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The Power of Prayer/Collective Thought

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Posted 4/8/2013 10:39 PM (GMT 0)
Have any of you witnessed results that you were pretty sure were prayer related? Do you believe in prayer as helping to heal oneself or others?

***Edit: So this post doesn't get too religious, I am basically asking if in general you or anyone you know has noticed healing from having others care about you, and possibly pray... even if they weren't near you.
Posted 4/8/2013 10:45 PM (GMT 0)
I very much believe in prayer, I believe the mind has total control over what happens in the body, too. Since I have become very much in tune with god, my colitis has toned down.
Posted 4/8/2013 10:48 PM (GMT 0)
I had everyone i knew pray for me all the time. My bowel perforated and i had an emergency total collectomy. So that didn't work out well. However, I am atheist, and I went through 3 big surgeries, and now im living with bone disease because of my UC. But i love life. Why? Positive attitude. I don't think religion has much to do with the outcomes so much as your mind. If you constantly have a positive outlook and are looking at the best of the worst, then the best will find you.
Posted 4/8/2013 11:06 PM (GMT 0)
Nope. But my ex used to tell me I could pray away my UC. Yeah, we didn't stay together for long. Lol.
Posted 4/8/2013 11:36 PM (GMT 0)
I've never asked anyone not to pray for me...
Posted 4/9/2013 12:32 AM (GMT 0)
I'm also atheist however I am spiritual. But if someone wants to pray for me, than more power to them because we can use all the help we can get no matter where it comes from.

But please keep in mind, that if this posts gets too religious I am going to have to lock it per forum rules.
Posted 4/9/2013 12:42 AM (GMT 0)
I do not believe in it. I think positive thinking can be helpful but I don't relate that to prayer. I guess this question could be rephrased to "are you religious?" :)
Posted 4/9/2013 12:51 AM (GMT 0)
i talk to whoever is up there and ask for things to happen or things to change. i'm not religious at all but i've had a few weird things happen to me in the hospital that i can't explain.

i saw "god" in the ER once. looking back, i know i was delusional but he was wearing a green shirt, was bald, and had wings. he was lifting me up and then pressing me back into the bed.

the other thing is weirder though. i had just woken up from a colonoscopy and was still laying on my left side. i felt someone's hand rubbing my back. i looked up and nobody was there.
Posted 4/9/2013 12:52 AM (GMT 0)
I talk to GOD also. I ask him to smite this disease and cure me.
Posted 4/9/2013 12:59 AM (GMT 0)
"Nope. But my ex used to tell me I could pray away my UC. Yeah, we didn't stay together for long. Lol."

As a conservative Christian I say man, that's nuts, good job dumping him haha. Also, I don't think you sinned to get UC (or me) or that if I didn't I would be cured. It's a Fallen world and things happen. There's not always a cosmic grand plan to the inflammation around my splenic flexure.

I find it highly annoying that 99% of 'prayer requests' concern illnesses, to be honest. I do believe in (supernatural) healing and healing thru prayer. As Christians or Jews, the main point is to love others and make Him more known by displaying His love through you, reflecting His image. So if you take that as your starting point, my Crohn's disease really isn't that big of a deal, even from my own frame of reference. Yes I could be healed I suppose, but to even focus on that 24/7 would be antithetical to what I should focus on. My fiancee is going to Ukraine for a mission trip this summer, I would expect that to be a situation to foster more miracles than prayers for healing. IMHO.

To your specific question, when I was seven, a dog bit me in three places on my face and after the operation it was found it was highly infected and they were going to have to remove the stitches and clean it out and redo it. The next day they found the infection was totally gone. Was there anything supernatural in that? Possibly. Would i have preferred to not be bitten in the first place? You bet.

I am a huge believer in positive thinking. I practice it daily on my Crohn's. If you haven't seen the movie What the Bleep Do We Know?, you should watch it. I feel like there is a lot of cock and bull pseudoscience in it but it's still good. You have to separate the wheat from the chaff to use a biblical phrase, haha.

Post Edited (Levi) : 4/8/2013 7:02:16 PM (GMT-6)

Posted 4/9/2013 1:12 AM (GMT 0)
I am not sure that the gods are willing to cure me. For one thing getting IBD in the first place may have been a desperate act to finally cure me of junk foods. Think of how much soda, donuts, and pizza I have avoided for the past 5 years because I was afraid of rekindling a flare.

My guardian angel, (or is it my guardian demon. Not sure which witch is which, LOL), is keeping me on a tight leash so that I have no choice but to be good and avoid the junk. Otherwise it is straight to flarestown. devil
Posted 4/9/2013 1:26 AM (GMT 0)
Hopefully this post doesn't get too religious, Red! After I posted it I realized it could swing that way, but I was curious.

My mom isn't religious, but she's an RN at a nursing home and has some empirical experience making her lean towards spirituality and the power of prayer.

I asked this post because my gf's mom who is very conservative and religious was talking to me about praying for me, and it felt good to have her doing it. That's all.

If I ever need praying for, I'd say it's time for it to happen right now!
Posted 4/9/2013 1:31 AM (GMT 0)
I'm not sure what you mean by "results." If you are talking about attitude results then my answer is a resounding YES!!! But if you are talking about physical results, the answer is no.

Attitude meaning feeling peaceful, feeling happy, feeling hopeful...regardless of our physical state. Some people who have cancer are miserable and hate the world and everything about it. Yet others who have exactly the same cancer are happy, laugh on occasion, and are hopeful for their future. So what is the difference?!

The difference is a belief knowing that this isn't really "home." And...we are destined for a better place.

John
Posted 4/9/2013 1:33 AM (GMT 0)
I believe prayer. Along the lines of what Levi said, while my UC is bad for me, in the scheme of things it is very minor. Each morning I pray for my young adult sons and my hardworking husband. I have prayed for those on this site who are far worse than I am.

Do I believe UC is some sort of punishment for a committed sin? Not at all. Do I believe God can use this affliction for some greater good? Absolutely. In fact, probably the most read material during my bathroom visits happens to be the Bible. I had said for years that I wanted to make time for daily devotions and to read the Bible through. Thanks to UC , I have succeeded in both.
Posted 4/9/2013 1:40 AM (GMT 0)
Oh.. as for my prayer experience... In 2003 after just 2 years of marriage, my husband contracted West Nile. For days, he had severe headache due to meningitis, off the chart fever and truly was on death's door. One night in the hospital, I was sitting by his bed when I heard a voice state 'you know he wants to die". It was as clear as if someone was standing right behind me. i prayed that God allow him to live. I prayed really hard. That night his fever broke. I will never forget that voice.
Posted 4/9/2013 2:21 AM (GMT 0)

46&crashing said...
I had said for years that I wanted to make time for daily devotions and to read the Bible through. Thanks to UC , I have succeeded in both.

That's great!

I've sure made a lot of barhroom remodeling plans :)
Posted 4/9/2013 2:27 AM (GMT 0)
Eh, I think that often there may be a placebo effect, if you believe in the power of prayer and you know there are people praying for you. But I don't think there's any real effect.
Posted 4/9/2013 2:34 AM (GMT 0)
I personally want to believe in the power of prayer and/or others wishing things to improve for you.

One night years ago my I went for a drive. I knew my friend and his wife had little chance of conceiving, and all the sudden somehow the drive became about them. I got a brilliant flash of insight about how badly a person could want a child of their own, and just for that night I felt it deep within me. I went home, said a deeply caring prayer (I'm not religious even), and sent them a card.

Not long at all after that they were pregnant!

It could definitely be seen as coincidence, but who knows. I personally feel there's something to the effect of a collective unconscious helping direct healing in the world. But, I completely respect those that don't believe it, too.
Posted 4/9/2013 2:36 AM (GMT 0)
Thoreau, to answer your question: absolutely!

There have been so many instances where my prayers and others who prayed over me (my mother) have been answered. Going through an exhaustive bout of suffering with joint pain last summer led me to breaking down, and my mom helped me get through it and prayed over me. Pain disappeared within a day, and never occurred again until fall. Since tapering Asacol, I have no joint pain at all.

There's been times where i've prayed that I could do well on a 12 hour film set, without having IBD issues, traveling to see friends or spending the night, and even recently, about getting back on the love train again after a long period without. ;)

I wouldn't say i'm religious, but God is there for me when I need him, for anything. I have faith, and I truly believe that's what got me through a lot of this. Every day now I feel blessed.
Posted 4/9/2013 2:52 AM (GMT 0)
These are good stories. Thank you! I think I am just in the mood for stories of hope, of determination and the way positive attitudes have helped heal, sometimes in almost miraculous ways.

Red, if you think any of this is offensive to people with solely secular beliefs then you can lock it. I don't want to offend anyone. But, I'm finding it uplifting... and I'm not of any affiliation. I just tell people that I'm human, haha.
Posted 4/9/2013 3:19 AM (GMT 0)
You know, the creator of the universe is obviously pretty clever when you look around and see the beauty and order in creation, and is therefore able to understand what we are going through and what we need without us even asking. In that sense prayer seems somewhat redundant.

For me, prayer is a way to "get with the program", to focus on what I should be doing for other people, and not to focus on my specific needs. For that reason I prefer to pray for the needs of others. There are many people suffering with worse things than what I am going through.
Posted 4/9/2013 3:35 AM (GMT 0)
Just gonna leave this Epicurus quote here...

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?
Posted 4/9/2013 4:17 AM (GMT 0)
Atheist. Also very scientific. I don't believe in prayer.
Posted 4/9/2013 4:29 AM (GMT 0)
Wow, are there any moderators that aren't atheists?

Anyway, I love this quote from Einstein:

Albert Einstein said...

"We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many different languages. The child knows someone must have written those books . It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn't know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God. We see a universe marvelously arranged and obeying certain laws, but only dimly understand these laws. Our limited minds cannot grasp the mysterious force that moves the constellations."

Posted 4/9/2013 4:32 AM (GMT 0)
I'm with Madcat on this. I think those that wish to believe prayer will help them is all fine, whatever helps you get through each day and although I'm not religious, I don't hold it against anyone that is, only the ones that try and push it down my throat.

Life isn't perfect as we all know, and as bad as IBD is to live with on a daily basis, there are a lot worse things that many are living with...but I will be glad when my time on this earth is done...then I'll finally be cured!
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