Scientific Prayer Study

[soma]

The scientist thinks about a problem and concentrates to solve it. He looks at the outward signs and says he has solved the problem and has done a great or good thing. The inward significance is that the concentration has opened his mind to a greater field of receptivity. In his contemplation he has complete reliance upon natural law, an unqualified trust in it, and this directs his mind to other channels that bring everything into focus. This is true prayer. These men have entered the realms of a deeper reality, and we should appreciate their consciousness because they have had experiences that the average man cannot conceive. Even the scientists go behind the material world and stand next to the consciousness that supports our physical existence in theories. We must test all ideas, laws, theories and processes to see if they are the Truth or not, like the scientist we must be on guard against accepting that which is not true.

 

I think some talk about prayer, but don't know deep prayer. The studies of deep prayer, which is contemplation or meditation have shown many positive outcomes, but the shallow prayer for objects has shown no benefit. There is really no need to pray for objects or actions to happen because if we truly have faith, we will know that God provides everything that is needed. To pray for our own benefit is a reaction to our surroundings. What is needed is to arrange our thoughts so we are more perceptive and more in harmony with everything and everyone. At the higher mental levels one is more realistic, more tolerant and more satisfied; therefore, one is more open minded to the pure consciousness that is all pervading.

 

Praying for objects is like asking a millionaire for fifty dollars. It is foolish because he will give only fifty dollars, when he might have intended to give a lot more. If we believe that God knows everything; then God knows what we need better than our own limited minds. If He is all loving, He surely will provide what we need.

[MOW]

Good points Soma ,particularly the point about asking for objects.

 

Suppose,in the same town, a farmer prays for rain for his crops,and a child prays for sunshine for a picnic . Obviously one of them is going to believe his prayer wasn't answered (sometimes we forget that God can say,"No") . Now multiply these requests by 6 billion souls ,and you can see the problem with praying for things .

 

I think the model prayers were Jesus' (The Lord's Prayer), and St Francis'(" Lord make me an instrumennt of thy peace") .

 

 

MOW

[Karumi]

What is "Spirit?" Where is it? Is it "out there" looking at the cosmos? Does it intermingle with the cosmos? Does it touch it in any way at all? Is "Spirit" some ethereal gaslike substance? Untouchable? Intangeable? Who says there is such a thing as "Spirit" anyway? The Bible? Did God create the universe? Where did the "stuff" come from that she created the universe with? Was it pulled out of nowhere? Ex nihilo? Did God use spirit to create physicality? How do you know there is such a sharp delineation between "spirit" and matter? What if matter IS spirit? What if there is no difference at all?

 

Those who don't like such non-dualism might just have to get over it someday.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Hi Aletheia Rivers,

 

Great questions. And worth asking. Here is an interesting quote that I thought of when I read your post. It is about Sting Theory:

 

"Strings are just curved space. The central riddle of Genesis – how can the universe have come into being, if, as Shakespeare put it, ‘Nothing can be made out of nothing’? – is answered thus: Everything is nothing, in a sense, for all is made of space, which in this context means pure geometry.”

 

– Timothy Ferris in The Whole Shebang, Simon & Shuster, New York, 1997 pg. 224

 

I wrote an article about string theory (http://www.ionparadox.homestead.com/files/string.htm) in which I tried to put in layman's terms the basics of this idea, that everything is made up of vibrating strings of curved space.

 

After considerable thought I have concluded that if this is the case, if everything we see and touch and smell and taste is esentially the vibrations of curved space, then the world is more mysterious than ever.

 

In a funny way this supports the idea of something coming from nothing. God could be said to have created everything from nothing because of God's excellent grasp of geometry.

 

I personally do not think spirit exists as anything other than an emergent quality of our existence. Like God, spirit is not open to investigation by my senses. If something can not be measured, is it still real....?

 

I keep hoping to develop a way of knowing God that is beyond sensory data, but so far my efforts have been fruitless. I hear people talk about their own spirit, about the Holy Spirit, and they seem to know all about these matters in great detail.

 

What are your thoughts on this matter? Or anyone elses...