Dr. David DeSteno

I feel like I must know this person.

Like maybe he was in my class last semester or maybe it was a party I was at.

But that action of synchrony, right, is a cue to the mind that these two are joined.

We kind of see this if you see flocks of birds or you see schools of fish, you kind of see a greater whole even out of individuals because they're moving together.

And so it's an ancient marker to the mind that we are joined.

People don't have insight to that, but yet they feel that connection and they can't explain it.

So they create a story for it.

What happens at Shiva when you say these prayers?

You're surrounded by at least 10 people who are doing them in synchrony with you.

What is that going to do?

It's going to increase the empathy and the compassion you feel.

It also happens just in religious community in general.

Like I talked earlier about why are the effects for religious community better?

What are you normally doing?

You're singing together, you're praying together, you're sitting and kneeling together.

That's a subtle signal to the mind that you are more connected and it will increase your empathy for each other.

I did, yeah.

Yeah.

So, you know, it's funny.

Friends of mine who are Jewish will always say, yeah, we do death well.