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Dreams as a source of supernatural agent concepts
Patrick McNamara1, Kelly Bulkeley2
1Department of Neurology, Boston University School of Medicine - Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System Boston, MA, USA.
Frontiers in Psychology
|April 9, 2015
Summary
Dreams facilitate the creation of supernatural agent (SA) concepts by simulating realities and attributing agency to dream characters. This process, particularly during REM sleep, can contribute to religious delusions in conditions like schizophrenia.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Science
- Neuroscience
- Religious Studies
Background:
- Religious delusions and supernatural agent (SA) cognitions are fundamental to many belief systems.
- Understanding the cognitive mechanisms underlying the formation of these concepts is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To present a theory linking dream creativity to the psychopathology of religious delusions.
- To explain how dreams generate fundamental forms of religious cognition, specifically SA cognitions.
Main Methods:
- Theoretical framework integrating dream processes with cognitive and neurological factors.
- Analysis of dream characteristics: mental simulation, theory of mind, and value attribution.
- Consideration of prefrontal cortex deactivation during REM sleep and its effect on agency attribution.
Main Results:
- Dreams efficiently produce memorable SA experiences through mental simulations, theory of mind, and value attribution.
- During REM sleep, deactivation of the prefrontal cortex leads to attributing exaggerated agency to dream characters.
- Dream-based SAs are salient and easily recalled due to memory system processing, influencing waking beliefs.
Conclusions:
- Dreaming provides a unique cognitive environment for generating supernatural agent concepts.
- The intrusion of REM sleep into waking consciousness can foster religious delusions, as seen in schizophrenia.
- The theory elucidates the cognitive roots of supernatural beliefs and their potential pathological manifestations.
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