The Power of Prayer

Prayer

“Here we are, God—a planet at prayer.  Attune our spirits that we may hear your harmonies and bow before your creative power

that we may face our violent discords and join with your Energy

to make heard in every heart your hymn of peace…”

                                  Joan Metzner

         What exactly is prayer?  Is it asking God to take care of something for us?  Is it turning over to God something we don’t feel we can handle alone?  Is it begging for forgiveness or guidance or health?  Prayer is all of these, but much, much more.  Prayer may be simple silence in which we connect with divine energy.

 

Did you know that institutions such as Harvard and Stanford are studying the effects of prayer?  One study, reported in Larry Dossey's book, Reinventing Medicine, was conducted in the Bay Area, and involved forty people from different healing traditions—Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Native American, shamanic, bio-energetic and meditative.  In a controlled, randomized clinical trial, forty patients with advanced AIDS were assigned to three groups.  The healers were given a photo of each patient in the target group and a rotating schedule, so that each one was treated (at a distance) by a different healer each week.

         Those patients who had received distant healing (i.e. the directed flow of positive energy and intention) underwent significantly fewer new AIDS-related illnesses, had less severe illnesses, required fewer doctor visits, fewer hospitalizations, and fewer days of hospitalization.  Moreover they showed significantly improved mood compared with controls.  Many other studies, some with as many as twelve-hundred subjects, have shown similar effects. 

         Now here’s the kicker.  Those engaged in prayer show comparable positive effects.  In other words, even if you are praying for someone else, the benefits of prayer come back to you.  Being a channel for positive energy has a healing effect on the healer.  Prayer, like meditation, focuses and calms the mind, body, and spirit.  It releases the feel-good chemistry of the parasympathetic nervous system. 

         Dr. Oz, in the book, Einstein’s God, comments on a study of distant prayer being conducted at the Cardiovascular Institute at Columbia University, in which those praying simply ask for the “greatest good” for each of the subjects.  We don’t know what may serve the life and soul of another human being, but we can still pray for them.  We can hold them in the light of love and send them positive energy with our thoughts.   We can know that they will be blessed by our prayers and good intentions, and that we will be too.

                                  In the spirit,

                                  Jane