Where the Spirit Meets the Bone: Embodied Religiospiritual Cognition from an Attachment Viewpoint

Attachment theory can help explain how people think about religion and spirituality in bodily, physical ways—through metaphors, rituals, and imagining God or spirits as attachment figures. Embodied cognition also plays a role in mystical experiences and altered states, whether inside or outside religious settings. The term religiospiritual cognition is proposed to capture this broader view. The paper reviews attachment theory, connects it to embodied religious and spiritual thought, and suggests future research directions. Psychedelic science is highlighted as a promising area for studying how attachment relates to embodied religiospiritual cognition.

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Abstract

In this conceptual paper, we suggest that attachment theory is a viable framework for understanding key aspects of embodied religious and spiritual cognition, as seen in religious and spiritual metaphors, rituals, anthropomorphisms, and more. We also discuss embodied cognition as part of mystical experiences and other altered states of consciousness that may occur both within and outside of religious contexts. Therefore, religiospiritual cognition is introduced as an alternative term to religious cognition. We review the basic tenets of attachment theory and conceptually link embodied religiospiritual cognition to attachment-related processes. Finally, we conclude with directions for future research on embodied religiospiritual cognition from an attachment viewpoint. The field of psychedelic science may be especially promising for examining links between attachment and embodied religiospiritual cognition.