UNDERSTANDING RELIGION

Clinical psychologist Prof Les Todres says there are different ways of interacting with religion: “It fulfils different needs for some people, it fulfils emotional, rational or social needs. You can’t say that religion satisfies the same thing in everybody.”

Prof Todres thinks more than 80% of conversions are originated by emotional reasons, although there are groups of people that are finding religions for rational reasons: “Science has become interested in studying meditation. They have done some studies and some of these programmes of spirituality actually produce real effects in terms of inner peace, tranquillity and health.”

There can not be a single profile of converts. “Some are converting because are struggling with a sense of identity or insecurity.

“People are becoming interested in religious practice as a form of self-discipline or are just trying to find a meaningful way of life somehow beyond their own consumption mentality”, he said.

Increasingly there is an emotional need for people to find a sense of purpose and meaning in life in a way that traditional religions have not been successful in providing: “People are questioning more than before and with globalisation and mixing of cultures, identities are becoming more complex than they used to be.”

“This global and cultural interaction can also create a lot of insecurity and some people find it easier to lead into something more fundamentalist.  

“While on the other hand, with the increase in materialism, there is a kind of shopping mentality and we shop around for something that will suit us”

Religions were designed also to create a situation of social belonging, to empower tribalism traditionally and keep societies together in some way.

Certain schools of psychology such as the humanistic and transpersonal psychology are trying to look at the relationship between the personal level of being and how we relate to other dimensions.”

More...