What is it?

Recently I went for a walk and I started thinking. I knew that religion had more to it than just playing pretend. People of all religion seem to genuinely enjoy many benefits. In some cases, the benefits are very dramatic. It's a good sell, but what if we don't want to believe in things unproven? I like the idea of god, and I genuinely hope that there is one. I genuinely hope that there's an afterlife. But ultimately, I just don't know. I can't claim faith in something that is unprovable. Even if I did, how would I know which unprovable thing to believe in?

My question became "how does the rational person live in a spiritual way, without having to believe in things unproven?" I considered what all religion had in common. All religions, well, believe in things unproven. Then I thought about the medical phenomenon of the placebo effect. I always thought it interesting. here was an effect that the brain had on the mind and body that modifies the way one feels and even their overall well being based on what they believe will happen. Receiving a fake drug can, in some cases, be nearly as effective as the real thing, if the subject merely believes he is taking the real thing.

So we have a mental phenomenon that causes changes in the mind and body based on belief, and we have a bunch of religions, which have effects on peoples' minds and bodies, based on unfounded beliefs. If you're not religious and hating me by now, then hopefully the connection is quite clear. The reason christianity emphasizes faith so much is that it is the faith itself which can have such a powerful positive impact in your life.

So how can we use this to our benefit? It seems simple enough, we just have to have faith in things that we want. Fortunately, it turns out we can do this without self delusion. My personal playground has been the interstate. I've always had terrible road rage. Any given day would produce many morons for me to yell at. This made it the perfect place to experiment.

Here's the thought process. Some asshole just cut me off. That makes me angry. I know that if I believe wholeheartedly that I won't be angry anymore, then my brain has the mechanism to make that true. Therefore, I can believe that it's true, and that I won't be angry anymore. I suppose the most surprising thing to me was that this actually worked. I shaped my beliefs in a way that benefited me, without asking what jesus would do and without praying to some distant star somewhere, and it was just as effective (if not more so).

With some practice, believing was eventually taken out of the equation, and I found myself able to just modify my emotions at will. Sometimes I would forget how, and retrace the steps. I told myself that it was possible, because of the placebo effect (and because I'd done it before). And once my belief was stable, my emotions would just melt away.