American Gurus with Arthur Versluis

Arthur Versluis is Professor of Religious Studies at Michigan State University. Among his many books are American Gnosis: Political Religion and Transcendence, The New Inquisitions: Heretic-Hunting and the Intellectual Origins of Modern Totalitarianism, Wisdom’s Children: A Christian Esoteric Tradition, American Transcendentalism and Asian Religions, Alchemical Lightwork: A Guide to Creating Cultures of Light and Spiritual Awakening, and Platonic Mysticism. Here we will be discussing his book, American Gurus, Magic and Mysticism: An Introduction to Western Esoteric Traditions. His website is https://arthurversluis.com/Arthur explores the uniquely American phenomenon of “immediatism”—the claim of immediate enlightenment or revelation with little or no preparatory practice—tracing its roots from Emersonian Transcendentalism through the Beats, the psychedelic counterculture, and contemporary neo-Advaita teachers. Drawing on his book American Gurus, he examines figures ranging from Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau to Adi Da, Frithjof Schuon, Osho, Bernadette Roberts, and Franklin Merrell-Wolff, highlighting both the antinomian tendencies and the genuine mystical insights that recur across this lineage. Versluis situates these currents within broader cultural cross-pollination between Western and Asian traditions while cautioning against reducing every guru to mere power dynamics.00:00:00 Introduction00:06:00 Immediatism and American character00:12:00 Emersonian Transcendentalism and self-reliance00:18:00 Continuity through William James and psychedelics00:24:00 Neo-Advaita and late-twentieth-century gurus00:30:00 Antinomianism and documented controversies00:36:00 Bernadette Roberts and the path of no-self00:42:00 Power dynamics and feet of clay00:48:00 Esalen human potential and cultural cross-pollination00:56:00 ConclusionNew Thinking Allowed host, Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, is author of The Roots of Consciousness, Psi Development Systems, and The PK Man. Between 1986 and 2002 he hosted and co-produced the original Thinking Allowed public television series. He is the recipient of the only doctoral diploma in "parapsychology" ever awarded by an accredited university (University of California, Berkeley, 1980). He is also the Grand Prize winner of the 2021 Bigelow Institute essay competition regarding the best evidence for survival of human consciousness after permanent bodily death. He is Co-Director of Parapsychology Education at the California Institut