The anthropologist Tanya Luhrmann reports that regularly experiencing God improves one’s quality of life.*

“Faith demands that you experience the world as more than just what is material and observable,: she stipulates. “This does not mean that God is imaginary,” she continues, “but that because God is immaterial, those of faith must use their imaginations to represent God. To know God in an evangelical church, you must experience what can only be imagined as real, and you must also experience it as good.” So God is a special edition of the imaginary friend, one of our selves, that intimate person who always gives us what we want and need.

Then the pragmatic, the useful part: “I saw that people were able to learn to experience God in this way,” Luhrmann continues, “and that those who were able to experience a loving God vividly were healthier. . . . the capacity to imagine a loving God vividly leads to better health.”

Among the sick, “when God was experienced as close and intimate, the more someone prayed, the less ill he was.” She wonders about a link between this experiential power and the placebo effect, suggesting further study of the matter. But to her there is no question: the regular experience of God can lead to a better life.

*”The Benefits of Church,” New York Times Sunday Review (April 21, 2013, p.9).