In the middle of the twentieth century, Aldous Huxley popularized an idea that still resonates: the world’s religions share a common core of mystical experience, a “perennial philosophy” that transcends cultural and doctrinal differences. The idea attracted fierce criticism in the decades that followed — and much of that criticism landed. But what if the baby was thrown out with the bathwater? Dr. Jeffery D. Long, Carl W. Zeigler Professor of Religion, Philosophy & Asian Studies at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania, leads a project to revisit and reformulate the perennial philosophy for a new era.
Taking the Critiques Seriously
Long and his team do not dismiss the objections raised against Huxley’s version. They take them seriously. One key question is whether the perennial philosophy is essentially Vedantic — rooted in the Hindu tradition of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda, to which Huxley was connected. If so, does that undermine its claims to universal applicability? Or does it give us a richer context for interpreting those claims? The project aims to show that this reformulated perennial philosophy, updated to address modern critiques, remains relevant to ongoing debates about the validity of religious and mystical modes of knowing — especially in light of recent developments in physics, neuroscience, and consciousness studies.
For Scholars and the Public
The outputs are designed to reach both academic and popular audiences. They include a book on perennial philosophy questions aimed at a general audience, an international conference leading to an edited volume of specialist articles, and a podcast with accompanying videos connecting these ideas to contemporary debates about religion, spirituality, and mystical experience. Long and his team’s work could reopen a conversation many scholars considered closed and show that the intuition behind the perennial philosophy — that mystical experience reveals something shared across traditions — deserves a second, more careful look.