Accessing visitor perception of an immersive cathedral experience: applying the Jungian lenses of sensing and intuition and Bailey’s theory of implicit religion

Francis, L.J. and McKenna, U. (2025) Accessing visitor perception of an immersive cathedral experience: applying the Jungian lenses of sensing and intuition and Bailey’s theory of implicit religion. Journal of Beliefs and Values. ISSN 1361-7672

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Abstract

The SIFT hermeneutical approach, rooted in Jungian psychological type theory, distinguishes between two core cognitive processes: perceiving concerned with gathering information and judging concerned with evaluating information. The present study applies this approach to eliciting and interpreting visitor perceptions of an immersive cathedral installation (a pre-Christmas son et lumiere) by focusing on the perceiving lenses of sensing and intuition. Drawing on data from 545 visitors, analysis of qualitative responses to the sensing prompt ‘What details, factors and features of the installation caught your attention and have stayed with you?’ identified six main themes. Analysis of qualitative responses to the intuitive prompt ‘What big ideas, themes, dreams or possibilities inspired your imagination during the installation?’ identified five main themes. These two prompts generated quite different responses, suggesting that a complementary and richer perception of the total experience could be accessed by engaging both the sensing function and the intuitive function.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Published by Taylor & Francis in 2025. This is an author accepted manuscript of a published open-access article available at https://doi.org/10.1080/13617672.2025.2516228. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy.
Keywords:	Cathedral studies psychological type son et lumiere visitor studies
Depositing User:	Ursula Mckenna
Date Deposited:	30 Jun 2025 09:47
Last Modified:	30 Jun 2025 09:47
URI:	https://bgro.repository.guildhe.ac.uk/id/eprint/1245

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