Auto pilot

The area of the brain which controls or handles or generates guilt is not active when you're just about to fall asleep or in the instant you have woken up or when you're seriously drunk. It's just off.
As we all know, serious guilt has significant physical manifestations. A cramped up diaphragm (the proverbial brick in the stomach) to restrict breathing. A flurrry of subconscious brain activity threatening to take over conscious thought the minute you lower your guard. Depending on the particular cause of your guilt, over compensating behavior. All these manifestations of guilt just disappear in the three scenarios I just mentioned.

With sleep it's momentary. You don't remember for the instant before you're fall asleep, because all the effort invested in trying to fall asleep is essentially effort in that direction. So the instant you get there, boom. The waking up part lasts a few seconds while you gather your geographical and moral bearings.

Coming to the point of this rambling, the sustained guilt free state, through the consumption of copious amounts of alcohol. The wipe out is so thorough, that you could allow yourself to compound your guilt,  by repeating the action (or lack of it) that led to the state of affairs in the first place.  Since alcohol is a disinhibitor, it makes you reach your natural state which is instinctual and primal and you tend to do what your gut tells you.  It pushes you back your entire lifetime from a memory and learning perspective and a few hundred thousand years from an evolutionary learning perspective. You become this joyful being without constraints, burdens, prejudices, responsibilities, a past, with no concern for consequences and the future.  You're living in the present.  (Essentially you become a dog). In short alcohol switches off the pesky thinking and analyzing part of your brain and puts you on auto drive. The result?  Peace.  You're not concerned with anything, about anyone etc.... You're restored to your natural selfish blissful state. 

Did the word 'blissful' there ring a bell? It's exactly the same buttons spiritual or religious activities and meditation push. The effects are similar, barring the lack of motor control. 

Think about it.  The net goal of all spiritual routine,  when you peel off the layers of mythology and dire consequences, is to involve you in a mind numbing chant or dance or some activity which basically turns off the aforementioned thinking part of the brain. For moments when it's successful,  you feel blessed. You feel forgiven.  Of course you feel forgiven - you're not feeling guilt anymore. And of course it's addictive.  The books, the stories,  the theories etc are all designed to make you 'praise the Lord' in some way,  leading to meditation,  chanting and the like.

It's been mentioned that mediation is performance enhancing,  more relaxing than sleep etc.  Wouldn't you do better at everything if you were on natural instinctive auto pilot ? All your knowledge in hardware,without the software to slow it down or interfere. (Yes hardware is much faster than software).
Also without you sabotaging your own bodily form and function,  you breathe better,  your posture improves etc etc etc.  Sleep will be needed eventually, but in small measure.  You would age slower since you would do lesser damage to your body.

Someone has rightly called religion the opium of the masses. What he missed out however is that opium, without the associated physical issues might be an excellent way of life in non war scenarios.  Infact, why not war? Yes, it would be difficult to indoctrinate,  but those you get through to would kill without guilt and without malice. 

The ideal solider hence, would be a yoga expert.