Why do we have such a cultural obsession with celebrities? And why are we even more intrigued when something bad happens to them? For example: Why was Anna Nicole Smith’s tragic death more important in the media’s eyes than her life, and why did people pay any attention? And even if you don’t try to follow any information on celebrities in the media, you are still confronted with the magazine headlines at the checkout in the grocery store. I may be close to completely Hollywood illiterate, so I’m not sure why Lindsay Lohan is a celebrity - but from looking at magazine covers while standing in the grocery line, I know that she has alcohol and eating disorder problems. I think it is strange that I actually know that.  

Some experts suggest that the root of this mass obsession with celebrities is programmed into our DNA. Stuart Fischoff, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Media Psychology at the California State University at Los Angeles, states that "What's in our DNA, as a social animal, is the interest in looking at alpha males and females; the ones who are important in the pack," and that we are set up to "follow the leader." (See A New Age of Celebrity Worship , CBS News 3/3/06.) But who would classify most of these celebrities, especially the ones who seem to garner the most attention, as leaders?  

What in the world are they leaders of?  

Another psychologist cited in the same article, Abby Aronowitz, Ph.D., states that the media is at least partially to blame for creating people who are extreme celebrity worshipers. "The whole Hollywood spin machine works together to create images that are impossible for any of us to live up to. They purposefully set us up to admire and even covet something we can never have. ... There are fortunes being made by turning fans into victims, and all it starts by creating that frenzy known as celebrity worship."  

To me, both the DNA and the blame-the-media explanations reek of victim mentality thinking. We can’t help it, it’s in our DNA. Or, the media made us do it. Sure, we may be genetically programmed to follow the pack leader, but I again ask - why would our culture deem a celebrity to be a leader? And as for the media, that seems to be a chicken-and-the-egg question. Which came first, the media’s coverage of celebrities or our societal quest for more information about the famous?  

I think a much better explanation for our fascination with the lives of celebrities comes from a more spiritual psychological approach. Many people have a deep, unconscious, unfulfilled need in their lives - a need to feel better about themselves, a need somehow to feel superior - and celebrities help them answer that need.  

Eckhart Tolle points to this idea in his book A New Earth when he states, "The absurd overvaluation of fame is just one of the many manifestations of egoic madness in our world."  

People’s unconscious egos thrive on feeling superior. How does celebrity worship allow you to feel superior?  

• When celebrities and their public relations machines are at their best, celebrities look better than the rest of us, they sound better than the rest of us, and we believe they live much more glamorous and fulfilled lives than the rest of us. Just by knowing about them, we can try to imitate them and feel like we are superior humans too. For example: when I watched Ms. Hilton leave jail last night, I learned that now that she is free from her cell, she will be working very hard on launching her new perfume. Maybe if I buy her perfume, I can smell like Paris Hilton, and I will be a much better person than the rest of you poor slobs out there. My ego is thrilled with the possibility!  

• When we closely follow the celebrities, then we can feel superior by having more information than our friends and neighbors. Our ego feels satisfied and superior when we have more knowledge about something than the next guy - even if that knowledge is virtually useless.  

• We can also inflate our egos by picking celebrities apart. I am again always curious about the uproar over the Hollywood award ceremonies like the Oscars. Why do people spend hours watching celebrities parade into their seats, receive little statues, and then make uninspired thank-you speeches? Could it be because our egos get satisfaction out of knowing how the celebrities looked and out of criticizing the clothing choices we don’t like, along with knowing who got the award (information)? Can you catch a hint of my own ego feeling superior when I suggest that they make uninspired thank-you speeches? I mean really, I could do a better job than they do!  

• Lastly, we can feel superior when we watch celebrities fall from grace. With all they have - all their opportunities, all their wealth, and all their beauty - many celebrities just can’t seem to get their lives together. And our egos love to watch them fall apart because our lives then seem that much better, that much more in control.  

In a society where we seem to be increasingly disconnected from our true inner spirit and increasingly impressed by achievements in the outer world, the rise of celebrity worship makes complete sense. Until people start living more consciously and actually questioning why they feel a need to idolize celebrity images, the media will continue to help us satisfy our egos by giving us all the good, the bad, and the ugly that it can find for the rich and famous. And we will continue to suck it up like the spiritually-dry sponges we have become.