Death and Magic

What is the relationship between death and magical thinking, meaning belief in things - like ghosts, spirits and the afterlife - that go beyond everyday experience, and don't seem compatible with a naturalistic worldview? After my father died recently and suddenly, I've realised my own tendency towards naturalistic thinking appears very strong; something I describe here. But at the same time I've seen others who have lost close friends and relatives find magical thinking, such as attributing celestial significance and hidden symbolism to coincidental occurrences, compelling, and hopefully even comforting.
After countercultural chronicler Joan Didion's husband died in 2003, Didion found the pull of magical thinking - believing "that if a person hopes for something enough or performs the correct actions, then an unavoidable event can be averted" - so compelling she found herself believing in magic as part of her experience of profound grief, an experience she later chronicled in 2005's The Year of Magical Thinking.
Many of Terry Gilliam's films - such as Brazil and The Fisher King - explore 'Quixotic' characters, so named after the character of Don Quixote, whose escape to fantasy to differentiate the magical and the mundane result form experiences of trauma whose facts they find themselves psychologically incapable of accepting.
To what extent is magical thinking in response to adverse life events an origin story for religious beliefs, and the common themes of of successful religions that are apparent? Can even the 'tough minded' rather than 'tender minded' - to use William James' dichotomy - find themselves drawn to magical thinking under the veil of scientific rationality? For example, are beliefs in The Singularity, and achieving immortality through uploading one's consciousness, cryopreserving then resuscitating the dead, and colonising other planets, all as much examples of magical thinking as beliefs in spirits and reincarnation through supernatural means?

Let's discuss!

RSVPs: As the popularity of topics I've suggested is always difficult to predict, I tend not to book the location beforehand. If over three people RSVP by the Thursday before the meetup, I will attempt to book Jeremiah's Taproom, and if they can't accommodate us book somewhere nearby instead.