ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an analysis of the fundamental processes of believing (not belief content) and their relationship to communicating with unseen entities – whether it be a god, spirit, dead loved one, or other otherworldly or this-worldly construct or entity. The behaviors involved may include prayer, ritual, sacrifice, or nothing extra-ordinary, and may be individual or group, take variable lengths of time, may or may not require evidence of the validity of having communicated, and may yield what is seen as explicit confirmation of the reason for communicating, or no “results” at all. Psychologically, believing involves making meaning out of ambiguity, imagining, and other cognitive constructions. It draws no conclusions about whether what is believed is false or true. Believing is the connecting link that holds other fundamental psychological processes such as perception, value attribution, and learning, as well as interpersonal processes such as communicating, together. It is mostly below conscious awareness from the micro to macro levels; a small proportion of it becomes conscious. This chapter puts communicating with unseen entities squarely under the neurophysiological microscope, while also accounting for cultural mechanisms and having applied implications.
