Take a Survey on Changes in Pagan Attitudes

This survey comes from Jim Lewis, a Pagan-studies scholar who has done a lot of good work over the years. He writes,

I have conducted several Internet surveys with Helen Berger — The Pagan Census Revisited (PCR) and a follow up, The Pagan Census Revisited II (PCR-II).

Since the PCR-II (in 2013), I have had new research questions emerge. This has prompted me to construct a new questionnaire, which I am referring to simply as Pagan III.
Part of what I am interested in is obtaining a partial measure of changes across time, using a simple contrast between the present moment and the time period when respondents started self-identifying as Pagan. The questionnaire also contains items that measure spiritual & paranormal beliefs, as well as a few items that measure ‘conspiracy’ beliefs.

As the questionnaire was being created, I consulted and received feedback from both Helen Berger and my colleague Murph Pizza, as well as from my Norwegian colleague, Asbjørn Dyrendal (who has a research interest in conspiracy).

In part, I am gathering information for a paper that will be delivered at the upcoming Euroean Association for the Study of Religion meeting in June, but I am also thinking in terms of additional papers further in the future.

I answered the survey, and it is a little different from some I have seen in the past, mainly in its focus on changes in practice and attitudes over a person’s time as a contemporary Pagan. The only people who might have trouble with it are second or third-generation Pagans, since it presumes a “conversion” experience.