In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart.
—Mahatma Gandhi
Our brains have incredible capabilities, and their co-existence with the human mind creates an infinite capacity for human experience. One of the more profound abilities of the brain is its capacity to be a predictive mechanism. This capacity coupled with the minds intention helps with goal setting and achieving, in addition to serving as our avenues of awareness of self, other, and the environment around us. Prayer is a verb referring to the action of an internal desire or movement of consciousness to access a ‘higher power or energy” to help with goal setting and achieving, or becoming aware at a deeper, more profound level of a connection with Spirit.
“Prayer” is a term typically used by religions and their adherents indicating an inherent potential or a capacity of the human being to make a “conscious contact” with a benevolent higher power or energy. Prayers can be almost epic in length, while some prayers are as simple as an utterance of “thank you”.
The purest intention for prayers, though, are when we have totally relinquished our ego demands, and have surrendered our will, and all of our hopes, dreams, and intentions, to the moment, to an internal silence. Those who can “let go of the controls” find another energy arise in consciousness, where miracles have been known to arise from.The intention behind these connections is to help guide and influence one’s own life and agenda, or to have one’s will shaped to align more with the intention of their higher power. There may be “black magic” behind some prayers, which is the hope that some greater good avoids certain groups of people or individuals. But, usually, prayer is the desire to bring oneself into a higher alignment with the underlying spiritual essence to life, which will, hopefully, result in better health, well-being, and in some cases, better material success for the subjects, and objects of prayer.
Will this “higher power” ever make its presence known, or make an intercession on our behalf? It depends on whether we are attuned to the possibility of such an experience even happening in our lives, or in the lives of those we love. Otherwise, even when such “miracles” occur, they will be interpreted in terms of other, more “reasonable” or mundane explanations.
All I know is that when I pray, coincidences happen; and when I don’t pray, they don’t happen.
— Dan Hayes
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One story really stands out from the electrician apprenticeship program that I attended from 1988-1992. Gary Johnson was another apprentice in my class, and he, at times, appeared a little distracted and dull. I knew that there was more to him than that, though I never really positively acknowledged him outwardly. One day we were scheduled to take a very important test, one which would determine if we would successfully continue in the program, and eventually finish with our electrical license. For some reason I felt an intense desire to pray for Gary. This was not a typical activity for me, praying for anybody, let alone somebody that I did not know well. After the test, Gary came over to me, and asked me
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“Bruce, why did you pray for me before this test?”
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“Gary, you ask a very challenging question. How could you possibly know of such a thing happening?”
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“Bruce, it is none of your business how I know. Thanks for thinking of me, and praying for me, though.”
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.“Gary, sometimes things just happen that we witness, and that neither of us have any control over, I think.”
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Nobody, I mean NOBODY, could have known that I was praying for Gary, including him.
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Once again, as I look at my history, I am in awe of the miracle underlying life’s Mystery
Gary is center left, with me looking at him
Gary died the following year, after we had all graduated from our apprenticeship.. Gary’s sensitivity towards me and my “prayer” may well have been because he was close to his own death, unbeknown to both of us. Impending death, and death itself, has been known to unlock all manners of mysteries in human consciousness, and the interconnection between all beings.
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Are we all connected? What was that ‘prayer’, and is prayer as mysterious as it seems? To talk about prayer, is to talk about non-verbal and verbal communication. “Prayer” is a word that points to something so simple, normal, and natural, yet the word also points to a much greater potential for shared reality than most people understand, or realize. And no, prayer is not a beseeching or a begging from some sort of Santa Claus God for something that we don’t already have, though there are 10,000 books already written about prayer indicating as much. There is so much cynicism and skepticism about prayer from non-Christians and atheists, and that negativity exists for good reasons. As it is said in the recovery movement:
“Prayer, without constructive action to support it, is a dead prayer”.
There is a band of frequencies in the spectrum of universal life force where humanity resides. It has been called by many names, but the name that I now hold onto is the human morphogenetic field. Our minds already arise from this base, or fundamental ground, of being or existence. Through “morphic resonance”, a term coined by Rupert Sheldrake, we naturally can access all of these frequencies. We must discern which ones to attach our life force energy to, and which ones to avoid. We all have access to these frequencies together, as a human race, thus the incredible potential for overlap of experiences, and the sharing of healing, insight, love, spiritual power, and understanding at the most fundamental of levels.
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One of the levels of awareness has become known as the human mystical state. “God Consciousness’, “Christ consciousness’, or the “Buddha Mind”, are names given to this sublime state of being, along with several other monikers, depending on the culture and the point of history where this is being defined and described. This energy field is the same energy that Jesus accessed, and that Saint Paul on his road to Damascus experienced. It is a non-verbal state, though the human race certainly spends a lot of time trying to bring that experience back into the verbal world of incomplete and fragmented concepts. Our attempts at communicating with others are well-meaning but often times inane and insane attempts at measuring the immeasurable.
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Our culture is perceived to be immeasurably enhanced , and the awakening elements of the human race give great tribute to those who continue their attempts to bring this energy to mankind through their music, poetry , art, science, teachings, story telling.and other verbal contrivances. The energy exists above and beyond the word, and its limitations, yet needs a verbal bridge back to the mind of the human, who has become lost to its influence while under the sway of the day-to-day hypnosis that living in the world of words supplies. The Garden of Eden is eternally lost to the person who lives in the past, while being defined and entertained by the verbal constructs around his history and experience. The Unknown, where “God” resides, becomes a source of fear for those who are addicted to their personal and/or collective stories, with their verbal structures of ignorance, isolation, hubris, and self-centered behavior. Those who finally touch the Unknown, are changed, yet lack the power to bring that change to others, though they can now send out their “waves of positive influence” or prayers, if you will. They only can point to where the Truth lies, which is the real power of the word.
The word itself is not holy, or spiritual, but the state of being pointed to is where the real power remains. All of the religious works ever presented to the human race are but pointers to the truth, with no innate capacity to impart the truth on their own. Prayer that starts on the verbal level and only stays there will have the characteristics of an affirmation, or part of the goal seeking mechanism of the human mind. Prayer that reaches the great Unknown, where the verbal machinations finally cease, will be blessed by that “carrier wave” of spiritual energy, thus have the potential for greatest power, healing, and connectivity.
The eternal struggle of man is to find their own unique way to quiet, or liberate, the mind, without damaging the mind in the process. The quiet mind is how to open the internal window to infinite spirit, which will blow into the inner window in its own unique time and manner. Who, or what, gets blessed by that blowing wind of spirit is primarily out of our conscious control, but, oh, how some people claim to “have the power”, and sell people on their own self-righteousness. Answered prayer appears to be a “miraculous intervention”, and proof that certain individuals or groups have a special, or developed, connection with their God, Lord, or Higher Power.
My “prayers” have never resulted in any miraculous healing of others. But, I have somehow connected with people on a mysterious non-verbal level, whereby I can sense what is going on with another, or that another can feel my “positive intention” for them. Apparently, I have the carrier wave connection, and some data is transferred, yet shamanic powers, or healing of the bodies of others or similar events have not occurred through my efforts. The only body that has ever been healed through my “prayers’ is my own. There is a secret here that FEW can hear. We can’t heal others, but we can bring a measure of healing to our self. If our understanding of our “self” is inclusive of others, then our “prayer for our own healing” WILL HAVE POSITIVE IMPACT on all those who we consider “part of our self”.
When Jesus stated that we should be “praying without ceasing”, the truth is that we are continuously praying, anyway, whether we are conscious of that fact, or not.
Recently, an acquaintance of my wife died at the age of forty-eight years. Somehow I knew that she was near death, and, yet, I felt powerless to do or say anything about it. She was a successful doctor practicing in Texas, loved intensely by all of her patients, she had two incredible children, and she was moving into a beautiful new home. Yet, I knew that she had been contemplating suicide, even though she had never directly communicated that fact to anyone else, save my wife, who she called her “angel” when Sharon helped her at a low point. There were several clues available, and I did not act upon them. I did not feel that I had the right to intercede in the affairs of a person who I did not know well. My awareness was right on (the preparation for prayer), yet my action was not, thus this becomes a great example of a “failed prayer”. The results of this “failed prayer” left me heartbroken, but also quite motivated to find a better way to express whatever wisdom or insight comes my way about others, or about the collective experience that we all share.
Our minds are continuously generating thoughts, which sometimes appear random in nature, or not of our self. They might be spawned by our overall attitudes towards our self and towards others, and towards “the big picture”, and they might be spawned by our involvement with the common knowledge game of collective consciousness. These thoughts either can go out to “make the crooked places straight”, and co-create some new or reaffirm some existing order, or they create new layers of chaos and confusion in the collective and personal life experience. Using insight gained from understanding the Common Knowledge Game, we can finally comprehend one of the more insidious aspects of prayer that has taken over much of our collective experience of humanity.
Our thoughts and prayers are an innate part of the conspiracy of silence, for, no one will ever know what we are truly thinking of, or whether prayers are effectively transmitted and received by us. Those who ‘pray” to their unknown “God” or some deceased prophet, or even those who “think kind thoughts” without sharing their own unique healing WORD live in a personal world of their own creation, with insufficient connective energy to effect change in self or other.
To change the world, first, change the self. We must find our own unique healing words and create stories with them, exercise our spiritual fitness through our language, story telling, and effective action in the community, and then witness the unfolding of a newer, more loving reality.
Mind,
by James Allen (As A Man Thinketh, 1902)
The Master Power that molds and makes,
And Man is Mind.
Evermore he takes the tools of thought
And shaping what he wills,
Creates a thousand joys, a thousand ills.
He thinks in secret, but it comes to pass
Environment is but his looking-glass.
Our lives, and the lives of all of humanity, are the answers to our collective, and individual prayers.
Our present day laws and attitudes are a direct result of our “thoughts and prayers”, so there is MUCH work yet to be done. Our present day world reflects its immature response to its own limited understanding of its needs.
BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU ASK FOR!
