Vital Energy and Afterlife: Implications for Cognitive Science of Religion¹

Energia Vital e Vida Após a Morte: Implicações Para a Ciência Cognitiva da Religião

Energía Vital y Vida Después de la Muerte: Implicaciones Para la Ciencia Cognitiva de la Religión

Literature investigating people’s concepts of supernatural agency (such as ghosts and deities) points to an intuitive theory of mind underlying such ideas, however, recent studies suggest that intuitive ideas over vital energy could also be involved. The present paper focuses on examining the culture and development of people’s conceptions on vital energy. A search was made using the keyword vital energy targeting literature from Anthropology, Psychology and Cognitive Science. A literature review over this topic was made yielding reflections over the development of vital energy concepts. Results suggest that an intuitive biology, grounded on ideas of biological energy (vital energy), may underlie an understanding of soul, spirit, and supernatural energy. Future empirical studies should target the development of vital energy intuitive theories with different age ranges and cultures.

vital energy; cognition; death and dying