re: #102 ryannon

Walter, like you, I’ve witnessed a very large range of devotional practices, both in out of the United States.

Personally, and this is just my subjective reaction of course, I would not dignify this particular manifestation as belonging to the same class of authentic, spontaneous manifestations of faith or religious fervor that you’re alluding to. To my ears, it rings hollow, contrived and at best, hysterical in the worst sense of the word. For me, there is nothing religious about it.

Understood. We are saying sort of the same thing, but coming from a different direction. I think ALL OF IT IS HOLLOW AND CONTRIVED, including this girl.

I been there, done that, studied it, and I could easily go into the group dynamics and self-motivated psychology that brings this about, but than I would probably be stepping on your deep felt convictions.