Sunday, August 8, 2010

A Prayer to heal

Hello, how have you been?

I had been busy with work last month, but also managed to take an off to visit my parents in the last week of July.
So, after my vacation, I started thinking about my next blog post.

That’s when I found a question from a girl named Rhea, related to mind power and healing. It said “.....pls help me........my mom has a problem in her backbone.....it can be cured....but psychologically she is more ill....she is a negative thinker...she’s always worrying about her health n situations around her......she gets hyper every time she listens to something bad......”


Some of the people in the forum, had asked her to pray for her mother, for healing , and so did I.

After that day, I started reading articles on studies done in the area of mind power, healing powers of the subconscious mind, prayers, to find out whether scientific progress has kept up with ancient wisdom.

So, does praying for sick people actually help heal sick people? For thousands of years some people have believed so. I believe it works and at least the some scientific studies confirm that as well.

It seems a huge number of experiments had been conducted in North America alone between 1965-2006 on the healing power of prayers. One of the few people to research this topic was Wendy Cadge, an expert on the intersection of religion and medicine in contemporary American society. Cadge discovered. some studies suggested that prayer worked, while others said it didn't.

Finally I found a recent new article which said that a team of medical doctors and scientists led by Indiana University professor of religion Candy Gunther Brown found in the study, conducted in rural Mozambique, that prayer brought “highly significant” improvements to hearing-impaired participants and significant changes to the visually impaired.

Likewise there have been several experiments, which confirm that, if the patient believes that he is getting healed, he actually becomes healthy once again, even if he is being given a sweet pill, instead of the real medicine. This is also known as the placebo effect.

There have also been lots of books written about self healing, and intercessory healing. Most of this healing is based on faith.

According to the Bible when Jesus healed the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years, he said to her, "Daughter, Your faith has healed you..." (Mark 5:34). When Jesus healed two blind men, He said, "…According to your faith will it be done to you" (Matthew 9:29).
Conversely, healing may not take place due to lack of faith. Lack of faith can be because of many things, like anger, anxiety, depression etc.

So , even if Rhea’s mother has negative thought pattern, Rhea could pray for her mother with faith, for her healing. She can pray not only her mother’s physical health, but mental health as well. She can make sure that her mother has less stress in her life. I am sure, with time her mother would find a better thought pattern, and become healthy as well.
Sometimes, it may happen that we may pray for a healing, and our prayers go unanswered. In those situations we must remember that, there are certain things we need to accept, like, we will not be young forever, we will not live forever and we have to learn to let go sometimes. God is merciful and his ways are higher than ours!

And we can only pray and say –
“How much faith there's
Let this be our prayer
In my prayer
When shadows fill our day
Lead us to a place, guide us with your grace
Give us faith so we'll be safe”

Namaste

4 comments:

  1. mind in itself is a powerful tool through which a greater magnitude of our perceived reality can be transformed. its how we absorb a certain event is how we eventually end up being affected by it. so on our own, through a conscious effort, the perception about our circumstances be changed, and so is their effect on our psyche.

    i have known about placebo effect, and i do believe that by keeping faith we are able to anchor our emotional turmoil effectively and peacefully, and the moment we are able to transform our perceptions about our situation is when we are able to actually create an opportunity not just to heal our own emotional self but also, magnify the sense of well being, and thus develop as an healthier version of our own self exemplifying the courage and inspiration we all need in the upheavals of life every now n then.

    nice article anupam. keep it up. :)

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  2. Yes there is power in prayer, or other forms of asking to the greater being, higher intellegence. With enough belief, and enough devotion anything is possible. Healing the mind is as important as healing the body. Finding a way into a more positive frame of mind is taken one tiny step at a time.

    Lovely article.

    Thank you.

    Nick

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  3. awesome article..! Loved it..
    I agree that prayers u do really brings out a huge difference.. Bt u knw smtimes it happens sm pple become so negative tht they dnt try these things jst cos they know they have no faith (give up types). I feel praying everyday (even if u dnt hav faith ) wil not only improve the mental state of a person bt ll actually develop faith in wat u dng.. All u need to do it daily..! Thts the power of prayer..!! Experienced it personally.. :)
    Bt Anupam, I hv a question.. U said tht sm thngs whch are unanswered has sm reason behind it and we shd let go.. Despite of prayers full of faith we cm to conclusion tht its nt made fr us and we shd let it go, Dnt u think its lik waste of time.. I mean hw to knw wat thngs we shd pray for and wat not.. I tried praying to get sm1 back.. Bt it didnt work..!! Any comments??

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  4. @arunima thanks for your comments..the mind is indeed very powerful.The conscious mind that we deal with most our waking moments is just a fraction of our subconscious mind..which governs most of the processes of our body and our lives. If we can learn to tap, that hidden part ..we can turn our lives into something really magical:)

    @Nick..Thanks for visiting. I am glad you liked my article

    @Vineeta Makhija..I am glad to know that, the article resonated with you, and you have experienced the power of prayer personally :)
    Prayer requires faith..empty words don't make faith
    More the faith, better the outcome.
    This article was specifically about the healing power of prayer. I shall write about the power of prayer in personal relationships shortly. There I will try to answer you question.
    Thanks

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