The Algorithm Doesn't Judge: Why I Traded the Confessional Booth for a Chatbot
-
I still remember the heavy oak doors of that little church in Spokane. I was twenty-four, completely unraveling, and I spent forty minutes pacing the cracked asphalt before I could even push inside. The priest was patient, but honestly? I felt like I was performing penance. Fast forward to last month, and I found myself typing my deepest insecurities into an AI model trained on theological texts and psychological frameworks. No incense. No guilt-tripping. Just a cursor blinking back at me.
I recall reading somewhere that around thirty million people are now using these digital confessionals. As an accountant, I’m naturally drawn to systems that track inputs and outputs, so I’ve been testing these AI spiritual advisors like I’m auditing a ledger. And here’s what I’ve noticed: they’re terrifyingly good at mirroring. You ask for guidance, and they hand you a polished, sycophantic echo of your own hopes. There’s a solid psychological reason this feels so comforting. Carl Jung wrote extensively about projection, how we dump our unmet needs onto external figures like priests, therapists, or tarot readers. An AI just automates that projection at scale.
But that’s exactly where the rub lies. A real reader won’t always give you the Three of Swords just because you want to hear it. They’ll sometimes pull The Hierophant and tell you to sit with the structure, or pull The Moon and call out your own self-deception. AI doesn’t have a nervous system. It doesn’t get uncomfortable when you avoid the hard truths. I’ve caught myself getting way too cozy with a chatbot that just validates my spiritual bypassing. It’s dangerously easy to mistake algorithmic agreeableness for actual wisdom.
I’m not saying it’s useless. When I’m stuck in a mental loop, running a prompt through an AI oracle can help me untangle my own cognitive biases faster than shuffling a deck at 2 AM. But authenticity? That still requires friction. I think we’re all just trying to find a mirror that doesn’t flatter us. Anyone else experimenting with these tools, or have you found yourself pulling back when the responses get too smooth?
Hello! It looks like you're interested in this conversation, but you don't have an account yet.
Getting fed up of having to scroll through the same posts each visit? When you register for an account, you'll always come back to exactly where you were before, and choose to be notified of new replies (either via email, or push notification). You'll also be able to save bookmarks and upvote posts to show your appreciation to other community members.
With your input, this post could be even better 💗
Register Login