I asked Google Gemini a question just for fun. Kind of.

As a C.S. Lewis fan, I genuinely want to know the answer to this question. But since that’s impossible, I asked knowing the AI response would be pure assumption, not fact or truth.

And by the way. While we’re on the subject of AI, I can assure you I never use AI to write blog posts. (I just really love em dashes!)

What I am about to share is a verbatim result from Google’s AI assistant. I’ll let you know exactly when things shift from my words to AI—and back to my own conclusions.

Oh, and another by the way. I don’t make it a habit of sharing AI output. This response surprised me, though, and I couldn’t keep it to myself.

So, what exactly was my question?

“If C.S. Lewis were alive today, how do you think he would describe what it looks like to get dopamine hits from God and not worldly things? Base this answer off of all of his available writings, or anything he might have written on this topic or an adjacent topic.”

Below is the detailed answer I received from Google Gemini, only seconds later—which, admittedly, I find both fascinating and terrifying.

But first…

What Is a Dopamine Hit?

According to a Cleveland Clinic article:

“Dopamine is a neurotransmitter made in your brain. It plays a role as a ‘reward center’ and in many body functions, including memory, movement, motivation, mood, attention and more.”

The article goes on to say that: “Dopamine is known as the ‘feel-good’ hormone. It gives you a sense of pleasure. It also gives you the motivation to do something when you’re feeling pleasure.

Dopamine is part of your reward system. This system is designed, from an evolutionary standpoint, to reward you when you’re doing the things you need to do to survive — eat, drink, compete to survive and reproduce. As humans, our brains are hard-wired to seek out behaviors that release dopamine in our reward system. When you’re doing something pleasurable, your brain releases a large amount of dopamine. You feel good and you seek more of that feeling.”

And here’s something else you should know. The research linking dopamine to pleasure and reward didn’t come to be until after the death of C.S. Lewis. The term “dopamine hit” was never part of his vernacular or scientific understanding.

And yet, somehow, he wrote as if he knew. At least, that’s what I gathered from AI.

See for yourself. My words stop here.

---

Google AI’s Answer to My Question

C.S. Lewis were alive today, he would likely be fascinated by—and deeply critical of—our modern concept of “dopamine hits.” While the neurological terminology would be new to him, the underlying spiritual reality is something he diagnosed continuously throughout his entire body of work.

To Lewis, chasing dopamine loops via social media, consumerism, or constant novelty is simply the newest mechanism for an ancient human error: trying to satisfy an infinite, spiritual hunger with finite, material things.

Based on *Mere Christianity*, *The Screwtape Letters*, *The Weight of Glory*, and *Surprised by Joy*, here is how Lewis would likely frame what it means to redirect that ultimate desire away from the world and toward God.

1. The Dopamine Loop as “The Law of Undulation”

In *The Screwtape Letters*, Lewis introduces the concept of **Undulation**—the natural human cycle of peaks and troughs, highs and lows. The senior demon Screwtape notes that humans are amphibians—half spirit and half animal. Because we live in time, our emotions and neurochemistry constantly fluctuate.

Lewis would see modern tech-induced dopamine hits as a demonic manipulation of this natural system. In the book, Screwtape advises his nephew to exploit the “troughs” (the low-dopamine moments of boredom or loneliness) by introducing cheap, addictive pleasures:

“An ever-increasing craving for an ever-diminishing pleasure is the formula… To get the man’s soul and give him nothing in return—that is what really gladdens our Father’s heart.” [excerpt from *The Screwtape Letters*]

Getting your “dopamine hits from God” would not mean experiencing a permanent, ecstatic emotional high. Rather, Lewis would say it looks like **faithfulness during the dull moments**. It is the ability to sit in a low-dopamine “trough” without frantically reaching for a smartphone, trusting that God is just as present in the quiet boredom as He is in the emotional peaks.

2. Worldly Dopamine as “Mud Pies in a Slum”

Lewis’s most famous essay on desire is *The Weight of Glory*. In it, he argues that the problem with humanity is not that our desires are too strong, but that they are far too weak. We are easily pleased with cheap substitutes because we cannot imagine what real joy looks like:

“We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” [excerpt from *The Weight of Glory*]

If Lewis were updating this analogy for 2026, the “mud pies” would undoubtedly be the endless scroll of a feed, the ping of a notification, or the thrill of online validation.

To get your satisfaction from God means realizing that worldly dopamine is merely a cheap counterfeit of a grander reality. It is choosing the “holiday at the sea” over the instant gratification of the digital slum. It looks like a person who turns off the noise because they have tasted a deeper, more substantial form of happiness and found the world’s substitutes incredibly boring by comparison.

3. The Discovery of *Sehnsucht* (Joy)

In his autobiography, *Surprised by Joy*, Lewis describes a very specific kind of longing he calls ***Sehnsucht***—an intense, bittersweet desire that hits us when we see a beautiful sunset, hear a strain of music, or read an old myth.

Crucially, Lewis learned that **the desire itself is better than any worldly satisfaction.** When we try to capture that feeling by buying the object, repeating the experience, or seeking a cheap thrill, the feeling vanishes.

Lewis would say that a person living under the influence of God-given joy uses worldly pleasures differently:

**The Worldly Approach:** You treat the pleasure (a luxury, a vacation, a digital status symbol) as the destination. You squeeze it for every drop of dopamine, and when it runs dry, you feel empty and look for the next hit.

**The Godward Approach:** You treat the pleasure as a signpost. If you see a beautiful image or experience a moment of success, you enjoy it, but your mind immediately jumps past the object to the Creator behind it.

As he puts it in *Mere Christianity*:

“Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists… If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”

Summary: What it Looks Like in Practice

If Lewis were to watch someone today who successfully draws their strength and joy from God rather than worldly loops, he would describe a person who possesses a rare, quiet gravity.

They would look like someone who can tolerate silence without twitching for a screen. They would view worldly successes and comforts not as addictions they need to sustain themselves, but as “good innkeeper’s accommodations” on a journey home. They would be remarkably free from the frantic anxiety of the modern attention economy, because their deepest hunger has already been met by something eternal.

---

Okay. It’s me again.

First, let me remind you—and myself—that,  quotes aside, these are not the thoughts and opinions of C.S. Lewis himself. These are, at best, educated guesses based on AI analysis of his books and other works available on the internet.

Second, after reading AI’s best guess answer, I’d like to think Google Gemini understood the assignment. Of course, we’ll never know for sure.

Still, I have a few takeaways from this experiment that started as a random, curious thought.

How to Get Your Dopamine Hits from God

Going back to the heart of my question, here’s what I took from the Lewis-inspired AI answers above:

1. Embrace everyday life with God. There is plenty of life to live between the stuff we tend to long for—weekends, vacations, holidays, and major milestones. Seeing God and choosing joy even on the most mundane of days is the true reward.
2. Don’t compromise or settle for less than God’s best. Instant gratification won’t satisfy for long. It will always leave us wanting more. God’s plans and His timing are worth the wait.
3. Look for God as the source of every pleasure in this life. He is behind every good thing. James 1:17a (ERV) confirms that, “Everything good comes from God. Every perfect gift is from him.”

I’m reminded of another verse, Romans 1:25 (ERV). Writing to the church in Rome, the Apostle Paul had this to say about humanity:

“They traded the truth of God for a lie. They bowed down and worshiped the things God made instead of worshiping the God who made those things. He is the one who should be praised forever. Amen.”

To me, this accurately describes the constant chase for dopamine hits. We crave the high. We pursue it with a passion. And we forget to pursue our Creator—the One who made our bodies, our neurotransmitters, hormones, and all. He knows what we need. He knows what we want. And He alone keeps us satisfied.

Don’t take my word for it, or the words of C.S. Lewis—presumed or real. Instead, let’s read the words of Jesus in John 10:10 (AMP):

“The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance [to the full, till it overflows].”

Dopamine hits aren’t “the thief,” but you can bet the real thief—the devil—will try his darndest to take you down, one “feel-good” pursuit at a time.

Don’t let Him. Pursue God instead.