THE TRUTH ABOUT PRAYER

The human brain is generally incapable of more than one-way communication with God. Other than chosen messengers, those who claim that She has spoken to them are probably crazy, after your money, or seeking to obtain or justify a position of power. Divine inspiration comes from the soul. And while a soul remains connected to the collective consciousness, it functions independently and rarely receives marching orders. Thus, the Crusades were not God's will any more than the acts of the jihadis who flew airliners into the World Trade Center were. But when we pray, does She hear us? If so, does She care? Accepting the Truth regarding these questions will require a fundamental change in beliefs for many.

First, you may have noticed that nothing in God's Laws requires glorification of Her. God requires neither thanks nor worship, though She does not appreciate her name being taken in vain. This does not mean that we should be ungrateful, but gratitude is far better shown by living in accordance with Her Laws. Similarly, while it is right and proper that we come together to share the Truth and celebrate Grace, such activities are important for humans and inconsequential to God.

Second, while humankind has mostly evolved beyond the primitive stage, we remain low on the "love your neighbor" scale. See, for example, Psalm 137:9 - "Blessed shall be he who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rocks." Or Qur'an 9:5 - "Slay the idolaters wherever you find them." We have not yet destroyed ouselves, but have also not proven to be much value in the cosmic scheme of things, except perhaps as a place to send souls for punishment. When we have done little or nothing to deserve the Grace that we have been given, we should be circumspect about asking for more.

Third, God is primarily concerned with the macrocosm, and hardly ever takes an interest in any individual or group. To continue with an anology, an ant farm may be interesting to watch occasionally, but we don't pay attention to the individual ants. Likewise, we should not expect God to devote much attention to us, let alone any one of us. Our souls make us more important than ants, though, so She does check on us from time-to-time and has thus far prevented a nuclear annihilation. God has also appeared in physical form several times throughout the ages, but mostly speaks through messengers.

Although highly unlikely, it is not impossible that an individual prayer will be heard. When a million people call the same telephone number simultaneously, one of them invariably gets through. Otherwise, prayer or meditation can help a person contemplate the blessings of Grace, find clarity or purge vilons. Further, when two or more pray together, the YE produced is shared among them and can lift the spirits of all participants, even to a state of euphoria.

Prayer can also be effective and beneficial in other circumstances. We discussed in The Truth About God that YE interacts with other forms of energy and matter. The effect is minimal when only one person is praying, but the combined energy generated by a large group can be more significant. This is akin to swarm intelligence and explains such things as the so-called "home field advantage" in sports. Proximity is not necessarily a requirement either, as Scott Norwood learned when a greatly disproportionate number of people were praying that he would fail than that he would succeed. But this phenomena transcends sports, as YE can heal, alter behavior and even influence random events. Sometimes - not always.

Next: What About Jesus?