Abstract:

This talk pulls together my work from the last few decades to ask: what do we know about the conditions under which invisible others come to seem real to people? I will argue, first of all, that becoming real is a problem. Not all gods are simply believed in. Then I will talk about a series of factors that make gods and spirits (and tulpas) feel more real: narrative detail, a proclivity for absorption, cultural attitudes about mental events, vivid experiences, and practice.

About the speaker:

Tanya Marie Luhrmann
Howard H. and Jessie T. Watkins University Professor of Anthropology and Professor, by courtesy, of Psychology
Stanford University