{"slug": "turning-to-ai-for-meaning-and-transcendence", "title": "Turning to AI for Meaning and Transcendence", "summary": "New research published in the Harvard Business Review found that the top use of generative AI in 2026 is for therapy and companionship, with a growing number of people also using AI for astrological and tarot readings. Psychologists warn that turning to large language models to meet emotional and psychospiritual needs for meaning and transcendence risks severing human connection and a sense of belonging to the natural world.", "body_md": "######\n[Artificial Intelligence](/us/basics/artificial-intelligence)\n\n# Turning to AI for Meaning and Transcendence\n\n## Personal Perspective: The proof that we project onto AI.\n\nUpdated June 2, 2026\n[\nReviewed by Kaja Perina\n](/us/docs/editorial-process)\n\n### Key points\n\n- New research finds that people are turning to AI for tarot and astrology readings.\n- We have an innate need to relate to the transcendent. Many are apparently meeting that need through AI.\n- When we use AI to search for meaning, we lose touch with our sense of belonging to the natural world.\n\nYesterday, the *Harvard Business Review* published an article about recent research on the top use cases of generative [artificial intelligence](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/artificial-intelligence) in 2026. The number one way that people are using large language models this year and last year is for [therapy](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/therapy) and companionship. The implications of this are startling and disturbing. Many of us are finding it easier to turn to AI to meet our emotional needs.\n\nGiven that the quality of our [attachment](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/attachment) to one another is one of the significant predictors of human flourishing, it is hard to overstate the potential devastating consequences of turning to an LLM rather than to another human being. As monumental as this trend is, it isn’t new, and there are others who are speaking to it with clarity and rigor, most notably the psychologist Zak Stein.\n\n## Using AI for Astrology\n\nBut there is a new use case in 2026 that I find equally disturbing, if also darkly humorous. People are using AI to generate astrological and tarot readings. Ostensibly, we consult AI because it is supposed to be objective. Many of us unconsciously ascribe a degree of authority to what AI says because it was trained on vast amounts of data. With access to the sum of the world’s scientific knowledge, it can supposedly surface the peer-reviewed, evidence-based information we need at touch of a button – the pinnacle of human [wisdom](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/wisdom) at our fingertips. So AI, which is supposed to offer authoritative, objective information based on our best scientific understanding, is now generating horoscopes.\n\nAmong other things, this trend illustrates what we project onto AI. Clearly, many of us see it not just as a potential source of information, nor “merely” a companion, but as a kind of oracle. Just as we have learned to turn to AI to fulfill our deep yearning for connection and attachment, we are now also turning to it to meet our psychospiritual needs for meaning and transcendence. I don’t think that’s a good sign.\n\nWhatever you think about the merits of astrology, as a mythos, it offers a profound and coherent view of the cosmos and our place in it. Astrology tells us that we are connected in an intimate way with the universe such that the position of the stars at the moment of our birth determines our fate. According to this view, we are not living in a meaningless world governed by random chance. Instead, our lives are intricately entangled with the heavens.\n\n## The Need to Make Sense of the Cosmos\n\nThe influence of this worldview can be seen in our language. The word “disaster” comes from Latin and means something like “ill-starred.” “Consider” comes from the Latin and means “to observe the constellations,” while “desire” comes from the same root, and means something like “waiting for what the stars will bring.”\n\nAstrology is born from a mythopoetic sensibility that recognizes that the life of each individual is of cosmic significance. When we know this to be true, we have a comforting sense of belonging to the universe, and even our worst suffering is easier to bear because we know that there are structure and telos in the world.\n\nThe profound solace of knowing our place in the cosmos was once conferred on us by our religious beliefs. As the traditional faiths have ceased to provide ballast for many, we have sought elsewhere for that which provides meaning. Jung noted that, as humans, we have a religious instinct – we need to relate to something larger than ourselves.\n\nWe are built to ponder the nature of existence, to wonder about the cosmos and our place in it. As long as humans have been humans, we’ve told ourselves stories about the origin of the universe and looked to have experiences of enlightenment that elucidate our connectedness to the world around us. What might it mean to seek the answer to these questions from AI?\n\n[Intelligence](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/intelligence)Essential Reads\n\nSome might ask whether AI can give us at least as good an answer to our life questions as astrology. I’m not so sure. Divinatory tools such as tarot or the I Ching may be useful because they invite us to engage in self-reflection. Some of the readings that we get are unpleasant and confrontive and therefore invite us to consider aspects of our situation we otherwise might not have thought about. With their tendency to be sycophantic, LLMs are more likely to tell us what we want to hear, possibly foreclosing opportunities for self-reflection.\n\nBut there is a deeper issue. When we were immersed in the mythopoetic mindset that allowed us to experience ourselves as profoundly connected to the rest of creation, we knew ourselves to be part of the natural world. No longer do we gaze up at the stars at night and wonder about our relationship to them. Now we peer into our screens and ask Claude – a pale facsimile of our humanity. It is as if we used to find God in the night sky, and now find Him in the blurry, dim reflection of ourselves as we stare numbly at our phones. This is a severe impoverishment, both for us and for the world we inhabit.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/turning-to-ai-for-meaning-and-transcendence", "canonical_source": "https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-archetypal-angle/202606/turning-to-ai-for-meaning-and-transcendence", "published_at": "2026-06-02 22:14:07+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-03 12:05:34.074640+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "large-language-models", "generative-ai", "ai-ethics"], "entities": ["Harvard Business Review", "Kaja Perina"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/turning-to-ai-for-meaning-and-transcendence", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/turning-to-ai-for-meaning-and-transcendence.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/turning-to-ai-for-meaning-and-transcendence.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/turning-to-ai-for-meaning-and-transcendence.jsonld"}}