When spirits speak: Absorption, attribution, and identity among spiritualists who report ‘clairaudient’ voice experiences

Powell, Adam; Moseley, Peter

Abstract

For mental health researchers and others committed to a bio-cultural understanding of religious experience, there is a need for empirical studies capable of shedding light on the interplay between beliefs, personalities, and the occurrence of anomalous sensory experiences. Absorption, a trait linked to one’s tendency to become immersed in experience or thought, may be key for understanding that relationship. Spiritualist mediums (N = 65) completed an online questionnaire assessing the timing, nature, and frequency of their auditory (clairaudient) spiritual communications – including scales measuring paranormal beliefs, absorption, hallucination-proneness, and aspects of identity. These measures were compared to a general population group (N = 143), with results showing higher levels of auditory hallucination-proneness and absorption among the Spiritualists as well as correlations between spiritual beliefs and absorption, but not spiritual beliefs and hallucination-proneness, for the general population. Findings are discussed in relation to attribution models of religious experience and the complexity of “absorption” as a construct.

Citation

Powell, A., & Moseley, P. (2020). When spirits speak: Absorption, attribution, and identity among spiritualists who report ‘clairaudient’ voice experiences. Mental Health, Religion and Culture, 23(10), 841-856. https://doi.org/10.1080/13674676.2020.1793310

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 5, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Jan 18, 2021
• Publication Date: 2020
• Deposit Date: Jul 8, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 26, 2021
• Journal: Mental Health, Religion and Culture
• Print ISSN: 1367-4676
• Electronic ISSN: 1469-9737
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 23
• Issue: 10
• Pages: 841-856
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13674676.2020.1793310
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1267303