I began studying the association between psychological dissociation (partitioning of awareness) and stress and relaxation response in graduate school. I conducted survey work among university students for my master’s thesis and a biocultural study of Pentecostal speaking in tongues and stress response for my dissertation. On the side, I was part of an evolutionary psychology lab, where I began a study of self-deception, which is a form of dissociation. In Alabama, I began the Fireside Relaxation Study when I started my lab to train students in neuroanthropology by exploring the evolution and variability of dissociation as a means of self-soothing through fireside trance and relaxation.

We’ve extended this through investigations of Tanya Luhrmann’s absorption hypothesis, which suggests that being good at spiritual practices like talking to God can be predicted by belief in the goals, training and practice toward those goals, and biological proclivity for absorption. Absorption and dissociation have slightly different definitions depending on the scholar; clinical dissociative disorders often include absorption, but also detachment, and depersonalization. Luhrmann suggests that absorption is a more broadly function of consciousness and that dissociation is used clinically to suggest disorganization, making absorption a better umbrella term. Though I agree with Luhrmann, there are several similar psychological constructs that have somewhat independent literatures that are difficult to rectify as one integrated model. For example, there are many constructs similar to and overlapping how dissociation has been described: trance, altered states of consciousness, flow states, hypnosis, possession, spirit journey. Deafferentation is a related term that describes how dissociation likely happens at the neural level, by preventing or gating the traffic of incoming or afferent signals in regions of the brain, limiting the experience of awareness. I’ve proposed that dissociation is the most pragmatic term for the various ways that awareness can be partitioned, which can take forms as various as daydreaming, meditation, possession trance, spirit journeys, intoxication, hypnosis, dissociative disorders, and demonic possession. Deafferentation is a neuroscience term that reflects the neural activities of dissociation, which involves gating of neural networks among brain regions. I consider trance the visible manifestation of dissociation, which is important to distinguish because dissociation is not always visible, but humans assign a lot of social meaning to visible dissociation. I developed this theoretical model to integrate complementary approaches and make it easier to generate and test hypotheses across disciplines.

In exploring trance, I’ve hypothesized that one function is to signal group commitment. We’ve tested this using behavioral ecology theory to compare the 3B’s (badges, behaviors, bans) of religious commitment signaling to wellbeing biomarkers (total diurnal cortisol and alpha-amylase). Our research has included using multi-level selection theory and social network analysis in studies of the intragroup integration in churches with many interest groups in Alabama. We’ve also been conducting campus-based research on the biological proclivity for absorption predicted by the absorption hypothesis. To do this, we’ve been exploring the association between absorption and the catechol-O-methyl transferase (COMT), which has been identified as having regulatory functions in dopamine pathways in the brain. COMT has been associated with variation in hypnotizability.

​Here are examples of my publications, public and academic presentations, and media related to this research.

For those who would like to delve deeper, following are all the publications, studies, and related photos from this research:

CD Lynn. Adaptive and maladaptive dissociation: An epidemiological and anthropological comparison and proposition for an expanded dissociation model.Anthropology of Consciousness, 2005, 16(2):16-50. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1525/ac.2005.16.2.16/pdf. 
​I wrote this for a term paper in my adviser Larry Schell’s Medical Anthropology course when I was a master’s student. Little did I know it at the time, but I was establishing my theoretical perspective for much of my coming work. In this paper, I compared epidemiological and anthropological models of dissociation and suggested the concept and suggested an expanded conceptual model. I attended a Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness (SAC) conference that year and had coffee with the Society’s journal editor, who I mentioned the paper to. He encouraged me to submit it, so I polished it up that summer, submitted, and received an acceptance with minor revisions in a remarkably short time (it’s spoiled and demoralized me ever since). I received Best Paper award for the SAC that year and later submitted it as my publication sample when I was on the job market. It was my only publication at the time, but it helped me get my job here at UA.

CD Lynn. Dissociation, stress, and well-being: A pilot study of psychological allostasis in a university student sample. Master’s Paper. 2006, University at Albany, Department of Anthropology.
For my master’s, I explored various survey methods for studying dissociation, perceived stress, and well-being in an effort to contextualize dissociation within the allostasis concept.