Psychology is the slowest developing science, so it cannot sufficiently explain the functioning of religion. As a person who actively meditates and works with the subconscious, I can understand religion better.
An egregore is a very broad concept, it is a multi-layered concept. The whole of Christianity is an egregore, there is an egregore of the Catholic Church as a whole, but the most important is the egregore that I called the "egregore of the mob" , which manipulates people the most.
I will explain what the egregor of a gang actually is:
It is an energy field that is specifically created between friends, between the friendly bonds of Christians. In order for a person to be a Christian, they must first be maximally detached from reality and common sense; they must create their own bubble, their own world of thought in which they live. Without strong friendly ties between Christians, the Christian faith does not work properly. Christians are very well aware of this and therefore do their utmost to create as many friendly ties as possible among themselves. There are an incredibly large number of so-called Christian communities and associations whose task is to unite Christians as much as possible and create friendly ties. The activities of Christian communities are diverse: joint prayers in common spaces and also mutual discussion among themselves.
A Christian, as an individual being, would lose their faith extremely quickly because they have too little energy to create their own illusory world of thought. The egregore of the group is probably the most important element of protection against the energy field of non-Christians. Common sense can destroy the Christian world of thought very quickly, which is why the energetic protection of our Christian bubble, in which we feel so comfortable, is very important.
Fanatical Christians would literally have a mental breakdown if they were not in a group, in a group of strong friends who support their world of thought, because their world of thought in which they feel so good would collapse very quickly and that would be a disaster for them. Christians are terribly afraid of moving themselves or having a friend move, because the fear of losing faith is enormous . Fanatical Christians are in fact very cowardly people who have more than a lot of such fear that their world will collapse.
Free will: The fact is that once friendly ties are formed, once a person becomes part of a Christian group, something like free will ceases to exist for the individual. The person may convince themselves that they are free, but in reality, they are not. The most sophisticated manipulation is when a person thinks they are free, but in reality, they are being manipulated, which, unfortunately, is exactly what is happening. People do not realize how fragile and easily vulnerable they are. Of course, it works the same way in Islam as it does in Christianity.
What happens if circumstances force a Christian to break off friendly ties with a Christian group for a long time? Sometimes circumstances may force a Christian to do so, for example, if they are forced to travel abroad for a better-paid job, or move within Slovakia. In such circumstances, Christians desperately try to find friends exclusively among Christians at all costs. There is still a strange mentality among Christians that good and decent people can only be Christians. If a Christian is willing to form sincere friendships with non-religious people, if they are willing to become part of the Christian energy field, then almost certainly positive changes will occur in the Christian. At the very least, an active fanatical Christian will become a passive Christian who perceives Christianity as only a minor part of life. It can also lead to a complete abandonment of Christianity. A similar effect can occur if a group of friends includes both Christians and non-Christians, but the number of non-Christians is greater.
It is fascinating how religious fanatics stubbornly refuse to make friends with people other than Christians.
Active Christians do everything they can to avoid communicating with non-Christians as much as possible. They try to isolate themselves from non-Christians as much as possible. Christians communicate with non-Christians only when they evangelize – they try to persuade them to their faith and then they act as dominant, manipulative, aggressive "alpha males" who try to manipulate others.
Discussion with Christians. Does discussion with Christians have any meaning? Does it solve anything? Oh, how wonderful it would be if it were possible to have a serious, friendly discussion about religion with active Christians. At first, I tried, but I realized it's not possible. If you seriously try to discuss with Christians, they take you as an enemy; they make an enemy of you because you disrupt their worldview, and that is very painful for them. Although I try to be as respectful as possible, Christians become very nervous and aggressive during discussions. It's not possible to ensure that such a discussion takes place in a calm atmosphere; a Christian creates a very combative atmosphere, and with such tense, combative emotions, any serious discussion loses its meaning. A Christian will not change their opinion after a discussion anyway, because they have ten other Christian friends who will confirm their worldview and help them remain in the illusory thought bubble of Christianity, which is very far from reality.
Christians are afraid to peek out of their thought bunker for even a second. For many Christians, fear is the strongest motivation in their bigoted blind faith.
Every harmful egregore has a strong protective mechanism . If you start to discuss aggressive political propaganda with a Christian or a believer in a polite, calm, serious, and factual manner, the person who is a victim of the negative egregore will become aggressive, and the discussion will be meaningless. This is also where the protective mechanism lies.
Individualism as a positive factor . The 2015 referendum initiated by the Alliance for the Family proved to be a good demographic indicator of how religiously oriented people are in cities and in villages. It turned out that there is more religion in villages than in cities. Why is this so? In cities, people live more individualistically (which has its advantages and disadvantages), while in villages, social ties are closer and people form more friendships among themselves, thus creating a stronger religious egregore of the group.
(A side note: If a person wants to progress on a purely spiritual path of shamanism and is very serious about spiritual development, then no joint meditations are desirable; a person must always meditate alone in a room, a person must progress alone, because that is the most effective way. It is the exact opposite of religion. It is important, in principle, that a person works alone without external help or being blindly led. However, lest someone misunderstand – this does not mean that this type of spiritual path is against friendships and social ties – it only concerns meditations (joint meditations are also not suitable).)
I see Christians as weak, desperate souls who escape from reality, suffering, and fears into the illusion of a religious bubble.