Over the last few years, Reverend Billy has made quite a splash by taking his Church to the streets where he protests rampant, self-destructive, mindless and Earth-killing consumerism with rituals, chants and demonstrations aimed at retailers and their followers. These include California Guided Meditation trips to childhood in order to exorcise the spirits of stuffed Disney toys, a group chant to liberate and re-empower the nipple-less Starbuck's Mermaid, creation of Commerical Free Zones in consumer meccas such as Times Square, and "Shop-Lifting" exercizes designed to open a spiritual channel between third world producers with first world consumers. He encourages consumers to unite against destructive free-market capitalism that leads us bleary-eyed to mega-stores, sales and the Internet where we pollute our lives and the planet with things, things and more things. His raucous theatrics combine the best of burlesque and Broadway with frenzied evangelism.  His message is clear, there is life after shopping, but you gotta want it bad.

Problem is, not many of us want it bad enough to stop. We shop till we drop....binge on unecessary items and objects...fill our closets, draws, oversized SUV's and lives with textiles, electronics, vehicles, foods, and useless ephemera because it feels good. 

Can psychology and psychiatry help? Or must we admit that we are powerless in the grip of this societal plague and turn to the Church of Life After Shopping for salvation.  Shall we treat this seeming disease as a bona fide addiction, bringing to bear all the power of modern medicine and the science of Addictionolgy?  In an intriguing, intelligent and insightful Psycholgy Today blog by April Lane Benson entitled "To Buy or Not To Buy", we are invited to consider the prevalence of compulsive shopping and ways to combat it...much in the same way as we do with other seemingly uncontrollable and self-destructive behavior; ie., gambling, eating, substance abuse and kleptomania. She challenges us to fill the spaces inside ourselves with acceptance, appeciation and worth...not things. Please read her blog..it will enlighten.

In a similarly authoritative and fascinating Psychology Today blog enttitled Revolutionary Recovery: Healing the Addicted Brain, Psychiatrist Harold Urschel invites us into the inner workings of our nervous system to consider how the brain of an addict differs from that of a non-addict, and how sound psychological, behavioral and medical treatment, inclusing medication, may help.  Imagine, a drug for over-shopping.  It would have to be powerful enough to over-ride the pleasure, memory and sensory centers of the brain, not to mention the choke-hold that retailers, advertisers and credit card companies have on us.

The debate over the origin and cure for addictive behavior will no doubt rage for years to come, while more and more succumb...to drugs, to food, to gambling and to shopping. Reverend Billy will entice us into re-conceptualizing unbridled consumerism as a mortal sin, the repurcusions of which will be no less a total 'shopocalypse."

In the meantime, I sit here, contemplating whether or not to walk over to the mall to purchase a $300 pair of Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones for my iPod which now has almost 3200 songs on it, I pause to reflect. If, perhaps, out of the blue, Reverend Billy appeared in front of the Apple Store with full choir and regalia, I might not enter into the devil's den. If he could truly convince me that I was sinning against people and the planet, then perhaps I would relent.  If he convinced me that a higher power had a plan for me and that buying those oh-so-wonderful headphones would not elevate me, then, sure, I might go to Target and buy a lesser pair, or even attend an outdoor concert. 

Perhaps, I will do neither, and go ahead and buy the damn things, go see Confessions of a Shopaholic at my local theater, buy an oversized/refillable popcorn and large Coke in a non-recyclable cup as I thumb through psychologist Barry Schwartz's "The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less and sit back with and listen to my iPod. 

Wasn't it Billy Joel who sang "...I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints."

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Tags: american idol, birthday extravaganza, brick and mortar, chuck e cheese, chuck e cheese restaurant, disney toys, free market capitalism, guided meditation, itunes, meccas, meditation trips, mega stores, personal spirituality, religious growth, reverend billy, spiritual channel, theatrics, unitarian church, world consumers, world producers