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Don Ruch

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Has anyone else witnessed the power of mass focused prayer?

How many of you have wittnessed the power of prayer? It can be a single heart felt prayer or the power of mass focused prayer.
I am a true believer of prayer, My grandaughter was diagnosed deaf shortly after she was born. The familiy was in shock as you can imagine. My wife bought a book on sign language and we decided to deal with it. A week after she was born I laid next to my sleeping grand daughter and I started to pray as hard as I could. I prayed to God to give her my hearing, I went to church that sunday and asked the congregation to pray for her. To make a long story short, My daughter took her back for a follow up exam and the Doctor came with a perplexed look on her face saying that she had never seen anything like it, my granddaughter had near perfect hearing. Some hearing loss in the lower range but other wise good hearing. Later we found that her adnoids were so large they were blocking the eustachian tube causing a reduction in hearing. Once the adnoids were removed the problem was solved. I remember my wife saying the the doctor cured our grand daughter, I replied, not with out a lot of prayer. Please send me your experience.

Topics: does prayer help health prayer religion
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  • Thomas Reddy

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    May 24 2012: An individual's positive outlook has proven to have a real benefit in the outcome of medical issues. Belief in a higher power can lead to that positive look, as can the knowledge that a great many people truly care for you.

    That does not mean that Mass Prayer can cause metaphysical/supernatural/magical/spiritual/religious events to occur. At the very least, I have no reason to believe otherwise. So, to answer your question, I have never witnessed the power of mass prayer. I have witnessed mass prayer, and have only witnessed the absence of its power.
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    Green Leaf

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    May 5 2012: prayers must be from the bottom of someone's heart for them to work

  • stanley chen

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    May 3 2012: There is evidence that subtle energy, including thought affects the environment sees Dr Masaru Emoto research.
    There are excellent dvds from voice entertainment on water and Quantum communication... mass prayer is just the tip of the ice burge.
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    Orlando Hawkins 20+

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    May 3 2012: I would have to say no and to be honest its really a non-sequitur because there is no evidence linking prayer to the events that happen in the world (including one's personal life).
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      Chris Kelly 20+

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      May 3 2012: To those who have been healed via prayer, their healing is 'evidence' enough.

      To those who have witnessed such healing, it is 'evidence' enough.

      Having experienced such healing myself, it is 'evidence' enough.

      Prayer is consciously focused positive intent ... focusing positive intent or blessings to another has been proven to have health benefits and healing properties, not just for the one being prayed for, but also for the one doing the praying.
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        Orlando Hawkins 20+

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        May 3 2012: Hi Chris,

        nice response but I think there are some things we have to place on the table before we get the meat of the issue.

        First things first: I'm all for hope. I'm all for positive energy, I'm all for the will to survive and overcome an illness and I'm all for positive intent. There certainty is not thing wrong with that but you can have these things without prayer and many people have (including myself.

        Secondly, as great and warming as your response was it think it is partly wrong and still a non-sequitor. Once again, it has been proven, scientifically that prayer has no correlation with events that happen

        If you doubt this here is are several links and if you doubt these then do your own research but I would have to honestly say evidence is actually not there in support of prayer.

        http://www.davidmyers.org/Brix?pageID=122
        http://www.freethoughtpedia.com/wiki/Harvard_prayer_experiment

        Also you need to take into account the people that do pray and there prayers were not answered. You have to account for why God decided to save you but not save the 9 million children who die on a daily basis. This is one of the main reason as to why prayer is essentially forlorn.

        But you've said it yourself, its positive intent. Prayer may contribute to positive intent but prayer was not the cause of someone cancer going into remission or why someone survived an NDE. If anything, I think you need to credit western medicine as opposed to prayer.

        And just to extend this outside of illness, why not give more credit to human beings for overcoming endeavors as opposed to metaphysics?


        All in all, I like your response but I think its more about the human capacity to overcome great endeavors with the help of hope, aspirations and positive intent than prayer.....
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    Mitch SMith 50+

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    May 3 2012: I don't think people truly understand what prayer is - or how it functions.

    One needs no belief in god to pray. One only needs regard for people.

    It is by people that people are strong.

    People have strength through empathy. However epathy works, is not important, what is important is that we practice it.

    Try this - each person you become aware of - whether you know them or not, whether you like them or not, just pause for a microsecond to imagine a pulse of well-being to that person .. practice it while walking, sending that pulse to everyone you pass. Practice it while sending/recieveing emails and text. Don't say anything, just do it.

    Then .. see what happens :)

    • jenni logue

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      May 3 2012: HI Mitch,
      I got your partial replies via my email account, I don't see them on the thread here. They were a little cryptic to me. I like your suggestion of sending "the pulse". I suggest similar techniques to my patients. In my mission to heal fear I have people focus on how peaceful it is around them right now.
      Cheers,
      jenni
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        Mitch SMith 50+

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        May 3 2012: Hi jenni,

        I alluded to some prayer thart was done for your part of the world a couple of years ago.
        I made some observations that were wildly speculative - and probably not helpful to your cause.
        Suffice to say, my prayers and those of others I know are with you.

        • jenni logue

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          May 4 2012: Thank you, Mitch and all others whose prayers are with me.

  • jenni logue

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    May 2 2012: I am beginning an experiment on mass, focused meditation ( another form of prayer). Where I live in Morelia, Mexico has become a hotbed of fear. Kidnappings, drug lords, assaults, are being touted by the news and people are scared. As the fear escalates so do reports of the above. In my opinion the power of the "bad guys" lies in the fear of the people. On Monday I am beginning a weekly group meditation focused on healing the fear in Morelia. I will let you know what happens before this discussion ends.

  • Ayoka Oyedeji

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    May 2 2012: Like Roy, I have never experienced a miracle but several prayers of mine have been answered. I am a strong believer. I have had situations in my life where I thought all was lost and I thought my husband and I was in trouble but things turned around. We were like those that dreamed and those things that seem important to those in our situations were not important anymore.
    Never lose faith, keep believing because it does work. Sometimes our prayers are answered because we are selfless. Sometimes, something’s are just meant to be, a prayer would not change it. So, when it's time for someone to die, the person will die. There is a time and season for everything.
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    Roy Bourque 20+

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    Apr 30 2012: Don,
    I have not witnessed any miracles in my life, but I have found answers through prayer. When we pray, we are opening our minds to a greater power. How those prayers get answered depends on what answers we are looking for.

    There are many who would say that when we pray, we are only talking to ourselves. I know that isn't true because of experiences I have had in my life. If you don't believe it, you won't put it to the test. If you do believe it, but don't feel you have seen any results, you many abandon the idea. Science has alternate explanations. They are not always correct.

    My first wife was the victim of abuse. This led her to periods of withdrawal. During these periods, she claimed to have entered a spiritual realm numerous times during her childhood. She claimed to have spirit friends.
    We had an old TV that was acting up. One day I came home and the TV was no longer acting up. She claimed that one of her spirit friends had fixed it. I passed this off as bogus, believing that she didn't want me to know who had come to fix it.
    A year later, she was killed in an accident. There is a lot to that story that I won't get into here as space is too limited. After the funeral, my mother returned with me to the house. She says there is nothing more we can do, everyone is gone, why don't we watch something on TV. That TV would never work again. It died when my first wife died. I have no explanation. It remains a mystery that I can choose to ignore or ponder on what do we still not know about the world in which we live.

    Don't give up what you believe. Don't be afraid to question it. Don't rely on it unconditionally. Faith has many mysteries. So does science. Let the two of them work together.

  • James McKelvie

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    Apr 27 2012: Prayer works if you believe it works. It works by ignoring when it doesn't work and celebrating when it does (confirmational bias). Praying for something to happen and hoping for something to happen are essentially the same thing, The difference being that the person hoping for something does not believe that the act of them hoping increases the odds of a successful outcome. I have not witnessed the power of mass focused prayer.
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    Noveed Hussain

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    Apr 26 2012: Dear don

    its good to hear this that baby has recovered but being realistic the time when you came to know about the largeness of adenoids is real problem then why did you get help from doctors or medical science for removing those and not pray to God to eliminate adenoids. personally i can say from my experience that prayers simply do not work as some of us do believe example is very simple that if you pray to get energy without eating something then i think you or any other human being including me will not be able to live more than three or four days.
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    Shallow Water Walker

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    Apr 26 2012: No, but I have witnessed mass focused prayer which lacks the power to change a given situation. For a specific example, simply consider the moment in the church service where the preacher mentions a person in bad health and then leads the congregation in prayer, with the person dying shortly after.

    Prayer is a ritual that has far outlived its worth.

    • Ayoka Oyedeji

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      May 2 2012: There is a time and season for everything. Even for us as human. If someone is meant to die, prayer will not change it because it's the person's time. We have to understand that. Imagine what will happen in this world if all prayers are answered. There is an old movie (Bruce Almighty) that I suggest you watch. A part in that movie shows what happens when all prayers are answered. I pray that our prayers will always be answered, but there was a reason for that.
      The word of God is the same always and forever He will never go back in His words. And he said “for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name". His Mercies endures forever.
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    Simply Noor

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    Apr 26 2012: Nice to hear that.

    prayers do work. they work because of our capability of changing situation using our thoughts.
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