Brain, Belief and Behaviour Lab, Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Coventry University, Coventry, England.
Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul, Campo Grande, MS, Brazil.
Braz J Psychiatry. 2022 Nov 5;44(5):486-494. doi: 10.47626/1516-4446-2021-2414. Epub 2022 Jul 28.
To further our understanding of religious possession experiences by focusing on personality, cognitive, and quality of life outcomes.
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).
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.
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.
通过关注人格、认知和生活质量结果，进一步了解宗教附身体验。
数据收集在巴西城市的翁班达仪式上进行。参与者包括经常经历附身的媒介（n=334）或那些参加过相同仪式但从未被附身的人（n=54）。
我们发现，媒介在焦虑方面与对照组没有显著差异，除了焦虑之外，媒介的焦虑水平较低。相关和回归分析表明，赋予附身和与精神实体融合的意义水平与大多数生活质量维度呈强烈正相关，与焦虑呈负相关；此外，意义水平预测较低的焦虑，心理生活质量由融合水平和意义水平预测。与预期相反，附身体验中较低的身体控制水平并没有产生不利影响。
总的来说，这些结果表明，在宗教背景下经常经历附身的个体在心理上与那些参加相同仪式但没有经历附身的个体相似，他们对自己经历的意义的评价方式，以及精神融合的程度，是幸福感的预测因素。
