This study examines attribution of supernatural agency in 17 Swedish, high functioning young adults on the autism spectrum, who describe sensing presence, feeling touch, and seeing visions without input of somatosensory stimuli. These participants report many more such incidents than the matched, non-autistic group participants, and current research suggests that unusual somatosensory experiences are prevalent in the autistic population. Attribution of invisible agency is understood as a sense-making coping strategy, and it is argued that esoteric content in fantasy literature, movies and computer games explain why these young adults prefer to attribute agency to ghosts, spirits and demons, rather than god(s). The study thereby extends and challenges the study of autism and religiosity by exploring the intersection between autistic embodiment and encultured cognition.
This article examines the role and function of imagination and parasocial(fiction-based) relations among autistic individuals. In interviews,seventeen high functioning, autistic young adults describe how theyfrequently absorb into daydreams, fantasy literature and multiplayeronline roleplaying games. These findings diverge from previous cognitiveresearch which suggests that imagination is limited in autisticindividuals; a conclusion which is also challenged by scholars incritical autism research. It is suggested that these opposed scholarlyviews can be bridged analytically and methodologically by separatinginterpersonal and intrapersonal imagination, of which only the former,social aspect is affected across the whole autism spectrum. Theresults indicate that parasocial relations are used both for pleasure andto cope with adversities, and that imaginary realms serve as optimalautistic spaces for simulating and practicing social interaction. Thearticle moreover provides a comparative discussion on parasocial andsupernatural relations.
This anthropologically informed study explores descriptions of communication with invisible, superhuman agents in high functioning young adults on the autism spectrum. Based on material from interviews, two hypotheses are formulated. First, autistic individuals may experience communication with bodiless agents (e.g., gods, angels, and spirits) as less complex than interaction with peers, since it is unrestricted by multisensory input, such as body language, facial expressions, and intonation. Second, descriptions of how participants absorb into "imaginary realities" suggest that such mental states are desirable due to qualities that facilitate social cognition: While the empirical world comes through as fragmented and incoherent, imaginary worlds offer predictability, emotional coherence, and benevolent minds. These results do not conform to popular expectations that autistic minds are less adapted to experience supernatural agents, and it is instead argued that imaginative, autistic individuals may embrace religious and fictive agents in search for socially and emotionally comprehensible interaction.
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