Death, Grief, and Magical Thinking; Reconciling spirituality and science through implicit and explicit knowledge

拟议的研究项目调查不断变化的观念和对死亡，丧亲，宗教和精神的道德理解，民族志的重点是丧亲在当代英国经历和理解的不同方式。越来越多的英国人认为自己是无神论者或不可知论者，同时从事“神奇思维”和相关的精神实践。在这种情况下，“神奇思维”是一个广泛的综合范畴，包括那些以精神理解和实践为基础的行为、信仰和生活世界，人们不必将自己与对上帝或任何特定神学的信仰联系起来。它也可以指那些认同并实践有组织的宗教，但同时进行魔法思考和实践的人。一个具体的研究重点将是那些生活受到悲伤和丧亲之痛影响的人，以及他们对“好”和“坏”死亡的看法、经历和理解（辛普森，2001年）

The proposed research project investigates the changing perceptions and moral understandings of death,bereavement, religion and spirituality, with an ethnographic focus on the different ways that bereavement isexperienced and understood in contemporary Britain. An increasing number of the UK population identify asatheistic or agnostic while simultaneously engaging in 'magical thinking' and associated spiritual practices.'Magical thinking' in this context is a broad polythetic category encompassing those behaviours, beliefs andlifeworlds that are grounded in spiritual understanding and practice whereby the person does not necessarilyalign themselves with a belief in God or any particular theology. It may also refer to those persons who doidentify with and practice organised religion but who simultaneously carry out magical thinking and practice.A specific research focus will be those whose lives have been affected by grief and bereavement and theirperceptions, experiences and understandings of 'good' and 'bad' deaths (Simpson, 2001