Prayer does work. Study after study has scientifically proven that prayer affects reality. It’s not just something we hope will work. In one famous series of experiments, published by J. Barry in The Journal of Parapsychology (1968), mold was cultured in agar dishes, then stressed by an alcohol rinse that damaged the colonies without killing them. Some were prayed for, some weren’t. The ones that were prayed for did better! Mold does not have a psychological component. It doesn’t feel better because someone is praying for it. It is an extremely simple organism that lives in order to reproduce and further its species. Yet when humans pray for the well being of the organism, its survival rate increases. Prayer is a real energy force, and its power can be mighty.

James Redfield, author of The Celestine Prophecy, explores prayer energy in his most recent book, The Secret of Shambhala. The positive energy field created by sincere prayer, Redfield writes, "flows out from us and affects the world." One of the best ways to strengthen this prayer-energy is to control our consumption of fatty and processed foods, since poor nutrition drains energy from the body by lowering molecular vibrations. Redfield also emphasizes the awesome power of our own expectations. If we expect positive results from our prayers, if we expect our prayer fields to be contagious, if we expect heaven on earth, we are much more likely to achieve these things. In this sense, simple positive thinking is an important component of prayer.

Studies conducted by Stanley Krippner at San Francisco’s Saybrook Institute, and by Lawrence LeShan in Northhamptonshire, England, have shown that people who engage in genuine prayer will exhibit a medically discernible improvement in their condition 20% of the time. At first look, that number sounds pretty unimpressive. A medicine that works 20% of the time will not cause a stampede to the drug store. But take a second look at that figure. A medicine that works 20% of the time no matter what the illness is pretty impressive indeed. And the best thing about prayer is that it can be used in conjunction with any other therapy, whether it’s alternative, integrated, complimentary or traditional Western medicine. The question is not "does prayer work" but rather what kind of prayer works best.

Larry Dossey, an MD, well known for his many books on the intersection of prayer and medicine concludes that a state of prayerfulness is more important than prayer itself. By this he means that one must accept the world for what it is, and the world includes disease. Desperate prayers for personal recovery usually don’t work. If however, the afflicted person comes to accept the "rightness of whatever happens" no matter what the outcome, then they can begin to adopt this state of prayerfulness that makes serenity possible. I call this "actively surrendering"

The type of prayer associated with prayerfulness goes something like this:

Thank you God for the life I’ve enjoyed up to this moment. Thank you for the people I love and the people who love me. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to live a human life and to learn the lessons I have learned; if it is Your will that I recover from this affliction, then I thank you from the bottom of my heart, but if it is Your will that my path must now come to an end, then so be it. For my part I will continue to appreciate every drop of life that is granted to me. Amen.

Prayerfulness is not a kind of giving up. Rather, it is an active surrender to the will of God. Remember that God has given us our own free will. The power of choice provides us the free to commit good or evil as we wish. There is, however, a flow to the universe which among other things dictates that every day most will live and some will die. Active surrender means using that free will to accept the nature of the universe and do today what can be done today. The major theme of the Book of Hope is for you to take responsibility for your healing, find the right therapy for you and most importantly be at peace. Prayer can help.

You want it? You have it! You just have to allow yourself to feel it. Tapping into your higher source of love will open the access to healing yourself.

A Ph.D. friend of mine wrote her doctoral thesis on the relationship between emotions and cancer. What she found amazed her and her medical professors. She found that 90% of patients with cancer experience the emotion ANGER. This is a breakthrough finding. The cause and effect relationship is still unclear. Do cancer patients get angry, or do angry people get cancer? I believe the anger comes first. The emotional energy body is affected by the anger, which eventually shows up in the physical energy body in the form of cancer. She concluded that to counteract anger, you must embrace LOVE.