Thoughts from Gregg about Hurricane Katrina
Posted September 6, 2005
The magnitude of the tragedy unfolding before our eyes in the Gulf of Mexico is nearly unfathomable to rational and loving people. For more times than I can count over the last three days, the tears in my eyes have blurred the reports of communities lost, families ripped apart, and stories of heroism and survival that would fill an epic-length documentary film and should because every story deserves to be shared!
It has been nearly one week since Hurricane Katrina struck the Southern United States. It has taken that long for me to come to terms with the impact that this massive and unprecedented storm has brought to our friends, families and to our nation. I flew through the outer bands of Katrina on a commercial flight Monday morning, just as the storm was coming ashore in the Gulf. As my flight headed north toward the Atlanta airport, I could see its size on the left side of the plane. I remember saying a prayer for everyone on the ground in its path. While I knew their lives would be affected, I had no idea of just how much, as the effect of a category five storm is hard to comprehend. According to references describing the comparative force of hurricanes (read on the Safir-Simpson Scale) a category five hurricane packs 250 times the strength of a category one storm! One look at the Gulf Coast is a reminder of what that difference means.
So many of you have contacted our office asking me to comment on how we can help in what is now being called the single-worst natural disaster in the history of the United States. Following are my thoughts
What can we do?
As an optimist, I know two things are true of any given situation.
The first is that we may never know precisely why the things that challenge our lives happen as they do.
The second is that whatever the tragedy, it could have been worse.
Both apply to the devastation in the aftermath of Katrina. My personal belief is that, as with any problem of such magnitude, our response must come in both the long term, as well as near term, to be meaningful now, and in the future.
Near term:
A. Relief Aid: We find ourselves living in the richest and most technologically advanced nation on the face of the earth. We have more than enough resources, money, equipment and people to respond to the loss of an entire city, and those who have lost everything except what they were wearing the day of the storm! It is crucial that we bring our resources to bear upon this situation! From search and rescue to recovery and aid, those people in the Gulf are our family, and our family needs us now!
Financial resources are being s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d to the limits by the magnitude of this tragedy. In lieu of physically traveling to the affected areas to offer help through one of the many relief organizations, getting the dollars, food and donations to the organizations already in place for precisely such situations will speed their delivery to those who need it the most.
While there are many organizations that are gearing up for various kinds of aid, the following web site provides a single point of contact for a number of major relief organizations, including the Salvation Army, The American Red Cross, The Department of Homeland Security and the Samaritan s Purse. I personally like this site because it allows us to make donations specifically for children, or lost families, or medical relief, food, housing, finding lost loved ones, or a combination of all. The site is:
www.networkforgood.org
B. Feeling-based Prayer: While we may not always know the why when tragedy strikes, scientific studies have now proven beyond any reasonable doubt that the power of prayer to improve conditions in times of need specifically feeling-based prayer is undeniable. Feeling-based prayer is a form of prayer that transcends any single religion or doctrine, and goes directly to the natural ability within each of us to participate in the events of life, healing, and peace directly, responsibly and effectively.
To implement this mode of prayer, we are invited to simply focus the feeling in our hearts as if our prayers are already answered (i.e., the people in the affected areas are safe, sheltered and cared for.) Detailed information on feeling-based prayer is available in the article below this one on this page of my website as well as in the book The Isaiah Effect and the CD sets of Speaking the Lost Language of God.
Long term: Fact: Earth is in a process of change that is unprecedented in recorded human history; a magnetic polar reversal. Forecasts suggest that we have not seen the last of the anomalous rains, droughts, temperature extremes and bizarre weather patterns connected to such a reversal. It also stands to reason that we have not seen the last of the kind of storms that can wipe an entire city from the face of the earth in a matter of hours.
Acknowledging that we are living a time unlike any in recorded history, it makes perfect sense to prepare in a way that is unlike any other time, as well. It is simply the responsible thing to do. We have seen in dramatic detail that in times of disaster, the they of the authorities may not be able to respond quickly to a given situation. Whether it is a category five hurricane, a tsunami, a raging forest fire in the desert southwest, or the snow and ice storms that are predicted for the New England states this winter, it makes tremendous sense to prepare in a way that is reasonable, meaningful and responsible:
1. Be personally responsible for yourself and your family with the basic necessities of life in your home and automobile for a minimum of four to five days.
2. Have a family disaster plan so that you can find one another in the event that disaster strikes. www.fema.gov and www.ready.gov
3. Be informed.
4. Be prepared to help others.
In the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, we cannot help but to see how truly fragile our civilization and our infrastructure really are in the face of natural forces. During such times we are also reminded of the strength and resilience of human life. The ancient Essenes, believed to be scribes of the Dead Sea Scrolls, remind us that the world around us responds to the forces of prayer within us. When thought, feeling and emotion become one, you will say to the mountain move and the mountain will move. As we find ourselves in the midst of the great changes of our time, we may well discover that our survival ultimately depends upon our ability to do precisely that!
Gregg Braden
Praying From The Heart
A Clarification for the Lost Mode of Prayer
Posted January 14, 2003
Perhaps now, more than at any time in our history, the choices that we make in our lives have lasting effects, and global consequences, that will extend for hundreds of generations into our future. In light of the escalating global tensions, recent studies offer new hope, and renewed credibility to our most cherished traditions, suggesting that we may do something about the seemingly unending cycles of violence, and future of our world.
Statistics have shown that a specific number of people, joined in a focused, unified consciousness of non-denominational mass prayer, produce effects that extend well beyond the room or building where the prayer has occurred.
That number is the square root of 1% of the population involved. These studies add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that focusing our feelings of appreciation and gratitude, as if our prayers have already been answered, have a measurable effect on the quality of life during the time of the prayer.2 Following our description of this lost mode of prayer in the book, The Isaiah Effect3, your emails and phone calls have asked for further clarification as to precisely how to apply this prayer in our lives. Clearly there are no right or wrong ways to pray. In its simplest expression, prayer is the very personal and innate ability within each of us to commune with our world, one another, and a greater presence. The lost mode of prayer is simply one more tool to place into our prayer tool box.
Lost Mode of Prayer Described:
The lost mode of prayer is a form of prayer that has no words, no outward expression, and is based simply in feeling. Specifically, this mode of prayer invites us to feel the appreciation and gratitude in our heart, as if our prayers have already been answered, even if the world appears to show us otherwise.1
This is where clarity is important.
As evidence suggests that our world and our bodies mirror what we think/feel, we must be very clear that our prayers originate from our hearts, rather than in our heads.
Here is the reason why:
The logic of our brain works in polarity left brain/right brain, light/dark, good/bad, right/wrong, etc. Praying for something creates a strong feeling a charge of what should or should not be. The physics of our world require that when something is created with a charge in one polarity, the opposite must be created as well, to balance the charge.
What it means:
Head-based prayer:
When we pray for something, we are using a mental process of logic! While thought-based prayers for peace in Iraq, for example, may be well-intentioned and appear to create a temporary peace or healing in one place at one point in time, they may inadvertently create precisely the opposite of the peace that is intended, in another place, at another time!
Heart-based prayer:
Our hearts, on the other hand, have no polarity. In the Native traditions, there is even a word that describes the non-polar objectiveness of the heart, the heart that sees what is rather than judges what should be. The word is Shante Ishta (the single eye of the heart). When we choose peace or healing from our heart, there is no polarity created to balance our choice, as there is no left and right heart.
From our heart, the feeling is the prayer! Studies have shown that this quality of gratitude and appreciation for the peace that already exists creates a field effect in the presence of peace, all that can happen is peace.
Clarity:
To be very clear, this form of prayer is NOT directed at a place, person, organization, country, city or event. This mode of prayer does NOT attempt to make something happen, somewhere where we may not agree with what life is showing us. The ancients understood that to use prayer in this way is an abomination of our gift of communion with our world. To impose our idea of what should, or should not be anywhere in the world, or upon another person, is a form of manipulation, and a misuse of our gift of prayer.
Rather than praying for someone to win / lose , suffer or heal , we have the opportunity to feel the appreciation and gratitude for the peace and healing that already exists. The power of this kind of prayer transcends winners and loser inviting us to elevate the conditions of our world to a new realm beyond win/loss. In doing so, we open the door of a very subtle, yet powerful principle that allows for the possibility of peace/healing to be present without imposing our will to make it so.
Summary:
If this clarification appears too wordy, please accept my sincere apologies. The principle is simple: In the presence of peace, all that can happen is peace.
You are invited to join us for an empowering moment of unity, peace, prayer and possibility. Through our time together, we offer the power of life to our children, and our world, both present and future. Many thanks in advance for your willingness to make our world a better place!!
Many Blessings of a true and lasting peace,
Gregg Braden
1. Please refer to THE LOST MODE OF PRAYER (mirror) on Gregg Braden's official web site, www.greggbraden.com, for more information, and precise instructions for the practice of feeling-based prayer.
2. Scientists suspect that the relationship between mass prayer and the effect of those prayers is due to a phenomenon known as the field effect of consciousness. It is this field effect that becomes available for the children of the world to tap into . Additionally, those making the policies that affect the future and direction of our world are linked to precisely the same prayer fields that we will access during our vigil, and may benefit to the degree that they choose, even without direct participation
3. ibid, 1.
* * * * *
Posted February 2002 PRAYING PEACE
Join us in "Praying Peace" with the Indigo Children in the Middle East, April 20th, 2002, 6pm New York Time, 11pm UK, 8am April 21 in Sydney
(Please help spread this vigil by passing to everyone on your list)
A Letter from Doreen Virtue, Gregg Braden and James Twyman:
We have all been distressed by the escalating violence in the Middle East. Every day we hear stories of suicide bombings, tanks destroying entire villages, and the rising death toll. Most of us feel helpless, wanting to do something to help, but having no idea how.
We believe that prayer is the most powerful force in the Universe, and that we can use this power to shape a world based on compassion and love rather than conflict and war. It has been proven over and over.
Many of you have participated in other World-Wide prayer vigils we have sponsored in the past, and you have seen the dramatic results. Here's one example: On November 13, 1998, war ships were preparing to launch an assault against the Iraqi people. Later that night millions of people in at least 80 countries stopped what they were doing for ten minutes to "Pray Peace" for that terrible situation. Little did we know that at the same moment people gathered to pray, President Clinton ordered the bombing to begin. The jets were in the air and the missiles were made ready.
But then something happened that no one expected. Twice that night President Clinton gave stand down orders and called the jets back to the ships. To this day no one knows exactly what happened, but it was as if the bombs could not fall with the force of so many people praying and sending their feelings of peace. At least for one night no bombs fell and no one died.
It's time to activate the same initiative for the Middle East.
Many of you are aware of the role the children are playing in making a global transition into the New World. We believe that the adults have had their chance, and yet the struggle for power goes on. There are thousands of Indigo and Psychic Children in the Middle East, but they need our help to activate their influence. It may not be the traditional influence most of us are accustomed to, but one that is far more subtle. If we can send a wave a healing Light to the Children of the Middle East with the expressed purpose of activating their Spirits, we believe it will have a powerful effect on the whole region. They are the ones that may be able to end the violence, but only if given the chance.
Here's what we are asking, and please pass this email to everyone you can. On April 20th, 6pm New York time, we ask that you join with as many people as you can and do three things.
1. "Feel" the emotion of peace prevailing in the Middle East. This is where the real magic is.
2. Imagine Israeli and Palestinian children responding to this call, using the power of their spirits to activate the healing energy that will bring peace to everyone in that region.
3. Sing a song that you all know: "Let There be Peace on Earth." Music has a power that cannot be denied, and this song says it all. (words at bottom of page)
That's it. Imagine if millions respond to this request. We believe that it may activate their souls to create the peace that evades the politicians. It's the children we need to encourage now, and the rest of us will surely follow.
From James Twyman:
There has been so much talk of late about the Indigo and Psychic Children, and the role they have to play in creating a New World based on the ideals of compassion and love. But sometimes we forget our responsibility in helping them. We need to powerfully choose this world and work together in making it a reality. Mass prayer is one of the most powerful ways to do this. It simply works.
Please help activate the Children of the Middle East by joining millions of people in holding this vision. The Children will save the world, but we must take the first step.
(jamestwyman.com)
From Gregg Braden:
Perhaps now, more than at any time in our history, the choices that we make in our lives, have lasting effects, and global consequences, that will extend for hundreds of generations into our future. In light of the escalating global tensions, focused locally in the Middle East, recent studies offer new hope, and renewed credibility to our most cherished traditions suggesting that we may "do something" about the seemingly unending cycles of violence, and future of our world.
Statistics have shown that a specific number of people, joined in a focused, unified consciousness of non-denominational mass prayer*, produce effects that extend well beyond the room or building where the prayer has occurred. These studies add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that focusing our feelings as if our prayers have already been answered, has a predictable and measurable effect on the quality of life during the time of the prayer.
In this instance, these findings invite us to feel appreciation and gratitude for peace, as if the peace in our world already exists, and give thanks for that peace. In this way, we open the door for even greater amounts of peace to be present.
Scientists suspect that the relationship between mass prayer and the effect of those prayers is due to a phenomenon known as the field effect of consciousness. It is this field effect that becomes available for the children of the world to "tap into".
Additionally, those making the policies that affect the future and direction of our world are linked to precisely the same prayer fields that we will access during our vigil, and may benefit to the degree that they choose, even without direct participation
I invite you to join us for an empowering moment of unity, peace, prayer and possibility. Through our time together, we offer the power of life and peace to our children, and our world, both present and future.
Many thanks in advance for your willingness to make our world a better place!!
From Doreen Virtue:\
Since the time of Pythagorus, we've known that music can provide a healing component for bodies. Scientific studies ever since have shown the healing effect that music has on mental and physical health. And a channeled chapter on "Music" in my new book, "Messages from Your Angels" discusses how the molecules of music wrap us in a protective blanket that deflect away negative energies.
Now, we're going to use this knowledge to reveal a powerful healing in the Middle East. Imagine the power of millions of children singing in innocent, angelic voices simultaneously. Now, imagine those voices joined by millions of adults with pure intentions of peace.
Please ask your children to sing "Let There be Peace on Earth" with us on April 20 (April 21 in Australia). We need each and every voice!
(AngelTherapy.com)
"Let There Be Peace on Earth"
Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me. Let there be peace on earth, the peace that was meant to be. With God as Creator, family all are we. Let us walk with each other in perfect Harmony. Let peace begin with me, let this be the moment now. With every breath I take, let this be my joyous vow: To take each moment and live each moment in peace eternally. Let there be Peace on Earth and let it begin with me!
MAY PEACE PREVAIL ON EARTH!!!
* * * * * Posted March 2001
Excerpts from The Isaiah Effect
(Random House/Harmony Books 2000)
Pages 227-230
Nation Against Nation
At the birth of the twenty-first century, the conditions appear to be in place for a great polarization of world powers, bringing the threat of a global war well within the realm of possibility. Countries that have previously been viewed as less of a factor in global strategies are taking on new and unexpected roles in the unfolding drama that is reshaping our world.
The last two years of the twentieth century, for example, saw a number of new countries joining the exclusive ranks of those possessing nuclear arms. Of particular note were the surprise weapons tests of India and Pakistan. In spite of adamant pleas for restraint by the United Nations Security Council, Russia, and the United States, the two technological rivals have continued to test their weapons in the interest of national security.
Though many scoff at the possibility of a global war, believing that the horrors of World War II are too fresh in our memory to allow such an event again, it is important to remain vigilant and discerning, and to recognize the significance of global events that, at first, may seem far away, with little relevance to home.
The late-century crisis in Kosovo offered an example of just such events. Though they appeared to casual observers to have "come out of nowhere," the conflicts leading to the Kosovo crisis actually stem from centuries-old tensions in a portion of Eastern Europe that many analysts refer to as the "Balkan powder keg." Following the ethnic cleansing and wartime atrocities witnessed by the world in Bosnia less than a decade before, the nations of the West were unwilling to allow a similar tragedy to continue in Kosovo. The intent, duration, and form of military intervention, however, were factors that divided even the allied forces attempting to intervene. The struggle for power in Eastern Europe offers a clear study on how regional strife may unexpectedly polarize the great powers of the world into precarious positions on opposite sides of the negotiating table.
The Balkan area is only one example of a political situation with vast military implications. As the United Nations monitors the events unfolding in Europe, it also continues to enforce an embargo and military restrictions on Iraq. Threatened by the buildup of chemical and biological weapons, Iraq has been viewed as yet another powder keg, this one in the Middle East. Even that country's Arab neighbors, those traditionally considered to be its allies, disapprove of Iraq's new weapons capabilities and the destabilization of what was already a delicate balance of power in a volatile part of the world.
During a time that many have considered relatively peaceful on a global scale, the last twenty years have, in fact, been a time of tragedy and tremendous suffering on a localized basis. The death toll resulting from separatist movements and religious and civil wars is estimated to be over four and a half million lives, a number representing the entire population of the state of Louisiana, or the entire country of Israel. When the conflict in Tibet is factored in, the loss of human life escalates by at least another million, and possibly more.
Locations of global tensions at the birth of the third millennium.
Location - Description of conflict - Lives lost
Bosnia/Herzegovina-Serb opposition to Independence - 200,000+
Kosovo -Kosovars struggle for Independence - 2,000+
Northern Ireland -Sectarian violence - 3,200
Haiti -Civil war leading to 1991 coup - ?
Chechnya -Muslims battle Russians/Independence- 40,000
Sri Lanka -Tamils battling Sinhalese since 1983- 56,000
Rwanda -Hutu majority battling Tutsi minority-800,000+
Republic of Congo -Civil war 10,000+
Somalia -Civil war 300,000+
Sudan -Muslims battling Christians - 1.9 mil
Angola -Civil war - 1.0 mil
Sierra Leone -Civil war - 3,000
Liberia -Civil war - 250,000
Algeria -Civil war - 65-80,000
Turkey -Civil war - 37,000
Tibet -Conflict between China/Tibet - 1.0 mil
*statistics as of first quarter 1999
These statistics certainly describe something other than a peaceful world! Until the late 1990s, however, such conflicts appeared to be localized and, though tragic, less relevant in the daily lives of the people of the Western world. Events late in 1998 and in 1999, however, changed our worldview, with mass media bringing the horror of regional conflicts and isolated wars into our homes and classrooms in a way never seen before. Additionally, situations such as the breakdown of peace negotiations between Israel and the state of Palestine, continued tensions in Northern Ireland, and a sudden leap in China's nuclear technology contribute to what many scholars believe are the precursors of well-known prophecies tumbling into place, the global positioning of a third great war. The sheer number of conflicts presents a threat to global stability that becomes a greater possibility as tensions increase.
* * * * *
Page 233/234-236
Mass Prayer and Mustard Seeds
Recent studies into the effects of prayer offer new credibility to ancient propositions suggesting that we may "do something" about the horrors of our world, both present and future. These studies add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that focused prayers, especially those offered on a large scale, have a predictable and measurable effect on the quality of life during the time of the prayer. Documenting statistical changes in daily life, such as specific crimes and traffic accidents, while prayers are offered, a series of studies show a direct relationship between the prayers and the statistics. During the time of the prayers, the statistics drop. When the prayers end, the statistics return to previous levels.
Scientists suspect that the relationship between mass prayer and the activiity of individuals in communities is due to a phenomenon known as the field effect of consciousness. Much like Joseph's description of the sage, where the experience of one plant affects the entire field, studies of specific population samples appear to bear out this relationship. Two scientists considered to have played a key role in the development of modern psychology clearly referenced such effects in studies offered nearly one hundred years ago.
In a paper originally published in 1898, for example, William James suggested that "there exists a continuum of consciousness uniting individual minds that could be directly experienced if the psychophysical threshold of perception were sufficiently lowered through refinement in the functioning nervous system." James' paper was a modern reference to a zone of consciousness, a level of universal mind, that touches each and every life. By using specific qualities of thought, feeling, and emotion, we may tap into this universal mind and share in its benefits. The purpose of many prayers and meditative techniques is to achieve precisely such a condition.
In the words of their day, ancient teachings suggest a similar field of consciousness, accessed by similar methods. The Vedic traditions, for example, speak of a unified field of "pure consciousness" that permeates all of creation. In such traditions, our experience of thought and perception are viewed as disturbances, interruptions in an otherwise motionless field. At the same time, it is through our path of mastering perception and thought that we may find the unifying consciousness as individuals or as a group.
This is where the application of such studies becomes crucial in global efforts to bring peace to our world. If we view conflict, agression, and war in our outer world as indications of stress in our collective consciousness, then relieving collective stress should relieve global tensions. In the words of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of the Transcendental Meditation (TM) programs, "All occurrences of violence, negativity, conflict crisis, or problesm in any society are just the expression of growth of stress in collective consciousness. When the level of stress becomes suffieciently great, it bursts out into large-scale violence, war, and civil uprising necessitating military action." The beauty of the field effect is that when stress is relieved within a group, the effects are registered beyond the immediate group, into an even larger area. This is the thinking that led to studies of mass meditation and prayer during the Israeli-Lebanese War in the early 1980s.
In September 1983, studies were conducted in Jerusalem to explore the relationship between prayer, meditation, and violence. Applying new technologies to test an ancient theory, individuals trained in the techniques of TM, considered to be a mode of prayer by prayer researchers, were placed in strategic locations within Jerusalem during the conflict with Lebanon. The purpose of the study was to determine if a reduction of stress in the localized populations would, in fact, be reflected as less violence and aggression on a regional basis.
The 1983 studies followed earlier experiments indicating that as little as one percent of a mass population practicing unified forms of peaceful prayer and meditation was enough to reduce crime rates, accidents, and suicides. Studies conducted in 1972 showed that twenty-four U.S. cities, each with populations over ten thousand, experienced a statistically measurable reduction in crime when as few as one percent (one hundred people for every ten thousand) of the population participated in some form of meditative practice. This became known as the "Maharishi Effect."
To determine how certain modes of meditation and prayer would influence the general population in the Israeli study, the quality of life was defined by a statistical index based on the number of fires, traffic accidents, occurrences of crime, fluctuations in the stock market, and the general mood of the nation. At the peak of the experiments, 234 participants meditated and prayed in the study, a fraction of the population of greater Jerusalem. The results of the study showed a direct relationship between the number of participants and the decrease of activity in the various categories of quality of life. When the numbers of participants were high, the index of the various categories declined. Crime, fires and accidents increased as the number of people praying was reduced.
These studies demonstrated a high correlation between the number of people in prayer and the quality of life in the immediate vicinity. Similar studies conducted in major population centers of the United States, India, and the Philippines found similar correlations. Data from these cities between 1984 and 1985 verified decreases in crime rates that "could not have been due to trends or cycles of crime, or to changes in police policies or procedures."
* * * * *
Pages 238-239
The Harvest Is Great, Though the Laborers Are Few
Although these statistics may represent an optimum number to bring about change, the studies in Jerusalem and the other large population centers suggest that the numbers to initiate such change may be even smaller! The studies indicate that the first effects of the mass meditation/prayer became noticeable when the number of people participating in the prayers was greater than the square root of one percent of the population. In a city of one million people, for example, this value represents only one hundred individuals!
Applying the localized findings of the test cities to a larger population on a global scale offers powerful and perhaps unexpected results. Representing only a fraction of even the ancient estimates, the square root of one percent of earth's population is just under eight thousand people! With the advent of the World Wide Web and computerized communications, organizing a time of coordinated meditation/prayer supported by a minimum of eight thousand people is certainly feasible. Clearly, this number represents only the minimum required for the effect to begin - a threshold of sorts. The greater the number participating, the greater the acceleration of the effect. Such numbers remind us of ancient admonitions suggesting that a very few people may make a difference to an entire world.
Perhaps this is the "mustard seed" of the parable that Jesus used to demonstrate the amount of faith required of his followers. Of such faith, we are reminded in the lost Gospel Q that "the harvest is abundant, but the workers are few." With the evidence of such potential, what are the implications of directing such a collective power toward the great challenges of our time?
* * * * *
THE LOST MODE OF PRAYER
Further Clarification
Modern prayer researchers currently identify four modes of prayer used in the west today. Does an additional mode exist? Is there a fifth mode of prayer that allows us to participate in the outcome of the events within our bodies as well as the world around us? Recent findings in remote temple sites where these traditions remain today, combined with new research into some of the most sacred and esoteric traditions of our past, lead me to believe that the answer is "Yes!"Much of our conditioning in western traditions for the last one and one half millennia has invited us to "ask" that specific circumstances in our world change through divine intervention; that our prayers be answered. In our well-intentioned asking, however, we may unknowingly empower the very conditions that we are praying to change. For example, when we ask, "Dear God, please let there be peace in the world," in effect we are stating that peace does not exist in the present. Ancient traditions remind us that prayers of asking are one form of prayer, among other forms, that empower us to find peace in our world through the quality of thought, feeling and emotion that we create in our body. Once we allow the qualities of peace in our mind and fuel our prayer through feelings of peace in our body, the fifth mode of prayer states that the outcome has already happened.
Quantum science now takes this idea one step further, stating that it is precisely such conditions of feeling that creation responds to, by matching the feeling (prayer) of our inner world with like conditions in our outer world. Though the outcome of our prayer may not yet be apparent in our outer world, we are invited to acknowledge our communion with creation and live as if our prayer has already been answered.
Through the words of another time, the ancients invited us to embrace our lost mode of prayer as a consciousness that we become, rather than a prescribed form of action that we perform upon occasion. In words that are as simple as they are elegant, we are reminded to be "surrounded" by the answer to our prayers and "enveloped" by the conditions that we choose to experience. In the modern idiom, this description suggests to us that to effect change in our world, we are invited to first have the feelings of the change having happened.
As modern science continues to validate a relationship between our thoughts, feelings and dreams with the world that surrounds us, it becomes more likely that a forgotten bridge links our prayers with that of our experience. The beauty of such an inner technology is that it is based upon human qualities that we already possess. From the prophets who saw us in their dreams, we are reminded that in honoring all life, we accomplish nothing less than the survival of our species and the future of the only home we know.
Comparing Modes of Prayer Through the Example of Global Peace
Logic-based prayer: asking for interventionFeeling-based prayer: knowing that our prayer is already answered
- We Focus upon present conditions where we believe that peace does not exist.
- We may feel helpless, powerless or angry at the events and conditions that we are witness to.
- We employ our prayer of asking by inviting divine intervention from a higher power to bring peace to bear upon individuals, conditions and places where we believe that peace is absent.
- Through our asking, we may unknowingly affirm the very conditions that we least desire. When we say "Please let there be peace," for example, we are declaring that peace is not present in a particular situation. In doing so, we may actually fuel the condition that we have chosen to change.
- We continue to ask for intervention until we see the change actually come to pass in our world.
Our prayer now consists of:
- We witness all events, those of peace and those that we see as the absence of peace, as possibilities without judgement of right, wrong, bad or good.
- We release our judgement of the situation by Blessing those conditions that have caused us pain. The Blessing does not condone or consent to the event or condition. Rather, it acknowledges that the event is part of the single source of all that is. (Please see the book, Walking Between the Worlds: The Science of Compassion, for details.)
- By feeling the feelings of our prayer already answered, we demonstrate the ancient quantum principle stating that the conditions of peace within our bodies are mirrored in the world beyond our bodies.
- We acknowledge the power of our prayer and know (feel) that the focus of our prayer has already come to pass.
- acknowledging the peace already is present in our world by living from the knowledge that such changes have occurred.
- empowering our prayer by giving thanks for the opportunity to choose peace over suffering.
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