Clark, Walter Houston (1902-1994)

Professor of psychology of religion, who took a special interest in parapsychology, psychedelic drugs, and religious experience. He was born July 15, 1902, in Westfield, New Jersey, and was educated at Williams College (A.B., 1925) and Harvard University (A.M., 1926; Ed.M., 1935; Ph.D., 1944). While pursuing his graduate work, he joined the staff of Lenox School in Massachusetts as an instructor in English and the Bible. He stayed at Lenox for 19 years, eventually becoming the senior master and acting headmaster. In 1945 he joined the faculty at Bowdoin College and successively taught at Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont (1947-51); Hartford Seminary Foundation, School of Religious Education, Hartford, Connecticut (1951-62); and Andover Newton Theological School, from 1962 until his retirement in 1967.

As a psychologist with a religious background, and the author of a standard textbook on the psychology of religion, Clark became interested in religious experience. He was among the first intellectuals affected by the psychedelic revolution and came to feel that properly administered mind-altering drugs were an instant source of intense religious experiences. His own analysis was published in 1969 as Chemical Ecstasy; Psychedelic Drugs and Religion and informed his later book, Religious Experience; Its Nature and Functioning in the Human Psyche (1973). His interest in parapsychology was manifest in his accepting the presidency of the Academy of Religion and Psychical Research at its founding in 1973. Clark died in December 1994 at Cape Elizabeth, Maine.

Sources:

Clark, Walter Houston. The Oxford Group; Its History and Significance. New York: Bookman Associates, 1951.

——. The Psychology of Religion; An Introduction to Religious Experience and Behavior. New York: Macmillan, 1958.

——. Religious Experience; Its Nature and Functioning in the Human Psyche. Springfield, Ill.: Charles Thomas, 1973.

Clark, Walter Houston, and M. H. Malony, J. Daane, and A. R. Tippett. Chemical Ecstasy; Psychedelic Drugs and Religion. New York: Sheed and Ward, 1969.