Yogic New Thought: A Reappraisal And Interpretation
John S. Haller Jr., in his book The History of New Thought: From Mind Cure to Positive Thinking and the Prosperity Gospel (2012), regrettably misses the mark. A secular humanist tasked with studying the history of American religion and medical humanities, he lacks a good ear with regard to what was actually attractive about New…
Rugged Spirituality
Have you ever wanted to be pushed—I mean really pushed, pushed really hard? I have. But not to do more pushups or to climb harder. I wanted to be pushed inward, to be directed to keep going toward the truth. I meditated and philosophized for countless hours, but I never found that pusher, that mentor,…
A Defense Of The Prosperity Gospel
John S. Haller Jr.’s treatment of “the prosperity gospel” in his book The History of New Thought: From Mind Cure to Positive Thinking and the Prosperity Gospel (2012) shows all the marks of the contemporary academy’s small-mindedness. Of course, it would be easy to say, with Haller, that the 1920s (“the roaring twenties”) effected a…
AI Anxiety & The Role Of Intuition
On Monday, a paper describing a “speculative scenario” about how AI’s great success could, ironically, entail the hollowing out of 10% of white collar work was released. The result was that software stocks fell sharply. Yesterday, Josh Barro, in “Good Things are Good,” rebutted this scenario, arguing that, if anything, AI’s massive increase in productivity…
If A Man Takes Your Goods, Do You Help Him Lift The Rest?
In the Apophthegmata Patrum, we read about Abba Macarius (c. 300-391), a Desert Father living in Egypt: Abba Macarius while he was in Egypt discovered a man who owned a beast of burden engaged in plundering Macarius’ goods. So he came up to the thief as if he was a stranger and he helped him…
The Moth & Us
The moth was fluttering its wings wildly, but it couldn’t take off. It kept trying and trying but still nothing. It couldn’t fly and, I feel, it foresaw its death. T.S. Eliot once wrote of the “objective correlative”: a writer describes a situation in such a way as to evoke a particular mood. I’d like,…
Metaphysical Commitments In Raja Yoga & Advaita Vedanta
Which metaphysical commitments draw Raja Yoga (the path of willpower and concentration) together with Advaita Vedanta (the path of knowledge)? In Meditation and Its Practices: A Definitive Guide to Techniques and Traditions of Meditation in Yoga and Vedanta, Swami Adiswarananda tells us that there are four such principles–namely, the “divinity of the individual soul, [the]…
Raja Yoga Prepares The Way For Advaita Vedanta
“The path of [Raja] Yoga,” states Swami Adiwarananda in his book Meditation and its Practices: A Definitive Guide to Techniques and Traditions of Meditation in Yoga and Vedanta (2003; 2012 ed.), “is suited to those in whom reason has not yet established its natural supremacy over the emotions and volitions” (p. 40). This is a…
Does It Matter If There’s A Lot Of AI Hype?
In her book Technology and the Virtues: A Philosophical Guide to a Future Worth Wanting (2018), philosopher Shannon Vallor rightly points to one of the central puzzles we face today. This is that there’s, in her coinage, a stunning “epistemic opacity” with regard to how technology is and will unfold and, of course, with what…
Patanjali’s Method Of Pratipaksha Bhavana
In Yoga Sutra 2.33, Patanjali offers a compassionate practice to those whose minds are agitated: “When disturbed by negative thoughts, opposite (positive) ones should be thought of.” This is the meaning of the cultivation of the counter-thought. Claude (Anthropic) gives us the Sanskrit line thus: Sanskrit: vitarka-bādhane pratipakṣa-bhāvanam The Sanskrit Terms: Vitarka = negative thoughts, doubts, wayward thoughts, disturbing…
Creation Is A Beautiful Dream
Question Concerning New Thought One conversation partner puts his question thus: The logical line goes like this: thoughts create your habits, your actions, your character; they color the world around you and thus ultimately create the world around you. If you think everyone is evil, you will ultimately see everyone as evil, respond accordingly, and ultimately…
Jeffrey Epstein, Alas, Had Thought Power
I don’t recall Swami Sivananda discussing perversions of thought power in his book Thought Power, at least not at great length. It’s clear that he’s aware of the possibility of a yogi abusing thought power, and it would have been obvious to him that ethical practices (such as the yamas and the niyamas from Raja…
Who Is Going To Save Me?
Power bypass is a real thing: renouncing my own inner power, I become small. In each complaint and in every sorrow is a lone cry for a savior, someone or something “out there” that will come and save me and make it all better. Won’t someone pull me out of this mess? Won’t some powerful…
A Minimum Viable Metaphysic For Thought Power
In order for thought power to make any sense, you’ll have to go beyond “mere technique” as well as “mere psychology.” You’ll need a minimum viable metaphysic. To render a first sketch of this metaphysic, let’s begin by distinguishing between what’s inside of me and what’s outside of me, what’s internal and what’s external. Start…
Stoicism Is No Match For Thought Power
In 2011, when I was interviewed by The Washington Post, I recommended Stoical philosophical exercises with the aim of preparing the reader for Hurricane Irene. To be sure, Stoicism was then all the rage–it’s carried on, even grown in popularity since–and so it wasn’t surprising that I would have implied that Stoical philosophy was suitable…
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Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 