Wednesday, February 24, 2010

How Far Does Prayer Need to Travel to Reach God?

I have been reading Larry Dossey, M.D.'s thoughts about prayer in healing and wanted to share this with you.

He talks about a young boy who asks if God has a fax machine. "Why?" asks his mother? "Because I wrote him a prayer and want to send it."

Which brings us to the question: Does prayer need to travel to be effective?

"Our images of prayer suggest that it is some sort of physical message- a letter, for example - that must travel to a specific destination. Or that prayers are like phone calls or television signals that are transmitted through fiber-optic cables or bounced off orbiting satellites and relay stations. To say that prayers need to be sent "to" God imply that God is a being who lives in some distant place.

"Findings from scientific studies of prayer do not bear out this picture of prayer as a physical message sent to a God who resides at a distance.

"In a study by cardiologist Randolph Byrd involving 393 patients in the coronary care unit of San Francisco General Hospital, prayer groups in various parts of the United States were asked to pray for sick individuals assigned to a "treatment" group; no one prayed for those in the control group. Except for prayer, all the patients received the same high-tech therapy. This was a double-blind study: No patients, no physicians, and no nurses knew who was and was not being prayed for. Byrd found that the prayed for patients did significantly better on several outcome measures. Distance was not found to be a factor in how well the prayer worked. Prayers from the other side of the country appeared to be as effective as prayers from groups close to the hospital."

just a thought to encourage prayers for peace, prayers for healing

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