Ritual is strange—or so it seems to our rational minds—yet, strangely, for many of us who participate in these often highly stylized and repetitive actions, we feel better afterward. Why is this so? Is there a method to ritual's madness that helps explain this phenomena? I think so.  In a departure from the usual Mormon Matters formula of a panel discussion, this episode features me, Mormon Matters host Dan Wotherspoon, reading a short article I wrote for the Fall 2016 issue of Sunstone magazine, "Why Ritual 'Makes Sense'." In it I address various aspects of ritual and how, even though rituals can be extremely diverse in nature, they share key commonalities. Rituals, through their various means, attempt to help us access more fully some of the energies and their attendant empowerment for us that are all around us but often overlooked due to the strength of the sensory input from our bodies and the clutter of thoughts and concerns going through our brains. How do they do this? Why is it important for us to seek methods that can bring us into these kinds of experiences? I hope you'll enjoy these ideas and this side trip away from the panel format. I promise, though, that we'll be back to that with the next episode.