Alan Watts–Here and Now: Contributions to Psychology, Philosophy, and Religion

Chapter One. Alan Watts’ Anticipation of Four Major Debates in the Psychology of Religion

chapter one Alan Watts’ Anticipation of Four Major Debates in the Psychology of Religion Ralph W. Hood Jr. It is appropriate in a volume dedicated to the work and influence of Alan Watts that academics evaluate a man who many in the academy dismissedasamerepopularizerof topicsinreligion,whichsomeclaimedhelackedthe credentials to treat with proper depth. In his autobiography, Watts (1973) admitted to the charge of “popularizer” and to the horror of academics who largely ignored his work in Asian mysticism, seeing him as unschooled in the primary language of the traditions he explored (p. 262). Yet Watts emphasized repeatedly that his was less an academic pursuit than a personal quest (p. 316). The quest was lifelong and resulted in twenty published books by the time he began his autobiography. Other writings were to follow. However, Alan’s pursuits, documented in a series of books for wide-ranging audiences, were far from aimless. In this chapter, I argue that Alan’s personal quest resulted in discoveries that anticipated the findings of academics who largely ignored his popular works. When offered a chance to contribute to this volume I looked over my library and found that I had sixteen of Alan’s books. All have worn bindings and well-marked pages indicating a careful reading of admittedly popular works. I recalled that both as a college student and as a lifelong academic I had never seen Watts’ works as required reading in courses in psychology (my general discipline) nor in the psychology of religion (my academic specialty). Yet, I also recalled seeing students and professors with various Watts’ books. There was a virtual underground of collateral reading, much of it Watts’ books, by students and professors of psychology whose academic interests did little to hide that there was a spiritual questing in the academy. As we see here, Alan Watts’ personal quest was and still is widely shared by academics. However idiosyncratic Alan appeared to some, I argue that, in at least four areas, his own journey of discovery anticipated and then continued to parallel significant issues that occupy the contemporary academic study of the psychology of 25 26 ALAN WATTS—HERE AND NOW religion. The four issues championed by Alan Watts in his own journey can be identified as follows: 1. The claim to a perennialist philosophy rooted in mystical experience; 2. A cautious appreciation of the possibility that psychedelics can facilitate mystical experience; 3. The controversial claim of the relationship between eroticism and mystical experience; and finally, 4. The movement away from the study of religion to that of spirituality. I rely on Alan Watts’ autobiography, not the corpus of his published works, to show how his own quest was indeed one of genuine self-discovery that is available to all. The irony is that academics whose disdain of popular works kept Alan from a broader appreciation among scholars nevertheless belatedly championed his views in the academy. THE PERENNIALIST THESIS In the one undisputed classic text in the psychology of religion, The Varieties of Religious Experience, William James (1902/1985) noted: In Hinduism, in Neoplatonism, in Sufism, in Christian Mysticism, in Whitmanism, we find the same reoccurring note, so that there is among mystical utterances an eternal unanimity which ought to make a critic stop and think and which brings it about that the mystical texts have, as had been said, neither birthday or native land. (p. 324) Alan Watts (1973), undoubtedly familiar with James’ Varieties, noted early on in his autobiography that: “Taking the premises of Christian dogmatics, Hindu mythology, Buddhist psychology, Zen practice, psychoanalysis, behaviorism, or logical positivism, I have tried to show that all are aiming, however disputatiously , at one center” (p. 4). Academics have long challenged the “eternal unanimity” of James and the “one centeredness” of Watts’ as popular ecumenical moves to seek a common core to what specialists say are distinct and often incommensurable faith and belief traditions (Katz, 1978a). Yet near the end of his autobiography, in reference to Dom Aelred’s (a Benedictine from Ampleforth Abbey in Yorkshire) visit to see the Dalai Lama, Watts (1973) noted that Dom was “my idea of what a Benedictine should be” (p. 444). Aelred also illustrated for Alan a simple conclusion: “It seems that those who go deeply into any of the great spiritual traditions come to see the same place and find themselves talking the same language” (p. 445). Although not denying the particulars of ANTICIPATION...