Prayer and Perceptual (and Other) Experiences.
Cognitive science December 1, 2024 Eleanor Schille-Hudson, Kara Weisman, Tanya M Luhrmann 11 citations
Prayer, a common practice across many religions, changes not only how people feel or think but also what they perceive. Across three studies with thousands of participants from five cultures, more daily time spent in prayer is associated with more frequent reports of sensory and perceptual experiences interpreted as evidence of a god or spirit. Prayer most strongly relates to everyday events like dreams or strong emotions that feel not self-generated but caused by a deity. Prayer also relates to anomalous experiences such as voices and a sensed presence, but not to more dramatic events like possession, out-of-body experiences, or sleep paralysis. These results suggest that repeated practices can shape perception.