Experience as event: event cognition and the study of (religious) experiences
Religion, Brain & Behavior June 9, 2016 DOI: 10.1080/2153599x.2016.1150327 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Citations | 69 |
| Key points | Argues that event cognition offers a basic concept for building a consilient research platform across the humanities, social sciences, and cognitive psychology for studying experiences deemed religious. The authors contend this framing reframes three classic problems — culture-specific knowledge in producing experiences, the link between original experiences and later narratives, and the role of appraisal processes — and integrates disparate cognitive science of religion research into a unified framework. |
Abstract
We argue that event is a basic concept that humanists, social scientists, and cognitive psychologists can use to build a consilient research platform for the study of experiences that people deem religious. Grounding the study of experience in event cognition allows us to reframe several classic problems in the study of “religious experience”: (1) the function of culture-specific knowledge in the production of experiences; (2) the relationship between original experiences and later narratives; and (3) the role of appraisal processes in experience. At the same time, construing experiences as events allows us to integrate disparate lines of research in the cognitive science of religion (CSR) in a unified framework for studying both existing and emergent phenomena.
Citations in the library
Cited by 11
- Approaches to Altered States of Consciousness in Contemporary Western Science and Technology Journal of anomalistics June 1, 2018
- Intense Meditation-Related Experiences (IMREs) and Perceived Impacts on Self and Worldview: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis Mindfulness May 19, 2026
- Feasibility of the Mechanistic Explanation in the Case of Near-Death Experiences: Nothing but a Reductionism? Synthese Library 2026
- How Psychedelic, Religious, Spiritual, Mystical Experiences Become Effective The Oxford Handbook of Psychedelic, Religious, Spiritual, and Mystical Experiences November 19, 2024
- Reconceptualizing Altered States of Consciousness Using Network-Based Tools The Oxford Handbook of Psychedelic, Religious, Spiritual, and Mystical Experiences November 19, 2024
and 6 more in the library
Cites 5
- An Interoceptive Predictive Coding Model of Conscious Presence Frontiers in Psychology 2012
- From drugs to deprivation: a Bayesian framework for understanding models of psychosis Psychopharmacology May 27, 2009
- Sensed presence and mystical experiences are predicted by suggestibility, not by the application of transcranial weak complex magnetic fields Neuroscience Letters December 10, 2004
- Mystical Experience in the Lab Method & Theory in the Study of Religion September 4, 2014
- Attribution Theory and the Psychology of Religion The Psychology of Religion December 1, 1975