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

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 is
experienced and understood in contemporary Britain. An increasing number of the UK population identify as
atheistic 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 and
lifeworlds that are grounded in spiritual understanding and practice whereby the person does not necessarily
align themselves with a belief in God or any particular theology. It may also refer to those persons who do
identify 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 their
perceptions, experiences and understandings of 'good' and 'bad' deaths (Simpson, 2001