I used to be a hardcore Apple fan when I was in college and when I first started working. Back then, I swore by Macs and would not even consider using any other operating system. Windows? Too complicated. Linux? Even worse.

Over time, I got more and more used to Windows and in time, Windows PCs and laptops became my computer of choice. Most of my colleagues at work were using Windows and it just made a lot of sense to be compatible with them.

Today, I've not quite gone a full circle, although I do use a lot of Mac products. I have an iPod, which is my primary music device. I have an iPad, which I use for browsing the Net and taking notes on the go. And I have a MacBook Air for times when I have to do work on the go (iPads are useless for doing any serious kind of work).

I like Apple but I'm not crazy over it. I'm a fan but not a fanatic. Many people are, though. But you already know that. We all have friends and colleagues who belong to the cult of Apple. It might sound funny or sarcastic to call Apple devotees a cult, but it's more apt than you might think.

Neuroscientists have compared magnetic resonance imaging or MRIs of an Apple fan's brains to those who call themselves "very religious" (in a traditional religion sense of the word) and found that Apple and religion light up the same part of the brain.

"We see quite an amount of changes in the brain when he's actually looking at Apple products, which is quite fascinating," says Prof Gemma Calvert, a neuroscientist at the University of Warwick.

There's much more activity in the visual cortex, an enhanced visual attention, if you like, to Apple products. This suggests that the big tech brands have harnessed, or exploited, the brain areas that have evolved to process religion."

In short, Apple triggers the same emotions and reactions in people as religion does. This finding will be highlighted in an upcoming BBC documentary called Secrets of Superbrands , which likens Apple Stores to cathedrals.

In the show, journalist Alex Riley, the host, joins a crowd of fervent fans at the grand opening of Apple's Covent Garden store in London, which he likens to "an evangelical prayer meeting." The store's ecclesiastical architecture - stone columns and arches adorn both the inside and outside - make the gathering seem even less like an ordinary retail opening, he observes.

Bishop who reads Bible on his iPad

The religious analogies are not only noticed by him but also by the Bishop of Buckingham, who interestingly remarks that he reads the Bible on his iPad. More notably though, the bishop also suggested that there were clear religious aspects to Apple stores: Stone floors, arches and little altars upon which the precious products are perched.

The show also discusses the breakthrough of Facebook and popularity of Nokia phones in certain markets.

"Like Apple, mobile phones and social networks offer an opportunity for us to express our basic human need to communicate," Riley said. "And it's by tapping into our basic needs, like gossip, religion or sex, that these brands are taking over our world at such lightning speed."

Reading this curious piece of news reminds me of something Pope Benedict XVI recently said about how consumer technology poses a threat to religion and the Roman Catholic Church. But technology, he warned, cannot replace God.

Perhaps not, but the as the BBC documentary has shown - and as anyone who knows an Apple Fanboy can attest, it can inspire religious fervour that would make any religion or cult, green with envy.

 

OON YEOH is managing editor of a local publishing house. You can follow him at www.twitter.com/oonyeoh .