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Tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) are popular hobbies that may offer specific social benefits for autistic people. This study investigated the ability of TTRPGs to provide a safe space where autistic adults could develop relationships with other autistic adults while engaging in character and world-building. A group of eight autistic adults were split into two groups and taken through a short-form online Dungeons and Dragons campaign over 6 weeks run by one of the researchers. The researcher then led a series of individual semi-structured interviews discussing how participants felt interacting in and out of the TTRPG. Several key themes were identified as important aspects of why autistic people could benefit from such an environment. Analysis showed that while real-life interactions could be challenging, in TTRPG play, they felt they experienced significantly fewer struggles. Results suggested that TTRPGs can provide a safe space environment where autistic adults can engage in productive social interactions with like-minded individuals. It also may allow autistic participants to experience 'bleed' or the ability to take on a new character that changes the way they feel about themselves outside of the game. Future directions for this work are discussed.

This presentation delves into consumption of paranormal horror, such as visits to haunted houses and horror movies, which people seek out for enchantment. In line with the research conducted at the Recreational Fear Lab at Aarhus University, enchantment is described as a liminal state between pleasant and unpleasant, as well as between reality and fantasy. The empirical examples presented illustrate how unexpected and unusual events simultaneously are described as fearful and exciting; an act of balance which can be explained through the cognitive theory of predictive processing. The paper moreover illustrates the interactional loop between media consumption and religion, which seem to impact each other in various ways.  

Live action role-play (larp) is an improvised and embodied form of storytelling that develops through co-creation. While autistic individuals generally dislike unpredictable situations and social interaction in larger groups, anecdotal reports suggest that they often are found in the larping community. Through interviews with 10 autistic, experienced adult larpers, this study investigates larp as a scene for social learning. The examination focuses on the attraction of larps; what the participants learn about social interaction through larping; and how such insights transfer to everyday life. From a cognitive point of view, larping comes through as an optimal autistic space where players feel safe enough to dare push their social boundaries, which conceivably contributes to the formation of more precise social predictions since experimentation and mistakes facilitate embodied learning. From the participants' point of view, larping improved their understanding of social nuances, which in turn increased social confidence and well-being in everyday life.

In this presentation, I will address a glitch that has been largely overlooked in the study of religious cognition; namely cross-generational differences in the attribution of non-ordinary powers. Contemporary popular culture is permeated by magical and occult narratives, and Christopher Partridge argues that such ”occulture” has become ordinary among younger generations. While occult narratives may not be labelled as spiritual or religious, they yet appear to function as existential anchors in secularized contexts. Empirical examples are provided from a study on supernatural and parasocial relations among young adults on the autism spectrum, who are using the term ”supernatural” to make sense of anomalous experiences. Such experiences moreover seem to provide a path towards non-empirical beliefs in a sample that grew up highly secularized Sweden. 

This chapter takes its departure in interviews with 17 young adults (16-21 years old), who are all diagnosed with autism (type 1) and who describe themselves as religious and/or spiritual. According to the naturalness hypothesis of religion, supernatural beliefs are underpinned by an intuitive propensity for mentalization. But what about autistic individuals who find mentalization difficult? The aim was to explore how these individuals – who all struggle to grasp social communication in their everyday lives – come to form intimate relationships with invisible, supernatural beings. The findings suggest that the absence of physical bodies facilitates mentalization, as autistic individuals often are challenged in decoding non-verbal, embodied language. Instead, the participants describe interpretation of emotions as key to understanding what their supernatural partners have in mind. Another finding concerns the fact that most of the participants grew up in families with secular worldviews, and their path towards developing supernatural interpretations seems to be mediated through anomalous experiences, rather than social learning or philosophical reasoning. While the study does not reveal to what extent autistic individuals generally are attracted to invisible agency and magical narratives, it illustrates that supernatural dimensions are central for the participants in this study, and that such beliefs support them in making sense of unusual experiences and to cope with difficulties in their everyday lives.

In this article, we will look into some commonly used methods and theories in the psychology of religion. This research field dates back to the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, when scholars such as Stanley Hall and William James directed attention toward the role of religious experiences and their relation to human nature. Such experiences are focused on here, and as we will see, there are various ways of approaching the interaction between psychology, religion, culture, embodiment, and cognition. This article provides examples of both qualitative and quantitative methods commonly used in the field, and the pros and cons these bring about. We will also examine some prominent schools of thought that differ in their approach to religion and psychology: cultural psychology, clinical psychology, and the cognitive science of religion. While some of these scholars emphasize the role of culture, others center the role of internal, psychological processes. In some cases, the role of embodied practices and collective emotions are seen as crucial for the understanding of religiosity, and in other cases, individual traits are highlighted. This variety of approaches makes up a kaleidoscope of perspectives on the complex and fascinating ways in which religion and psychology interact, and how the outcome of such processes differs between various cultures and contexts.

The history of education is intertwined with the history of psychology, and influential thinkers such as Johann Herbart, William James, John Dewey, Jean Piaget and Jerome Bruner employed psychological perspectives when developing their ideas on knowledge and learning. This connection however appears to be weak in contemporary studies on religion and education, despite the expansive progress seen in both psychology and the cognitive sciences. This paper introduces areas where cognitive perspectives can be useful in developing a broader understanding of religion and education. Such gains both pertain to the theoretical understanding of how to develop religious literacy among pupils and students, as well as didactic aspects of the work conducted in classrooms. The ideas presented in the paper are centered around ‘learning by doing’, the role of emotions in enhancing memory, narrative didactics, and how experiences support the understanding of others and may bridge between pupils with differing identities. By involving cognitive perspectives, we can complement the understanding of the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ with comprehension of ‘why’ certain topics and methods provide more profound insights and learning outcomes than others.

I detta kapitel utforskas krocken mellan reflekterade tankar och oreflekterade intuitioner om vad som händer med våra sinnen när vi dör. Syftet är att belysa samtal om döden som en konstruktiv mötesplats där elever med sekulär respektive religiös identitet kan mötas i religionskunskapsundervisningen, och begreppet *sekulär litteracitet* föreslås här som ett analytiskt komplement till *religiös litteracitet.* I den första delen av kapitlet presenteras tidigare kognitionsvetenskaplig religionsforskning om människans (o)förmåga att föreställa sig sinnenas upphörande efter döden. I den andra delen av kapitlet sammanförs den kognitionsvetenskapliga forskning som presenterats med en religionsdidaktisk diskussion kring varför och hur mänskliga intuitioner om sinnets fortlevnad efter döden kan tas till vara i religionskunskapsundervisningen.