> Take their prayer for example. It's not so much a naive conversation with an imaginary deity, as most people think. It's more like an old-school mental self-p

> Take their prayer for example. It's not so much a naive conversation with an imaginary deity, as most people think. It's more like an old-school mental self-programming technique. This is historically very, very common. Any deep dive into religious mysticism of any type will immediately blur the line between self-programming and conversation. It's not great (though hardly impossible) as a route to secular authority so it's rarely the dominant understanding.