This treatise will take a broader approach to the definition and use of prayer. Prayer, for our purposes, is any process that connects us to the Divine Essence or opens us to a more expanded state of awareness and insight. This definition is based on the understanding that the focus of prayer is twofold. First, we pray to connect and communicate with the Divine. Second, we pray to alter our state of consciousness. Through our attempt to connect, we enter into a state of consciousness where we strive to expand our awareness and open more fully to Divine presence. We stretch ourselves to commune with the Divine. Therefore, our use of prayer will include both traditional Western prayers such as are used in the Christian, Jewish, or Moslem services, and it will also include non-traditional or Eastern prayer such as methods of meditation, contemplation, and attunement with Divine presence. It will additionally address transpersonal prayer that includes journaling, imagery, dialog, affirmation, and invocation.

All relationships change us, and a relationship with God is no different. Prayer is powerful because it allows us to enter into a relationship with God or the Divine. By entering into this relationship, we open more fully to ourselves, we deepen our self-awareness, we learn how to handle life’s challenges, and we increase our understanding of others. Prayer changes us as any communication changes us. When we communicate, we place ourselves in varying levels of vulnerability. When we risk intimacy and are vulnerable with others, we change ourselves. Taking the risk to be open and vulnerable and the risk to be rejected or ridiculed opens us to expansion and greater awareness.

When we come to God with that strength of intention, we open ourselves to the Divine mystery, the unknown and unknowable. The greater the risk we take, the more expanded we become. When we open, with pure vulnerability, trust, and faith, we meet the Divine Presence on its own ground, and we are changed in the process. Prayer can bring us to the very ecstatic states of God Consciousness and God Awareness. We become one with the Consciousness of God, because we are willing to risk everything we believe ourselves to be.

Prayer changes our physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual state. When the force and focus of prayer is strong, we enter into a state of belief and knowing, and we open to the ability to receive. Prayer itself does not possess this force. Prayers uttered without the individual’s strength of will and firm belief in self are merely empty words. Words do not hold the power. It is the intention or creative force of the person who utters the words. Prayer simply directs us inward to our deeper selves, and it unites us with the greater power inside ourselves. It opens us as a channel of this power. Prayer also links the inner force of the creative Self with the object that one desires. It allows us to make and manifest our spiritual goals.

Prayer must be used carefully. An individual who is at an earlier stage of ego development has not prepared himself for this level of vulnerability. This depth of awareness strips away everything that a person believes himself to be. Such stripping away of our identity, before we are prepared to do so, can lead to a psychotic break or spiritual emergency. Preparation for such Divine revelation must proceed in developmental stages. Eastern traditions prepare the disciple though long and rigorous steps before allowing the space for such powerful insight. Traditional prayer that is based on religious or spiritual teachings is constructed to leave little chance for such ecstatic states until the petitioner has had time to develop the inner awareness and spiritual strength that prepares him for the journey to the center of God Consciousness.

Next