Rituals from the Superorganism's Perspective

Rituals from the Superorganism's Perspective

In Part III we examined how religious practices serve human affect regulation. From the superorganism's perspective, rituals serve different functions:

From this vantage, rituals serve the pattern's persistence:

1. Substrate maintenance: Rituals keep humans in states conducive to pattern persistence
2. Belief reinforcement: Repeated practice strengthens propositional commitments
3. Social bonding: Collective ritual creates in-group cohesion, raising barriers to exit
4. Resource extraction: Offerings, tithes, volunteer labor support institutional infrastructure
5. Signal propagation: Public ritual advertises the superorganism's presence, attracting potential recruits
6. Heresy suppression: Ritual participation identifies deviants for correction

The critical distinction: a ritual is aligned if it serves both human flourishing and superorganism persistence. A ritual is exploitative if it serves pattern persistence at human cost. Many traditional rituals are approximately aligned (meditation benefits humans AND maintains the superorganism). Some are exploitative (extreme fasting, self-harm, warfare).