David DeSteno

place where your outcomes depend so much on the kindness of others.

There's no money allowed, and so it's kind of the giving economy.

And so people are in this harsh environment, and it's also this liminal environment where you're not wearing your normal clothes, people take different names.

And I've heard people say that I've never felt the presence of the spiritual so palpably as when I'm there and see the beauty of humanity.

And I think people are looking for...

more visceral experiences of goodness in the spiritual.

It's also why we're seeing the rise in psychedelic use.

You know, psychedelics offer a quick and dirty way to get the brain in a state that would otherwise take years and years of deep meditative practice.

And for those who do it and do it right, they feel their self slip away and this growing sense of connection and love.

And so I think people are leaving institutionalized churches and temples and synagogues because they feel they're kind of calcified and not speaking to them.

But most of those people, if you look at data from Pew, they're not saying anything.

I don't think there's anything spiritual in the world.

It's not that I don't think God doesn't exist.

I'm just leaving faith.

And they're looking for other ways to find that awe and wonder that spirituality often provides.

The problem is when you leave those, the other thing that religion provides often is community.

Right.

And so if you leave these and you're like, oh, well, I'm going to find my own path and I'm going to mix this idea from Buddhism that I like with this idea from Islam and I'm going to sprinkle in a little New Age stuff.

maybe that only works for you.

And so then you don't have community.