Experiencing God.

Antitheism? - Beliefnet

I am close enough friends with several Catholics (RCC) to have been invited to participate in services with suspended disbelief, and have discussed the experience with several. In all cases as they genuflect upon entering Church they report a connection with God that is shared by their fellow parishioners. In just one instance, on genuflecting, I felt a 'presence' as described in the God Helmet experiments, but I did not have the historical background with the parish to identify it as anything but something other than self.

This pattern was consistent in several different Churches, with several different orders ranging from milk Catholics who never thought much about God or beliefs, to a Jesuit service with a Jesuit friend who knew God and his belief system intimately and intellectually.

An atheist finds God quite naturally.

God Helmets OBEs Illusions and a Cosmic Presence. - Beliefnet Forums: "Because of my fascination with the Mass, I have frequently joined good friends who were devout Catholics to their worship services. As you may know I suspend disbelief from the time I leave home, and try to participate as a Catholic in the service. I stay closely in emotional contact with my friend and try to mimic herm responses to better understand what it is that hesh is experiencing. My friends are in agreement that once they enter the church and genuflect, they feel they are in the presence of God. So I tried it. Like Dawkins I don't have much in the way of religious experiences to work with, but on a few occasions I have been able to mirror my friends feeling of the presence of an other. I don't have a God referent in my temporal lobes, so the presence was undefined, but seemed to be identifiable as separate from the others in the church."