoteric traditions and Asian religious revival and reform movements. Western predecessors are, among others, New Age, Wilber's synthesis of western psychology and Asian spirituality, the idea of a Perennial Philosophy, and Theosophy. Eastern influences are the Hindu reform movements such as Aurobindo's Integral Yoga and Vivekananda's Neo-Vedanta, the Vipassana movement, and Buddhist modernism. A truly syncretistic influence is Osho and the Rajneesh movement, a hybrid of eastern and western ideas and teachings, and a mainly western group of followers.

Cognitive aspects

Religious experience as cognitive construct

"Religious experiences" have "evidential value", since they confirm the specific worldview of the experiencer:

These experiences are cognitive in that, allegedly at least, the subject of the experience receives a reliable and accurate view of what, religiously considered, are the most important features of things. This, so far as their religious tradition is concerned, is what is most important about them. This is what makes them "salvific" or powerful to save.

Yet, just like the very notion of "religious experience" is shaped by a specific discourse and habitus, the "uniformity of interpretation" may be due to the influence of religious traditions which shape the interpretation of such experiences.

Various religious experiences

Yandell discerns various "religious experiences" and their corresponding doctrinal settings, which differ in structure and phenomenological content, and in the "evidential value" they present. Yandell discerns five sorts:

1. Numinous experiences – Monotheism (Jewish, Christian, Vedantic, Sufi Islam)
2. Nirvanic experiences – Buddhism, "according to which one sees that the self is but a bundle of fleeting states"
3. Kevala experiences – Jainism, "according to which one sees the self as an indestructible subject of experience"
4. Moksha experiences – Hinduism, Brahman "either as a cosmic person, or, quite differently, as qualityless"
5. Nature mystical experience

Cognitive science

Various philosophers and cognitive scientists state that there is no "true self" or a "little person" (homunculus) in the brain that "watches the show," and that consciousness is an emergent property that arise from the various modules of the brain in ways that are yet far from understood. According to Susan Greenfield, the "self" may be seen as a composite, whereas Douglas R. Hofstadter describes the sense of "I" as a result of cognitive process.

This is in line with the Buddhist teachings, which state that

[...] what we call 'I' or 'being,' is only a combination of physical and mental aggregates which are working together interdependently in a flux of momentary change within the law of cause and effect, and that there is nothing, permanent, everlasting, unchanging, and eternal in the whole of existence.

To this end, Parfit called Buddha the "first bundle theorist".

Entheogens

Several users of entheogens throughout the ages have claimed experiences of spiritual enlightenment with the use of these substances, their use and prevalence through history is well recorded, and continues today. In modern times we have seen increased interest in these practices, for example the rise of interest in Ayahuasca. The psychological effects of these substances have been subject to scientific research focused on understanding their physiological basis. While entheogens do produce glimpses of higher spiritual states, these are always temporary, fading with the effects of the substance. Permanent enlightenment requires making permanent changes in your consciousness.

 

Queer studies

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Queer studies, sexual diversity studies, or LGBT studies is the study of issues relating to sexual orientation and gender identity usually focusing on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, gender dysphoria, asexual, queer, questioning, intersex people and cultures.

Originally centered on LGBT history and literary theory, the field has expanded to include the academic study of issues raised in biology, sociology, mental illness, anthropology, the history of science, philosophy, psychology, sexology, political science, ethics, and other fields by an examination of the identity, lives, history, and perception of queer people. Marianne LaFrance, the former chair of the Larry Kramer Initiative for Lesbian and Gay Studies at Yale University, says, "Now we're asking not just 'What causes homosexuality?' [but also] 'What causes heterosexuality?' and 'Why is sexuality so central in some people's perspective?'"

Founding scholar of the discipline, the late Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick

Queer studies is not the same as queer theory, which is an analytical viewpoint within queer studies (centered on literary studies and philosophy) that challenges the putatively "socially constructed" categories of sexual identity.

Background

Though a new discipline, a growing number of colleges have begun offering academic programs related to sex, sexuality, and sexual orientation. There are currently over 40 certificate and degree granting programs with at least five institutions in the United States offering an undergraduate major; a growing number of similar courses are offered in countries other than the United States.

History

Early academic study of queer community include lesbian researcher Mildred Berryman's 1930s groundbreaking The Psychological Phenomena of the Homosexual on 23 lesbian women and 9 gay men, whom she met through the Salt Lake City Bohemian Club. In the study most lesbian women and gay men (many of whom had Mormon background) reported experiencing erotic interest in others of the same sex since childhood, and exhibited self-identity and community identity as sexual minorities. During the 1920s gay and lesbian subcultures were beginning to become more established in several larger US cities. Lesbian and gay studies originated in the 1970s with the publication of several "seminal works of gay history. Inspired by ethnic studies, women's studies, and similar identity-based academic fields influenced by the critical theory of the Frankfurt School, the initial emphasis was on "uncovering the suppressed history of gay and lesbian life;" it also made its way into literature departments, where the emphasis was on literary theory. Queer theory soon developed, challenging the "socially constructed" categories of sexual identity.

The first undergraduate course in the United States on LGBTQ studies was taught at the University of California, Berkeley in the spring of 1970. It was followed by similar courses in the fall of 1970 at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL). The UNL course, taught by Louis Crompton, led to the introduction in the state legislature of a bill (eventually defeated) which would have banned all discussion of homosexuality in that state's universities and colleges.

According to Harvard University, the City University of New York began the first university program in gay and lesbian studies in 1986. The City College of San Francisco claims to be the "First Queer Studies Department in the U.S.", with English instructor Dan Allen developing one of the first gay literature courses in the country in Fall 1972, and the college establishing what it calls "the first Gay and Lesbian Studies Department in the United States" in 1989. Then-department chair Jonathan David Katz was the first tenured faculty in queer studies in the country. Hobart and William Smith Colleges in upstate New York were among the first to offer a full-fledged major in LGBTQ Studies in the late 1990s and currently has one of the few tenure lines specifically in a stand-alone LGBT Studies program as a period when many are being absorbed into Women and Gender Studies programs.

Historians John Boswell and Martin Duberman made Yale University a notable center of lesbian and gay studies in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Each historian published several books on gay history; Boswell held three biennial conferences on the subject at the university, and Duberman sought to establish a center for lesbian and gay studies there in 1985. However, Boswell died in 1994, and in 1991 Duberman left for the City University of New York, where he founded its Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies. A 1993 alumnus gift evolved into the faculty committee-administered Fund for Lesbian and Gay Studies, which developed a listing of courses relevant to lesbian and gay studies called the "Pink Book" and established a small lending library named for Boswell. The committee began to oversee a series of one-year visiting professorships in 1994.

Yale–Kramer controversy

In 1997, writer and AIDS activist Larry Kramer offered his alma mater Yale $4 million (and his personal papers) to endow a permanent, tenured professorship in gay studies, and possibly build a gay and lesbian student center. His requirements were specific, as Yale was to use the money solely for "1) the study of and/or instruction in gay male literature..." including a tenured position, "and/or 2) the establishment of a gay student center at Yale..."

With gender, ethnic and race-related studies still relatively new, then-Yale provost Alison Richard said that gay and lesbian studies was too narrow a specialty for a program in perpetuity, indicating a wish to compromise on some of the conditions Kramer had asserted. Negotiations broke down as Kramer, frustrated by what he perceived to be "homophobic" resistance, condemned the university in a front-page story in The New York Times. According to Kramer, he subsequently received letters from more than 100 institutions of higher learning "begging me to consider them".

In 2001, Yale accepted a $1 million grant from his older brother, money manager Arthur Kramer, to establish the Larry Kramer Initiative for Lesbian and Gay Studies. The five-year program aimed to bring in visiting faculty, host conferences and lectures, and coordinate academic endeavors in lesbian and gay studies. Jonathan David Katz assumed the role of executive coordinator in 2002; in 2003 he commented that while women's studies or African American studies have been embraced by American universities, lesbian and gay studies have not. He blamed institutionalized fear of alienating alumni of private universities, or legislators who fund public ones. The five-year program ended in 2006.

In June 2009, Harvard University announced that it will establish an endowed chair in LGBT studies. Believing the post to be "the first professorship of its kind in the country," Harvard President Drew G. Faust called it "an important milestone". Funded by a $1.5 million gift from the members and supporters of the Harvard Gay & Lesbian Caucus, the F. O. Matthiessen Visiting Professorship of Gender and Sexuality is named for a mid-20th century gay Harvard American studies scholar and literary critic who chaired the undergraduate program in history and literature. Harvard Board of Overseers member Mitchell L. Adams said, "This is an extraordinary moment in Harvard's history and in the history of this rapidly emerging field ... And because of Harvard's leadership in academia and the world, this gift will foster continued progress toward a more inclusive society."

Academic field of queer studies

The concept of perverse presentism is often taught in queer studies classes at universities. This is the understanding that LGBT history cannot and should not be analyzed through contemporary perspectives. Ways to find out how people historically identified can include studying queer community archives.

Recently, there is ongoing discourse on the lengthening of the LGBT term to either LGBTQ (adding Queer), and also LGBTIQ (adding Intersex) as this field of study grows.

Queer Studies at non-U.S. Universities

Brazil

At Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG) in Brazil there are many initiatives on Queers Studies. UFMG offers a multidisciplinary program on Gender and Sexuality for undergrad students: "Formação Transversal em Gênero e Sexualidade: Perspective Queer/LGBTI" (https://www.ufmg.br/prograd/). In its Faculty of Law, ranked amongst the best in the country, Professor Marcelo Maciel Ramos established in 2014 Diverso UFMG - Legal Division of Gender and Sexual Diversity (www.diversoufmg.com) and a study group on Gender, Sexuality and Law, which is now led also by Professor Pedro Nicoli. Diverso UFMG organizes since 2016 the Congress of Gender and Sexual Diversity (Congresso de Diversidade Sexual e de Gênero: www.congressodiverso.com) that has become one of the biggest and most important academic events on Women and LGBT studies in Brazil. At the Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences, Professor Marco Aurélio Máximo Prado has been running since 2007 Nuh UFMG (Human Rights and LGBT Citizenship Division), a very successful initiative on LGBT studies (http://www.fafich.ufmg.br/nuh/).

The Transversal Training in Gender and Sexuality: A Queer / LGBTI Perspective as an objective to bring students closer to the theoretical-political-methodological contributions organized from the Queer / LGBTI experiences in the contemporary world, considering the transversality of this field of studies and political practices of this emergency. The "8th International Congress for Studies on Sexual Diversity and Gender" was hosted by the UFJF (Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora) on June 6.

China

Fudan University, located in Shanghai, China, opened the country's first course on homosexuality and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) prevention in 2003 entitled "Homosexual Health Social Sciences". In an article focusing on this college course, Gao and Gu utilize feedback from participants, detailed interviews with professors, and a review of course documents to discuss China's first course with homosexuality at its core. Their article analyzes the tactics used to create such a course and the strategies used to protect the course from adverse reactions in the press. The authors especially take note of the effects of the course on its attendees and the wider gay community in China. The authors note that "Homosexual Health Social Sciences" was described as a "breakthrough" by South China Morning Post and Friends' Correspondence, a periodical for gay health intervention. Surveys were given to attendees of the class and many responded that the class helped them understand the homosexual perspective better. One student stated that "Even if we cannot fully understand these people, we need to respect them. That is the basis for real communication." Many of the course attendees admitted that the course changed their lives. One Chinese police officer had been hiding his sexuality his entire life stated "The course really enhanced my quality of life…" Another man who had been prescribed treatment for his homosexuality for 30 years heard talk of the course in a newspaper and expressed "This precious news has relieved my heart."

"Homosexual Health Social Sciences" was developed to be interdisciplinary to cover the social sciences, humanities, and public health. Interdependence on different academic focuses was achieved in the curriculum by covering "Theories of homosexuality and Chinese reality", "homosexual sub-culture" and "Men seeking men (MSM) intervention in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention," in addition to reading literature with gay characters and themes and taking field trips to a gay bar. The article goes on to describe the attendance of this course and its significance by clarifying that the official registration in the class was low, with only one student in 2003 and two in 2004. Officially registered students were not the only people attending the classes though because the course was open to the general public. The average attendance in 2003 was 89.9 and rose to 114 in 2004.

Gao and Gu also reveal the precautions taken by the creators of the course to shelter the new class from harsh criticism. The authors depict the creators' fear of attracting too much negative attention from the Chinese media could adversely affect the course and its continuation. Most coverage on this course at Fudan University was delivered in English at the beginning. This phenomenon was explained by one journalist from China Radio International—Homosexuality is very sensitive issue in Chinese culture so by discussing it in English, it is distanced from the conservative Chinese culture. Fudan University led Chinese academia to develop more comprehensive curriculum that will educate future health care professionals on the needs of more Chinese citizens.

Criticism

Professor Kevin Floyd has argued that the formative arguments for Marxism and those that have been the basis for queer theory should be reformulated to examine the dissociation of sexuality from gender at the beginning of the twentieth century in terms of reification, and to claim that this dissociation is one aspect of a larger dynamic of social "reification" enforced by capitalism.