Early this morning, I stumbled across a facebook post about prayers. "Do prayers really work?", the writer asked. Or, are prayers merely feel good factors for those who are praying?; he pondered. His questions helped me to recall a friend, questioning the power of prayers during the MH370 incident. At that time, the whole of Malaysia was praying for a positive outcome, yet the plane is still missing today.
I can relate to those questions. Because many times, I too, have asked these similar questions:
Am I really helping or am I just mumbling words?
How can praying help that person who is suffering with pain?
Can prayers change a challenging situation?
Does my praying help heal the world?
Yet, despite these doubts, I continued to pray and to chant regularly. There's one thing I now know though, and that is, thoughts do create our reality. And if our thoughts create our reality, wouldn't it be true that directing positive and loving thoughts to a certain person or situation, changes something too?
The following quote from Mona Lisa Schulz shows that prayer do help with the sick:
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Many studies show that engaging in prayer, meditation, and imagery can help the health of others, and has helped to bolster red blood cells, protect people in coronary care unit from infection and minimize their need for antibiotics, and in fact, seems to prevent death (fewer people who were prayed for died during the study)".
- Mona Lisa Schulz, M.D. Ph.D in 'The Feminine Brain'
And then, there's this very inspiring story from Caroline Myss:
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One of the most profound stories that I ever heard in a workshop was told by a woman who had been seriously injured in a car accident and had had a near-death experience - I'll call her Maggie. Maggie was so shattered that she went out of her body, and in that state, floating above the scene of the accident, she could hear how people in cars behind her were responding to the accident. Some were deeply shaken by witnessing it, while others were saying things like 'Oh Jesus, this is all I need! How long are we going to be stuck here?' But from the fifth car behind hers, she saw a beautiful swirl of light rising up into the ether and then right back down into her own body. She thought, 'What's going on there?' And just as she thought that, she was instantly next to the woman in that car, who was sending out a prayer for her. In that energetic state, in the midst of her near-death experience, Maggie got the license plate of that car and committed it to memory. She eventually came back into her body, and was taken into the hospital. When she was fully recovered, she tracked down the woman who had prayed for her, and she showed up at her doorstep with a bouquet of flowers to say thank you."
- Caroline Myss, Ph.D in ' Why People Don't Heal and How They Can'
These two examples reminds us that there's power in prayers; and that we can never fully understand the effects of our prayers. Because prayers lies in the domain of the spirit - something our intellectual mind has difficulty understanding.
To prayer doubters, I would say, let go of those doubts. One can never harm anyone by sending positive thoughts or thinking positively for a better outcome. Instead, your kind, loving, compassionate thoughts create a positive energy field around you that interacts with the energy field of the person or situation that you are thinking about. And this not only brings comfort to those in pain and suffering, but has the potential to change things for the better - changes that are unknown to you.
One kind thought, one kind word, one kind gaze, one kind touch, heals the world.
Deep Peace To You.
(The image above is from one of the many posts I saw from my facebook newsfeed. Thanking the artist who created it.)
