J.F.Penn

Thrillers, Dark Fantasy, Crime, Horror

psychology of religion

Psychology Of Religion: Obedience

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Psychology of Religion- ObedienceAs part of my Master's degree in Theology at the University of Oxford (1994-1997), I wrote a thesis on the psychology of obedience in religious fundamentalism.

Escher Circle Limit IV Can you see the angels or the demons?

I used Abraham's Biblical agreement to sacrifice Isaac (Genesis 22), the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin (1995) and the experiments of Stanley Milgram as part of my argument. Clearly these thoughts have stayed with me as they became the foundations of my novel Prophecy.

Stanley Milgram's Obedience to Authority Experiments

This video gives you a good overview of the basic experiment which was replicated by Milgram all over America with all different strata of society. You may find it disturbing but remember the physical pain isn't real. What is real is how the ‘teacher' reacts. Even when they protest, they still continue once urged by an authority figure. Even when the subject is screaming ‘Let me out', they continue. I first heard about this experiment when I was 18 and it has stuck with me. The vast majority of people would behave in the same way. That is a sobering thought when you consider the atrocities done because an authority orders it.

Milgram's experiment Part 2 (video)

Milgram's experiment Part 3 (video)

Caravaggio's Sacrifice of Isaac

If you want to investigate this area further, I highly recommend ‘The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil‘ by Philip Zimbardo (Amazon affiliate link). This goes into the detail of the Stanford Prison Experiment as well as Milgram's work and discusses the ways in which normal people de-humanize to commit evil. Wearing masks is a critical part of mob violence which I also used in the Sedlec child murder scene. There is more information at LuciferEffect.com.

On Abraham and Isaac's sacrifice, you might find Soren Kierkegaard ‘On Fear and Trembling‘ interesting. (Amazon affiliate link)

Psychology Of Religion: Freud Museum, Hampstead, London

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While researching my thriller, Ark of Blood, I read Sigmund Freud's final book, Moses and Monotheism, written in London in the final year of his life after being exiled from Vienna in the wake of the Nazi invasion. As a self-proclaimed ‘godless Jew,' he spent his life avoiding his own faith in many ways but returned to it in the final years, trying to explain anti-Semitism, as well as investigating the origins of Judaism.

Psychology Of Religion- Freud Museum, Hampstead, London

The book claims Moses was an Egyptian, murdered in the desert by the Hebrews and that the guilt of the murder of the father figure has stayed with Judaism ever since. It's a complicated book but a fascinating one and in fact, many of the objects in Freud's study link him with ancient Egypt, which I explore further in Ark of Blood.

I visited the house, now a museum, that he lived in with his family and where Anna Freud continued to practice after his death. It is on a suburban street in Hampstead, a normal brick house of reasonable size, but certainly not as grand as you might expect from the man who cast such a long shadow with his writing and influence.

His study is that of an archaeologist, not a medical doctor. It is crammed with artifacts from ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, as well as tools from other cultures. His desk (shown above) has two rows of ancient gods with barely any room left for writing. Of particular note is the white marble statue of the Egyptian god Thoth in his baboon incarnation. Thoth was the god of writing, of wisdom, science and was also a key part of the judgment of the dead.

Also on the desk is a modern metal porcupine which is from America, from the trip to Clark University which features in Stone of Fire. I was quite thrilled to see it there – sometimes fiction moves into fact and vice versa!

Me at the Freud Museum, February 2012

Also in the study are two prints that feature in Ark of Blood. A copy of Rembrandt's Moses holding the tablets of the Law, a black and white cross-hatched image that shows Freud's interest in Moses at this point in his life.

The other is a night scene of Abu Simbel, a massive rock tomb and temple in Southern Egypt which I have visited and remains a deeply resonant place for me. The print is fascinating as there is a light coming from inside the long-abandoned tomb — what might be happening inside?

You can find out about the Freud Museum here and if you're in London and fancy a slightly different kind of tourist experience, get off the beaten track and head to Hampstead.

Join the adventure in Ark of Blood. 

It is the seat of judgment. The pinnacle of holiness. It is the Ark of the Covenant… and it’s the most dangerous weapon in existence.

Ark of Blood

Psychology Of Religion: The God Helmet

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Psychology Of Religion- The God HelmetReligious belief and experience fascinate me. Much of how we experience God is based on where we live and how we are brought up, but there are many common threads across the world of spirituality. I am also deeply interested in psychology and neuroscience, and in particular, the intersection in the new field of neuro-theology.

We know so little about the brain and consciousness, let alone what exists beyond the physical. All of this leads to my interest in the God Helmet, whose technology I modified to become the headsets in Prophecy. The crude device from Persinger's experiment is shown right but nevertheless, stimulation of the temporal lobe using a low magnetic field has resulted in some people experiencing religious visions.

As  the character of Dr Maria Van Garre explains in my novel Prophecy, both sides of the religious debate claim a victory from the results. Atheists claim God is just a neuro-chemical response, and believers claim God put that area of the brain there so we can experience Him. I leave your own interpretation up to you.

You can read an article on Wired: This is your brain on God

This slightly sensational video [6:58 mins] is quite crude but you can get the basic sense of the experiment. I used some of the experiences in Prophecy.

If you want to explore this further, you might like these books (affiliate links to Amazon):

Fingerprints of God: What science is learning about the brain and spiritual experience – Barbara Hegarty (2009)

The God Gene: How faith is hardwired into our genes – Dean Hamer (2005)

Ancient Book: Carl Jung’s Red Book

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As part of my Masters in Theology at the University of Oxford (1994-1997), I specialized in the psychology of religion. I was always particularly drawn to Carl Jung, because of his extensive investigation in the subject but also because of his personal struggle with the big questions of life.

Painting from Carl Jung's Red Book

The main character in my ARKANE thrillers, Morgan Sierra, also specializes in psychology of religion, mainly so I can explore my own interest in the subject!

I was keen to bring Jung into the Pentecost story. It so happened that while I was researching the book, it was announced that the Red Book would finally be published and made available to the public after years of being kept secret by his family. To my astonishment, one of the paintings in the Red Book has what looks like a pillar of fire coming out of a stone which I wove into the story of the Pentecost stones.

Jung writes a great deal on synchronicity, the experience of coincidence or chance that occurs in a meaningful way. There were many experiences of synchronicity as I wrote the book but this one was stunning. I also use the painting to describe the room at the Wadi in Nefta where Jung actually visited when he was in North Africa.

Here's part of a scene where the ARKANE team learn more about the Red Book. At the bottom is a video if you'd like to learn more about it.

Morgan listened to Ben talk, fascinated by the journey of the stone of Simon
the Zealot. They had Ben on speakerphone with Martin Klein also connected from
the ARKANE headquarters, hoping that between them they could locate the final
Pentecost stone. Ben continued his story from what the Grand Master had told him.
“Carl Jung travelled to the oasis of Nefta while he was in Tunisia, North Africa in
1920. He felt the land was soaked with the blood of Carthage, Rome and later the
Christians. It was a powerful experience for him. His memoirs say he felt an alien
sense of being a European in a Moorish, desert land. He recounted a powerful
dream of being within a mandala of a citadel in the desert, where he fought with
and then taught a royal Arab his secrets. Morgan, you’ve studied Jung’s writings in
depth. Did he ever mention this Pentecost stone?”
Morgan frowned and said, “I don’t remember Pentecost mentioned specifically, but
Jung was fascinated with stones as well as being obsessed with religious mythology.
At his Tower in Bollingen on Lake Zurich, he engraved stones with words and
images that meant a great deal to him. He created from his unconscious all the
time. He would have written about this if it meant something.”
Ben spoke again.
“I was told he was in North Africa in 1920. Isn’t that when he was still working on
the Red Book?”
“Of course, you’re right.” Morgan replied. “We should look there. It’s such an
outpouring of his mind at that time.”
Jake asked, “What’s this Red Book and why’s it so important?”
All three of the others started talking at once, and then quietened to let Morgan
continue.

Philemon. Jung's spirit guide

“The Red Book was Carl Jung’s personal inner journey written during a breakdown
he had. It’s an oversized red leather bound book with cream artist’s paper inside
that he filled with calligraphy of his thoughts and paintings of his inner life, visions
and dreams.”
“Why haven’t I heard of it before? It sounds amazing,” Jake said.
“It’s only recently been published for the first time. He wrote it between 1913 and
1929 and it’s truly a work of art. His family have protected it until now,” Morganreplied.
Jake asked, “So how could the book help us?”
“Jung painted what he saw in his unconscious mind and also what affected him,”
Morgan continued. “There should be signs in the Red Book if he had found
something spiritually significant. Jung was a mystic, struggling to reconnect ancient
myths with the modern world. He even dreamt about the coming rivers of blood in
Europe which turned out to be the Second World War. He felt broken in his mind,
and that left him open to divine inspiration, ideas and thoughts that the rest of us
discard in the night.”
Martin jumped in then, keen to add his opinion. His voice crackled over the line.
“Many of the paintings in the Red Book are representations of mandala, the circle in
the square which represents the inward journey of the soul. Jung’s spirit guide,
Philemon, is a central character in the Book shown as an old man with the wings of
a kingfisher. There are images of Egyptian myth and particularly of snakes, a
spiritual image of renewal and creation as well as the Christian idea of it
representing the devil. The snake is a powerful symbol in many…”
Jake jumped in, cutting off his flow. “Thanks Martin, that’s enough for now. Could
we get images of it please?”
“Of course, I’ll send them now. I’ve seen the real thing Morgan. It’s amazing! I was
assigned to be one of the few physically present when it came out of the Swiss vault
and photographed. The colors are so fresh because they have kept it pristine for
years, with hardly a soul looking at it. You’re going to be amazed when you see it.”
As they waited for the emailed images to arrive, Morgan thought about
Martin seeing the actual Red Book. She had an oversize full color reproduction, but
her professional jealousy was piqued by his unique experience. Working for
ARKANE certainly had its benefits. The images arrived and they opened the first file.
Morgan gasped and Jake leaned in closer.
“Is that what I think it is?”
They were looking at one of the images from Jung’s Red Book. It showed a square
room with turquoise patterned walls and a red and black checkered floor. In the
centre of the room, a man knelt in worship, his head on the ground with arms
reaching towards a small grey object in front of him. From that stone a pillar of fire
and flames rose up, filling the room with sparks and smoke, billowing above the
man as if about to consume him.