The Anti Effects Of Prayer

The need to pray comes from lack. People pray to God because they want him/her to help them or others overcome difficulties that, in fact, they themselves have created for greater learning. Some pray for protection for their children, implying that God doesn’t protect them in the first place. Others ask God to give them more abundance, not realizing that they have the power and creativity within them to provide for their own needs; instead, they choose to let God do that job. Letting God do what they think they cannot do doesn’t help them, it just enslaves them even further.

When there are natural disasters people begin to pray for those who have died, believing that events are ‘wrong’ (not appropriate). “How could God have let this happen?” we ask. But God didn’t. All things are always appropriate. Those who die in earthquakes or floods or through other ways do not desire to receive anguished prayers from their beloved ones. They have decided to leave their Earthly existence and wish to be understood and honored for having chosen this particular way, at the appropriate time, to move forward in their evolution. They ask us to understand the cycles that they are going through in their own karma and lives. They are eager to come back as the new children and enjoy the new energy they and we have helped to create. Why try to interfere with their joy and their focus on what is so right for them?

Praying about or thinking of the departed souls with love and appreciation for who they are and what they have done here on Earth will have a much greater and more beneficial effect than asking God to help them overcome their grief and pain (they suffer no more worldly pains once they have passed to the other side or dimension). Many people pray to God to help others because they feel guilty for not having treated them right or helped them when they were in need. Primarily these prayers are an unconscious attempt to avoid or suppress their own fear and guilt, the guilt of not having done enough to help. At the very least, they believe that asking God to do what they failed to do themselves may alleviate their pangs of conscience. Sending healing prayers to those who ‘need’ healing is another form of interference that merely reflects one’s own need for healing. Wanting others to be spared the pain of going through an illness is a manifestation of our own fear, which causes us to become further enslaved to fear. If an illness occurs, it is appropriate for that person to experience it, for they have chosen so by decree of their Higher Self wisdom. Praying to God to take a person’s illness away is not honoring that person’s choice to learn. We are all here to learn to become masters of creation.

There are many lessons to be learned in life. Taking them away from others will merely lead to more intensified lessons. Praying for better crops, for peace in the Middle East, for the eradication of terrorists, for a better economy, etc. is based on ‘lack consciousness’ and often manifests even more lack, more conflict, and more turbulence. It is not in our or anyone else’s best interest to pray to change anyone or anything, for this moves us into the limitations of what has already come to pass. We are moving outside our own power when we dwell on past or future events. Not using our power and wisdom becomes a cause for further suffering and pain in life.

If our intention to help others is sincere, we must focus on us, rather than on them. Disease, war, conflicts, disasters, etc. are of a chaotic, lower vibration, not bad or good, just a lower vibration. They occur wherever people have a collective need to raise their vibration. When hundreds or thousands of people die as a result of an earthquake, a terrorist attack, or war, it is because they no longer choose to exist at that low vibration. They are ready to move on. We perceive this as death but, for them, it is liberating and uplifting. Why do we want to hold them back or interfere with what is in their highest good? If someone is ill, it is for us to honor and respect that person’s decision to choose illness as a means of raising their vibration and learning their life lessons. Trying to help them heal seems to be a selfless act but in fact, it reflects our own ego’s fear of pain, loss, or death. To cover up these feelings, our ego tells us that this illness is a terrible thing and that it must be avoided or overcome at all costs. Of course, if a sick person asks us to heal them, we no longer interfere by assisting in their healing process. What they have done is to choose to forsake the opportunity to heal and empower themselves, at this time. There will be other, similar, opportunities (illnesses) to choose self-healing and self-empowerment, although they are often of higher intensity than before. If the person still decides to opt for external healing and the medicine or treatment is ‘unsuccessful,’ their body stops functioning and they die. This also happens out of choice, for the soul knows that the body is no longer suitable to serve in its quest to grow spiritually and move into a higher vibration.

Since nothing in the universe can happen by accident, on any level, trying to change something for the better only reflects our own inability to accept what is. It is our way of saying that what this moment presents is not ‘perfect’. If something appears to be not right, it does not mean that we need to correct it. Change is inevitable, and it will happen of its own accord and in its own time. When we resist, change appears to be difficult because we see only one side of the equation. Due to past impressions and experiences, we associate change with pain, instead of seeing it for the glory it can bring. We are simply challenged to accept change for what it is, for if it wasn’t meant to be, it wouldn’t happen. Once we have surrendered to the moment we have accepted what it delivers to us. This then gives birth to another moment that provides an ever-greater opportunity for upliftment than would have been possible otherwise.

Praying for something that we do not have, or do not want to have, takes us out of the present moment and relinquishes our power and self responsibility. The following is a very unusual ‘prayer’ from an author unknown. It points out so beautifully the futility of normal prayer and I feel it could add great insight to the understanding of the value or non value of prayer. I present it with gratitude to the anonymous author, wherever and whoever he/she may be.

I asked God to take away my pain.

God said, No.

It is not for me to take away, but for you to give it up.

I asked God to make my handicapped child whole.

God said, No.

Her spirit is whole, her body is only temporary.

I asked God to grant me patience.

God said, No.

Patience is a by-product of tribulations; it isn’t granted, it is learned.

I asked God to give me happiness.

God said, No.

I give you blessings. Happiness is up to you.

I asked God to spare me pain.

God said, No.

Suffering draws you apart from worldly cares and brings you closer to me.

I asked God to make my spirit grow.

God said, No.

You must grow on your own, but I will prune you to make you fruitful.

I asked for all things that I might enjoy life.

God said, No.

I will give you life so that you may enjoy all things.

I asked God to help me LOVE others as much as he loves me.

God said…Ahhhh, finally you get the idea.

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This is an excerpt from my book LIFTING THE VEIL OF DUALITY