The mind possessed: well-being, personality, and cognitive characteristics of individuals regularly experiencing religious possession

Roma Delmonte; Miguel Farias; Marco Aurélio V Bastos; Leandro Madeira; Beatriz Sonego

doi:10.47626/1516-4446-2021-2414

The mind possessed: well-being, personality, and cognitive characteristics of individuals regularly experiencing religious possession

Roma Delmonte
, Miguel Farias
, Marco Aurélio V Bastos
, Leandro Madeira
, Beatriz Sonego

Research Centre for Peace and Security

Federal Institute of Mato Grosso
Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations at Coventry University

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

128 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To further our understanding of religious possession experiences by focusing on personality, cognitive, and quality of life outcomes.

METHODS: Data collection was undertaken at Umbanda sessions in Brazilian cities. Participants were mediums who regularly experienced possession (n=334) or those who attended the same rituals but had never been possessed (n=54).

RESULTS: We found that mediums were not significantly different across variables from the control group, except for anxiety, which was lower among mediums. Correlational and regression analysis showed that the level of meaningfulness attributed to possession and fusion with the spiritual entity were strongly positively correlated with most quality-of-life dimensions, and negatively with anxiety; in addition, level of meaningfulness predicted lower anxiety, and psychological quality of life was predicted by level of fusion and meaningfulness. Contrary to expectations, there were no detrimental effects of a lower level of bodily control over the possession experience.

CONCLUSION: Together, these results suggest that individuals regularly experiencing possession within a religious context are psychologically similar to those who attend the same rituals without experiencing possession, and that the way they appraise their experiences as meaningful, as well as the level of spiritual fusion, are predictors of well-being.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	486-494
Number of pages	9
Journal	Revista da Associacao Brasileira de Psiquiatria
Volume	44
Issue number	5
Early online date	28 Jul 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.47626/1516-4446-2021-2414
Publication status	Published - 2022

Bibliographical note

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/),
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is properly cited..

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being

Keywords

Quality of life
anxiety
dissociative identity disorder

Themes

Faith and Peaceful Relations

Access to Document

10.47626/1516-4446-2021-2414Licence: CC BY

PublishedFinal published version, 819 KBLicence: CC BY-NC

Cite this

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title = "The mind possessed: well-being, personality, and cognitive characteristics of individuals regularly experiencing religious possession",

abstract = "OBJECTIVE: To further our understanding of religious possession experiences by focusing on personality, cognitive, and quality of life outcomes.METHODS: Data collection was undertaken at Umbanda sessions in Brazilian cities. Participants were mediums who regularly experienced possession (n=334) or those who attended the same rituals but had never been possessed (n=54).RESULTS: We found that mediums were not significantly different across variables from the control group, except for anxiety, which was lower among mediums. Correlational and regression analysis showed that the level of meaningfulness attributed to possession and fusion with the spiritual entity were strongly positively correlated with most quality-of-life dimensions, and negatively with anxiety; in addition, level of meaningfulness predicted lower anxiety, and psychological quality of life was predicted by level of fusion and meaningfulness. Contrary to expectations, there were no detrimental effects of a lower level of bodily control over the possession experience.CONCLUSION: Together, these results suggest that individuals regularly experiencing possession within a religious context are psychologically similar to those who attend the same rituals without experiencing possession, and that the way they appraise their experiences as meaningful, as well as the level of spiritual fusion, are predictors of well-being.",

keywords = "Quality of life, anxiety, dissociative identity disorder",

author = "Roma Delmonte and Miguel Farias and Bastos, \{Marco Aur{\'e}lio V\} and Leandro Madeira and Beatriz Sonego",

note = "This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited..",

year = "2022",

doi = "10.47626/1516-4446-2021-2414",

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T1 - The mind possessed

T2 - well-being, personality, and cognitive characteristics of individuals regularly experiencing religious possession

AU - Delmonte, Roma

AU - Farias, Miguel

AU - Bastos, Marco Aurélio V

AU - Madeira, Leandro

AU - Sonego, Beatriz

N1 - This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited..

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - OBJECTIVE: To further our understanding of religious possession experiences by focusing on personality, cognitive, and quality of life outcomes.METHODS: Data collection was undertaken at Umbanda sessions in Brazilian cities. Participants were mediums who regularly experienced possession (n=334) or those who attended the same rituals but had never been possessed (n=54).RESULTS: We found that mediums were not significantly different across variables from the control group, except for anxiety, which was lower among mediums. Correlational and regression analysis showed that the level of meaningfulness attributed to possession and fusion with the spiritual entity were strongly positively correlated with most quality-of-life dimensions, and negatively with anxiety; in addition, level of meaningfulness predicted lower anxiety, and psychological quality of life was predicted by level of fusion and meaningfulness. Contrary to expectations, there were no detrimental effects of a lower level of bodily control over the possession experience.CONCLUSION: Together, these results suggest that individuals regularly experiencing possession within a religious context are psychologically similar to those who attend the same rituals without experiencing possession, and that the way they appraise their experiences as meaningful, as well as the level of spiritual fusion, are predictors of well-being.

AB - OBJECTIVE: To further our understanding of religious possession experiences by focusing on personality, cognitive, and quality of life outcomes.METHODS: Data collection was undertaken at Umbanda sessions in Brazilian cities. Participants were mediums who regularly experienced possession (n=334) or those who attended the same rituals but had never been possessed (n=54).RESULTS: We found that mediums were not significantly different across variables from the control group, except for anxiety, which was lower among mediums. Correlational and regression analysis showed that the level of meaningfulness attributed to possession and fusion with the spiritual entity were strongly positively correlated with most quality-of-life dimensions, and negatively with anxiety; in addition, level of meaningfulness predicted lower anxiety, and psychological quality of life was predicted by level of fusion and meaningfulness. Contrary to expectations, there were no detrimental effects of a lower level of bodily control over the possession experience.CONCLUSION: Together, these results suggest that individuals regularly experiencing possession within a religious context are psychologically similar to those who attend the same rituals without experiencing possession, and that the way they appraise their experiences as meaningful, as well as the level of spiritual fusion, are predictors of well-being.

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The mind possessed: well-being, personality, and cognitive characteristics of individuals regularly experiencing religious possession

Abstract

Bibliographical note

UN SDGs

Keywords

Themes

Access to Document

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