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Kennedy Robertson

2 papers in the library · publishing 2022-2026

Papers

Religious Cognition in Dreams

March 31, 2026 Michelle Carr, Kennedy Robertson

Dreams have historically served as a bridge between human cognition and the sacred, functioning as vehicles of prophecy, divine affirmation, and symbolic meaning that shape religious worldviews across theistic and non-theistic traditions. Contemporary scholarship explores how dreams reflect and reinforce pre-existing beliefs, with neurocognitive perspectives proposing that altered states of consciousness can produce experiences of supernatural agency. Lucid dreaming is suggested as a natural altered state where divine encounters may occur, with empirical studies showing that the phenomenology of these experiences is shaped by intention, control, and interpretation. The chapter situates a qualitative exploration of lucid dream agency within this context, presenting two case studies of expert lucid dreamers' encounters with the divine and enumerating supernatural agents generated in lucid dreams, emphasizing dreams as sites where cognition and religion meet.

DOI: 10.4324/9781003158189-7 (opens in new tab) Lucid dream Consciousness Religious experience Spirituality +15

Socially Distanced: An Exploratory Study of the Relationships Between Delusional Ideation and Social Imagery Under the Lens of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Research Square November 15, 2022 Kennedy Robertson, Ian Gold, Samuel P. L. Veissière et al.

Delusional ideation, or false beliefs, is linked to social factors such as feeling the presence of unseen others, loneliness, social anxiety, and empathy. A survey of 2,200 healthy adults during the COVID-19 pandemic found that all measured aspects of social imagery were positively associated with delusional ideation. The strongest predictor was felt presence, followed by loneliness, social fear, and empathic concern. The findings suggest that delusions may arise from common mechanisms with social imagination, and that alterations in social cognition contribute to delusional thinking.

DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-2264652/v1 (opens in new tab) Full text (opens in new tab) Social anxiety Paranoia Empathy Social isolation +6