I happened to hear of the disaster when the earthquakes, and then tsunami, struck. I'm part of a prayer-team around the world, so the first thing that happened was phone calls and to alert each other to get to it. All the same ...
I went straight into prayers of my own kind; and I believe they do work. People who are incarnate on Earth have the ability to work with angels, IMHO, and to help good things happen; whereas if we were not alive on Earth we wouldn't have the same physical connection to physical events unfolding.
But I was seeing the images of the tsunami rolling in. So how to pray about that? - since it was actually happening, and it was a fact? First of all I had to free my mind of negativity, in order for prayer to be positive and for the angels to use to good effect. But my post here is about the fact that I believe that detail in prayer is important. For example, you can pray till kingdom come for "peace on earth" - but it's so general that it'll do a bit of good but there is no detail there in the science about how human prayers are used by angels and elementals.
So as the whole thing was unfolding Friday/Saturday I wondered how to pray? And what for specifically? What do other people think?
I went through various stages. I prayed for angels to give people the intuition to know the right thing to do to save themselves. Then, realising the number of casualties, I prayed for angels to keep hearts beating where situations might be 50-50, life or death. I took an overview, and prayed for rescue services to get there as soon as possible. I believe elemental life is behind natural disasters (unfortunately carrying in their forms the bad karma of humanity's free will), so prayed for angels and elemental Hierarchs to bring peace to elementals involved - but, since the tsunami waves were already happening, what were the chances of stopping them? Well, a person such as Jesus could stop any wave or any natural occurance, so I prayed too for the waves to just stop. But I am not Jesus, and possibly none of us are of that level of ability.
I ended up simply sending my energy to the Angels who undoubtedly, in my world-view, were in control of rescue wherever such was possible. Giving my will over to them, to use the energy as they saw fit and knew to be the best way.
Realising that there would be tens of thousands of deaths, I also spent time praying for the healing of passed-on souls, so that they would quickly be healed of fears and trauma, believing as I do that they will reincarnate.
But I must admit that I was at something of a loss. How do other people feel? I could see the waves rolling in virtually live on TV or the net. They didn't stop, and the people are passed on.
Now, I have no doubt whatsoever in the power of prayer, that is not the issue for me, and I know that the Angels wait upon us all the time to pray - especially for this situation still unfolding. But once a disaster like this is underway, and you can actually see it on TV almost live, is "seems" as if prayer doesn't work. I know it's only "seeming" as every prayer works. But none of us were working literal miracles: it still happened.
What do people think about that? And how do you think we should pray in such a situation?
V
Hi V,
Do you ever get the feeling that your post just stopped the thread dead? I often do! 😉
Actually, I started a new thread a few days ago and put it on the General Discussion under Faiths/Religions, hoping to have a discussion about how to pray for disasters, with inspiration and ideas from others. Unfortunately, it was moved onto this thread, which isn’t really the place for discussions, but as we’re here, let’s continue.
I really appreciated you sharing how you prayed and found it very interesting – thank you. I understand angels to be God’s thoughts passing to man, so these spiritual intuitions are always there with us, if we listen. There is a hymn I love about angels, especially these words:
He knows the angels that you need,
And sends them to your side,
To comfort, guard and guide.
Violet Hay
Like you, I know that prayer is effective and also know that when the consciousness of mankind is at a higher level, things will be very different. I had an interesting email from a friend today and she brought up something the people probably never think about:
Do you ever wonder what contribution film makers have had on global disasters? They’ve been making these awful, graphic, frightening films for years now, and people have been taking it all in as entertainment. How long does it take what is input into the public consciousness to express itself outwardly? I wonder how much stomach nations have for that kind of “entertainment” once they’ve experienced some of these things? I hope some of the violence will be drained out.
What we let into our thinking, we often bring into our experience, so it’s important not to let anything in that you don’t want to have to get out in the future!
In Christian Science our prayer is never an attempt to fix anything – that would accept that the Kingdom of Heaven (where Jesus lived in consciousness) was not present and all-powerful. I have recently been at a church conference in Australia and one thing that really resonated with me was when someone said, “Jesus did not still the storm – he invited those around him into his peace.” Wow! That so explains how he could be sleeping while the disciples thought the boat was going to capsize in a storm.
When I was flying, I had so many experiences (at least 3 Captains described what had happened as a “miracle” – though I don’t agree with that term) With weather, I would just affirm, with absolute conviction, trust and knowledge, that God is in control of the weather. In fact, yesterday, first thing in the morning, it said on the news that the wind was blowing from the nuclear reactors down towards Tokyo. I immediately said, “Oh no you don’t – God is in control” and was very pleased as I left for work a couple of hours later to hear that the wind had changed direction and was now blowing out to sea. Today they again mentioned that it was blowing off-shore. To me, this is proof that all the tens of thousands of prayers that are being sent to Japan are having an effect.
There were predictions that this tsunami would cause damage all over the world (like the terrible Boxing Day one) People immediately started praying about that and it was only about 3 feet high when it reached other countries, causing no damage.
During this audio talk, (Spiritual calm in a crisis) http://tmcyouth.com/media/podcasts/tmcyouth-podcasts/83-spiritual-calm-in-a-crisis , a typhoon had just hit the Philippines and another was headed their way. A prayer watch was set up and the second typhoon changed direction and went out to sea. I have found that several times, especially if the announcement is fairly low-key, rather than having millions of people expecting the worst. It’s not the weather/danger etc we have to deal with, but fear and negativity in world thought. In Chet’s talk, there are two experiences of protection during the Boxing Day tsunami – I find it a really helpful talk.
Right now, our prayers are so needed not only to support the people of Japan in their quest to find comfort, stability and reassurance, but also to help avert the feared nuclear meltdown. I know I posted this above, but have really found this inspiring from Mary Baker Eddy:
[COLOR="Blue"]
…when the radiation of Spirit destroys forever all belief in intelligent matter. Then will the new heaven and new earth appear, for the former things will have passed away. (Science and Health 556)
And here’s an article that has some good ideas:
[url]Japan's nuclear power—under God's care[/url]
[COLOR="RoyalBlue"]Being omnipotent, God’s power never knows a shortage or a shutdown. As the expression of divine Love’s authority, it is fearless and able to impart this quality to each individual facing the crisis. Christian Science presents God as the one Mind or divine intelligence, and this Mind can guide the workers, the government, and individual citizens to make wise decisions, especially when they face the unexpected.
Under God’s care, each individual can be protected from ill effects from the radiation through wisdom and also through our recognition that divine Spirit doesn’t contain anything evil or harmful. In the atmosphere of Spirit, only good is present, and this is where the nuclear plant staff and all the citizens in the surrounding zone can dwell. Our love can reach out and embrace all of Japan in this atmosphere of goodness and purity.
Can our prayers stop the tectonic plates from crashing into each other? No, not yet. But prayer and being spiritually aware will enable individuals to hear the warning, like, for instance the Andaman islanders did on Boxing Day. They noticed that all the animals, reptiles and insects were moving up to higher ground, so they did too – and were saved. We need to develop the same awareness and connection to the Universe that wildlife has.
Can prayer lead to safer and more efficient power sources? Yes. Can prayer calm the whole situation at the nuclear reactors? Yes. Can it heal the effects of nuclear radiation if the worst scenario develops? Yes. There was at least one Russian woman living in Chernobyl who was dying of cancer as a result of that. She was given Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy and as she studied it, the whole thing just disappeared and she was restored to health, her skin that had been covered with growths, was like a baby’s.
Love and peace,
Judy
Hi Judy,
The situation in Japan is of course hardly a laughing matter. One's heart goes out so very much to people. I wish I was there physically to help. Yet if I may -
Hi V,
Do you ever get the feeling that your post just stopped the thread dead? I often do! 😉
TBH I did wonder. However, I was asking questions which were imponderable to me (why I posted), so what could anyone post in reply?
I'd like to keep this thread on the specific subject of Japan, as I agree with you that the nature of prayer, how it works, etc, etc, isn't specific to the current situation, is more general, and could be its own thread. However, to reply to you:
I posted because I've prayed as part of a global group on world situations almost all my adult life, yet saw the 30-foot waves coming in, in almost real-time, and prayer didn't stop them (though I believe in the power of prayer). So my thinking was, "What do we make of that? Any thoughts from anyone?"
Reading your post, however, I realise that the prayers of people around the world must have had an effect I at the time took to be 'natural' - as if it would have happened anyway - whereas quite possibly things could have turned out differently. For example, I'm sure many of us prayed for the tsunami waves across the whole Pacific to be reduced. (I was timing when they'd reach each coastline.) They turned out to be very minimal, even just a yard high. But it actually never occured to me that the very prayers being made, no doubt by so many, could have assisted that.
Likewise with the changes in wind direction more recently.
It's like - "duh". One prays, but then doesn't see or believe in possible results? That's a lack of faith, isn't it.
I agree with you about the media. In my world-view, human consciousness (thought, emotion, spoken word, and imaging) creates actual physical situations. It'll take a while for the world to catch up on that fact. But I believe that one day, just as passive smoking was seen to be so detrimental, so laws were passed, one day "disaster movies" won't be made, or at least people will know what they are responsible for. When hundreds of people are packed into a cinema, and this is repeated across the world, in my view "thought-forms" are created which are actually real and have impact. My prayer group were aware of that a few years back when a glut of movies came out about huge waves hitting the USA. And within a year, an entire city there was submerged...
Anyway. Why didn't prayer work utterly? Why wasn't Japan spared utterly? My simple thought on that is a self-chastening one. We don't have the ability which saints and sages of both East and West have had in the past to exert so-called "miracles". I firmly believe that it's within human ability to rise to such a level of ability - wherein Earth, Sea, Air, and Fire respond to one's prayers - just as they did for Jesus, say.
So just personally, for me, as I saw the waves roll in, and felt TBH that I obviously couldn't (nor anyone could) stop the whole scenario, it was chastening. Just IMHO, we are all capable of doing better.
Anyway, as said, this is more on the general subject of prayer, so I'll close so the thread can go back specifically to Japan.
V
Hi V,
Just a last word from me here about the power of prayer.
Probably 99.999% of the world's population beleives strongly that we are helpless victims of chance, or natural disasters, or the force of nature. There are some who horribly believe that such disasters are actually sent by their concept of Deity as a punishment for disbelief or sin or whatever. This overwhelming belief in the power of matter tends to neutralise all but a very clear and strong spiritual understanding of the supremacy of Spirit. We have to start with the small things and then grow in our understanding and demonstration.
In 1901, President McKinley of the United States was shot by an assassin and then, despite the prayers of the whole nation, died. Mary Baker Eddy was asked about this and here is part of her reply:
[COLOR="Blue"] My answer to the inquiry, "Why did Christians of every sect in the United States fail in their prayers to save the life of President McKinley," is briefly this: Insufficient faith or spiritual understanding, and a compound of prayers in which one earnest, tender desire works unconsciously against the modus operandi of another, would prevent the result desired .
The knowledge that all things are possible to God excludes doubt, but differing human concepts as to the divine power and purpose of infinite Mind, and the so-called power of matter, act as the different properties of drugs are supposed to act--one against the other--and this compound of mind and matter neutralizes itself.
Our lamented President, in his loving acquiescence, believed that his martyrdom was God's way. Hundreds, thousands of others believed the same, and hundreds of thousands who prayed for him feared that the bullet would prove fatal. Even the physicians may have feared this.
These conflicting states of the human mind, of trembling faith, hope, and of fear, evinced a lack of the absolute understanding of God's omnipotence, and thus they prevented the power of absolute Truth from reassuring the mind and through the mind resuscitating the body of the patient .
In a certain city the Master "did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief,"--because of the mental counteracting elements, the startled or the unrighteous contradicting minds of mortals. My 292
And I'll get back specifically to Japan in the next.
There are so many victims of this disaster who need our prayers, especially the elderly, the young and the ill. The weather is freezing and many have very little food, water, plus no heating due to lack of power. There are still areas where no rescue workers have been able to reach. And then there are the Fukushima 50:
They work sweating in airtight suits, fighting disaster in a plant collapsing at their feet. They brave explosions and fires that have already killed five of them and may have blasted the others with life-changing radiation. They are the "Fukushima 50", the handful of people who are all that now stands between Japan and the world's second-worst nuclear accident….
They are not just technicians, but also soldiers and firefighters. They are middle-class control room and health personnel and working-class technicians. There are fifty or so at any one time, but the total, with shifts and rotations, may be as many as 180. The odds against them are great, and growing.
They are reportedly prepared to die in order to save the nation. These brave men need our prayers so they can be guided to take the right steps to avert this danger! I always turn to the 91st Psalm in times of great need – it is the Psalm of protection. Here are two lines from it:
[COLOR="Purple"]There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.
For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
If anyone does not have a Bible, the words are on the 2nd post of this thread:
https://www.healthypages.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=22499
Also thinking of the fears for their health, considering the levels of radiation they have been exposed to, I’ve looked up a collection of healings I have in a pamphlet, “Incurability is not God’s will”. The first article is titled, “Overturning a death verdict” The writer had had a highly toxic substance – a concentrated pesticide, spilled over him while working with cattle. Two weeks later he started bleeding internally and he was told by doctors that he had a form of leukemia and should go home to die peacefully.
He had been healed in Christian Science as a child and decided that it was time to return to it. He writes, “Over the next two months, I became reacquainted with the power of God and His healing presence and regained my mental peace. I had to overcome any fear of the accident, as well as any sense of bitterness about my own ignorance or that of anyone else. I had to understand that God could never subject me to any debilitating condition. This was because of the spiritual fact that I was coming to understand – that I am actually spiritual, made in God’s “image and likeness,” and that in reflecting Him I express complete freedom.”
Within four months, he had returned to the physically demanding job of cattle and grain farming, completely well. We don’t have to accept hopeless verdicts of death and hopelessness – either about nuclear reactors, or of their workers safety and health.
[COLOR="Purple"]God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; ...
Be still, and know that I am God: (Psalm 46)
Love and strength to all caught up in this.
Judy