If we stop thinking of God as a man in the sky, is there any reason to continue praying for somebody else? We’ve spent several posts talking about the fundamental connectedness of everything. We talked about the aspen vs. the oak; the oneness of light containing both particle and wave; and the oneness of matter and energy. Post after post, it becomes more reasonable to consider that connectedness is a better way of thinking about reality than separateness.
For centuries, people have clung to the impulse to pray for one another.
Materialists scoff at the idea, insisting that the impulse a mere holdover from primal times when we struggled to deal with powerful and incomprehensible forces of nature. That may be, but it seems a bit reductionist to think about Reality this way. We limit Reality to what can be contained in our minds or experienced through our five senses. We make a materialist faith statement, and then build a worldview on our premise; one element being that prayer for others is nothing more than wishing on a star.
And again, we have to be honest. Material reductionists might be right.
But if they aren’t, is there a way to imagine praying for others that would make sense?
I listened to a lecture some time ago (link below) in which Canadian professor, Michael Persinger de-voodoo-ized the idea of telepathic communication. His experiments suggest that by tweaking the magnetic field between us, humans can join salmon and other animals in the ability to communicate beyond sight and sound. If magnetic fields act as an imperfectly accessed medium for communication, it may help explain the frequent glimpses we get of telepathic experience. Weird! Dismissible!
Unless we don’t have the full picture of how the human brain works.
I don’t know if the capacity for telepathy is a viable idea; if the mechanics of our connectedness run that deep. However, I am pretty confident that it is arrogant to trust any worldview so deeply that we don’t even consider the possibility.
I also don’t know if praying for somebody is a viable idea. However, spiritual masters who have contributed so much of our understanding of our own spirituality have consistently intuited that there is something to the practice of praying for others.
If we can revisit the connectedness-idea of telepathy, it seems reasonable that we could do the same with prayer.
Sure, we could continue to dismiss our spiritual forebears. We could join the chorus of reductionist thought that insists that Reality is limited to what reason and our five senses tell us is there. We could do that… or we could consider the possibility that there is more to Reality than is commonly framed.
Next post.
OK-so I pull up to a traffic light, pause to change the radio station and get the feeling I am ‘not alone’ and look up to lock eyes with someone in another car who is having, by the expression on their face, the same experience. This, along with many similiar phenomena, happen to many frequently.
Intuition happens as does many forms of ‘knowing’ that are not experienced by the five physical senses.
This alone should be enough to experiment with confidence that thought/emotion constructs are effectual on our physical enviorment and become more effectual when ideas such as intention, attention and focus are included in our practice.
Then there is the science which supports this theory.
If this conversation is taking place in the context of people as Christlings who think the Bible should influence our thinking then the question is how do we actualize these phenomena, described as ‘powers of the age to come’ in Hebrews and supernatural, or spiritual, endowments in First Corinthians and demonstrated as an integeral part of being a disciple of Jesus throughout the New Testament into our common experience.
Just saying-the two things that are presented in the Bible as convincing evidence of God at work through the body of believers called out to be seperate from the spirit of this age is our love for one another as well as God and all people and the functioning of supernatural endowments. This is a both/and issue as well. It takes both.
Be Blessed, David
Interesting post, Doug.
I’ve considered it a possibility for a long time that there is something going on “when we pray” for another person. Something that positive changes us. But, I wonder if it’s the intent and content of our prayers (which is obviously beyond the words we use) that can either effect us negatively or positively.
But, of course, there are problems associated with “good intentions” – can there be negative consequences for ourselves and others if our good intentions are actually toxic?
that’s exactly what went into my thinking when i had to move to “prayer beyond words.” i couldn’t trust my perceptions to be good.
so i think of prayer for others from a framework of desire and intent: desire for the Divine, intent to invite a deepened experience of Divine
this i find much more helpful than working from a “figure-it-out” framework.
This is good stuff!
When I feel joy for no reason, I often wonder if someone is praying for me.
I have felt for many years that if prayer works at all it must be this way. I am on the same wavelength as Doug on most of this discussion about God.
look at you, gary!
soon you’ll start thinking of yourself as “religious…” maybe even “christian.”
(whoa! i know, that’s taking it too far)
doug
:}
:}
In this construct to do we abandon the idea of praying for something for ourselves? Is the goal to find the divine contentment of where were are/what we have right Now (and so not ‘need’ anything)? I love the God as dirt metaphor and what you’ve written about praying for others.
kemi:
no… yes… maybe.
no, i have not abandoned the idea of praying for myself. if i am part of a connectedness of everything… and if prayer widens the channel in which that connectedness can manifest, and if that is true for my prayers for other… then it it is equally possible that my prayers for the concerns of my own life open connections between me, god, and everything.
yes… this makes room for me to…
…pray for my daily bread
…pray for contentment
…pray for the fruit of the spirit to be manifest in my life
…etc.
but maybe…
as you say, when we awaken to the in-God, God-in-us reality of our existence, the measure of stuff we need to be happy gets significantly whittled down. maybe the amount of stuff we pray for for ourselves diminishes as we mature on the journey.
doug