Does Prayer Work?

[Everything]

Been wondering this lately. Raised Christian but I threw this away at 18. After realizing spirituality i found things like meditation psychedelics and even LoA. “God” to me now is never what i thought it was as a christian or atheist. Entering into a clear minded meditative like state i realized what prayer was maybe meant to be. Now i wonder what your experiences with prayer are. 
Asking “god” for something doesnt seem valid to me because i am just asking for an “other” to come help me with my issues. Have been trying it lately but havent noticed any significance. What is prayer to you and do you use it?

[karkaore]

What is prayer but a form of meditation?

Who/what are we praying/meditating to/for is a whole different inquiry.

[Everything]

I guess a better post would have been “what is prayer?”

[BipolarGrowth]

I’ve had some deep experiences with prayer. The deepest occurred when I was on an LSD trip. I felt that I should call my mom. She is a devout Christian although she has a pretty open mind and trust of my spirituality as she can feel the Holy Spirit at times with me in ways that she has only felt with a quite limited amount of people even though she’s spent years going to church and being around those folk. At one point during the call, I asked her to pray for me. Essentially right as she began her silent prayer to herself, I felt this incredible warm and palpable loving energy go throughout my entire chest. Now, one might simply say that I was under the influence of a substance at that time and it was similar to a placebo effect which was compounded by the drug. That’s a fair point, but I highly doubt anyone who experienced what I did in that moment would doubt the real power of her prayer. Regardless, I’ve had many other sober experiences with prayer that have shown me it is real and powerful. With certain sincere individuals that I’ve prayed with, I feel the Holy Spirit quite strongly. It’s pretty clear confirmation of the legitimacy of prayer when you experience that. I would view prayer as a time to intentionally connect with God. Don’t make it all about what my ego needs help with or what I want. Make it about feeling your connection to the Divine. Focus on infusing love into your prayer. Who do you know who seems to need it most? I’d say the more you actually care and love for the person and sympathize/empathize with their struggles, the more effective it will be. 
 

I would suggest that, when it feels to be right, you re-examine the Christian faith and give it a fair shot. This is not because it’s the only truth. Far from it. I say this because I can personally confirm that there is a real and potent possibility for spiritual connection through it. The issue comes that many Christians are only believers rather than experiencers. I think in many cases a lot of Christians are held back by dogma, misinterpretations, translation errors, and other similar things. There’s a lot of value to be found in many of the world religions. I can personally speak to the efficacy of Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, and Christianity due to profound experiences I’ve had with all of these. Many people on this forum experience and understand some deep and necessary truths, but there is still a rejection of many traditional religious practices. 
 

Test different methods out for yourself, but trust that if millions or billions of people are doing something there is generally at least something true, real, and effective to be found in that activity. 
 

I gave a prayer just now that you will be able to feel the power of prayer in your own life. See if anything changes ? 

And welcome to the forum! 

[Rilles]

No. Reality would never give the ego that much power. If prayer worked this planet would be a crater by now.

[BipolarGrowth]

@Rilles but Reality gave us the means to create and stockpile weapons of mass destruction in such high volumes that we could easily make it all a crater through purely materialistic means. Hmmm ? 

[freejoy]

"Does Prayer Work?"

Sure doesn't hurt!

Hay God, I know you don't really care, so I'm asking my angel, or guide to show me the true way. Show me where I'm seeing wrong. Thank you.

 

Edited April 24, 2021 by freejoy

[karkaore]

What is the "work" in the question: does prayer work?

We pray (use communication may it be language or something else we imagine) to someone/something (concepts in our minds) and then we do what? Listen. Feel into it. Yes? That is a form of meditation. So the question becomes, does the meditation work?

We are back at where we started. What is the "work"?

[freejoy]

5 minutes ago, karkaore said:

What is the "work" in the question: does prayer work?

We pray (use communication may it be language or something else we imagine) to someone/something (concepts in our minds) and then we do what? Listen. Feel into it. Yes? That is a form of meditation. So the question becomes, does the meditation work?

We are back at where we started. What is the "work"?

Do affirmations work? Powerfully said with emotion work?

Does intention work?

Edited April 24, 2021 by freejoy

[karkaore]

@freejoy What do you mean by "work" in that sentence. Can you describe it? "work" can have different associations to it, we might have different concepts about it.

[freejoy]

@karkaore

Work would be achieving the intented outcome.

Edited April 24, 2021 by freejoy

[karkaore]

@freejoy ?

I don't know what to tell you, it might. But it's purpose is not achievement. Although our limited mind(beliefs, concepts, assumptions) do become more aligned with our desires. We could say that we do manifest them in a way.

[The0Self]

Oh yes. It works.

Read The Cloud of Unknowing.

Don’t ask with your ego. Choose one word that conveys a loving desire that you have, and thrust it from the deepest part of your being and pierce the heavens with it.

Edited April 24, 2021 by The0Self

[Rilles]

7 hours ago, BipolarGrowth said:

@Rilles but Reality gave us the means to create and stockpile weapons of mass destruction in such high volumes that we could easily make it all a crater through purely materialistic means. Hmmm ? 

And thank "God" you cant pray yourself to having one of those in your backyard.

[Everything]

2 hours ago, The0Self said:

Oh yes. It works.

Read The Cloud of Unknowing.

Don’t ask with your ego. Choose one word that conveys a loving desire that you have, and thrust it from the deepest part of your being and pierce the heavens with it.

I like this. Does not all desire come from ego or a separation between self and other?

[BipolarGrowth]

4 hours ago, Rilles said:

And thank "God" you cant pray yourself to having one of those in your backyard.

Saying a limitation like that is proof that prayer doesn’t work is like saying because human legs can’t propel you into outer space they don’t allow for movement. The truth is you have brought up some good points about prayer. It’s not some tool by which the ego can use infinite power for its own purposes. It’s very similar to saying meditation doesn’t work tbh. You also can’t meditate a nuclear weapon into your back yard. Prayer, done right, is a form of connection with the Divine. 

[WaveInTheOcean]

It works if you believe it works.

Reality is just infinite imagination.

Thoughts are powerful. Very.

[The0Self]

4 hours ago, Everything said:

I like this. Does not all desire come from ego or a separation between self and other?

No. That's one of the biggest misconceptions in spirituality, in my opinion. Desire-longing ultimately has oneness-love as its source.

Edited April 24, 2021 by The0Self

[RedLine]

No, since you are demanding thing to god, so it is a selfish activity; "God please cure mi illness" "God please make me happy" "God please make I get a job" I don´t see much spirituallity there but ego.

[WaveInTheOcean]

10 hours ago, The0Self said:

No. That's one of the biggest misconceptions in spirituality, in my opinion. Desire-longing ultimately has oneness-love as its source.

Indeed ?❤️✨