Contribution of religiousness in the prediction and interpretation of mystical experiences in a sensory deprivation context: activation of religious schemas.
The Journal of psychology July 1, 2006 Pehr Granqvist, Marcus Larsson 31 citations
A double-blind experiment tested whether weak, complex magnetic fields evoke mystical experiences, finding no effect of field exposure on such experiences among 89 participants, though a minority reported spontaneous mystical experiences. Reanalyzing the data, higher religiousness predicted more mystical experiences with a religious quality, but not those without. The experimental setup, including pre-assessments of religiousness and sensory deprivation, may have acted as a prime that activated religious schemas in religious participants.