The 1980s 90s witnessed the rise of″consciousness studies″(or more generally,″science of consciousness″),the so-called″Second Golden Age .″Science of consciousness is a multidisciplinary research area which involves philosophy,psychology,cognitive neuroscience,artificial intelligence,etc . As″father of modern consciousness studies,″William James (1842-1910) was among the most influential pioneers of″the First Golden Age″of″consciousness studies .″His pioneering and comprehensive work in″consciousness studies″involves four aspects .First of all,James' research topics of consciousness in philosophy and psychology,covering almost all subjects of″consciousness studies,″are still exerting vigorous vitality .His radical empiricism is an original contribution to solving the problems of substance dualism,determinist materialism,and rationalism .Secondly,James was one of the pioneers in the scientific study of consciousness . He believed that psychology must to a certain extent be a neurophysiology,and it must not only concern with various phenomena of the mind,but also explore the brain as it is the direct physical condition of those phenomena .Thirdly,because of his position in pragmatism and radical empiricism as well as his seriousness in the neuroscience researches of consciousness,James's attitude towards the methodology of consciousness studies was pluralism . He naturally integrated the first-person (generalized phenomenology) study of consciousness with the third-person (empirical science) study .Recent neurophenomenology is the best footnote of this methodology route .Fourthly,James regarded religious experiences as part of the spectrum of human consciousness and life of mind .He took the lead in combining the study of religious experiences with neurology,opened up the field of neurological researches of religious experience and established the″science of religion .″James was a non-disciplinary scholar in that his studies of consciousness were the comprehensive and uniform presentations of″the phenomenon of humans .″James's greatness lies in his deep respect for the complexity,diversity and wholeness of human nature . He always regarded man as a complex,whole,unified and empirical phenomenon,and awarded highest respect and honor to the experience .In the context of contemporary science of consciousness,there is a dual purpose in summarizing and reviewing James's studies of consciousness .Firstly,it contributes to the establishment of James's historical status and unique value in the period during which the method of consciousness studies was transformed from philosophical research into scientific .Secondly,James has provided the studies of metaphysics,phenomenology,cognitive neuroscience and methodology of contemporary consciousness science with extremely rich and comprehensive thought resources which still have vital significance even today .