Nir Eyal

And I would go out to my driveway in the morning before anyone else woke up.

I was the youngest member of my family.

And I would go out there and I would look up and I would talk to this voice and that voice I called God.

And I remember that voice giving me a lot of comfort.

But then as I got older, I couldn't prove that anyone was listening.

It didn't speak to me to believe in something supernatural that I couldn't prove because I had this conviction that it had to be a fact.

And if it wasn't a fact, then who was I talking to?

And then as I was doing the research for Beyond Belief, I kept coming across the incredible power of prayer, that people who pray live longer, they make more money, they have more friends, they contribute more to their community.

It seemed like all these good things were happening to people who pray.

However, I also found data that found that people who are spiritual but not religious have much worse mental health outcomes.

I'm not just saying this.

You can look up the studies for yourself.

People who call themselves spiritual but not religious have much higher rates of anxiety and depression disorders than people who pray.

So I thought this was not for me.

There was nothing here for me.

I was jealous of these results, but I don't really have a particular faith in the supernatural, so how could I benefit from this?

Well...

Turns out there's a study that changed everything.

And that study found that when there were three groups of people who were asked to do a standard protocol to test pain tolerance.

And here's what the study looked like.