The Lost Mode of Prayer

The Lost Mode of Prayer
Excerpt from Awakening the Power of a Modern God
Hay House/Nightingale-Conant, 2005

"If prayer is so powerful, then why does it seem like the more we pray for peace, for example, the worse things seem to become?" Without bias or judgment, is it possible that what we see as an unsettled world of chaos is simply the Field, the Divine Matrix, mirroring our belief that peace is missing—our "please, let there be peace" echoed back to us as the chaos of life? If so, then the really good news is that our newfound understanding of how the mirror works encourages us to change what we say to the Field!

This is why the lost mode of prayer can make such a powerful contribution to our lives. Whether we’re talking about a lasting relationship, the perfect job, or the healing of disease, the principle is the same. We’re simply reminded that the "stuff" that underlies all of creation is a malleable essence that reflects what we feel! So what we choose to create, we must first feel as a reality. If we can feel it in our hearts—not just think it, but also really feel it—then it’s possible in our lives!

In the example of peace, for instance, we know that it always exists and is present somewhere! The same is true for health and happiness; they always exist somewhere, or have existed, in some form in our lives. The key is to hone in on these positive qualities of our experience, viewing the world as it already is, with appreciation and gratitude. By doing so, we open the door to a greater possibility. We have already seen what happens when millions of people pray for peace to come to our world. What would happen if millions of people felt the feelings of gratitude and appreciation for the peace that’s already here? Certainly it’s worth a try!

In 1972, 24 cities in the United States with populations over 10,000 experienced meaningful changes in their communities when as few as 1 percent (100 people) participated. These and similar studies led to a landmark study, the International Peace Project in the Middle East, which was published in the Journal of Conflict Resolution in 1988.1

During the Israeli-Lebanese war of the early 1980s, researchers trained a group of people to "feel" peace in their bodies rather than simply to think about peace in their minds or pray "for" peace to occur.

On specific days of the month, at specific times of each day, these people were positioned throughout the war-torn areas of the Middle East. During the window of time that they were feeling peace, terrorist activities stopped, crimes against people declined, emergency room visits declined, and traffic accidents dropped.

When the people stopped their feelings, the statistics reversed. These studies confirmed the earlier findings; when a small percentage of the population achieved peace within themselves, that peace was reflected in the world around them.

The findings took into account the days of the week, holidays, and even lunar cycles, and data were so consistent that the researchers were able to identify how many people are needed to share the experience of peace before peace is mirrored in their world. The number is the square root of 1 percent of the population. This formula produces numbers that are smaller than we might expect. For example, in a city of 1 million people, the number is about 100. In a world of 6 billion people, the number is only about 8,000! This number represents only the minimum needed to begin the process. The more the people, the faster an effect is created.

While these and similar studies obviously deserve more exploration, they show that there’s an effect here that’s beyond chance. The quality of our innermost beliefs clearly influences the quality of our outer world. This is where the workshop really begins!

There are beautiful and wild forces within us. - St Francis of Asisi

Behind the existence of all matter is a conscious and intelligent mind - this mind is the matrix of all matter. - Max Planck, "father" of quantum

There is something "out there." Just beyond our perceptions of the everyday world there’s a presence, or force, that’s at once both mysterious and comforting.

We talk about it. We feel it. We believe in it and pray to it, perhaps without even understanding precisely what it is! A series of groundbreaking experiments in the last decade of the Twentieth Century unveil dramatic and undeniable evidence of a previously unrecognized form of energy, a Divine Matrix, that appears to link each member of our global family, creation, and the events of our lives in unexpected and empowering ways. From the success and failure of our careers and relationships, to family health and the peace of our world, these studies add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that we may actively participate in the outcome of the personal, as well as global, events of our lives. Reported by leading research institutions of our day, the experiments shake the foundation of traditional science, documenting that:

* All of creation is bathed and connected through a field of subtle energy.
* We "speak" directly to this field through emotion, beliefs, and prayer.
* Through this field we are part of the healing in our bodies, and the peace in our families, communities and nations.

Calling it by names that vary from the Web of Creation to the Spirit of God, ancient traditions knew this presence exists. They also knew how to apply it in their lives.

In the words of their time, they left detailed instructions to the people of their future describing how we may use this invisible force to heal our bodies and relationships, and bring peace to our world; they are all part of the same force. Today we know the language connects all three as a "lost" mode of prayer.

Unlike the traditional prayers that we may have used in the past, however, this technique of prayer has no words. It is based in the silent language of human emotion. It invites us to feel gratitude and appreciation, as if our prayers have already been answered. Through this quality of feeling, the ancients believed that we are given direct access to the power of creation: the Spirit of God.

In the 20th century, modern science may have rediscovered the spirit of God as a field of energy that is different from any other form of energy. It appears to be everywhere, always, and to have existed since the beginning of time. Just as the ancients suggested, the Field responds to human emotion!

Regardless of what we call it or how science and religion define it, it is clear that there is something out there—a force, a field, a presence—that is the "great magnet" constantly pulling us toward one another and connecting us to a higher power. Knowing that this force exists, it makes tremendous sense that we would be able to communicate with it in a way that is meaningful and useful in our lives. Ultimately, we may discover that the same power that heals our deepest hurts and creates peace between nations holds the key to our survival as a species.


The Lost Mode of Prayer
Summary

Modern prayer researchers currently identify four modes of prayer used in the west today. Does an additional mode exist? Is there a fifth mode of prayer that allows us to participate in the outcome of the events within our bodies as well as the world around us? Recent findings in remote temple sites where these traditions remain today, combined with new research into some of the most sacred and esoteric traditions of our past, lead me to believe that the answer is "Yes!"
Much of our conditioning in western traditions for the last one and one half millennia has invited us to "ask" that specific circumstances in our world change through divine intervention; that our prayers be answered. In our well-intentioned asking, however, we may unknowingly empower the very conditions that we are praying to change. For example, when we ask, "Dear God, please let there be peace in the world," in effect we are stating that peace does not exist in the present. Ancient traditions remind us that prayers of asking are one form of prayer, among other forms, that empower us to find peace in our world through the quality of thought, feeling and emotion that we create in our body. Once we allow the qualities of peace in our mind and fuel our prayer through feelings of peace in our body, the fifth mode of prayer states that the outcome has already happened.
Quantum science now takes this idea one step further, stating that it is precisely such conditions of feeling that creation responds to, by matching the feeling (prayer) of our inner world with like conditions in our outer world. Though the outcome of our prayer may not yet be apparent in our outer world, we are invited to acknowledge our communion with creation and live as if our prayer has already been answered.
Through the words of another time, the ancients invited us to embrace our lost mode of prayer as a consciousness that we become, rather than a prescribed form of action that we perform upon occasion. In words that are as simple as they are elegant, we are reminded to be "surrounded" by the answer to our prayers and "enveloped" by the conditions that we choose to experience. In the modern idiom, this description suggests to us that to effect change in our world, we are invited to first have the feelings of the change having happened.
As modern science continues to validate a relationship between our thoughts, feelings and dreams with the world that surrounds us, it becomes more likely that a forgotten bridge links our prayers with that of our experience. The beauty of such an inner technology is that it is based upon human qualities that we already possess. From the prophets who saw us in their dreams, we are reminded that in honoring all life, we accomplish nothing less than the survival of our species and the future of the only home we know.

Comparing Modes of Prayer Through the Example of Global Peace

Logic-based prayer: asking for intervention

1. We Focus upon present conditions where we believe that peace does not exist.

2. We may feel helpless, powerless or angry at the events and conditions that we are witness to.

3. We employ our prayer of asking by inviting divine intervention from a higher power to bring peace to bear upon individuals, conditions and places where we believe that peace is absent.

4. Through our asking, we may unknowingly affirm the very conditions that we least desire. When we say ìPlease let there be peace,î for example, we are declaring that peace is not present in a particular situation. In doing so, we may actually fuel the condition that we have chosen to change.

5. We continue to ask for intervention until we see the change actually come to pass in our world.

Feeling-based prayer: knowing that our
prayer is already answered

1. We witness all events, those of peace and those that we see as the absence of peace, as possibilities without judgement of right, wrong, bad or good.

2. We release our judgement of the situation by Blessing those conditions that have caused us pain. The Blessing does not condone or consent to the event or condition. Rather, it acknowledges that the event is part of the single source of all that is. (Please see the book, Walking Between the Worlds: The Science of Compassion, for details.)

3. By feeling the feelings of our prayer already answered, we demonstrate the ancient quantum principle stating that the conditions of peace within our bodies are mirrored in the world beyond our bodies.

4. We acknowledge the power of our prayer and know (feel) that the focus of our prayer has already come to pass.

5. Our prayer now consists of

a. acknowledging the peace already is present in our world by living from the knowledge that such changes have occurred.
b. empowering our prayer by giving thanks for the opportunity to choose peace over suffering.



Five hundred years before the birth of Christ, a mysterious group of scholars formed communities to honor an ancient teaching that began before history as we know it. Collectively known as the Essenes, Roman and Jewish historians referred to the members of this spiritual tradition as "a race by themselves, more remarkable than any other in the world." The underlying wisdom of many Essene traditions pre-dates the dominant traditions of their day and is traced through ancient writings to at least 4,000 years BC. Key elements of nearly every major belief system existing in the world today, including those of China, Tibet, Egypt, India, Palestine, Greece, even those of the American Desert Southwest, appear to have common roots in this ancient lineage of wisdom. Additionally, many of the great spiritual traditions of the western world, as different as they appear from one another today, appear to have originated from this lineage of wisdom, including the Free Masons, Gnostics, Christians, and the Kabalists. Also known as the "Elect" and the "Chosen Ones", the Essenes were the first people to openly condemn slavery, the use of servants, and the killing of animals for food. Viewing physical labor as a healing communion with the Earth, they were agriculturists, living close to the land that gave them life. The Essenes viewed prayer as the language through which to honor nature and the creative intelligence of the cosmos--they made no distinction between the two.

Their prayers were practiced on a regular basis. The first prayer of the day was offered upon arising in the pre-dawn darkness to work in the fields. These were followed by prayers before and after each meal, and again upon retiring at the end of the day. The Essenes viewed their practice of prayer as an opportunity to participate in the creative process of their lives, rather than a structured ritual required of them throughout the day.
During their time, the Essenes proved themselves to be meticulous scholars, recording and documenting their traditions for the generations of a future that they could only imagine. Perhaps the best example of their work may be seen in the hidden libraries that they left throughout the world. Like methodically-placed time capsules, their manuscripts provide snapshots into the thinking of an ancient people and a forgotten wisdom. What is their message to us today?

In the words of their time, Essene scholars appealed to those who would find their texts to remember that "the Earth is in us", that "we are in her", and that the two of us are intimately enmeshed in all that we experience. New translations of Essene documents from the Dead Sea caves illustrate even greater, and sometimes unexpected depths, of their author's understanding.

The motivation for the ceremonies, rituals, and lifestyle of early Essene communities was their deep conviction honoring the living thread that binds all life, throughout all worlds. Essene masters viewed our bodies as a convergence point through which the forces of creation merge to express the will of God. They considered our time together in this world as an opportunity to heal the memories of anger, rage, jealousy and hatred--the very experiences that we sometimes shun and judge in our lives. It is through such experiences, that we hone the qualities of love, compassion, and forgiveness that elevate us to the greatest expressions of our humanness. For this reason, they regarded our bodies as a sacred place, a soft and vulnerable temple for our soul.

Interestingly, the Qumran scholars focused upon a particular place within the body, rather than the body itself as the landscape of divine expression. Echoed through the words of the Essene Gospel of Peace, we are reminded that through our bodies we have "inherited a Holy Land...this land is not a field to be plowed, but a place within us where we may build our holy temple."

Within the innermost recesses of ancient temples are found the most sacred portions of the sanctuary. Often small in comparison to the rest of the structure, timeworn scriptures refer to the single room embedded within winding corridors and preparatory shrines as the beth elohim, the holy of holies. It is in the holy of holies that the invisible world of spirit touches the physical matter of our world.

Carrying this metaphor from the hard temples of stone to the soft temples of life, our body must have a holy of holies as well. Perhaps in a manner that modern science is just beginning to understand, the innermost portion of our living temples represents a sacred place where the body of matter is touched by the breath of spirit. Does such a place exist within us? In a remarkable report published from the 3rd Annual Conference of The International Society for the Study of Subtle Energies and EnergyMedicine, scientists documented the non-physical force of emotion actually changing the physical molecule of DNA.

Based in rigorous testing of individuals capable of emotional self-management, as well as control subjects without any specialized training, the study reported that, "Individuals trained in generating focused feelings of deep love...were able to intentionally cause a change in the conformation (shape) of the DNA (italics and parenthesis are author's)". Specific qualities of emotion, produced at will, determined to what degree and how tightly the two strands of the molecule of life were coiled! Confirming the long-held suspicion that emotion greatly affects our health and quality of life, these reports now demonstrate, perhaps for the first time, that emotion is a missing link, a direct line of communication to the very core of life itself. Could the Dead Sea Scroll references to a "holy land..the place within us where we may build our temple," be a description of the actual cells of our bodies? If this is the case, then each cell within the temple of our bodies is, by definition, a holy of holies. Each cell must be considered sacred!

The understandings gleaned from something as unlikely as twenty-three hundred year old texts, now validated by twentieth-century science, may be considered as a kind of biological unified theory. Beyond science, religion, and mystic traditions, we have no name for our revised world view as yet. Echoing the traditions of ages past, such perspectives are reminiscent of the words held for so long by so many; "We are all connected." "We are all expressions of one life." "We are all the same one."