Madhwa Galgali on Death Awareness, Religious Belief, and Atheists
Madhwa Galgali is a doctoral candidate in social/personality psychology at the University of Missouri. Originally from India, Madhwa earned his BA in Psychology at D.G. Ruparel College, his Master’s in Applied Psychology at Mumbai University, and taught as visiting faculty and Adjunct Professor at various colleges in Mumbai. He then moved to the US where he earned his Master’s in Experimental Research Psychology at Cleveland State University. Madhwa’s research explores existential motivations underlying religious and non-religious belief systems, and he is working to promote cross-cultural research between India and the USA.
By Kenneth Vail, Cleveland State University. March 9, 2021.
ISSEP: How did you first become aware of and interested in existentialism and existential psychology?
Clockwise from top left: The Myth of Sisyphus (1942); Crime and Punishment (1866); No Exit (1944); Waiting for Godot (1953); Death of a Salesman (1949); and Man’s Search for Meaning (1946).
Madhwa Galgali: In high school, I took practical courses (e.g., psych, econ, stats) but also wanted to learn the humanities. So, I sat-in on literature courses and joined the literature club. It was great; we read poetry, studied classic novels, and performed plays—I even played Marc Antony in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, and I can still remember the lines! Anyway, one of the professors in the club told me about Albert Camus, which led me to The Outsider and The Myth of Sisyphus, and it was around that time that I first became aware of existentialism. From there, it became a passion. I made my way through other creative novels and plays that dealt with existential themes: Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov; Jean Paul Sartre’s No Exit; Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman; and Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot.
Ultimately, I discovered Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search of Meaning, which was my first encounter with existential psychology. Unfortunately, Frankl’s work was oriented toward developing an existential psychotherapy, whereas I wanted to learn how existential psychology helps to understand various healthy, everyday social-psychological processes. So I kept searching and reading, and eventually learned about terror management theory and research, which helps to explain how the subconscious motivation to manage the awareness of mortality is involved in things like self-esteem, cultural attitudes and beliefs, and close relationships. I reached out to Dr. Jeff Greenberg, one of the theory’s creators, and he encouraged me and even mailed a book from Arizona (USA) to Mumbai (India)!
That’s how I discovered that researchers can scientifically test and explore ideas about the role of existential concerns in everyday life. After that, I became quite interested in existential psychology—from terror management theory, to self-determination theory, to the meaning maintenance model and beyond—and wanted to join the field. So, I earned my Masters and taught for a few years at the University of Mumbai, but soon realized the Indian system isn’t ready to support ambitious young researchers in psychological science. After some soul-searching, and much discussion with my family (I’m the eldest son), I decided to leave India to pursue a career in existential psychology in the US.
ISSEP: You recently completed some research on the existential psychology of religious faith among believers and atheists. Can you tell us more about that?
Madhwa Galgali: My research examined how death awareness would impact religious faith among religious believers and atheists. A lot of prior theory and research suggested that religious concepts are an extension of natural, cognitively intuitive processes—quick, automatic, and implicit—and that one of the key functions of religious belief is to help manage existential concerns about death. Whereas the concept of mortality means one’s body is impermanent, religious concepts about souls, gods, and afterlives are based on the idea that one’s spiritual self, separate from one’s body, is permanent.
Advances in the cognitive science of religion also suggested that such intuitions are sculpted and shaped, like blocks of clay, by one’s cultural experiences and analytic thought. For example, studies have found that, compared to control conditions, increased mortality salience can cause Christian believers to more strongly express faith in Christian (vs. Islamic or Buddhist) concepts, and Muslim believers to more strongly express faith in Islamic (vs. Christian or Buddhist) concepts.
But I wanted to know: What about atheists? One pop-culture saying—which seems to be said mostly by religious believers—is that “There are no atheists in foxholes.” But that doesn’t square with reality. There are atheists in all the military branches, including combat roles, and the general population of non-believers is growing. So, assuming the average atheist experiences death awareness, just like anybody else, I wanted to know—does it motivate them to want to express religious faith too? If so, what are they doing differently, to remain atheist?
It seemed likely that atheists experience the same natural intuitions as everybody else, which meant death awareness would probably increase the intuitive appeal of religious concepts for them too. But intuitive appeal is night-and-day different than expressed acceptance and belief. Even vegans can freely admit that BBQ bacon-wrapped ribs smell delicious, while nevertheless overriding the impulse to eat them—thereby upholding their vegan principles. I expected that atheists managing death awareness would do the same when it came to religion.
We recruited samples of both Christians and atheists, manipulated the awareness of death, and asked about whether they desired and whether they believed in God and the afterlife. Sure enough, we found two distinct data patterns. Among Christians, death reminders increased both admitted desire and expressed belief. Among atheists, however, death reminders increased their admitted desire but not their expressed belief. These findings suggest that both Christians and atheists experienced the intuitive appeal of religious concepts when they were reminded of death. But, whereas Christians accepted those intuitions as their expressed belief, the atheists seemed to exert some self-regulation to reject those intuitions and remain non-believers.
ISSEP: How did you develop your interest in existential psychology, religion, and atheists?
Madhwa Galgali: I grew up surrounded by existential and religious ideas. I come from a religious Hindu family, and India’s past and present is extremely religious. I knew firsthand the fulfilment of understanding one’s place in the world, and the joys of sharing in the beautiful traditions and cultural practices so often associated with Indian Hinduism. However, like many people, when I was in my teens I began to question the truth of the beliefs and virtue of the traditions. I was learning scientific accounts of reality, from evolution to physics; and I saw the religious caste-based inequality, subjugation of women, and routine violence between Hindu and Muslim communities.
I wanted to know more about why religious ideas were so important to people. As I began to dig beneath the surface, many existential issues started to reveal themselves: life and death; free will; meaning and purpose. I wanted to know more about whether these issues were indeed key psychological components of the religious experience. I became interested in non-believers, as well, because I grew more and more fascinated by the question of whether and how people might effectively address those existential concerns without necessarily participating in a religious faith.
ISSEP: You’ve been studying these issues using psychological science. Do you see your research topic being dealt with in interesting ways in the humanities or the arts?
Clockwise from top left: The Brothers Karamazov (1879-80); A Confession (1882); The Outsider (L’etranger) (1942); The Drowned and the Saved (1986).
Madhwa Galgali: Yes! I love to read, so the illustrations I know best come from literature.
In Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamozov (1879-80), Alyosha (Alexei) is studying theology at the local Russian Orthodox monastery, whereas his brother Ivan rejects religion on the basis of both education and compassion. They have a set of rather artistic debates about the religious and atheist perspectives on the functions and effects of religion in the “Rebellion” chapter, the “Grand Inquisitor” poem, through Ivan’s dream about the concept of the devil, and in other dialog sprinkled throughout the novel.
Leo Tolstoy began A Confession (1882) with an allegory of a man chased by a beast (suffering) into a dry well, only to find a dragon (death) at the bottom. Gripped with fear, he clings to a branch growing from the wall of the well, but the branch is being gnawed by two mice—one night, one day—steadily lowering him toward death. Tolstoy explores four solutions to the problem: (1) ignorance of death; (2) Epicurean enjoyment of the time remaining; (3) conceding the absurdity of life, via suicide; and (4) the effort to hold on, and create one’s own meaning in life, such as (Tolstoy’s own preference) to believe that God has created life with meaning and purpose.
The main character in Albert Camus’s The Outsider [L’etranger] (1942), Meursault, awaits execution after having murdered a man in Algiers. As he languishes in prison, a chaplain repeatedly offers salvation through God in his eleventh-hour. Meursault, however, is an atheist and, especially as the chaplain persistently fails to respect Meursault’s refusals, he more and more firmly rejects religion.
In non-fiction, an Italian scientist (chemist) and non-believer named Primo Levi survived the Holocaust, and wrote a variety of memoirs, novels, and poetry, including a book called The Drowned and the Saved (1986). In the latter, Levi describes standing in a concentration camp inspection line, waiting to find out whether he would be sent to work or to the gas chamber. He recalls that, for a brief moment, he felt an impulse to raise a prayer—but then, in the next instant, despite his anguish, he rejected that temptation as “obscene, laden with the greatest impiety of which a nonbeliever is capable.” The full passage spans several pages, and it’s emotional, but it’s also a revealing illustration of the complex relationship between death awareness and religious faith among nonbelievers.
Outside of literature, these sorts of topics have been dealt with in interesting ways in Flight from Death: The Quest for Immortality (2003), which is a documentary that explores the connection between subconscious fear of death and cultural and spiritual life, as well as the American drama Six Feet Under (2001-2005) and the German science fiction thriller Dark (2017-2020) on Netflix.
ISSEP: What do you see as the most important next steps toward better understanding the role of existential concerns in the psychological experiences of religious believers and atheists?
Madhwa Galgali: One major issue is to do more cross-cultural research. Terror management theory is a culturally dynamic theory, but almost all of the experimental research examining the relationship between death awareness and religious belief has been conducted among Western populations with Abrahamic religious beliefs (e.g., Jewish, Christian, Muslim). We need more research exploring that existential dynamic among Asian and African populations and those with non-Abrahamic religious beliefs.
Additionally, polls suggest the younger generations include the largest populations of non-believers in history. Atheists, agnostics, and “spiritual but not religious” are each philosophically distinct populations that likely handle existential concerns in unique ways. Thus, another major next step will be to explore the way these non-believers handle existential concerns about death, how they regulate the associated religious intuitions, and whether and to what extent they rely on secular alternatives.
ISSEP: You’ve attended, and presented research at, our Existential Psychology Preconferences; how has your experience been with those?
Madhwa Galgali: It’s been amazing! I’ve attended the Existential Psychology Preconference in 2020 and 2021, and both exceeded my expectations. Last year [2020] I really enjoyed seeing Drs. Roy Baumeister and Sheldon Solomon deliver full-length keynote presentations, and this year [2021] I really enjoyed the keynotes from Drs. John Jost and Tomi-Ann Roberts. Also, Dr. Daniel Sullivan really opened my eyes to the effect of culture on the experience of climate-related existential threat, and the possibilities of a multi-method approach, so that was interesting as well. There were so many other engaging presentations on a broad range of other topics, which I thought made the existential psych preconference so intellectually generative and useful.
I also really love the community. Each time, the speakers have been friendly and accessible, and it’s been great to meet people with similar interests. I’ve really enjoyed spending time exploring new ideas and new cities with my labmates and our colleagues from around the world. In 2020, in New Orleans, a group of us discovered a quirky Museum of Death, explored the French Quarter, and ate far too many late-night beignet’s at Cafe Du Monde. I hope to attend more of these enlightening conferences and have more of these enriching experiences!
ISSEP: What is one piece of advice you would give to future students who have an interest in following in your footsteps?
Madhwa Galgali: First, read widely. Read the psychological literature, of course, but also make sure to read philosophy, anthropology, sociology, and so on. There are a lot of sharp thinkers doing some great work on similar topics, so spend some time to learn about them and see what ideas they have to contribute.
Second, if you’re in a non-Western country, like India, and you’re interested in existential psychology but unsure about how to get started or if it’s possible for you—just reach out. Google your favorite researchers around the world and send them an email. Don’t be intimidated and don’t worry about whether your English is okay. Just reach out. There are researchers and clinicians doing existential psychology in practically every area of psychology, and in my experience they’re generally friendly, happy to hear from you, and willing to be supportive. So keep reaching out until you find someone with whom you share interests—that’s the first step toward opening new doors to joining this amazing field.
ISSEP: Can you tell us a little about yourself outside the research context?
Madhwa Galgali: Up until about 10 years old I played cricket, which is the biggest sport in India, but then I switched to football (or “soccer” as they call it here in the US). I played as midfielder and really got into it in college, where I played for my school’s unofficial team in 12th standard. I don’t play so much anymore, but I watch the English league and have been supporting Chelsea since about 2008. So, that’s been fun.
I love to read, and watch movies from different cultures. When I was in India, I used to love to get outside to hike as much as possible, so it’s nice that there are a lot of forests and caves and other places to hike here in Missouri, too.
ISSEP: A lot of us like to listen to music in the lab; what are you listening to lately?
Madhwa Galgali: I’m listening to a lot of Tool, especially their most recent album—Fear Inoculum (2019). My most-listened-to song from that album is Invincible.
After Tool, I like rock albums with narrative themes. Pink Floyd’s rock opera The Wall (1979) is one of my favorites. I also really enjoy an album titled Deadwing (2005), by a more contemporary UK band called Porcupine Tree. I like when the musicians can more thoughtfully explore a topic beyond just a few minutes of a single song, and I like when artists craft a cohesive yet dynamic album that tracks all the relevant emotions and experiences from song to song.