Abstract

In this article, which was read at an invitational conference convened by the Institute for Noetic Sciences, June 1982, the author discusses ways of introducing into the educational system new knowledge of the scope of consciousness. The way in which the academic world has ignored or suppressed W. James's writings on psychical research and the concept of cosmic consciousness is discussed as illustration. A similar process has befallen J. Dewey's writings on F. Matthias Alexander, which have vainly urged systematic scientific study of the Alexander technique and its incorporation into the educational system. In each of these cases, a great philosopher thought his views central to his Weltanschaung, but his literary executors found those views unpalatable enough to ignore them. (10 ref)