About Michael C. Barros
Research and writing presented here explore religion as lived experience, cultural form, and cognitive phenomenon.
Research Overview
Current work examines dreams, ritual practice, and media as sites where religious experience and cultural imagination intersect, using methods from cognitive science of religion, theology, and media analysis.
Formation of Supernatural Agents in Dreams Through Simulation
My dissertation applies grounded cognition to dream data to explain how concepts of supernatural agents form and persist. I analyze ~1,200 dream reports from adults over 10–14 days (n=120), with a subsample wearing DREEM headbands (n=60). Dream content is coded for sensorimotor “simulation richness,” agent presence, and narrative structure, then tested against religiosity and paranormal belief scales, with REM sleep dynamics included. The goal is a mechanistic account of how dream simulations help construct and reactivate agent concepts.
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Substack
Personal blog with two tracks: Mythonoesis for culture, religion, and philosophy commentary; and Text & Tradition for theological and historical essays.
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