THE SCIENCE OF PRAYER

By Horace Williams

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In the United States praying for your own health or praying for the health of another, when taken together, outranks all other alternative medical cures combined. In the world the percentage of people who pray for healing is likely to be even greater. In the history of every culture there is a tradition of reaching out through prayer to tap into the healing power of what Native American Ronnie Stillwater calls the Great Spirit.

How the Great Spirit, or God, heals and how the healing power is invoked varies from culture to culture, but an army of scientists and social scientists have come up with many logical explanations for much of what has traditionally been called the mysteries of healing

For example: On the simplest level there is the psychological placebo effect. That is, prayer works because the person praying believes that it will work. It is faith in the effectiveness of prayer that can triggers the healing power that is part of every living cell.

Or there are those who say that silent meditation can have the same effects as prayer. Like meditation, touching, and yoga, prayer lowers blood pressure, strengthen immune systems, decreases the rate of heart attack and stroke by reducing stress and anxiety.

And social scientists and clergy alike point to some of the positive side effects of organized religion. It discourages unhealthy behaviors such as alcohol and drug use, smoking, and high-risk sex; it also provides social support and a sense of belonging that are important to psychological well-being, which in turn promotes physical well-being.

Then there is the electromagnetic fields theory that says that there is a subtle transfer of electromagnetic properties from one body to another; this occurs when someone is prayed over or prayed for. Much of this research falls into the field of psychoneuroimmunology--the science of the interaction between mind, nervous system, neuro-chemicals, cellular structure and immune system.

But the mysterious and powerful effects of prayer are far beyond traditional scientific explanations, and this is the most fascinating part of research in spiritual intelligence, which is based in part on conjectures about humankind's most primal insights into the relationship between human life and the invisible, intangible forces of the universe, which prayer seeks to invoke.

All of the great wisdom traditions of the world were born out of these primal insights. Among ancient peoples the priest and healer were the same. Affecting the invisible intangible forces for healing always had a mystical aspect. The Egyptians were collectors and keepers of the ancient mysteries of medicine, keepers of the mysterious ways of involving the forces of the universe in healing. Prayers, incantations and supplication were their chief tools.

These secrets of healing, called the Egyptian Mysteries incorporated the older Chaldean Mysteries. Buddha was initiated into these mysteries, as were Zoroaster, Plato, Pythagoras and Hermes Trismegiste. The mysteries concerning the spiritual nature of healing were carried forward into modern life by the Gnostics and Masons. Among history's greatest practitioners of the spiritual mysteries of healing were the Essenes.

The Ancient Hebrews called these early founders of Christianity Essenes Egyptians called them the healers, because they traveled about the land healing people through prayer. Both of the parents of Jesus were Essenes. And Jesus, in both Christian and Islamic teachings, is regarded as the greatest healer of all time.

And now that we are learning more about what is called quantum reality, quantum effects and field theory, we might be coming closer to a science of miracles, to an explanation of why:

• Scientific study show that prayer can influence the growth of fungus, molds, yeast and bacteria, often at great distances, which means that it can influence disease
• In controlled experiments plants that are prayed over grow faster and larger than ones that have not been prayed over.
• When subjected to spectrographic analyze, water treated by healers differs from water from the same source that is not treated.
• Scientific experiments now prove the validity of telesomatic events, in which symptoms and physical changes are shared between distant bodies.
• Experiments prove that group prayer magnifies the interchange between telesomatic events.

For those who already are, or want to become, scholars of the on the subject there are a number of good popular books available on what can broadly be called the spiritual and scientific explanation for the power of prayer to heal:

Healing Words by Larry Dorsey

Consciousness, Bioenergy and Healing: Self-Healing and Energy Medicine for the 21st Century by Daniel J. Benor. M.D.

Energy is matter, and matter is energy. Rather than treating the body as matter, this book sees the body as an energy field subject to all of the quirky laws of subatomic field theory where science and mysticism seems to find a lot of common ground. Benor has put together the most extensive and critical analyses of past and present healing research that can be found in a single source book One of the more interesting sections is on collective consciousness and spiritual awareness and mass prayer.

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