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 Introduction 00:06:00 Immediatism and American character 00:12:00 Emersonian Transcendentalism and self-reliance 00:18:00 Continuity through William James and psychedelics 00:24:00 Neo-Advaita and late-twentieth-century gurus 00:30:00 Antinomianism and documented controversies 00:36:00 Bernadette Roberts and the path of no-self 00:42:00 Power dynamics and feet of clay 00:48:00 Esalen human potential and cultural cross-pollination 00:56:00 Conclusion New 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 Institute for Human Science. (Recorded on Tuesday, September 8, 2026) For a complete, updated list with links to all of our videos, see https://newthinkingallowed.com/Listings.htm. Check out the New Thinking Allowed Foundation website at http://www.newthinkingallowed.org. There you will find our incredible, searchable database as well as opportunities to shop and to support our video productions – plus, this is where people can subscribe to our FREE, weekly Newsletter and can download a FREE .pdf copy of our quarterly magazine. To order high-quality, printed copies of our quarterly magazine: NTA-Magazine.MagCloud.com Check out New Thinking Allowed's AI chatbot. You can create a free account at awakin.ai/open/jeffreymishlove. When you enter the space, you will see that our chatbot is one of several you can interact with. While it is still a work in progress, it has been trained on 1,600 NTA transcripts. If you would like to join our team of volunteers, helping to promote the New Thinking Allowed YouTube channel on social media, editing and translating videos, creating short video trailers based on our interviews, helping to upgrade our website, or contributing in other ways (we may not even have thought of), please send an email to friends@newthinkingallowed.com. To download and listen to audio versions of the New Thinking Allowed videos, please visit our new podcast at https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/new-thinking-allowed-audio-podcast/id1435178031. Download and read Jeffrey Mishlove's Grand Prize essay in the Bigelow Institute competition, Beyond the Brain: The Survival of Human Consciousness After Permanent Bodily Death, go to https://www.bigelowinstitute.org/docs/1st.pdf. You can help support our video productions while enjoying a good book. To order a copy of New Thinking Allowed Dialogues: Is There Life After Death? click on https://amzn.to/3LzLA7Y To order the second book in the New Thinking Allowed Dialogues series, Russell Targ: Ninety Years of ESP, Remote Viewing, and Timeless Awareness, go to https://amzn.to/4aw2iyr To order a copy of New Thinking Allowed Dialogues: UFOs and UAP – Are We Really Alone?, go to https://amzn.to/3Y0VOVh To order a copy of Charles T. Tart: Seventy Years of Exploring Consciousness and Parapsychology, go to https://amzn.to/4oOUJLn To order a copy of Arthur Versluis: American Gurus: From Transcendentalism to New Age Religion, go to https://amzn.to/4yURUMS
