RT Article
T1 An EEG Study on the Effects of Induced Spiritual Experiences on Somatosensory Processing and Sensory Suppression
JF Journal for the cognitive science of religion
VO 2
IS 2
SP 121
OP 157
A1 Elk, Michiel van 1980-
LA English
PB Equinox Publ.
YR 2014
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1694208249
AB 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.
K1 EEG
K1 body representation
K1 Religious experiences
K1 sense of agency
K1 sensory suppression
K1 somatosensory evoked potentials
K1 Spirituality
DO 10.1558/jcsr.v2i2.24573