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| Introduction This is a practical manual. There is very little theory in it. When you enter a dark room, do you usually sit down and ponder the physics of light and the laws of electricity, or do you just turn the switch on? There are numerous studies and books replete with scientific data and clinical evidence proving that prayer and meditation do facilitate healing. In our exercise, however, all such data is unnecessary. In fact, it can slow down the process of healing, because it appeals mainly to the intellect. Intellect or the conscious phase of your mind is precisely the factor that the exercise is designed to suspend temporarily in order to allow the healing energy of Spirit to flow freely into the area to be healed. The main impediment in the way of any prayer is too much intellect and too little devotion. If we do not pray at all or pray without intensity and devotion, it is not what we consciously want to happen in our life that does happen—it is what we believe to be true of ourselves and others deep in our subconscious mind. Our reality perfectly matches the complex interior belief system that we are not even aware of most of the time. If you want to know what exactly you have accumulated in your subconscious mind, just look inside and around you and take an honest inventory of your life. Are you happy, healthy, prosperous, optimistic? Through regular prayer and meditation you can change any belief recorded in your subconscious mind, which in turn will change the external condition. Cultivating a close intimate relationship with the presence of God within us is absolutely vital. Even devout spiritual seekers often become caught up in sensory information that bombards us during the course of a day and forget about the Presence. But most people are totally unaware of it, even though they may consider themselves to be believers. They tend to think, feel, act and enjoy various sensory delights as if there is no God sustaining their very life, providing at every moment of their life the energy for every thought, feeling, and act. Any belief recorded in our subconscious mind that is less than the truth of our eternal oneness with the presence of God appears as a darker pattern to the ever-present light of Spirit. The Light can only reach us through our subconscious mind. The totality of Divine Grace is always available to us, but it can only reach us if it finds beliefs and qualities in our subconscious mind that are similar to its own nature. Erroneous patterns overlap and sometimes make our mind almost completely impenetrable to the Light. By a regular spiritual effort—meditation, prayer, and remembrance of the Presence—we let more Light in, which loosens and dislodges the hardened layers and eventually erases them. Next chapter |
| © 2003-2006 by S&T Publishing. All rights reserved. |
| Guide to Effective Prayer |