By-Products or By Design? Considering Hearing Voices and Other Matters of the Mind

Powell, Adam J.; Cook, Christopher C.H.

doi:10.1558/jcsr.20092

By-Products or By Design? Considering Hearing Voices and Other Matters of the Mind

Powell, Adam J.; Cook, Christopher C.H.

Authors

Dr Adam Powell adam.j.powell@durham.ac.uk
Lecturer

Reverend Professor Christopher Cook c.c.h.cook@durham.ac.uk
PGR Student Doctor of Philosophy

Abstract

Hearing Voices and Other Matters of the Mind seeks to bring the theories and discoveries of the Cognitive Science of Religion to broader discussions of mental health. In doing so, the authors introduce auditory verbal hallucinations as one example of a supposed continuity between religious experiences and mental disorder. Based on up-to-date research into the phenomenological overlap between the voice-hearing experiences of those with and without a mental health diagnosis and those who report hearing spiritually significant voices, this essay elucidates the complexity of presupposing such continuities. We critique the notion that the cognitive mechanisms implicated in religiosity are inadvertent ‘by-products’ of the mind’s operations and propose, rather, that they are the inevitable outcomes of human meaning-making.

Citation

Powell, A. J., & Cook, C. C. (2021). By-Products or By Design? Considering Hearing Voices and Other Matters of the Mind. Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion, 7(1), 73-84. https://doi.org/10.1558/jcsr.20092

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	May 11, 2021
Online Publication Date	Aug 3, 2021
Publication Date	Aug 3, 2021
Deposit Date	May 14, 2021
Publicly Available Date	Aug 4, 2023
Journal	Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion
Print ISSN	2049-7555
Electronic ISSN	2049-7563
Publisher	Equinox Publishing
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	7
Issue	1
Pages	73-84
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1558/jcsr.20092
Public URL	https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1274988