Adam J Powell
Biographic Data
| ID | 3601880 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Adam J Powell |
| GIVEN NAMES | Adam J |
| FAMILY NAME | Powell |
| SIGNATURE | POWELL A J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Durham University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1489-7026 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 2 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 11 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1969 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Pub Psychic Nights: Spiritual and Social Transformation Beyond Institutional Boundaries
This article explores pub psychic nights in Britain. The audience of these events are predominantly working- class women who gather in local pubs and social clubs to participate in spirit communication led by a medium and/or psychic. Drawing on qualitative data from 16 interviews and four participant observations we examine the social and spiritual significance of these events for the audience, arguing that they have a profound impact in helping …
Jingle-jangle? Spiritual voices, absorption, and proneness to hallucinations in Tanya Luhrmann’s “How God Becomes Real”
Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by Wellcome Trust [grant number WT108720]
Heresy
Although heresy, as a category, has predominantly featured in theological and historical discourse concerning the Christian tradition, social scientists of the late twentieth century began to use the concept to study social conflict, boundary maintenance, and the politics of language. Both sociological and anthropological uses of heresy emphasize two constitutive elements at play: (1) heresy is a threat to group unity and stability, and (2) as a …
By-Products or By Design? Considering Hearing Voices and Other Matters of the Mind
Hearing Voices and Other Matters of the Mind seeks to bring the theories and discoveries of the Cognitive Science of Religion to broader discussions of mental health. In doing so, the authors introduce auditory verbal hallucinations as one example of a supposed continuity between religious experiences and mental disorder. Based on up-to-date research into the phenomenological overlap between the voice-hearing experiences of those with and without…
Mol, Hans
When spirits speak: Absorption, attribution, and identity among spiritualists who report “clairaudient” voice experiences
For mental health researchers and others committed to a bio-cultural understanding of religious experience, there is a need for empirical studies capable of shedding light on the interplay between beliefs, personalities, and the occurrence of anomalous sensory experiences. Absorption, a trait linked to one’s tendency to become immersed in experience or thought, may be key for understanding that relationship. Spiritualist mediums (N = 65) complete…
Hearing spiritually significant voices: A phenomenological survey and taxonomy
Whereas previous research in the medical humanities has tended to neglect theology and religious studies, these disciplines sometimes have a very important contribution to make. The hearing of spiritually significant voices provides a case in point. The context, content and identity of these voices, all of which have typically not been seen as important in the assessment of auditory-verbal hallucinations (AVHs) within psychiatry, are key to under…
The Hearing Voices Movement as Postmodern Religion-Making: Meaning, Power, Sacralization, Identity
Over the past 40 or 50 years, scholars of religion have frequently attempted to use the tools of social science to analyse, describe, and explain the relevance and persistence of religion in the modern world. With the bold predictions of the secularization thesis as their stimuli, many sociologists and anthropologists preferred to focus on the underexplored, marginalised, or otherwise unexpected expressions of religion within those ostensibly sec…
Hans Mol and the Sociology of Religion
Covenant Cloaks: Mormon Temple Garments in the Light of Identity Theory
It is argued that Mormon temple garments reveal something of the process whereby religious identity receives reinforcement and protection through the stabilizing effects of material symbols. Such symbols are often described as “boundaries” or “boundary markers.” In the case of Latter-Day Saints’ ritual clothing, however, this essay contends that identity is more often reinforced in relation to the religious community; the garments create cultural…
The Qur'anic View of Other Scriptures
Hearing spiritually significant voices: A phenomenological survey and taxonomy
Whereas previous research in the medical humanities has tended to neglect theology and religious studies, these disciplines sometimes have a very important contribution to make. The hearing of spiritually significant voices provides a case in point. The context, content and identity of these voices, all of which have typically not been seen as important in the assessment of auditory-verbal hallucinations (AVHs) within psychiatry, are key to under…
Covenant Cloaks: Mormon Temple Garments in the Light of Identity Theory
It is argued that Mormon temple garments reveal something of the process whereby religious identity receives reinforcement and protection through the stabilizing effects of material symbols. Such symbols are often described as “boundaries” or “boundary markers.” In the case of Latter-Day Saints’ ritual clothing, however, this essay contends that identity is more often reinforced in relation to the religious community; the garments create cultural…
The Qur'anic View of Other Scriptures
Covenant Cloaks: Mormon Temple Garments in the Light of Identity Theory
It is argued that Mormon temple garments reveal something of the process whereby religious identity receives reinforcement and protection through the stabilizing effects of material symbols. Such symbols are often described as “boundaries” or “boundary markers.” In the case of Latter-Day Saints’ ritual clothing, however, this essay contends that identity is more often reinforced in relation to the religious community; the garments create cultural…
Hans Mol and the Sociology of Religion
The Hearing Voices Movement as Postmodern Religion-Making: Meaning, Power, Sacralization, Identity
Over the past 40 or 50 years, scholars of religion have frequently attempted to use the tools of social science to analyse, describe, and explain the relevance and persistence of religion in the modern world. With the bold predictions of the secularization thesis as their stimuli, many sociologists and anthropologists preferred to focus on the underexplored, marginalised, or otherwise unexpected expressions of religion within those ostensibly sec…
Mol, Hans
When spirits speak: Absorption, attribution, and identity among spiritualists who report “clairaudient” voice experiences
For mental health researchers and others committed to a bio-cultural understanding of religious experience, there is a need for empirical studies capable of shedding light on the interplay between beliefs, personalities, and the occurrence of anomalous sensory experiences. Absorption, a trait linked to one’s tendency to become immersed in experience or thought, may be key for understanding that relationship. Spiritualist mediums (N = 65) complete…
Hearing spiritually significant voices: A phenomenological survey and taxonomy
Whereas previous research in the medical humanities has tended to neglect theology and religious studies, these disciplines sometimes have a very important contribution to make. The hearing of spiritually significant voices provides a case in point. The context, content and identity of these voices, all of which have typically not been seen as important in the assessment of auditory-verbal hallucinations (AVHs) within psychiatry, are key to under…
Heresy
Although heresy, as a category, has predominantly featured in theological and historical discourse concerning the Christian tradition, social scientists of the late twentieth century began to use the concept to study social conflict, boundary maintenance, and the politics of language. Both sociological and anthropological uses of heresy emphasize two constitutive elements at play: (1) heresy is a threat to group unity and stability, and (2) as a …
By-Products or By Design? Considering Hearing Voices and Other Matters of the Mind
Hearing Voices and Other Matters of the Mind seeks to bring the theories and discoveries of the Cognitive Science of Religion to broader discussions of mental health. In doing so, the authors introduce auditory verbal hallucinations as one example of a supposed continuity between religious experiences and mental disorder. Based on up-to-date research into the phenomenological overlap between the voice-hearing experiences of those with and without…
Jingle-jangle? Spiritual voices, absorption, and proneness to hallucinations in Tanya Luhrmann’s “How God Becomes Real”
Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by Wellcome Trust [grant number WT108720]
Pub Psychic Nights: Spiritual and Social Transformation Beyond Institutional Boundaries
This article explores pub psychic nights in Britain. The audience of these events are predominantly working- class women who gather in local pubs and social clubs to participate in spirit communication led by a medium and/or psychic. Drawing on qualitative data from 16 interviews and four participant observations we examine the social and spiritual significance of these events for the audience, arguing that they have a profound impact in helping …
Philosophy (5 works) · Psychology (5 works) · Sociology (5 works) · Epistemology (4 works) · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology (4 works) · Social Psychology (4 works) · Theology (4 works) · Aesthetics (3 works) · Mental Health and Psychiatry (3 works) · Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs (3 works)