The Power of Prayer

[Unkotare]

An interesting article:

Scientists Find One Source of Prayer?s Power - Scientific American


"The religious find strength through God; this we know. But a new study conducted by Prof. Malt Friese and Michaela Wanke suggests that even non-believers can get in on the action. In a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, they present evidence showing how and why prayer might increase anyone’s ability to resist temptation. Though we can all agree that to do so requires self-control, the authors propose that the source of such control might not be supernatural. Instead, it might come from something more earthly. Something accessible to even the most devoted atheist: social connection."


It seems the faithful experience prayer as a social connection with God, and enjoy the cognitive benefits accordingly.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Depends on how prayer is being defined. Namely whether it involves a conscious being like a god hearing and responding to it, or whether the term is limited to an individual or group of people 'group thinking' towards a common goal. I've read articles claiming physical manifestations from prayer like lowering the crime rate in Washington DC after collective/intercessory prayer. But whether that was some kind of mass positive-thinking influencing reality through some kind of quantum physics mechanism, or a god responding favorably I don't know. I would say though that whether it's thought of as prayer, biofeedback, or physics, what we think of as 'prayer' can indeed effect physical reality. Nearest precedent in physics is quantum entanglement, where two particles though seperated by vast distances reflect one another's changes though no direct connection enabling communication exists. Further, if physical reality changes simply by observing it (physics double-slit experiments) then thought is in fact capable of changing reality. So 'prayer' might simply be a term we use incorrectly to some natural physical phenomenae we only barely understand.