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Avhandling: Varieties of supernatural experience: the case of high functioning autism
Ämne: Religionsvetenskap
Forskarskola: Historiska studier, Intstitutionen för historia och samtidsstudier
Opponent: Tanya Luhrmann, professor i antropologi, Stanford University
Språk: Svenska

Abstract

It has been argued within the cognitive science of religion that ‘mindreading’ of others underpins the experience of supernatural interactions with gods, ghosts, and spirits. Since autism is characterized by mentalizing difficulties, cognitive scholars have expected that such relations would be elusive to these individuals. This thesis however turns the question around: why do autistic individuals still engage in invisible relations, despite the social difficulties they face in everyday life? How are such relations described?

The overall aim is to examine supernatural descriptions provided by 17 Swedish young adults (16-21 years old) who are both diagnosed with high functioning autism and label themselves ‘religious’ or ‘spiritual’. The research questions explore(1) cognitive aspects of interaction with invisible agents, compared to interaction with peers; (2) the role of unusual embodied experiences (e.g. feeling touch and seeing visions with external input) in forming notions on supernatural agency; and (3) the psychological role and function of parasocial (one-sided) interaction in imaginary realms.

This interdisciplinary project draws on work within the cognitive science of religion, cognitive and critical autism research, and psychological anthropology. It employs mixed qualitative and quantitative methods to enable a kaleidoscopic outlook on autistic and religious cognition, and to promote a dialogue between idiographically and nomothetically oriented scholars. Focused is directed towards autistic perspectives and prerequisites, to provide first person (emic) perspectives on religious and autistic cognition; here understood as dynamic interaction between embrained, embodied, encultured and situated input.

The results in Publication I indicate that ‘bodiless’ interaction without cross-modal synchronization of facial expressions, body language and intonation facilitates mindreading and agency detection, also in relation to invisible agents. Publication II examines supernatural interpretations of unusual, embodied experiences, which offer enchantment and sense-making of potentially frightening experiences. In Publication III, imaginary worlds and parasocial relations come throughas ‘simulators’ in which autistic individuals can enact and practice social interaction. Publication IV offers a theoretical and methodological discussion on the study of a typical cognition. Importantly, this thesis illustrates that these imaginative participants are not drawn to supernatural frameworks in spite of—but because of—the invisible and fantasy-based characters that these provide.

Keywords: Autism, religious cognition, supernatural experience, invisible agency, parasocial relations, embodiment, bracketed ethnography, participatory autism research, atypical cognition.