The Laws of Prayer

As you already know, sometimes what I say here is controversial. It is controversial because I do not speak the opinion of a religious organization, but rather what I see from my high mountain. Prayer is a universal activity, even among so-called atheists. Its laws are therefore universally true. Let us look at those laws and try to make some sense out of what happens.

William James, the father of religious psychology, argues in his Varieties of Religious Experience that we should not center on the why of an event as much as the event itself. We know little of why electrons move to cause electricity. We know little about how a plant actually metabolizes photons. They do. We use it. Likewise, prayer is a thing we do not understand, but it works, it has worked for millenia and will continue to work for millenia to come. However, we can deduce from observation and conversation its laws and some of our holy works tell us succinctly why prayer works, if we can read between the lines.

First of all, I want to say that I believe in El, the True G-d, and in many additional divine beings. While El is self-sufficient and unconcerned with this multiverse, many of the beings that live in this multiverse are dependent on prayer for sustenance. The draw energy and life from prayer. How that works is a mystery no less than how photons are changed into plant food through the mystery of photosynthesis. I agree with Neil Gaiman in American Gods, a 'god' is sustained by prayer. So that is the quid of the equation. Let us look at how we get the quo of the equation.

First, 1 John 5:14-15 sets forth an important law of prayer:
"And we have this confidence in him, that if we ask anything ACCORDING TO HIS WILL, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in regard to whatever we ask, we know that what we have asked for is ours."

So, the first law of prayer is praying in accordance with the Will of the Universe. I do not put the divine name of a being there because all evidence shows that the many beings in the universe that are elemental in character can do things when they grant prayer. How do we harmonize with the Universe, that is, how do we know what to prayer for. It is this corollary to the first law that causes all the problem. We do not. Those who are sensitive may sense the will of the Universe, but they do not know the will of the Universe. Why is it important to know the will of the Universe? Because the laws of chance are alterable. Scientific studies have watched mind control change the normal chance on a set of dice. It works at many levels. Those things that are in the will of the Universe when prayed for can change the normal laws of chance so that it is less likely or more likely that an event will occur. Sensitive people can sense the movements of chance and effect them. Prayer is a force that effects chance. For example, there is a 20% chance of rain. A person who is sensitive and has other sensitivity to the laws of prayer can actually increase the chance of rain to one hundred percent. We call that weather working. It is reputed that saints have this power.

The next law of prayer is a mental condition called faith. Faith comes in three varieties. When some event has always happened in a given way in our lives, we have faith from observation that it will occur again. This subjective belief is a form of faith. But there is a higher form of faith, which allows the person who believes in it to use the power for prayer. When an unusual event occurs, that is, when we ask for something in prayer and it happens, we try to recall that event and what we were doing at the time and replicate it. If we successfully replicate the event, the laws of prayer will allow the result to be the same. This level of faith creates a template in the soul which can be used for many things in the science of prayer. Constant use of prayer, that is, directed prayer, increases ones ability to pray meaningfully. The last form of faith is a result of becoming sensitive to the will of the universe and praying not only for ones own needs, but the needs of others, and using the second level to hone ones ability to saintly levels thus increasing the chance of success just as a athlete by training increases his chances of success in the games.

The third law of prayer involves multiple parties of prayers. When more than one person who has learned to pray prays, then the combined power of prayer increases exponentially, rather than arithmetically. So the power of two people praying is three, the power of three people praying is five, and so forth. That is why orders of prayers, monks and nuns, are more successful at prayer than ordinary people.

The fourth law of prayer is concentration. The concept of visualization is helps to concentrate ones intentions. Likewise, statues, pictures, congregation meetings, drugs, and other concentration devices can be used to concentrate on the object of the prayer.

Lastly, and perhaps more importantly, the being that one prays to makes a difference. Today, prayers are more likely prayed to Allah, Jesus, Buddha, and Mary than any other divine being. Naturally, as they have a surplus of power, they can alter chance more effectively and cause events to happen regularly so that the believers can benefit. However, determined cults of believers in Horus, Isis, Jupiter, Mithras, or Cernunnos, the Hag, whatever, can also be effective in altering chance and gaining results with prayer. For the atheist, even strong faith in the wisdom of man can effect things.

All prayer works. Most prayer is not useful because most people are selfish. Learning to pray is an art form. Because our prayers are heard, sometimes we raise conflict between the various beings who can ingest the energy of prayer and we will be more or less successful. One good piece of advice is to hitch your prayer life to a popular 'god' or in the alternative, find a 'god' who agrees with you regularly and hitch your wagon to them. All divine beings set forth rules for their aid and you will have to pay for it not only in prayer, but by helping others whose prayers they are answering. For instance, if you god is Mammon, the god of money, you may have to give some of your money to another as part of the requirements of getting aid from your god. Not all gods are as formal as YHWH who has set forth his rules in the Torah, but all gods require aid on earth for them to achieve the ends which gets them fed.

While I may have offended many, truth is truth. Keep praying. It works.