Posted: Nov 01, 2014 4:05 pm
Griz_ wrote:Unfortunately, "This video is not available in your country"
Oh that's too bad.
It is a clip from a Derren Brown TV show where he demonstrates how religious experience of "God" i.e. a great feeling of unconditional love and such can be induced in a person by performing a ritual designed to do that. He selects an atheist and brings her into a church setting and then talks to her a bit about her life and family, his questions cause her to be in touch with strong family emotions, especially about her father. He taps his fingers and moves his hands in various ways which are part of his ritual. Then he leaves her alone for bit and voilà, she experiences such strong feelings of unconditional love and goodness which she seems to realize must be God. Later, back on the show with an audience around Derren explains to her what he did, however they both agree that what she experienced was real and in her. And she was glad to be able to experience what she experienced.
I think the Mass, culminating with Holy Communion is very much like the ritual Derren Brown demonstrated. It's designed to elicit similar feelings, connecting them to the image of Jesus which in turn is connected to/is God and feeling of great love and such. As Derren and Natalie, the woman in the video, demonstrate, these kinds of rituals can actually can work and do that sort of thing.
By the way, Derren Brown has another video were he demonstrates with a different woman how imagined helpers, that you think are there helping you but aren't, can make your life better.
Very good videos that get to the heart of religious experience, they pull aside the curtain, and show what's really going on. I've noticed many atheists are rather fond of them too.