Pain and suffering as part of religious life: The Mauritian Thaipusam kavadi
In a pop-science article published in Dingir, E. Kundtová Klocová discusses the various socio-cultural aspects of the Thaipusam Kavadi ritual as practiced in Mauritius.
In a paper published in Religion, Brain & Behavior, J. Nenadalová & D. Řezníček demonstrated that some study participants in a sensory-deprived laboratory environment sensed the presence of another person. This feeling was mostly associated with perceived uncertainty and only somewhat associated with psychological dispositions.
People often experience a feeling that someone or something might lurk in the dark. But what exactly is going on psychologically? Jana and Dan combined questionnaires, physiological signals, and semi-structured interviews in a laboratory experiment to explore how Czech university students and absolvents react to being placed in a dark room, while being primed with the information that someone may enter the room. The authors observed that while uncertainty was positively associated with the feeling of presence, experimental priming showed no clear associations, and the associations with psychological dispositions were mixed.
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https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/THWCMXSJWNQTRH8XNN5H/full?target=10.1080/2153599X.2024.2305460
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In a pop-science article published in Dingir, E. Kundtová Klocová discusses the various socio-cultural aspects of the Thaipusam Kavadi ritual as practiced in Mauritius.
Religious experiences can be found across many cultures in various forms. Nevertheless, we can trace their underlying and potentially universal factors. In her thesis, Jana asks whether these factors include sensory deprivation, social seclusion, and the influence of authority. She further explores how these factors manifest in the context of experience. Her research is based on the predictive processing theory, assuming that our bodies and minds constantly predict ongoing events and that under the influence of studied factors, these predictions – including those learned from religion – can dominate over sensory perceptions.