 22 Jan 2008 @ 04:25, by Astrid Ware
Posted by/A-d because I believe -just like James does in the Power -and hence necessity- of prayer, as well as in SYNERGY.... "The sum of the (Synergistic) Total, is greater than the sum of its parts" -or something like that... hehe...Consequently, I want as many as possible to join Redfield's Global Projects. You need to click on the link here. [ [link] ]
Also.... James says at the bottom of this article: " So keep passing the word. I believe we are making a big difference." ...and I believe he is right about that! : )
...and here is James! "When we think of prayer, questions always arise. If the divine creator behind this world is omnipotent, wouldn't this Being know what is needed before we do and give it to us? Why doesn't he? What is the purpose of prayer?
Some spiritual traditions deal with this issue by assuming God requires prayer as a test of loyalty or conviction before help is granted. Other traditions hold that prayer is merely an exercise in communication and reverent listening, and that all outcomes follow some divine plan and are outside our influence anyway.
But today, I believe a new consensus is forming based on our direct experience about prayer. Dr. Larry Dossey in his classic book, Healing Words: The Power of Prayer
and the Practice of Medicine, surveyed the best of existing prayer research and found several important findings: One is that the longer and more intensely people pray, the greater the effect. Another is that the greater the number of people praying, the more powerful the outcome.
But he also found something else: the more affirmative and faithful the prayer, the more it works, which may be the most important finding of all. Certainly a prayer in which we ask for help is effective, but there is something more powerful and centering that happens when we voice prayers in a more affirmative way.
Look at the Lord's Prayer in the Christian tradition for example. It is not, "Will you give us our daily bread?" It is expressed as an affirmation, "Give us our daily bread." It is not, "Please let your kingdom come." It is "Thy kingdom come," uttered as an expression of faith.
I think what we are discovering is that we have more influence in the outcomes of our lives than we ever thought possible. When we affirm that something will be given to us in our lives, or that some outcome will occur with others, we are directly engaging an energy of creation that flows through us into the world and acts to bring about our request. What seems to be happening spiritually is that we, in our free will, are placed in this world to help accelerate divine evolution. Like it or not, we are in a position of co-creation.
Thankfully, these affirmations or injunctions are weighted on the side of the good, and the just. I think we are finding that prayers outside a greater divine intention in the world don't work as well, but they still can have an influence, especially when we think and thus assign negative characteristics to others.
When we make negative assumptions about others, we actually feel the effects of the pronouncement in ourselves; it's like an energy of prayer that flows though us first as it flows into the world. Saying someone is crazy is to have a prayer effect that calls for them to be exactly that way, crazy. This tends to bring the exact same craziness into ourselves.
Never before have we so understood the old adage, "Be careful what you pray for." Our thoughts and prayers have the energy to bring into existence our intentions, and so our responsibility is clear. We have to engage only in positive affirmations in all situations -- in conversations, in our most hidden thoughts, and certainly in group efforts to amplify this power to uplift the world.
You'll notice in our biweekly prayer group that we pray for only one outcome: that others in the world will come closer to the divine within themselves and thus become more connected with divine intent and proper action in the world. This assumes that every person who opens up can be redeemed in an instant, and insures that our prayer will bring about the most positive outcomes without worrying that we are praying for the wrong things or for the wrong side in a conflict.
It's the only way to further human evolution in the world.
So keep passing the word. I believe we are making a big difference."
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Now that you've come this far; click on "more" and read Redfield's other article:
'The Emergence of Worldwide Prayer Networks'
By James Redfield
'The Emergence of
Worldwide Prayer Networks'
I recently had a friend tell me that I'd better be careful with my emphasis on following Synchronicity, because he had often experienced 'false synchronicities' -- events that seem to point toward a certain course of action but that later went nowhere, or worse, turned negative. I responded with my sincere belief that synchronicities are never false; it is our interpretations of those events that turn out to be hasty or self-serving. I believe that circumstances come together and get our attention to bring us a message. Unfortunately we often miss it altogether or see it only much later. That's why truly following a flow of synchronicity in our lives, while representing a more actualized level of human functioning, is still, at best, a kind detective story into ourselves.
Two keys in staying in a synchronistic flow that I often write about are worth mentioning again:
Be patient . . . Don't jump to conclusions
Always find a positive meaning . . . Look for a silver lining
Not jumping to conclusions is the easier of the two. It requires that we look at meaningful coincidences carefully and then patiently test our interpretations before firmly assigning a meaning. Often we have to presume a certain meaning for a while and again patiently wait to see if that course of action is confirmed. I believe if we are on the right track then other synchronicities will occur to validate what we are doing. The way you know if you 're on the correct path is that your life WORKS.
Of course, saying that it works is not to say that it is easy.
Sometimes, as we all know, each of us runs into problems or events that seem horrific and traumatic. Here's where the second factor comes in. To stay on the right path one must always find a positive interpretation for the events happening around us. This does not mean that we should agree with the events, or think that they were necessary for our growth, or that we should not wish that they hadn't happened. In fact, most events that one might ordinarily think of as negative represent a failure either by ourselves or someone else. If we were all functioning at the level of our higher potential then these problems could have been headed off. Look at any such event and this fact can be seen.
I'm talking about finding a message that speaks to us and helps us to move forward like any other synchronicity, a message that connects our souls with a higher source and vision, keeps our personal energies up and buoyant, and moves us past trauma.
Needless to say, what I'm talking about with all this is finding a higher message in the horror of what occurred in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington DC. Certainly the terrorism was an event that stunned and destroyed something in every one of us, and threatens to erode the very optimism and peacefulness that is at the heart of any spiritual path. For this reason we have to come to grips with where it has left us and the message that can allow our synchronistic work to move forward. For some, the message is to be more alert to dangers and find the ones capable of such murder. For others, the message is to seek atonement for our own personal isolationism, the willingness to let people around the world be homeless and in hunger and illness and susceptible to fanatics.
And while both are in part true, I believe a higher message is to see this abhorrence as a wake up call to inner/outer action. Saving the world cannot be thought of in the abstract any longer. And the way we must save the world is by acting on what we know about the inner life, especially the power of prayer. No event has evoked a larger call for all kinds of spiritual intercession. We seem to now know that we must fully begin a conscious and intentional intervention into the problems of the world with prayerful communion and visualization. Theorizing about it isn't enough any longer.
While no doubt in the days to come there will be many different groups initiating prayer, here is one way I believe we can proceed. What if we raised a spiritual force devoted to peaceful intervention, not just in the general way most of us already do, but specifically, with each of us at the same time using the same precise visualization aimed at uplifting specific people and groups that world events suggest could be key players in the drama against terrorism unfolding in the world? What might happen if we find thousands who would commit to this kind of intensive prayer, all at the same time, aimed at a specific target each week? Research suggests that the number of people and the intensity of participation matters.
Toward this end, we have begun such a prayer project, including any research that we can design to give us feedback on effectiveness. The key, of course, is the commitment and precise intention of the practitioners, so if your intuition leads you to become part of this, click here to learn more.
Let us create the largest, ongoing prayer group in the world....
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