Does prayer work?

What is prayer? Does it work? Who are we praying to? Why do some prayers seem to work when others don't? Why are some people 'better' at praying than others?

When we pray, we are thinking about someone or something and wishing a change in some aspect of that person, situation or thing. So prayer is essentially thought.

In scientific terms, any proof of prayer working would most likely be in terms of statistical probability. So, for example, if someone prayed for 10 things and 7 or more of them happened, that would be considered greater than the statistical probability, (all other things being equal - ie. praying for rain in February in much of the northern hemisphere would have an unfair advantage!) so would tend to suggest that the prayers worked - subject to further investigation, of course!

Are we praying to God - and if so, which god?! 'Our' God, the God of another religion, a 'one and only true God', our loved ones in spirit, or perhaps a universal force or even our own higher self? Reading the other pages on this website might help you with this question.

So why do some prayers and some people's prayers seem to work when others don't? About 2 years ago, I read the following in a little book called Christ in You, which, far from being a traditional Christian book, was supposed to be dictated by a spirit in about 1900. Much of it made instant sense to me at the time, and still does, in its essence:

"Prayer is often sent with the false idea of great separation, to a God afar off. It is never lost, but prayer of this kind enters into the vibration most in accord with itself. (Not exactly sure what that means, but I get the gist.) Although something is done in this way, the person you wanted to help is not helped to any great extent...
Enter into your closest, the innermost of yourself, and there see the perfect will of God accomplished for your friend - this is simple faith - and never see or hear anything else."

"the prefect will of God" - of course, that might not be that your loved one gets better. It might be that his/her time has come - in which case you might argue that the prayer is useless. But if you are praying for the best outcome for that person, then you can be said to be helping the person along their path, in love.

Nevertheless, the theory behind the idea of prayer being answered agrees with the recent book by Peter Baksa, The Point of Power, where he likens making our desires come to fruition to ordering a meal at a restaurant. When you have made your order, you fully expect to receive it; you do not think that the waiter will ignore your request! Likewise, you should expect God or the Universe to deliver. There are other guidelines to be aware of, according to Baksa, but the principle holds true. You could say that Jesus had such faith (knowledge) that this was how he performed 'miracles'. In fact he went further and said you should give thanks because your prayer had already been answered.
Perhaps the people for whom prayer works best have this 'simple faith', regardless of their religious background.

The following is a paragraph copied from my 'What is God?' page, which is relevant here:

Does God 'interfere' in our lives, or is the Creator more of a watcher? Does God answer prayers?
I believe The Creator doesn't interfere in our lives because (a) The Source respects our free will, and (b) the overall course of our journey from The Source back to The Source (ie. from ourselves back to ourselves) has been planned from the beginning of creation. That's not to say everything is fixed, pre-destined and unchangeable, because we have free will, but the overall outline of the journey of experience was The Big Plan itself. And prayer can be 'answered' by spirits, including our loved ones, as The Source's intermediaries. They can certainly hear us and our thoughts, and since they love us, would they not try to help us? Are they not thus doing 'God's will'. Or put another way, is not God answering our prayers through these intermediaries? In the series of books by the Rev. Vale Owen, received through automatic writing, he is told that through this process each spiritual being receives a 'blessing' (ie. spiritual advancement) by carrying out these loving actions. And it is in the Christian Catholic tradition to pray directly to the saints for help.

Food for thought...

If god is not an individual God, but a collective god, ie. the sum of all that is, (see the God page), then when we 'pray to God', are we in fact praying to all our loved ones, whether on earth or in spirit, all those that we don't currently know and to every atom and particle in the uni/multiverse?

All this begs the question: does God and/or others in spirit answer our prayers, or is it our own power of thought that works for us? I think both can be true - our thoughts combined with the thoughts of spirits and God work in conjunction. Spiritual healing is said to be healing from God channeled through us. As we are physical beings, the healing (vibrations?) are able to work better through us than direct from the spirit world. Which also implies that our thoughts have their own power in this earth plane.