Consciousness, Literature and the Arts
Archive
Volume 4 Number 1, April 2003
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Roy, Louis. Transcendent Experiences, Phenomenology and Critique, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001,
Reviewed by
Louis Roy’s book Transcendent Experiences, Phenomenology and Critiqueis the pursuit of the question whether there can be human experience of the infinite, in order to prove the reality of instances of transcendent awareness and to demonstrate that they are “valuable components of human existence”. The part of preparation, experience (What kind of “feeling” is involved in transcending? Is there such a thing as direct experience or is the experience mediated by different worldviews?) and interpretation of the awareness of the transcendent are discussed, supported by four representative authentic reports of transcendent events. A diacritical investigation from Kant to modern thinkers like Bernard Lonergan and Charles Peirce provides insight into the dialectical evolution of the understanding of the transcendal event or the cognition of the transcendent as the all-encompassing reality humans apprehend as that in which their limited worldview is embedded. One of the shortcomings of the very excellency of critical summaries is that the sequence of thesis and antithesis is so telescoped that there is not enough time to induce the reader into the dead-end of error from which he is (hopefully) catapulted into the freedom of the synthesis. However, Mr. Roy’s acuity and systematic progress do provide frequent stimulating glimpses of discovery in among the objectified dialectical steps. Moreover, in the border area (trans-scendence) of human awareness where the notions and symbols arise which are used to describe that which structures those very notions and symbols, no answer can be final. A fundamental uncertainty, however infinitesimal, remains and provides an ever bountiful banquet for thought, the taste of the ultimate irreducibility of reality to categorical understanding being the highest achievement logic can produce.
Although the book is for the seasoned reader and logical seeker, one remark should be made in case a more immediate desire for authentic experience opens its pages: there is no time limit to the experience of the transcendent. Proper preparation of the nervous system as the recipient of the transcendent event will allow the experience to be sustained over long periods of time, even without any conceptual understanding of the event or its results, a fact that would support the primacy of experience over intellectual comprehension.
Given the thoroughness and perspicacity with which Mr. Roy has lead his inquiry, the scientific community not only of the University of Toronto would benefit from his research from an interdisciplinary angle, including medical, social and physical data. The two-fluid model of thermodynamics, for example, would be a very interesting vantage point for discussing the function of memory, mediation and directness during and after transcending. This discussion will also allow to structure a tenable position for the potential societal value of the experience of the transcendent or god-consciousness in the world, an issue – I am finishing my text in the evening of March 17, 2003, after Mr. Bush’s speech on the necessity of the Iraq war – which merits to be a high priority for religious and secular seekers alike.
One thing was an eye-opener for me: in many places, the juxtaposition of the original German text and the English translation revealed at least a narrowing of the German meaning, if not an outright misinterpretation. Since this does not seem to have had any recognizable disruptive impact on the overall course of the interpretation of transcendent experiences, it leads to the conclusion that the basic belief structure is so stable that even assaults by erroneous conclusions due to wrong translation cannot sway it. But, of course, we do not know how the world would think today if a certain mistake had not been made in the past.
Michael Larrass, Ph.D., Ottawa