Q: By A Reader
Do you believe in the power of prayer?
A: By Rev. Deshna Shine
Dear Reader,
I believe in energy. I believe in the physics theory that no energy is ever lost in the universe. I believe thoughts are energy, and even more so, that words are energy. Science has discovered that all human matter and physiology are made up of energy.
What I am certain of is prayer changes the person praying. Our thoughts in prayer (or anything we spend time focusing our brains on) become written into the neural connections of our brains. As Bruce Lipton, a biologist, writes, “The cells in your body react to everything that your mind says.” (1)
When we pray, the frontal lobes of our brain are activated and the parietal lobes go dormant. This is the area of our brain that takes our sensory information and creates a sense of self, orienting that self in the world. When that part goes dormant, we can lose a sense of self. If we are praying and connecting with what we feel to be God, or Spirit, during that time we can feel a sense of sacred oneness, a blurring of the lines between self and other. (2)
There are also many scientific studies that show words have energy and can affect living beings being spoken to. Plants exposed to kind words grow more and are healthier than ones who experience silence or negative words.
A Japanese scientist and water researcher Dr. Masaru Emoto studied the effects on water from sound vibrations and specifically human emotional sound vibrations. Using high speed photography, he found that words of love and gratitude formed beautiful geometric shapes in the water crystals and that negative words on the same water in another sample destroyed the shapes and formed broken, smashed crystals. (3)
Who knows if God hears our prayers… I certainly have no idea. But god within me certainly does and the life around me certainly does and for that reason prayer remains a powerful way to shift the energy both in and around us.
~ Rev. Deshna Shine
This Q&A was originally published on Progressing Spirit – As a member of this online community, you’ll receive insightful weekly essays, access to all of the essay archives (including all of Bishop John Shelby Spong), and answers to your questions in our free weekly Q&A. Click here to see free sample essays.
About the Author
Rev. Deshna Shine is Project Director of ProgressiveChristianity.org’s Children’s Curriculum. She is an ordained Interfaith Minister, author, international speaker, and visionary. She grew up in a thriving progressive Christian church and has worked in the field for over 13 years. She graduated from UCSB with a major in Religious Studies and a minor in Global Peace and Security. She was Executive Director of ProgressiveChristianity.org, Executive Producer of Embrace Festival and has co-authored the novel, Missing Mothers. Deshna is passionate about sacred community, nourishing children spiritually and transforming Christianity through a radically inclusive lens.
1 https://www.sfgate.com/news/
2 https://www.npr.org/templates/
3 https://dailytimes.com.pk/
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