"Advances James on consciousness farther than anyone" --Eugene Taylor
A mystical experience on a Vipassana Meditation Retreat undermined my common-sense understanding of reality, and sent me on a quest to explore the nature of consciousness. I began with William James's classic text, The Principles of Psychology. Reading this text and other works of James's for the past 3 decades has been like falling down Lewis Carroll's rabbit hole. I believe I have landed where James persistently suggested the descent was leading--consciousness is "already there, waiting to be uncovered"--even as he tried to steer himself elsewhere. In addition to my 2 books, Sciousnessand The Illusion of Will, Self, and Time: William James's Reluctant Guide to Enlightenment, I have published a dozen articles on James in various academic journals. In the anthology The Volitional Brain: Towards a neuroscience of free will, I am the dissenting voice. From 2007 to 2017, I had the great privilege of being a Program Director for the New York Open Center, and am currently a Program Consultant for Eastover. My live engagements with so many teachers who, like James, tilt toward the transpersonal, has been critical to the evolution of my thought. I am also a Founding Board Member of the Society for Consciousness Studies.
