To live is to believe

Having built the Large Hadron Collider, photographed the surface of Mars and deciphered his own genome, a person continues to be afraid of black cats, believe in prophetic dreams and seek help from priests or fortune-tellers in difficult situations. 77% of Russians consider themselves religious people, 52% believe in omens, 28% in astrology, and 26% in alien visits*

Auguste Comte’s mistake

Approximately 200 years ago, the French philosopher and sociologist Auguste Comte**, a singer of common sense and objective knowledge, fascinated by the successes of the exact sciences of his time, proudly proclaimed that nothing could stop people’s desire for scientific omnipotence: “After the religious and metaphysical stages of gullibility, we finally we can find a foothold on earth and look no more at heaven.

Today, this naivety of the philosopher causes only a smile. Religious and “metaphysical” quests have not only not become a thing of the past. On the contrary, they deftly adapted all the achievements of scientific and technological progress to their needs. “Letters of happiness” have mutated into statuses on social networks (“Publish on your page and you will become rich within three months”), astrological applications for smartphones and tablets number in the hundreds, and fortunetellers and soothsayers consult clients via Skype. Yes, and traditional religions have not gone away.

And this is hardly surprising. “At the heart of the need for faith is our innate desire for self-distribution beyond the limits of our capabilities and reliable knowledge,” notes psychologist Rada Granovskaya. “Man needs the help of someone who is similar enough to understand him, and omnipotent enough to accomplish what he and man in general cannot do.”*** And the immortal, omnipresent and omnipotent God very clearly reflects our ideas about what this “helper” should be like.

In addition, science, technology and medicine, of course, having made our life much more comfortable and safer, it seems that they have not come a step closer to answering the most important questions of human existence: about our soul, the mystery of death and the meaning of birth. Philosopher Michel Lacroix is ​​convinced that it is precisely the lack of scientific knowledge that prompts us to look elsewhere for answers to these eternal questions: “Elements of irrationality always appear when it comes to the most burning things. When discussing such topics, it is impossible to get by with only rational knowledge, it is not enough.

And it will never be enough. Of course, knowledge is infinite. But the universe is also infinite. And each breakthrough of our mind on the way to its secrets, solving one riddle, reveals a dozen new ones. Does this mean that we are doomed to always believe in the irrational, the mystical, the magical? Probably yes. But what’s wrong with that?

Magic golf club

Religious faith, like belief in mysticism, supernatural powers, and so on, is part of a unique and enormous sense of faith that permeates our entire lives. “All the best qualities of a person, his best deeds are associated with faith and fidelity,” Rada Granovskaya is convinced. – It seems that almost all people believe, because without faith no conviction is possible. Only religious people believe that God exists, atheists believe that there is no God, agnostics that there is not enough evidence for a definitive conclusion, and indifferent people believe that such problems do not matter.”

And faith can really do amazing things. The simplest example is the placebo effect known in medicine. A dummy tablet made of chalk and sugar very often relieves pain and relieves the symptoms of the disease, although it does not contain any active substances at all. These substances – hormones and opiates – are produced by our brain. Because we believe: the doctor prescribed a pill, so it should help. But if the placebo effect can still be explained by the biochemical processes in our brain, then recent psychological studies show that in other situations we behave as if under the influence of real magic.

For example, in the experiments of Sally A. Linkenauger and her colleagues, two groups of students were asked to play golf. The first group received an ordinary club, and the second – a club, allegedly belonging to a previously famous golf champion. Surprisingly, but true: despite the fact that the level of skill of all the subjects was absolutely the same, the students from the group that played with the “champion” club invariably won with a huge advantage.

This is how the effect of “participation” inherent in magical thinking manifests itself – transferring to the subject of the properties of its owner, psychologist Yevgeny Subbotsky believes. In ancient times, the sword or armor of great heroes became artifacts, the owner of which seemed to receive the strength of the previous owner. “People’s faith in the magical transmission of strength and skill through a tool really exists,” the psychologist assures, “and not only exists, but also works, increasing the success of the actions of those who own this tool” (for more details, see the journal Psychology and Psychotechnics, 2014, No. 4). In experiments conducted by Evgeny Subbotsky himself, participants were told that a professional witch could cast a magic spell on them that would change their lives—for better or for worse. And although the subjects verbally refused to believe in such a possibility, observation of them unmistakably testified: they behave as if they unconditionally believe in its power.

Who Makes the Decisions

It turns out that in the XNUMXst century we continue to believe in miracles deep down. And the key words here are “in the depths of the soul.” Logic and reason, which are considered to be the main virtues of the human race, turn out to be only a thin film, under the surface of which irrational depths are opened every now and then. We cannot, like a computer, store and instantly analyze all incoming information, and we make most important decisions spontaneously, listening to intuition, which often replaces our reason.

This does not mean at all that we never listen to the “voice of reason”. Of course, we are able to assess the problem, carefully weigh it, and consider different options for solving it. But, in all honesty, how many problems have we effectively solved with intelligence alone? Even the most reasonable people do not make decisions based on rigid logic. Modern neurophysiology confirms that the choice is made by our nervous system. Consequently, even among the most convinced rationalists, this happens irrationally, without their knowledge, under the influence of emotions, feelings, beliefs, unconscious aspirations. Sigmund Freud was the first to identify this source of inner chaos and gave it a name – the unconscious.

Prayer to yourself

“Freud’s most important thought is that the experience we repress is being repressed not only into the far “back streets” of our unconscious, but also into the outside world,” notes psychoanalyst Andrei Rossokhin. “And from there it comes back to us in the form of transformed, distorted images that continue to haunt us.” And if so, then all our prayers and fortune-telling, shamanic rituals and messages of mediums, all mystical and religious practices are addressed to ourselves.

This idea, by the way, is confirmed by the fact that many of these practices have undergone major changes in recent decades. For example, the famous English astrologer John Frawley, a staunch supporter of medieval predictive astrology, scolds his “modernist” colleagues, who today are increasingly moving away from the ancient traditions of forecasting, “turning astrological consultation into a session of psychoanalysis with a horoscope in hands.” Yes, and fortunetellers, judging by their stories, also strive to help clients deal with personal, psychological problems. Perhaps sometimes they really do us good?

Evil or good?

No matter how much we want to run away from the irrational, it catches up with us at the moment when we least expect it. And in order to develop, we need not to run away from the unknown, but to accept it and learn to interact with it. Opening up to practices, myths, legends and dreams that help our soul to work, inspire us to solve daily problems. But to put a barrier to mediums and sorcerers who make us passive, forcing us to believe that everything depends only on higher powers, and replace our own real life with themselves and their views.

“Excursions through the looking glass can serve both good and evil. Such excursions are not a subject of discussion, they are the reality of our psyche, the result of a subconscious belief in the supernatural. It is impossible to calculate how this belief will affect the fate of an individual or a nation,” Yevgeny Subbotsky warns, referring to the area of ​​irrational, magical thinking by “behind the looking glass”. “We cannot do without the irrational,” agrees Michel Lacroix. “If we suppress it, it will take revenge. And he will seek satisfaction in perverted forms – political utopia, religious extremism or sects.” Rada Granovskaya also recalls the danger of totalitarian sects, emphasizing that new religious movements arise during acute social crises, when people are seized by moods of despair and hopelessness: “Entering into sects is facilitated by an ideological vacuum. From the point of view of those who are waiting for quick effects in any way, the ancient world and national religions seem to have not justified themselves – too slow and excessively demanding on spiritual efforts.

But these efforts are indispensable. Only under their condition can our eternal “romance” with the irrational be transformed into energy, creativity, the ability to love, gain new experience and – to believe. Believe in yourself.

* See details on the Levada Center website, levada.ru

** Auguste Comte is the founder of positive philosophy and modern sociology. His main work is The Spirit of Positive Philosophy: A Word on Positive Thinking (Librokom, 2011).

*** R. Granovskaya “Psychology of Faith” (St. Petersburg, 2010).