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Transcending the Ordinary: Thoreau's Second Experiment
Join us on Monday, November 9, 12 - 1:30 pm, in the CSWR Common Room
John Kaag, Visiting Scholar, CSWR Transcendentalism Initiative
As an academic, you begin your career by feeling a type of homelessness, like a lack of place, and that might attend your experience through the early parts of your career. And then that goes away, strangely enough, because you habituate to this way of being. So I guess my first experience of finding a new home here, finding a sense of place, is surprise. It’s, like, oh, I had forgotten that I felt homeless. Now I do feel like I have a home. And so I realize what I had lost in the process. So I think it's kind of surprise about something that I had forgotten that I had lost. But then there is also a question about how it's going to continue over a long period of time. So I'm feeling some, I wouldn't call it anxiety, because anxiety I think is like this feeling of freedom that we have, but it's more like worry about what's going to happen after this year comes to an end. So that's how I'm feeling about it now. I feel a loss because of the belonging and then wondering if the belonging is going to continue on or not. And I’m asking myself how can I contribute so as to see the longevity of the program continue, and the belonging continue, not just for myself, but for others.
Nature Writing and the Spiritual Life
Drawing on contemporary American nature writing and its Transcendentalist forebears, a creative nonfiction workshop led by Rochelle L. Johnson, CSWR Visiting Scholar with the Transcendentalism Initiative, explored the relationship between nature writing and spiritual experience. Through readings, discussion, and guided writing exercises, participants considered how writing about encounters with the more-than-human world might illuminate the spiritual dimensions of everyday life.
Held in September 2026, the workshop filled to capacity within days, bringing together Harvard students, alumni and writers from the greater Boston area.
We are pleased to share three essays that grew out of the workshop. They take us from a quiet woodland brook in Concord to the shores of Block Island and the changing landscapes of the American West.
A Transcendental Murmur, Richard Higgins
Hidden in Plain Sight, Katrina Scott
Do Ut Des, Nate Halverson
Featured Programs and Activities
Research Reflections
Research Reflections is an ongoing series that features short, thought-provoking insights from the work of our research scholars and affiliates. These reflections highlight emerging questions, overlooked materials, and fresh perspectives in the academic study of religion, often drawing on historical, cultural, and archaeological themes.
Newly featured Research Reflection:
To Hell and Back, Again, Alyson Prude
Archive of Mystical Experiences
Featured article:
Rae Erin Dachille traces the Indian Buddhist roots of the maṇḍala — the celestial palace at whose center the tantric initiate, mirroring Śākyamuni's consecration, takes their seat as Vairocana — and shows how its five Buddha families map the cosmos onto the practitioner, transforming ignorance, desire, and hatred into wisdom.
Publications
Theosis (Annual Publication)
Essays, interviews, art, and photography from our scholarly community.
4T (Texts & Translations of Transcendence & Transformation)
Translations of visionary and mystical texts from across Eurasia and Africa, presented with original languages and interpretive aids.
Thinking with Plants and Fungi
An edited volume examining the entanglements of mind and matter, nature and culture, human and more-than-human.
Psychedelics, Religion, and Spirituality
Between 2021 and 2026, the program and its affiliates developed a psychedelic chaplaincy training program, supported five multi-year research initiatives, produced over 22 publications, hosted two dozen public events, and organized four interdisciplinary "Psychedelic Intersections" conferences.
A review of the program's accomplishments and primary initiatives can be found here.
Transcendentalism
The Transcendentalism research initiative reimagines American Transcendentalism as a living tradition that continues to shape religious, ethical, and political imaginations. Through scholarly research, workshop collaborations, and educational programming, the initiative brings together historians, philosophers, writers, activists, and practitioners to explore the meaning and relevance of Transcendentalism today. Committed to interdisciplinary dialogue across religion, literature, political thought, and environmental ethics, the initiative seeks to expand the canon of Transcendentalism beyond its most familiar figures and forms.
Watch recent research talks:
Choosing Good or Evil—Royce and Emerson on Knowing the Difference with Scott Pratt
Om-gnosis: The Occult South Asia Podcast
Om-gnosis was the first podcast dedicated to the study of Occult South Asia.
Occult literally means “hidden,” but the word has come to mean many things. Today what we call occult often has deep ties to South Asian teachings and practices, including modern yoga, Hindu and Buddhist tantra, and Islamic esotericism. Occult South Asia is full of intercultural transfers, and many authors and practitioners from around the world have played a role in shaping this milieu at local and “translocal” or global levels.
Newest Episode: Epidsode 20: Comparing Magic, Yoga, and Occultism
Poetry
In advancing its mission to “promote the study of the world’s religions in their classical and contemporary forms,” the Center has highlighted the intersections of poetry, philosophy, and religion.
Since 2017, the Center has supported poets and artists through Peripheries, its annual nonprofit literary and arts journal, as well as poetry talks and workshops that bring writers, scholars, and audiences together.
Watch the recording: The Invisible Sun: Poetry, Translation, and the Mystical Imagination with Sholeh Wolpé
Pop Apocalypse: Podcast with Matt Dillon, Lead Research Associate, T&T Database
Pop Apocalypse explores the mystical and the mythic, the paranormal and the psychedelic in popular culture.
The show features interviews with musicians, artists, and writers about how their spiritual experiences and practices inform their work.
Newest Episode: Episode 22: Exploring the Mysticism of Mathematics with Robert Schneider of The Apples in Stereo
Thinking with Plants and Fungi
“Thinking with Plants and Fungi is an interdisciplinary exploration into how plants and fungi help us rethink the nature of mind and matter, and humans’ relationship to the “more-than-human” world. The program’s offerings include a speaker series, a conference on “Interdisciplinary Exploration into the Mind of Nature,” experiential field trips for theHarvard community, and a bi-weekly reading group.
LATEST NEWS FROM CSWR
MISSION
The CSWR seeks to promote the study of the world’s religions in their classical and contemporary forms, serving both as a residential community of students and scholars and an international “think tank” in the study of religion.
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