An EEG Study on the Effects of Induced Spiritual Experiences on Somatosensory Processing and Sensory Suppression
In the present EEG study a placebo God Helmet was used to induce spiritual experiences in the lab, by boosting the expectations and suggestibility of participants. At a behavioral level it was found that instructions regarding whether the helmet was turned on or off were not effective, but that indi...
| Published in: | Journal for the cognitive science of religion |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Equinox Publ.
[2014]
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| In: |
Journal for the cognitive science of religion
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| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Somatosensory evoked potentials
/ Spiritual experience
/ Competent to act
/ Self-observation
/ Absorption (Psychology)
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| RelBib Classification: | AE Psychology of religion AG Religious life; material religion |
| Further subjects: | B
Spirituality
B sensory suppression B Religious experiences B EEG B sense of agency B body representation B somatosensory evoked potentials |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Resolving-System) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | In the present EEG study a placebo God Helmet was used to induce spiritual experiences in the lab, by boosting the expectations and suggestibility of participants. At a behavioral level it was found that instructions regarding whether the helmet was turned on or off were not effective, but that individual differences in beliefs in the effectiveness of the helmet, magical ideation, absorption and paranormal beliefs were strongly related to induced spiritual experiences. At a neural level, believers compared to skeptics were characterized by trend for increased theta / alpha power during the helmet session and trend for a reduced auditory suppression of the P2 component. These novel findings indicate that individual personality differences are a strong predictor of induced spiritual experiences and that reduced sensory suppression may reflect a reduced pre-reflective sense of agency, which in turn could underlie proneness to self-induced spiritual experiences. |
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| ISSN: | 2049-7563 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal for the cognitive science of religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1558/jcsr.v2i2.24573 |