William James (1842-1910) stands as one of America’s preeminent philosophical thinkers on the nature of consciousness. James advocated that the field of psychology should develop around an integrated cognitive psychology of experiential consciousness.  By asserting that consciousness does not exist as an independent entity, but rather as a function of particular lived states—of which waking consciousness is just one among many possible states of awareness—James experimented with, and gave philosophical credence to, the role of alternative states of consciousness in evolving conceptions of the self and society. >> Read Full Project Statement

CCLE Actions 

• Campus Lectures
  Have a CCLE scholar speak to your university class.
• CCLE Drug Law Library Resources for Nitrous Oxide
• Project Flyer
  Please print copies and post in the philosophy department of your campus.
• Cognitive Liberty & Neuroethics Course Curriculum
  Take or Teach a University Course on Cognitive Liberty
• Summer Fellows Program

Resources  

• CCLE Neuroethics Project  
• Journal of Cognitive Liberties
• William James Resources compiled by Emory University
• Journal of Consciousness Studies (Sept.-Oct.2002), double issue marking the 100 year anniversary of Varieties of Religious Experience.
• William James the Nitrous Oxide Philosopher by Dmitri Tymoczko

• A Review of "The Anaesthetic Revelation and the Gist of Philosophy," by William James (1874)
• William James, by James Jackson Putnam (1910)
• Familiar Letters of William James, I (1920)
• Familiar Letters of William James, II (1920)
• Familiar Letters of William James, III (1920)
• LSD and the Third Eye, by John N. Bleibtreu (1966)

• Scholars Reevaluate the Significance of William James' 'The Varieties of Religious Experience'
  "One hundred years after the publication of William James' "The Varieties of Religious Experience," the Center for the Study of Science and Religion and the John Templeton Foundation brought together a group of influential scholars to reevaluate the significance of the classic work that analyzes religious experience within the context of psychology and philosophy."