About this episode

John Dunne discusses the origins of mystical experience as a 19th-century American concept during the Varela Contemplative Science Retreat.

In Part 5 of the Varela Contemplative Science Retreat, John Dunne returns for his second talk of the program, tracing “mystical experience” to its roots as a 19th-century, largely American invention — one with no real equivalent in Buddhist, Hindu, or indigenous traditions. He walks through the influential accounts of William James and W.T. Stace, whose model of a universal, unitive, inward… Source

People in this episode

Host: Joan Halifax

Guest: John Dunne

Topics covered

• mystical experience
• contemplative science
• 19th-century American philosophy
• Buddhism
• spirituality

Keywords

• mystical experience
• John Dunne
• William James
• W.T. Stace
• contemplative science
• Buddhism
• spirituality

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