C H A P T E R

59
Religion, Stress, and Superheroes
S. Packer
Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai, New York, NY, USA

O U T L I N E

Religion as a Concept 465 Temporal and Physical Escapes from Stress 468
Social Aspects 468
Religion as Cure for Stress 466
Somatic Aspects 469
Philosophical Aspects 466
Side Effects of Stress Relief 470
Popular Culture and Mass Media 466
Psychological Aspects 467 Religion as a Cause of Stress 470
Antidote to Aloneness, Abandonment, and
Religion as a Correlate of Stress 471
Dependency 467
Decreased Sense of Randomness and Uncertainty 467 Glossary 471
Cognitive Coping Techniques 467
References 471
Role Models for Stress Endurance 467
Consolation, Devaluation, and Dissociation 468 Further Reading 471

Abstract psychological, sociological, and physiological level, it

Religion can be a cause of stress or a cure for stress. Religion's
ability to relieve the stress that it induces partly accounts for its
tenacious hold on its truest or newest believers. Religious senti-
ment and sectarianism rises during times of increased personal or
societal stress. Since change and uncertainty are potent causes of
stress, on a psychological, sociological, and physiological level, it
stands to reason that some of history's most unusual religious
movements occurred at times of rapid social change and uncer-
tainty. Individuals undergoing personal stress and lifestyle shifts
are statistically more likely to get involved with unusual or inno-
vative religious movements. Thus, adolescents who recently left
home, those who are newly divorced, bereaved or relocated, and
inmates who “relocate” to prison are especially susceptible to the
appeal of “radical religions.” “Garden-variety” religions and also
cults grow in response to the stresses of poverty, old age, war,
illness, isolation, or impending death.
stands to reason that some of history's most unusual reli-
gious movements occurred at times of rapid social
change and uncertainty. Individuals undergoing per-
sonal stress and lifestyle shifts are statistically more likely
to get involved with unusual or innovative religious
movements. Thus, adolescents who recently left home,
persons who are newly divorced, bereaved or relocated,
and inmates who “relocate” to prison are especially
susceptible to the appeal of “new religions” or “radical
religions.” The appeal of “garden-variety” religions also
grows in response to stresses of poverty, old age, war,
illness, isolation, or impending death.

Religion can be a cause of stress or a cure for stress. RELIGION AS A CONCEPT

Some say that religion's ability to relieve the very stress
that it induces is also partly responsible for its tenacious
hold on its truest or newest believers. It is known
that religious sentiment and sectarianism rises during
times of increased personal or societal stress. Since
change and uncertainty are potent causes of stress, on a
Our title refers to “religion” in the singular, as if reli-
gion is a single, all-embracing phenomenon. Yet it is any-
thing but. Over 100,000 religions are registered in the
United States alone. Those numbers are increasing, hav-
ing been on the rise since the 1960s. Even more people

Stress: Concepts, Cognition, Emotion, and Behavior 465 Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-800951-2.00065-0
466 59. RELIGION, STRESS, AND SUPERHEROES
embrace a personal “spirituality” rather than a recog-
nized religion.
Rather than arguing about the meaning of the word
religion, we shall define religion as a “system of beliefs
centered around a supernatural being, power, or force.”
Notably, some religion-like belief systems do not revolve
around the supernatural, with Confucianism being the
best known.
With so many different recognized religions in exis-
tence, it makes sense that religions differ enough from
one another to make each distinctive. Furthermore, some
sects and subsects of recognized religions bear little
resemblance to the parent religion that begot them. Some
established religions tolerate a wide spectrum of views,
while others are more dogmatic and unwavering.
Because of this variability, it is more helpful to assess
the impact of specific aspects of religion on stress, rather
than to make generalizations about all religions.
KEY PO INTS
• Religion relieves stress for some people but its
demands and its prophecies can also cause stress.
• Paradoxically, religion may relieve the very stress it
induces, so as to create a never-ending loop of
religious adherence.
• In the post-9/11 era, secular superheroes with
deity-like superpowers soared in popularity and
seemingly relieved stress in a “nonreligious” way.
RELIGION AS CURE FOR STRESS
Both its fiercest critics and its most fervent advocates
agree that most (but not all) religions dampen psycholog-
ical stress. Personal testimonials on this subject are too
numerous to recount. We can conjure up “screen memo-
ries” of religion's role in abating extreme stress: foot-
stomping spirituals of the segregation-era South; solitary
footsteps of death row inmates listening to psalms, or
chaplains' prayers for troops that face the front line.
Not everyone finds relief in religion, yet we find com-
pelling population-based statistics supporting religion's
success in dissipating stress. Persons with strong internal-
ized religious beliefs who attend religious services are
less likely to complete suicide, which is arguably the ulti-
mate response to stress. There are many interesting expla-
nations as to why this is.
Philosophical Aspects
By positing the existence of a supernatural being who
actively intervenes in the natural world, and who set a
2. COGNITION, EMOTION, AND BEHAVIOR
plan for each individual, religion provides an automatic
antidote to the stress of being alone and awash in an unre-
sponsive and uncaring universe. Philosophers and
theologians recognize the role of existential angst on
twentieth century Western society. Some equate this loss
of faith in the supernatural with the stress of impending
nuclear holocaust. Pastoral pop psychologists emphasize
the opposite approach to reverse the tide. To counter
Nietzsche's declaration that “G-d is dead,” theologian
Abraham Joshua Heschel assures readers that Man is
Not Alone.1
Popular Culture and Mass Media
Mass media affirms religion's increased appeal during
times of crisis. Consider the box-office success of wartime
films like G-d is My Co-Pilot (Robert Florey, 1945), or the
syncretic religious themes of Lost Horizon,2 Frank Capra's
beloved Depression-era film that deviated from James
Hilton's novel and pictured Christian missionaries in iso-
lated Tibetan Buddhist strongholds.
As the twentieth century ended, and as the uncertainty
of the millennial year 2000 neared, reassuring religious
imagery surged in store displays, greeting cards, even
postage stamps. Angels were everywhere, but not
just at Christmastime—but they were secularized and
stripped of sectarian associations, to conform to New
Age standards and to obscure religious origins.
In the aftermath of 9/11 (2001), preoccupation with
religion was the rule. The religious motives of terrorists
who toppled the Twin Towers forced everyone to recon-
sider religion's role in world peace (or destruction). Yet
some strange reactions occurred. Yoga became more
and more popular for stress relief and general exercise.
Gyms that offered yoga classes deemphasized its origin's
in Hindu worship, which we describe below. Within a
few years, psychotherapy visits declined by a third, pos-
sibly because of economic and insurance pressures, but
also because of the efficacy of this religion-based stress
reliever, coupled with psychopharmacological advances.
Some psychologists added religious elements to their
therapies; John Cabot-Zinn appropriated “mindfulness”
techniques from Zen Buddhism.3 Martin Seligman, Ph.D.
experimentally proved the utility of techniques based
on Tibetan Buddhism (and Chasidic Judaism, which
went unacknowledged). Hippie-era religious approaches
went mainstream, their origins forgotten.
During the decade after 9/11, Americans became infat-
uated with superheroes, whose imaginary powers rival
the deities of religion.4 Comic book characters begot big
screen blockbusters. One book about superheroes was
entitled, Our Gods Wear Spandex.5 Superman, comics' first
superhero, began as a Moses surrogate who offered help
with the same “outstretched arm and clenched fist”
 RELIGION AS CURE FOR STRESS
described in the Passover Seder.6 Man of Steel
(Zack Snyder, 2012), the latest film version, Christianized
Superman, depicting him rising, arms extended, robes
flowing, like visions of the Ascension. Stress skyrocketed
among Americans, but merging recognizable religious
iconography with pop culture heroes could bypass reli-
gious strife that was ready to boil over.
Psychological Aspects
Antidote to Aloneness, Abandonment, and
Dependency
Psychoanalysts have different explanations for why
supernatural beliefs relieve stress. They emphasize
the personal, rather than societal. Some, such as the con-
sistently controversial Freud, say that a belief in G-d sub-
stitutes for the presence of an all-protective, albeit
sometimes punitive, parent. Such theories assert that reli-
gion recreates the infant's reassuring world of depen-
dency. Freud compares the mystic's “oceanic feeling” of
connectedness with the universe to the peacefulness
and protectiveness of the womb, where an umbilical cord
delivers nonstop nourishment while surrounding amni-
otic fluid buffers baby from forceful blows of the outside
world. Concepts about salvation, and messianic redemp-
tion parallel rescue fantasies by returning parents.
Freudians tend to view reliance on religious reassur-
ance as a sign of psychological immaturity, and as an
obstacle to psychological growth and self-actualization.
Later psychoanalytic thinkers, such as Karl Winnicot,
were less critical. Winnicot saw “separation-individua-
tion” as the critical step in psychological growth, with
religious belief functioning as a transitional object, like
a baby blanket or a teddy bear.7,8 Both remind children
of their parent's perpetual presence, and assuage the
stress of possible abandonment during parental absence.
There are many more psychoanalytic theories about ways
that religion relieves stress,9 each unique and interesting
in their own right, but each as untestable by scientific
standards as the tenets of religion itself.10
We find a more pragmatic, and less theoretical, take on
religion as a surrogate dependency in the principles
behind “Twelve Step” “Recovery Programs” that follow
in the footsteps of Alcoholics Anonymous. These pro-
grams recommended reliance upon a “Higher Power,”
along with a strong group support system, to relieve
immediate psychological and physiological stresses of
alcohol withdrawal and to cope with general stresses that
were ameliorated by addictive chemicals. Rather than
admonishing their members for depending upon this
spiritual “Higher Power,” as many therapists did in the
past, Twelve Step groups prefer spiritual dependency
over chemical dependency or sensation-seeking living.
Their pro-spiritual approaches garnered increasing
2. COGNITION, EMOTION, AND BEHAVIOR
467
public and professional acceptance, and have been
adapted to other treatments.
Decreased Sense of Randomness and Uncertainty
Religion relieves personal stress in other ways. Reli-
gion decreases the sense of randomness and uncertainty
in the world, as it details the logic—or illogic—behind a
“world plan.” It predicts, sometimes prophesizes, or at
the very least, attempts to explain events that seem inex-
plicable. It creates a concept of stability that anthropolo-
gist Melvin Klass dubs “ordered universes.”11 Even
religions that foretell adverse events in the future, such
as an impending apocalypse, reincarnation, predestina-
tion, “bad karma,” or other pessimistic prophecies, have
the potential to offer partial relief from stress, simply
because they help their members prepare psychologically
for adverse events. Providing explanations for events,
even without providing a means for altering those events,
is referred to as “heuristics,” and is one of the most pow-
erful psychological tools that religion possesses. Some
critics of psychoanalysis say that psychoanalysis' value
also rests on heuristics because unprovable psychoana-
lytic explanations provide reasons for behavior rather
than remedies, in the same way that religion “illumi-
nates” cosmic events.
Religions further relieve the stress of uncertainty by
providing blueprints for behavior that can theoretically
change the future. By prescribing prayer, penance, codes
of charity, dietary laws, sacrificial rituals, “right
thought,” or what not, those religions instill a sense of
personal control. More optimistic prophesies, and prom-
ises of paradise, confer hope, and escape.
Cognitive Coping Techniques
Above and beyond theoretical parallels with psycho-
analysis, many religions provide specific cognitive tech-
niques that are useful in coping with stress. For
instance, the act of acknowledging and articulating the
experience of stress can quell some distress. Long before
Freud discovered his “talking cure,” religious prayers
and petitions provided collective voices for stress and dis-
tress. Hebrew psalms that begin with words like, “From
the depths I called out unto Thee,” poeticize this experi-
ence of anguish. Christian recreations of the crucifixion
dramatize Christ's ordeal on the Cross. These words
and images are especially appealing to people who can-
not access other avenues of expression or who prefer to
deflect their own subjective sense of distress by focusing
on more universal, cosmic, or collective stresses.
Role Models for Stress Endurance
Religious lore offers role models of persons who
withstood extreme stress, surmounted that stress, were
valued because they could endure stress, or went on to
fulfill higher purposes because of those stresses. The
468 59. RELIGION, STRESS, AND SUPERHEROES
Christ figure is the consummate example of this sort, but
is hardly the only one. Biblical stories about Jonah's
ordeal inside the whale, Noah's fortitude in the face of
a flood, Daniel's survival in the fiery lion's den, Job's
endurance of the loss of his family, his health, and his
wealth, all reassure believers that there is a relief for
stress, or, if there is no immediate relief, then there is a
reason, or perhaps even a reward in another life. The mar-
tyrdom of Christian saints, the Buddhist jataka stories
about Prince Shakyamuni's wandering as a mendicant
monk prior to achieving enlightenment under the Bodhi
tree, the image of the Israelite tribes traversing the desert
for 40 years before fulfilling their destiny as the “chosen
people,” are other examples of the pivotal role that stress-
endurance plays in religious themes.
Consolation, Devaluation, and Dissociation
Some religions provide such a sense of consolation that
they have been dubbed the “religions of consolation.”
Christianity's contention that the meek will inherit the
earth reassures people that their “this-worldly” stress
and suffering will be relieved by “other-worldly”
rewards. Promises of future paradise made by prophetic
religions dull the pain of the present and appeal to the
impoverished, the downtrodden, and the physically or
psychologically stressed. Some religions offer so much
consolation for contemporary stress and distress that they
devalue the material world by undermining its impor-
tance or teaching that the “real world” is illusory and
no different from a dream. Buddhism's contention that
the world of the senses is but a delusion (maya) is an
extreme example of such “transcendent” thinking. The
Hindu yogi's aspiration to a waking state of “dreamless
sleep” is another example. Some psychotherapeutic
techniques train patients to use similar techniques of
detachment or “mindfulness” when confronted with
stress-producing stimuli, although those people who
enter similar dissociative states spontaneously and non-
volitionally experience serious difficulties in life.
Temporal and Physical Escapes from Stress
Even “world-affirming” religions, which affirm the
importance of the material world, often offer temporary
escape routes from daily stress. Religious holidays and
religious services and other “sacred times” carve out
stress-free time during the ordinary workweek, and cre-
ate an opportunity for rejuvenation. For those times when
real-world stresses require even more relief than routine
religious beliefs or rituals can confer, some religions
offer physical as well as temporal “retreats,” providing
food, clothing, and shelter, along with social support,
structure, and spiritual exercises. Ashrams, yeshivas,
monasteries, convents, or any number of other religious
communities provide parallels to the “retreats” popular
among certain Christian denominations. Such religious
2. COGNITION, EMOTION, AND BEHAVIOR
retreats legitimize the need for relief from worldly stress,
and even elevate the social and spiritual value of choos-
ing to retreat from stress. In doing this, such religious
retreats have the potential to provide people with a pos-
itive sense of self-worth, and a sense of connectedness
with others who share their belief system, and even
retraining in new vocations or avocations. Some retreats
encourage members to contribute to society by doing
good works or charity. The modern hospital movement
evolved out of the monastic retreats in the Middle Ages,
where persons who originally sought relief for spiritual,
physical, or psychological ailments eventually provided
care for others upon their own recovery. In contrast, psy-
chiatric “rest cures” and “funny farms,” which also
offered retreats from the “real world,” stigmatize the par-
ticipant, pathologize the process, and artificially end
social productivity. It’s no wonder why religious retreats
are often preferred over psychiatric treatment, and why
religion is likely to be the first line of defense against
stress and why more people consult clergy over
psychiatry.
Social Aspects
For some people, and for some religions, religion is a
solitary matter, and nothing but. For them, personal
“spirituality” matters most, with respect to stress relief
and everything else. This view is expressed in William
James' repeatedly republished volume on the Varieties
of Religious Experience, where James focuses on religion
that is experienced in solitude.12 Yet religion exists on a
social as well as a personal level, and acts to relieve social
stress—or reproduce stress—on that level as well. By pro-
viding a social support network through their communal
services and activities, coupled with a sense of collective
identity and purpose, religious organizations can directly
combat the stress of loneliness, displacement, and “ano-
mie.” Material benefits such as charity, lodging, employ-
ment, social services, and subsidized medical care
provided by some religions can counteract stresses of eco-
nomic hardship and even ill-health, and act in conjunc-
tion with the psychological consolation offered by the
religious theory. Religious bureaucracies can provide
alternative channels for personal and political expression,
and become particularly important outlets when access to
legitimate channels is closed, and may even become pow-
erful enough to challenge the existing political and eco-
nomic powers.
Studies of the conversion process are especially illus-
trative of the importance of social forces and religion. It
often comes as a surprise to persons who are ideologically
committed to religion to learn that it is the social sway of
religious groups that influences individuals to adopt new
religious ideas, rather than the other way around. In other
 RELIGION AS CURE FOR STRESS
words, rather than experiencing a life-changing “epiph-
any” before converting, similar to the epiphany that the
Gospels attribute to Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damas-
cus, converts to new religions are more likely to follow a
socially paved path to new religious insights. They accept
more and more of the ideas of that group as they gain
greater and greater acceptance into that group and as
they become more reliant upon group members for social
support. The process of conversion is more likely to be
gradual than sudden, and, in most people, behavior
changes incrementally rather than dramatically.
Not everyone who gets involved with a new religious
group remains committed to that group. Several factors
predict the likelihood of long-term involvement with a
new religion, and one of those factors revolves around
the role of stress: the more stress relief that an individual
experiences at the time of joining that new religious
group, the greater is the likelihood that that person will
remain a member of that group. Furthermore, it is the
stress that individuals experience when distancing them-
selves from such groups that often compels them to
return to such groups, even after repeated attempts to
disengage from them.13
People who are already in a state of stress at the time
that they encounter persuasive members of a new reli-
gion stand to achieve the greatest degree of stress
relief. Some religions make it a point to stress their mem-
bers, through sleep deprivation, diet restriction, social
isolation, overwork, enforced silence, sexual abstinence,
physical or psychological threats, or other techniques,
making them more amenable to the stress-relieving
effects of the religion. Religions that rely upon such
stress-inducing techniques run the risk of being identified
as “cults” by nonmembers, who view such techniques as
coercive. Such “cultish” religions often recruit through
institutional settings where people are already in high
stress states, and so are primed for proselytization. Col-
leges, prisons, and retirement communities are all places
of comparatively high stress, and are also places where
new religions have made major inroads.
It is the intense stress of prison that is credited with
pressuring some criminals to seek relief through religious
conversion. Many ministries recognize this potential, and
maintain active presences in prisons. One rarely hears of
public opposition to vigorous religious recruitment
efforts in prisons, because most religions strive to instill
more socially acceptable values that help converts avoid
future criminal behavior and subsequent incarceration.
(Obviously, there are notable exceptions to this truism,
as we have seen in our post-9/11 world.) It is generally
believed that religion helps people become rehabilitated
enough to reenter society, and that recruitment to a
new religion is certainly preferable to recruitment by anti-
social prison gangs. It is noteworthy that religions such as
the Black Muslims—made famous by Malcolm X—teach
2. COGNITION, EMOTION, AND BEHAVIOR
469
their proselytes to respect peace and avoid violence, in
contrast to some newer fringe Muslim groups that recruit
alienated, even affluent, youths and consecrate terrorism,
suicide bombings, and abduction.
In contrast, there has been a great public outcry about
“cult recruitment” on college campuses, partly because
some cultish religions do the opposite of cult religions
in prisons. Rather than helping integrate persons into a
higher level of society, these cults isolate students from
larger society, and abort attempts to achieve more in
mainstream society. Some cults encourage their members
to cut off contact with families and friends, and, in doing
so cause great distress to relatives. Although many legit-
imate religions were considered to be cults in their early
stages—with Methodism being the most notable Ameri-
can example—the mere fact that a small percentage of
cults have been associated with mass suicide or homicide
is enough to cause public concern and to stimulate psy-
chiatric task forces to investigate these issues.14 The tragic
memories of 800 deaths in Jonestown, or the loss of 19
through California's Heaven's Gate, subway poisonings
by the Aum Shiriko sect, or the murder of a Hare Krishna
defector in North Carolina, often obscure objective eval-
uation of possible positive benefits of conversion, and
will no doubt stimulate further studies of the interaction
between religion, stress, and related factors.15
At present, our understanding of recruitment by reli-
gious terrorist cults is still evolving, but investigations
into the Boston marathon bombings of 2013 may shed
light on changing trends in this important arena. Films
such as the The Attack (Zaid Doueiri, 2013), however
fictional, posit personal and psychological reasons
behind a wife's choice to become a suicide bomber on
the eve that her Palestinian-Arab surgeon-husband
receives the highest honors from Israeli medical societies.
In this film, she steals the limelight from her high-
achieving husband and achieves renown in the only
way that is available to her. In death, she is hailed as a
martyr, while he, the hero, loses face.
Somatic Aspects
Stress is as much a physiological response as a psycho-
logical one. Some religions use physical techniques to
achieve higher “spiritual” states also alleviate both psy-
chological and physiological stress in the process. The
muscle stretching systems of yoga and the breathing exer-
cises of Zen and the controlled movements of Tai Chi are
examples of such “mind-body” methods.
While it is impossible to verify the existence of “higher
spiritual states,” it is possible to use Western scientific
techniques to measure changes in heart rate, respiration,
galvanic skin response (sweating), pupil size, secretions
of stress hormones such as cortisol, brain waves (through
470 59. RELIGION, STRESS, AND SUPERHEROES
an EEG or electroencephalogram), or muscle tension
(via an EMG or electromyogram) in people performing
those spiritual exercises. Internist Harold Benson's stud-
ies of cardiovascular effects of Transcendental Meditation
and Tibetan Buddhist chanting are found in juried med-
ical journals and in his popular paperback, The Relaxation
Response.16 Japanese psychiatrist Tomio Hirai correlated
EEG and EMG effects of both Zen meditation and Hindu
yoga with reports of spiritual and psychological states,
and published his results in Zen Meditation and Psycho-
therapy.17 Although these works represent serious
research, there have been so many hyperbolic claims
about the benefits of Eastern (and Western) religious sys-
tems that many professionals have reflexively dismissed
such claims. Both an open mind—and an open eye—are
needed to interpret data about possible mind-body ben-
efits of religion.18 The fact that the American Psychiatric
Association hosts continuing medical education courses
on yoga at annual conferences shows how accumulating
scientific evidence can sway ordinarily conservative pro-
fessional societies, leading to their advocating—not just
tolerating—yoga.
Quite opposite of the calming meditative techniques of
Eastern religions are the ecstatic dances, shaking, quak-
ing, rocking, and rolling movement of some sects, which
inspired names like “Holy Rollers, Ranters, Ravers,
Quakers, Shaking Quakers, and Shakers.” Such intense
activity presumably relieves stress through the same
mechanisms that jogging and exercise help secular devo-
tees. The Dionysian dances of Classical Greece, described
in Euripides' play about the Bacchae, were but one of
many recurring manifestations of frenzied religious danc-
ing that serves related functions.19 Repetitive religious
rituals in general are said to relieve stress as well.20
Side Effects of Stress Relief
Religion's efficacy at relieving stress does not come
without side effects. There are times when religion
relieves stress so well that its practitioners disregard
demands of the “real” world, and cannot defend against
impending danger. Many social scientists have said that
the religious devotion of African-Americans shielded
them from the pain and poverty of pre-Civil Rights
America, and delayed the adoption of more appropriate
political tactics. Similarly, the Tibetan practice of sending
one third of its youth to Buddhist monasteries left the
country defenseless against the Chinese invaders who
destroyed temples, massacred monks and nuns, and sent
religious leaders into exile. Some secular Zionists claimed
that the insulated and self-satisfied religious infrastruc-
ture of some Eastern European Jewish communities
obscured their awareness of the deadly fate that awaited
Jews in Hitler's death camps. An analogous American
2. COGNITION, EMOTION, AND BEHAVIOR
tragedy occurred when Native American warriors went
into battle unarmed, believing that their Ghost Dance rit-
ual would protect them from the guns and arrows of
approaching armies. Marx and Engels blamed the mysti-
cal and occasionally bizarre religious beliefs of Russian
orthodoxy and schismatics for numbing their compa-
triots' reactions to the material exploitation by the capital-
ists and the Czars, and therefore denounced religion as
“the opium of the masses.”
RELIGION AS A CAUSE OF STRESS
As effective as religion can be at relieving stress, it can
also reproduce stress. Threats of an afterlife full of “hell-
fire and brimstone” or of an impending apocalypse that
will destroy the world and its inhabitants are obvious
stress producers. On a more subtle level are the many
moralistic demands and behavioral codes made by reli-
gion, which are often difficult to live up to, and thus tend
to leave some practitioners with a near-constant state of
imperfection and incompleteness. Some practitioners
adopt even more zealous belief and behavior, in order
to avoid that stress, in an ever spiraling pattern. In Battle
for the Mind, psychiatrist John Sargant observed that some
charismatic religions exploit this tandem stress relief-
stress reproduction effect to proselytize.21 He compared
this push-pull effect of religion to behavioral condition-
ing, more nefarious methods of “mind control” and
brainwashing, and even drug addiction.
Sargant's own participation in CIA-sponsored mind
control experiments suggests that he was very well
versed in these techniques, enough to meet the specs of
the US spy masters.
For sure, religion-induced stress is not limited to per-
ceived threats, nor is it confined to the personal psyche.
In spite of its promises of eternal peace, organized
religion is responsible for some of the most realistic
threats the world has witnessed. The Inquisition, the
Crusades, and the Wars of Religion, are but a few testimo-
nies to reality-based stresses posed by religion in the past.
Such stresses persist to the present day, through suicide
cults like the California-based Heaven's Gate, Islamic ter-
rorist attacks on the World Trade Center, kidnappings
and beheadings by ISIS, biological weapon-wielding
Aum Shariko in Japan, Hindu-Muslim-Sikh conflicts in
an atomic-bomb-armed India, the tinderbox of the Bal-
kans, where religious-ethnic conflicts set the stage for
World War I, and a Jerusalem beset by rightwing reli-
gious assassinations and never-ending retaliations for
real and perceived injustice against Jews and Muslims,
to name just a few. Although some religions aspire to
the day that “the lion will lie down with the lamb,” that
day has not yet arrived. Religion has been, and probably
always will be, as intimately associated with the stress of
 REFERENCES
war and violence as with the proverbial love and peace.
Rising religious fundamentalism promises to produce
more political as well as personal stresses to individuals
and to the world at large. At the same time, the religions
of reassurance will provide personal stress relief for indi-
viduals, creating a never-ending seesaw.22
RELIGION AS A CORRELATE OF STRESS
The correlation between the rapid rise of new and
sometimes radical religious movements and the degree
of social stress is nothing less than remarkable, and is cat-
aloged in Norman Cohn's classic The Pursuit of the Millen-
nium,23 and in his more recent Chaos, Cosmos, and the
World to Come.24 We must wonder if stress related to rapid
changes brought on by the Internet, the Age of Informa-
tion and mass electronic communication somehow paved
the path for increasing social disruptions—religious ter-
rorism included—that plagued the world increasingly
in recent years.
Glossary
Apocalyptic religion Religion based on writings prophesying a cata-
clysmic time when evil forces are destroyed. Apocalyptic religions
often includes “millenarian religions” that focus on the end of
1000-year period described in the Book of Revelation.
Cult Pejorative term used to describe a “new religious movement”,
especially one which is secretive, socially isolated, often faddish,
with unfamiliar rules and rituals, and coercive, manipulative,
or deceptive techniques are used to win or keep new converts.
Prophetic religion Religion that maintains that truth is revealed by
prophecy. Sometimes referred to as “religions of revelation,” pro-
phetic religions include “Western” monotheistic religions such as
Judaism, Christianity, Islam, as well as Zoroastrianism, and Bahai.
Religion A system of beliefs centered around the concept of a super-
natural being or force.
Transcendent religion Religion that teaches techniques to transcend
or transform the reality of the senses or that denies the existence
or importance of mundane reality. Many “Eastern” religions, as well
as some Western “New Age” beliefs, are “transcendent.”
References
1. Heschel AJ. Man Is Not Alone. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago;
2007.
2. Hilton J. Lost Horizon. New York, NY: Macmillan; 1933.
3. Kabot-Zinn J. Mindfulness Meditation for Everyday Life. London, UK:
Piatkus; 2001.
4. Saunders B. Do the Gods Wear Capes? Spirituality, Fantasy, and Super-
heroes. London, UK: Bloomsbury Academic; 2011.
2. COGNITION, EMOTION, AND BEHAVIOR
471
5. Knowles C. Our Gods Wear Spandex. Newburyport, MA: Weiser;
2007.
6. Packer S. Superheroes and Superegos: The Minds Behind the Masks.
Westport, CT: Praeger; 2010.
7. Koenig HG, McCulloch M, Larson D. Handbook of Religion and Health.
New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 2001.
8. Koenig HG. Handbook of Religion and Mental Health. New York, NY:
Academic Press; 1998.
9. Ostow M, ed. Judaism & Psychoanalysis. London: Karnac Books; 1982.
10. Meissner WW. Psychoanalysis and Religious Experience. New Haven,
CT: Yale University; 1984.
11. Klass M. Ordered Universes. Boulder, CO: Westview Press; 1995.
12. James W. The Varieties of Religious Experience. New York, NY: Pen-
guin Books; 1982.
13. Galanter M, ed. Cults and New Religious Movements. Arlington, VA:
American Psychiatric Association; 1989.
14. Laycock J. Where do they get these ideas? Changing ideas of cults in
the mirror of popular culture. J Am Acad Relig. 2012;81:80–106.
15. Kaplan J. Radical Religion in America. New York, NY: Syracuse Uni-
versity Press; 1997.
16. Benson H, Klipper MZ. The Relaxation Response. New York, NY:
Harper-Collins; 1975.
17. Hirai T. Zen Meditation & Psychotherapy. New York, NY: Tokyo Pub-
lications; 1989.
18. Sapolsky RM. Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers. 3rd ed. New York, NY:
W.H. Freeman; 2004.
19. Girard R. Violence and the Sacred. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins
University; 1993.
20. Packer S. Jewish mystical movements and the European ergot
epidemics. Isr J Psychiatry. 1998;35:227–241.
21. Sargant W. Battle for the Mind. New York, NY: Penguin Books; 1957.
22. Sapolsky RM. Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers: An Updated Guide to
Stress, Stress-Related Diseases, and Coping. 2nd revised ed.
New York, NY: W.H. Freeman; 1998.
23. Cohn N. Pursuit of the Millennium. Revolutionary Millenarians and
Mystical Anarchist of the Middle Ages. Oxford, UK: Oxford University
Press; 1957.
24. Cohn N. Cosmos, Chaos, and the World to Come. New Haven, CT: Yale
University Press; 1993.
Further Reading
Doueiri Z. The Attack. 2013.
Fuller A. Psychology & Religion. 3rd ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman; 1982.
Kakar S. Shamans, Mystics, and Doctors. Chicago, IL: University of
Chicago Press; 1982.
Kakar S. The Colors of Violence. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press; 1982.
Kinsley D. Health, Healing, and Religion. Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Prentice-Hall; 1996.
Knowles C. Our Gods Wear Spandex. Newburyport, MA: Weiser; 2007.
Capra F. Lost Horizon. 1937.
Snyder Z. Man of Steel. 2013.
Paloutzian R. Invitation to the Psychology of Religion. 2nd ed. Boston, MA:
Allyn & Bacon; 1996.
Schumaker JF. Religion and Mental Health. New York, NY: Oxford
University Press; 1992.
Seligman M. Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life.
New York, NY: Vintage; 2006.