William James's lesser-known methodology, radical empiricism, demands that all scientific ideas be grounded in direct experience and that no experience be excluded from scientific inquiry. This paper outlines James's thoughts on radical empiricism, evaluates its strengths and problems in light of contemporary science, and offers a biogenetic structural elaboration of his concepts of relations and pure experience. This elaboration counters Jacques Derrida's post-structuralist critique. The relevance of James's views to the anthropology of consciousness is explored, emphasizing the necessity—anticipated by James—of merging phenomenology with structuralism.
Mystical experiences are altered states of consciousness opposite to everyday ego-centered awareness, and a key factor in them is what the authors term 'mystical love.' Humans appear to have a need to alter consciousness away from ordinary waking states. Ritual practices across cultures—such as ingesting psychotropic substances, daily activities that devalue ego-centeredness and promote love and selfless service, and meditation on loving kindness and compassion—are used to incubate intense feelings of non-romantic love, empathy, and compassion, preparing individuals for mystical experiences whose results are interpreted within each person's cycle of meaning.