Page 10 - The Apple Experience

Gimme That Ol’ Time Apple Religion

One of the most intense religious experiences of my life happened when I

was a graduate student of journalism at Northwestern University. One
Sunday a group of us decided to attend a Baptist church in downtown

Chicago. Keep in mind that as a Catholic boy from California this was my

first “immersive” experience outside of a Catholic mass. You could imagine

how puzzled I must have been to see nurses standing alongside the walls.

Once women started fanning themselves and fainting during the service, I

knew why the nurses had been stationed there! When I saw the twenty-

member gospel choir starting to rock out to the song “I’m Going with Jesus”

and the preacher running full speed around the perimeter of the church with

his arms in the air, I realized this would be unlike anything I ever
experienced at my church. Those churchgoers were truly “inspired”—infused

with the spirit.

Many Apple customers are also infused with the spirit—the Apple spirit.

In 2011 researchers in the United Kingdom discovered that Apple actually

triggers the same areas of the brain that light up during intensely religious

experiences. The neuroscientists used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

technology to discover that, for Apple fans, seeing images of Apple products
actually lit up the same parts of the brain as images of a deity do for religious

people. If you’ve seen photos or videos of customers whipped up in a sort of

“evangelical frenzy” at Apple Store openings, now you understand why.

Oakland, California, resident Gary Allen is one of the faithful. In May

2011, Allen marked the tenth anniversary of the Apple Store by traveling

thousands of miles to visit the first store in Tysons Corner, Virginia. He

didn’t even fly. He rented a Toyota Yaris and drove for five days. Allen began

his trip on Saturday, May 14, headed along I-80 to Denver and through