In Chapter 3 knowledge from sociocultural psychology is integrated with other disciplines within psychology such as cognitive, social, and neuro psychology, and outside psychology such as sociology, visual studies, and philosophy, to tackle the power of images to influence our seeing, thinking, feeling, and remembering.

Chapter 7 tackles the viewing of image through an understanding of the social act of viewing and how social positions, socialization, and the environment shape certain ways of looking, a certain gaze. Methods for the investigation of viewer engagement are presented and applied on the case example of political campaign images.

This chapter explores the neuroscience of fear, examining how our brains detect and respond to threats, both real and imagined. It introduces major theories of emotion and focuses on the role of the limbic system in processing fear-related stimuli. Through research in animals and humans —including lesion studies and the famous case of patient S.M.—the chapter distinguishes between behavioral responses to danger and the subjective experience of fear. It also challenges the idea of a single “fear center,” emphasizing that fear arises from dynamic interactions across multiple brain regions. These concepts are then applied to ambiguous situations, such as sensing a presence in a dark room, where the brain may interpret uncertainty in emotionally charged ways. Finally, this chapter encourages readers to consider how the brain constructs meaning from unclear stimuli, laying the groundwork for a scientific exploration of the supernatural.

Part II introduces the social life of the image as an analytical framework to analyse images as an object of study as well as a method for studying psychological and social processes and contested dialogues in society.

Friendship has its public life in urban spaces. Drawing on recent social constructionist approaches to the domestication of space in urban studies, and based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the outdoor spaces of a mall in Beijing, China, this chapter explores how ordinary visitors domesticate the mall in their everyday lives. Focusing on the practice of friendship in three small groups, I trace how the mall’s spaces are (1) appropriated as “playgrounds” by after-school children, (2) negotiated as “informal childcare workshops” by guardians, and (3) claimed as “senior centers” by elderly visitors. I argue that the mall is not merely a backdrop for friendship, but that friendship practices constitute the mall beyond its default setting as merely a space for consumption. This chapter contributes to scholarship on modern friendship beyond the private realm and advocates for a more embracing conceptualization of friendship in urban spaces.

This chapter revisits “critical friendships,” exploring how moments of sociopolitical and health crises shape and challenge relational bonds. Drawing on UK-based studies of personal responses to Brexit and dating app use during COVID-19, we demonstrate that theoretical assumptions about friendship’s egalitarian and inherently “good” nature often fail to capture the complexities of lived experience. The Brexit study revealed how political differences strained friendships, yet participants often prioritized shared history over political alignment. The COVID-19 study found that while apps facilitated “suffused” relationships during lockdown, these relationships were ultimately disappointingly short-lived. Using Berlant’s “cruel optimism,” we demonstrate how the illusion of the ideal “pure” friendship creates an inevitable disappointment when such relationships prove unachievable. Yet despite these disappointments, the “goods” of friendship can still outweigh the “bads” of “the times” in the potential for new suffused relational forms, however fleeting, as well as in the effort expended to sustain friendships.

Whereas Chapters 3–5 deal with different aspects of the representation of word meanings, Chapter 6 focuses on their organization. The two most well-studied domains of object concepts are animals and tools, and words for them (e.g., dog and scissors) appear to be organized as separate, category-specific circuits, each of which includes all three types of representation mentioned above – namely, sensory/motor representations in modal networks, integrated representations in the GSN/DMN, and purely verbal representations in the core language network. The contrasting specializations of these circuits for animal and tool concepts reflect many factors that involve both the learning environment and innate patterns of cortical connectivity. This chapter also shows that three other categories of lexically encoded object concepts similarly appear to have distinct neural substrates: plants (especially fruits and vegetables like apple and potato); people (including face parts like eye, body parts like hand, and unique individuals like Tom Hanks); and places (including generic scenes like beach and famous landmarks like the Eiffel Tower). What’s more, there are some hints that hundreds of other classes of word meanings may be distinguished, like in a thesaurus, by the fine-grained representational geometries of numerous cortical areas, especially those comprising the GSN/DMN.

Beginning with the eerie history of Edinburgh’s South Bridge vaults, Chapter 3 investigates how supernatural encounters are often reported in places associated with death, decay, and sensory uncertainty. Here, we explore the connection between electromagnetic fluctuations, ambiguous sensory experiences, and supernatural perceptions. The chapter explores the human tendency to assign meaning to ambiguous stimuli and introduces key concepts in measurement science, such as reliability and validity. It also addresses the limited evidence for human sensitivity to EMF changes. Disruptions in spatial and body awareness in the brain can lead to experiences like feeling a presence or seeing a shadow figure. Together, these ideas offer plausible brain-based explanations for some ghostly encounters and demonstrate how the brain strives to make sense of the unknown when sensory information is unclear.

Psychedelic substances like ayahuasca, psilocybin, and LSD have been used for thousands of years in spiritual ceremonies, with users often reporting transcendent and life-altering experiences. Chapter 8 traces the arc of psychedelic use from ancient rituals and colonization to the countercultural revolution and modern neuroscience labs. The chapter blends cultural history with psychopharmacology, showing how these compounds mimic serotonin and interact with the brain’s serotonin receptors to create altered states of consciousness. Citing research from neuroscience and psychology, the chapter considers how psychedelics affect the default mode network, ego, and self-referential processing. These effects can lead to feelings of oneness, ego death, and even reductions in depression and anxiety. The chapter asks whether the mystical states brought on by psychedelics are supernatural or simply deeply meaningful expressions of altered neural processing. Regardless, their potential therapeutic value, especially when guided in proper set and setting, positions psychedelics at the intersection of brain, mind, and meaning.

Psychics, mediums, and fortune tellers may seem to possess supernatural insight, but many of their most impressive feats can be explained by the brain’s natural tendencies toward pattern recognition, suggestion, and belief confirmation. This chapter explores the psychological mechanisms behind psychic predictions, including confirmation bias, selective attention, and the Barnum effect. It also examines how experimenter bias and subtle behavioral cues can shape perceived psychic accuracy—even when no one is intentionally deceiving anyone. Using demonstrations from visual neuroscience, the chapter reveals how much information the brain fills in without our awareness. Alongside compelling case studies and historical context, readers are invited to consider how intuition, belief, and cognitive shortcuts can converge to create compelling—yet illusory—experiences. Whether or not psychic powers exist, the feeling of being seen or understood can be profoundly real, and this chapter examines how those feelings might arise from within.