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Thanks. I appreciate it.
Yes, that's one of the standard criticisms of James. It's one with which I agree. Based on my readings in mysticism, which are primarily in Christian, Jewish, and Muslim sources, it seems that the terrible or terrifying experience is not as common, but more common than most people realize--maybe 1 in 4 mystical experiences have a profoundly "negative" valence. The first genuine mystical experience I had scared the living crap out of me, for a couple of reasons--primarily just the strength of the experience itself. I immediately recognized, afterward, when my mind was able to come together enough to think again, that basically everything I had ever thought about myself and the world was incorrect on basically every level. I had expected a kind of vague peaceful experience, and what I got instead was the proverbial lightning-bolt that shattered everything for me, and it took quite a long time for me to put myself back together.
It was also, for me, a very humbling experience. I didn't really realize it beforehand, but I had quite a high opinion of myself. I'm a very smart fellow, and pretty much everyone who knows me always describes me as the smartest guy they know. I'm pretty good looking, in decent physical shape, well-spoken, I can do math, etc. And I was making a lot of money at that time in my life to boot. What I learned then was that all of that was basically worthless, and that while I was trying to be a good person, deep down in the "potbelly" of the self, I had as much dark nasty gunk as anyone. I learned quite a lesson that day...well, I guess I should say I was shown a lesson that day, one that I keep trying my best to learn, conscious that I fail at it regularly. But yeah, it was a very troubling experience for me, and still is sometimes.
Other mystics have reported the same or similar. Dante, in one of his letters, describes a vision he had while leaving Florence for good, standing on the banks of the Arno. This followed on the visions he had recorded in the Vita Nuova, all of which strike me as having been tinged with something of the destructive. I have often wondered whether he was not inspired to write Inferno partially as a result of that--he could have just written Purgatioro and Paradiso, which would have conformed much more to the theology of the day in terms of the visionary experiences of the mystic. His inclusion of the visions of Hell, of the centrality of Lucifer, are a disturbing journey, but one that, as Dante presents it, is absolutely necessary before one can attain the final truth in paradise. I don't know. Just some speculation.
But anyway, yes, you're right. James did not deal with that aspect of religious experience effectively, in my view, and in a lot of people's views. I'm afraid I'm not sure why. Perhaps he genuinely just missed it. Perhaps, given the constrictions on the Gifford Lectures' form and content, he felt he shouldn't include them. Or perhaps, having himself dealt with depression and hopelessness, he wanted to suggest the solution that he had found for himself. Again, more speculation; I doubt anyone really knows why he didn't include those.