Does prayer work

 
On prayer-dialogue between a friend and I
"While you all know of my Pagan practices, you are also very aware of my views on religious commonalities with other practices, such as prayer, and the power it has. My personal view of this is the Collective Consciousness and we can create our own reality. Whether you believe in a religious explanation or secular, I think the same mechanisms are at work. While the religious devotee may say it's "God's Will", others believe it's the "Universal Energies" at work, but in essence it's merely different labels for the same things. I do believe that the larger the group of individuals, focused and concentrating on a mutually beneficial outcome for someone else, the better. 5 people in prayer or calling may do a bit of good, but 20, 50 or 100 are exponentially all the greater in affect and power".

I absolutely agree with you Atwater Vitki-!
Everything has energy-, nothing ever created becomes nothing . Thus thoughts, intentions once created are out there and when we know how to in essence capture them--this energy , is when our prayers seem work. I may call it Universal Consciousness, Creator--God--but it is a force into which or through which intention either flows or actually is--which if positive is `love`-- thus we can connect into it.  

I also believe energy is a force that can be increased or decreased depending on how many send it out, because it can be captured like through a receiver--that is why I think Our Lord said if more than one person prayers together it has more of a force--the total sum of the energy is more than the individual parts. Through faith you can move mountains--I believe that if we really believe 100% no matter what it will happen, but we also have to be careful what we pray for. It has to be also be with gratitude and open ended--regarding the outcome. That is where --for me `Let it be your will` comes in. Dossey has a book regarding this--regarding the negative affects of praying for one may also receive that--`Be careful what you pray for`--he also has a couple of other very scientific researched books. One interesting one is-"Recovering the Sou"l.

This Universal Energy, Source-God I don`t think it has to do with a specific religion, however it does have to do much with intention--positive as well as negative, both work. Generally we pray for positive. I also think that the order in how we pray is of importance--meaning that for me the primary part is `gratitude` or thanking the request ahead of time-- Maybe this reinforces the `faith` or it has something to do with connecting into `Universal Consciousness--God, which comes down to the point for me--that we are sparks of God. The second is the actual faith-- of believing it--thus we create our reality.

For me there is no question that prayer works--The funny thing about it is that ever since I was about 7 there were certain words I would use if I wanted an answer to a prayer, and if I used it 100% of the time it happened and still does. Even then I knew to use it wisely, and I seldom asked for material things,--and never abused the knowledge and this gift. Also often it was not for me myself the request--but the main point of my prayer was as a child , as now of "thanks for what you have done for me till now" adding to it "if it will not happens it is okay"--and it always happens without fail. It was proved once more yesterday and it was an impossible thing.

 Call it what you will, faith, positive thinking, belief-- I call it the power of the Divine for me that is God manifesting in my life. For me God is God under any name.
love and light to all,