Dissociation and Religiosity: The Role of Religious Experience

Abstract

Dissociation can be conceptualized as a disruption in integrated processing of psychological information, due to alterations in consciousness. An emerging body of research has examined the relationship between dissociation and religiosity. Mixed findings suggest a weak positive association between these two constructs. The present aim was to investigate if dissociation predicted religious experience over and above a measure of religiosity. A sample of 371 Irish respondents completed the Measure of Prayer Type, the M Scale Short Version, and the Dissociative Experiences Scale. Binary logistic regression showed that religious experience was predicted by dissociation, controlling for frequency of prayer.