Vikas Malhotra

Former Ph.D. Student

Specialization

Ph.D. Student, Religious Studies, University of California Santa Barbara

Bio

My main interest is in South Asian Hindu and Buddhist Tantric traditions, both doctrinal and popular. My specific area of research is in the domain of oracular/deity possession in the tantric textual traditions as well as contemporary on-the-ground practices. One of the facets of my research will be to explore how the cognitive science of religion can shed some light on spirit possession in general and whether this methodology could be used to study the phenomenon of oracular possession across cultures.