The Psychology of Grief and the Origins of the Resurrection Story

NOVEMBER 17, 2020 BY JONATHAN MS PEARCE

Here is an excerpt from a brilliant book by anthropologist of religion, Homuyan Sidky – Religion, Supernaturalism and the Paranormal: An Anthropological Critique – concerning the psychology of grief and how it leads to hallucinations. The book is an academic title that commands quite a price.


The Psychology of Grief and the Origins of the Resurrection Story

The literature on the psychology of grief reveals that the bereaved frequently undergo recurring series of hallucinatory encounters involving the departed loved ones (Kent 1999: 27–28). As theologian Jack Kent points out in his book The Psychological Origins of the Resurrection Myth (1999), grieving people sometimes try to hang on to the deceased psychologically and experience feeling their presence, hearing their voices, being touched by them, and seeing their apparitions. Contemporary grief literature considers these hallucinations as a normal part of the grieving and coping process (Kent 1999: 31–32). The reason for this is that in the minds of the bereaved the deceased’s program is not erased, but instead, the dead individual is recast as a “virtual person,” with whom the living can continue to interact as they did before. The same cognitive mechanisms are involved here that generate other X-claims, such as sensing ghosts and other noncorporeal intentional entities we think we detect in our surroundings.

Grief hallucinations are exceptionally compelling. As Sacks (2012: 233) points out, “Bereavement hallucinations, deeply tied to emotional needs and feelings, tend to be unforgettable.” The psychiatrist and expert on bereavement Stephen Shuchter (1986: 116, 118–19) points out that human attachment bonds are powerful and deep and often mere physical death cannot erase them. Psychologically, the newly bereaved are driven to retrieve the loved one who has died. For this reason, most people during the early weeks and months of their grief believe that they have seen, heard, touched, smelled, or felt the presence of the dead person. In other words, internal psychological forces, along with cultural beliefs about spiritual survival, ensure that the emotional relationships with the deceased continue. Even for those who are aware that they are hallucinating, the experience seems very real (Shuchter 1986: 118). For the disciples seeing visions of their dead rabbi would have reinforced their convictions that he had survived death because God vindicates the righteous.

Wright (2003: 690) asserts, however, that people in the ancient world knew the difference between visions and events that happened in the “real world.” In other words, if apparitions of Jesus were merely hallucinations, the disciples would have known this fact. Moreover, he adds that postmortem hallucinations of deceased loved ones at other times have not resulted in the belief in resurrected dead people (Wright 2003: 690). What he means is that the disciples would not have become convinced that the Lord has risen if Jesus had not actually visited them in person. Wright overlooks the fact that history is full of instances of unexpected occurrences. Also, there are many other cases where the followers of dead prophets and messiahs become convinced that their leaders live on, as discussed in the next chapter.

We must also take into consideration that the individuals described in the New Testament were consummate visionaries who attributed anything contrary to ordinary experience to heavenly or paranormal sources. This fact was noted by scholars long ago. As Gorham (1908: 86) observed, for those who do not understand the origins of their vision, the hallucination appears powerfully real, and it is difficult to differentiate between what is illusionary and what is not. Similarly, Macan (1877: 74, 140) pointed out that the visions were treated as mind-independent and objectively real because the followers of Jesus were believers in miracles, supernatural interventions in the natural course of things, heavenly warnings through dreams, angelic visitations, theophanies, and revelations.

More:
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/tippling/2020/11/17/the-psychology-of-grief-and-the-origins-of-the-resurrection-story/