Content Analysis of an Anomalous Memorate Collection: Testing Hypotheses Regarding Universal Features.
Sociology of Religion › Vol. 61 Nbr. 2, June 2000
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Content Analysis of an Anomalous Memorate Collection: Testing Hypotheses Regarding Universal Features.
James McClenon [*]
The experiential source theory suggests that certain types of anomalous experiences are a source of recurring folk beliefs in spirits, souls, life after death, and magical abilities. The theory implies that these anomalous perceptions have physiological bases. Content analysis of a collection of oral accounts of anomalous memorates (N = 1215) indicates that experiences of apparitions, paranormal dreams, and waking extrasensory perceptions have cross-culturally uniform structures and that these experiences coincide with recurring elements within folk traditions. These findings support the experiential source theory and a broader ritual healing theory explaining the origin of religion. Even though "religious experiences" are thought to be central to religiosity, scholars find precise definitions for the concept to be elusive (Yamane 1998). Varieties of religious experience often appear under other labels such as mystical, ecstatic, numinous, anomalous, and paranormal. Some theorists argue that there is nothing specifically religious about any piece of human data and that religious experiences are merely cognitions labeled as such (Proudfoot 1985). Within this paradigm, no universal features exist which allow any experience to be defined as uniquely "religious." In opposition to this orientation, the experiential source theory hypothesizes that certain anomalous experiences have biological bases which generate prevalent forms of folk belief in spirits, souls, life after death, and magical abilities. Content analyses of collections of anomalous accounts allow evaluation of this hypothesis. The present study seeks to overcome definitional problems by analyzing a collection of experiences regarded by informants as sufficiently "unusual" to be worth telling others. When informants present first-hand accounts as authentic, folklorists label their reports as memorates. Memorates dealing with the supernatural will be termed a...See the full content of this document
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