PRAYER &

PSYCHOLOGY

Nishma.vmMS.c Applied Psychology

PRAYER The word prayer or prārthanā (in Sanskrit) is derived from two

words ‘pra’ and ‘artha’ meaning pleading fervently. In other words, it is asking God for something with intense yearning.

Prayer includes respect, love, pleading and faith. Through a prayer a devotee expresses his helplessness and endows the doership of the task to God. Giving the doership to God means that we acknowledge that God is helping us and getting the task done. Prayer is an important tool of spiritual practice in the generic spiritual path of Devotion.

PRAYER Many who said they pray about health

also told survey-takers they're using prayer as a supplement to their medical treatment, apparently hoping for the best of both worlds.

BENEFITS OF PRAYER

Action: All actions that are preceded by prayer for spiritual benefit are performed with spiritual emotion; hence fewer errors are committed. Thus by praying, various actions in one’s spiritual practice occur as per the way God or guru (The Guiding principle of God) would like them to happen.

Thought: Useless thoughts also cause wastage of energy. Prayer is an extremely useful tool to prevent this waste. Prayer reduces worry and enhances contemplation.

Attitude: A prayer done with spiritual emotion initiates the process of contemplation within a seeker, and this assists him in becoming introverted.

Enhances the potency of chanting the Name of Godrepeated prayers about being graced with quality chanting,

along with chanting the Name of God, helps in generation of spiritual emotion and makes our chanting reach God.

Divine help in spiritual practice: When a seeker sincerely prays to God to get a particular action/thought/attitude pertaining to his spiritual practice, done through him (the seeker), a seemingly impossible task is easily accomplished by the Guru’s grace.

Receiving forgiveness for mistakes: Having committed a mistake, if one makes a prayer and surrenders unto God or the Guru, then God or Guru forgives one for the mistake. However the prayer and surrender have to be commensurate in intensity with the mistake committed

Reducing the ego: While praying we plead before God; it is therefore the place where pride is abandoned and we humbly admit our need/human frailty as well as our dependence upon God. It therefore helps to reduce the ego faster.

Protection from negative energy: Prayer is a powerful tool that helps protect one from negative energy and creates an armour around oneself.

Increase in faith: When a prayer gets answered, faith in God or the Guru increases. Faith is the only currency on our spiritual journey.

DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF PREYER

Psychological Physiological Socio-cultural

PSYCHOLOGICAL Placebo effect:- a beneficial effect, produced by a

placebo drug or treatment, that cannot be attributed to the properties of the placebo itself, and must therefore be due to the patient's belief in that treatment.

Introspection

Self-fulfilling proffecy:- Predictions that, in a sence make themselves come true

Eg; When a seeker sincerely prays to God to get a particular action/thought/attitude pertaining to his spiritual practice, done through him (the seeker), a seemingly impossible task is easily accomplished by the Guru’s grace.

self-hypnosis:- It is a naturally occurring state of mind which can be defined as a heightened

state of focused concentration. With it, you can change your thinking, kick bad habits, and take control of the person you are -- along with relaxation and destressing from everyday life. It's similar to meditation, but results in a better you.

The research suggests that the average man and woman, through their everyday experiences with prayer and health shows improvement in their mental state, in other words, can promoted health.

PHYSIOLOGICAL

EMPIRICAL RESEARCH ON RELIGION AND PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC PROCESSES AND OUTCOMES: A 10-YEAR REVIEW AND RESEARCH PROSPECTUS. Worthington Jr. et,al in 1996 A decade of research on religion and counseling,

consisting of 148 empirical articles, was reviewed. Methodological sophistication, poor a decade ago, has approached current secular standards, except in outcome research. Religious people cannot be assumed to be mentally unhealthy. Nonreligious and religious counselors share most counseling-relevant values but differ in the value they place on religion. Those religious differences affect clinical judgment and behavior, especially with religious clients.

LONG-TERM ADJUSTMENT AFTER SURVIVING OPEN HEART SURGERY: THE EFFECT OF USING PRAYER FOR COPING REPLICATED IN A PROSPECTIVE DESIGN

  C.Paterson et.al at University of Pittsburgh

(May 20, 2010).short-term negative outcomes (depression and anxiety) among older adults following open heart surgery are partially alleviated when patients employ prayer as part of their coping strategy.

EFFECT OF ROSARY PRAYER AND YOGA MANTRAS ON AUTONOMIC CARDIOVASCULAR RHYTHMS: COMPARATIVE STUDY

Luciano Bernardy et, al (2001 December 22) in Europe

Result:Both prayer and mantra caused striking, powerful, and synchronous increases in existing cardiovascular rhythms when recited six times a minute. Baroreflex sensitivity also increased significantly, from 9.5 (SD 4.6) to 11.5 (4.9) ms/mm Hg, P<0.05.

conclusion:Rhythm formulas that involve breathing at six breaths per minute induce favourable psychological and possibly physiological effects.

SOCIO-CULTURAL

Belongingness Cohesiveness Entiativity Supportive system

TYPES OF PREYER

Meditation: moksha , internal pease

Silent preyer Not necessory to maintain a posture

Mass preyer Sound waves religious thought vibration

CONCLUSION What ever may be the way and

objective of the prayer, it tend to induce a level of positive mental state in the individual and better health condition become as a byproduct of those prayer practices.

http://www.wikihow.com/Perform-Self-Hypnosis