Life Challenges

Creative Ways to Transform Challenges:
Praying

No Best Way to Pray Larry Dossey

When someone in an audience asked a famous theologian how to pray, she responded, "It's so simple. Ask God." This is one of the most important pieces of advice about how to pray: We must discover the method that is best for us. In prayer, no formulas exist; there is no best way; one size does not fit all...

The studies I cite...not only show that prayer works, they also reveal clearly that there is more than one way to pray. A variety of methods are effective. One can pray for a specific outcome such as an increase in the immune system's activity. On the other hand, one can employ a general "Thy will be done" approach or simply pray, "May the best thing happen." One can use words or silence; one can pray at a distance or at the bedside. All these methods have yielded positive results when actually put to the test. There is even evidence that we can pray in our dreams. Therefore, although people throughout history have sought the one true way to pray, they have not succeeded, because a "prayer formula" does not exist.

This goes against our grain. In modern life we have come to believe overwhelmingly in experts who have the answers we need. In every category of human experience, consultants and specialists have sprung up like spring weeds...Surely, we tell ourselves, there must be people out there-ministers, priests, rabbis, saints, mystics-who know the best way to pray.

When it comes to prayer, we must be our own consultants. That does not mean we can't benefit from the observations and experiences of others. But at some point we must set their advice aside, plunge in, and discover our own unique approach to prayer.

From Prayer Is Good Medicine: How to Reap the Healing Benefits of Prayer, by Larry Dossey, M.D., Harper SanFrancisco, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., New York, 1996, pp. 136-139, For more information: www.harpercollins.com

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