On Prayer

I have been told by people I respect and acknowledge as authorities to be trusted that prayer works. There is scientific evidence that this is true. The question is why prayer works, and why are the results of prayer so unpredictable.

I have a hypothesis as to why prayer works and is unpredictable, and also the reason some prayer has more effect than other prayer.

Examining the mathematics of chaos we discover that very small effects have huge impacts on the environment. There was an experiment run that mapped the weather for a simple world. The experimenter upon experiencing a computer crash decided to re do the last 12 hours of weather in the simulated simple environment. By mistake he entered the wrong number missing a decimal digit. The print out showed only 4 decimal places but the program input 5. Having forgotten this when the experimenter ran the program he left out the last digit of the starting formula. When he ran the program it was apparent within the first few iterations of output that something had changed and changed significantly. In fact the deviation was so pronounced that the experimenter first examined the equipment to ensure that it was not faulty. Eventually he remembered that the printout was short a digit and was able to return to the original output by correcting that number. Another example of this is the Lorenz attractor which can be found at the link below in Wikipedia.

If you surf the net to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect#Illustration there is a java animation of this effect.

Now when energy is released into reality, that place we live in it has an effect on everything. In the film Where the Bleep Do We Come From there are photographs of water at a very highly magnified state that are significantly different because of what it thought at the water. This energy of thought then can have demonstrable and direct effect. Now prayer is thought energy. The more practiced at it the more energy is out put I assume. Now what if there are many people praying for the same or similar things. Wouldn’t that have a direct effect on the person being prayed for?

Well there is evidence that there is actually an effect, it is just that the effect is not predictable. The question I believe is answered in the chaos theory. And the fact that energies can cancel each other out. Now if you pray for someone to get well sometimes they do. And sometimes it feels like your prayer helped. Now there is evidence that prayer works. So why is this, the case in some times but not others?

Well the fact is the energy is uncontrolled, and not actually directed usually without some practice. Additionally I believe that other energies may cancel the prayer energy out, not out of malice but simply because of the nature of energy flows.

Now one of the main points of prayer is that it is directed energy. Also I believe that it is energy that either consciously or subconsciously people know the person being prayed for requires to balance themselves properly. This energy is then directed to the person who is being prayed for. The intent is what sets prayer apart from energy coming from another impersonal source, a battery for example.

To sum up, I believe that focused energy like that of prayer is what makes the prayer work. Especially if there is a group focusing the energy and the intent of the group is identical or at least resonant within the specific intent. The seeming inconsistency of prayer’s efficacy is due to either interference from other energies diluting altering or canceling out the energy released or lack of proper intent. The fact is we are all energy in one form or another and sharing it as prayer to help one another is inherent in man’s nature.