Sacred Architecture as Cognitive Technology

Religious spaces historically used light, occlusion, acoustics, scent, and ritual pacing to induce awe and suppress ego, reliably producing specific mental states. Losing this design language leaves algorithmic feeds and generic buildings to fill the role, reshaping how people experience the sacred. Treating temples and churches as mind‑engineering tools clarifies why their absence changes communal life. — If built environments engineer inner states, cultural and urban policy should treat sacred design as civic infrastructure rather than mere aesthetics.