Prayer Thoughts, The Placebo Effect, and The Law Of Attraction
What exactly is prayer? How does it work? Does it work at all?
There have been studies done on prayer to determine its effectiveness. But the problem with testing prayer lies in defining the parameters of it clearly enough to provide consistency. Given the lack of defined prayer parameters, the results of prayer have been mixed when tested in the laboratory.
What exactly is prayer? I think prayer is simply the communication of a person to a Higher Power. And this communication is usually in the form of praise, petition, or gratitude. In conducting studies, researchers should focus on examining the petition prayers, since these prayers are more goal-directed than the other prayers, allowing these prayers to be easier to test.
How does prayer work? The workings of prayer can be explained psychologically (e.g., the relationship among thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and environments), biologically (e.g., the placebo effect), or metaphysically (e.g., the law of attraction).
In the area of psychology, researchers have proven that there is a strong relationship among thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and environments. Modern psychotherapy is based on this premise.
Modern psychotherapy attempts to change a person's thoughts about a problem, thereby changing the person's feelings about the problem, thereby changing the person's behaviors regarding the problem, finally causing the person's situation to change.
Since prayer changes the thoughts of the person praying, this psychological explanation can explain how prayer works.
In the area of biology, researchers have observed the phenomenon called the placebo effect. The placebo effect tends to occur if a person receives a drug or some other treatment, and believes that this drug or treatment is going to have a positive effect, even though the drug or treatment is actually useless.
The reason why the person feels better after taking the useless drug is due to chemical/hormonal changes that occur within his body from merely believing that he's better. Therefore, a so-called "pain-relieving" pill will actually relieve his headache, a so-called "anti-anxiety" pill will actually calm him down, and a so-called "stimulant" pill will actually give him more energy.
Since people who pray tend to believe that prayers produce positive results, this biological explanation can explain how prayer works.
In the area of metaphysics, practitioners have spoken much about the law of attraction. The law of attraction states that like attracts like. In other words, if you consistently think positive thoughts, positive events will be attracted to you like a magnet. And if you consistently think negative thoughts, negative events will be attracted to you like a magnet.
What causes this sort of magnetism? According to the law of attraction, every thought vibrates on a particular frequency. And if you think a particular thought long enough, it's going to attract outside events that vibrate on the same frequency as the thought that you're thinking.
Since prayer involves consistently thinking particular thoughts, this metaphysical explanation can explain how prayer works.
So you see, prayer can be explained scientifically and theoretically. This article explained what prayer is and how it may work scientifically and theoretically. Since prayer has strong scientific and theoretical backing, it most likely works and it most likely works well.
In this article, I'm not denying the intervention of God or angelic beings. I do believe in God. And I believe that He does intervene in this reality. Nevertheless, discussions of God and angelic beings go beyond science and theory.
"Pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17).
