Integration of Mental Spaces on the Example of the Cultic Milieu's Concept "Bigfoot"

The aim of the study is to test the method of conceptual integration of mental spaces for the Cultic Milieu’s concept "bigfoot". The article focuses on the fact that the concept acts as a mental representation of the corresponding fragment of the surrounding reality as a dynamic structure of knowledge. A feature of the above example is cognitive fiction, which, nevertheless, has a stable vitality in the discourse of unconventional religiosity. The scientific novelty of the study is to identify the initial mental spaces, their integration and the isolation of new emergent properties that contribute to maintaining the concept in a homeostatic state. As a result of the study, it was determined that the method of conceptual integration could be effectively used in interpreting cult concepts from the field of unconventional religiosity.