Do Religious Mediumship Dissociative Experiences Conform to the Sociocognitive Theory of Dissociation?

Abstract

Background: The religion Kardecism Spiritism accepts and fosters dissociative experiences such as spiritual incorporation, automatic writing and out-of-body experiences as part of its basic tenets. Mastery of these skills is valued and highly respected. Members undergo extensive formalized training under the guidance of experienced leaders who model socially appropriate religious behaviors.

Method: One hundred and ten subjects at a prominent Kardecist Center in São Paulo, Brazil, were assessed with a variety of questionnaires and scales which addressed socialization, happiness, religiosity, mediumship (for the measurement of religious-related dissociative behavior and its formal training), temperament (the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire; TPQ), and general dissociative experiences (the Dissociative Experiences Scale; DES).

Results: Mediumship activity was associated with increased DES score in spite of good scores on socialization and adaptation. There was evidence for a positive association between mediumship training and the control of the religious-related dissociative experiences. Increased pathological dissociation was associated with younger age, less control of mediumship activity, poorer social support and more antecedent psychiatric symptomatology.

Conclusions: These findings partially support the sociocognitive theory for religious-related non-pathological dissociation. The results of pathological dissociators suggest a co-existing but distinct sub-population whose pathological dissociative experiences were not caused by social modeling.

Key Words:

• Dissociation
• dissociative disorder
• religion
• sociocognitive theory
• social modeling
• mediumship