Irony Overload

[Anomalocaris]

I'm not saying they do, I am saying that prayer and meditation work through the same mechanism regardless of the intention the person has for the prayer or meditation, they are both simply cases of stress relief - Clearing your head and sharing your burdens both work for the same reason - Stress relief.

I don't think prayer is stress relief in the same way as meditation. I think they invoke different mechanisms.

[theVOID]

You don't think sharing your secrets is a way to alleviate stress?

What could the difference between the mechanisms be?

[Anomalocaris]

I think Prayer trips a mechanism that overrides the subconscious, processed experience based, mental curbs that normally keeps the assessment of options and possibilities from colliding with the reality as the brain has model it based on proceesed experience. I think collision with mental curbs creates sense of frustration in undisciplined minds. I think the override mechanism was evolved to enable the brain to rapidly utilize new information that it hasn't yet had time to process into brain's basic model of reality. I think tripping this mechanism creates a pleasant sense of new opportunity. I think prayer allows the brain to avoid the unpleasant frustration of collision with reality, and enjoy the false but pleasant sense of opportunity.