prayer is actually a form of self lying which disenhances by negative reinforcement the truth feedback mechanisms of the brain.An EEG will confirm that the brainwave pattern of prayer is that of lying.
this is for a clear person an unplasant and distressing proces.
but for a person in denial it produses a dissociation which releives inner tensions; as a side effect it weakens the ability to recognise truth from untruth.
a very useful political tool indeed!!
But "god' reflects the inherited hard-wired pattern of behavior in young humans to obey their male elders; this has survival advantages , particularly for young men during the restructuring of the brain in adolescence til about age 30 when they are prone to explore boundries and put themselves and others at risk..blind obedience is somtimes safer.
However if this role is projected on a manipulating ar manipulated leader then the result is harmful.
And if the mind is distorted by mental illness it will become attached to distoted models and the result is seeen throughout history.
Orphans or the abused are particularly prone, hence the predominence of orphan political tyrants and prophets.
The British ruling class have institutionalised this phenomina by the use of nannys, boarding schools and no touch childrearing so that their offspring are routinely brutalised