This morning I have had the opportunity to do something different. I am sure there is just a sniff of 'cats away and mice playing'. I set out to experience a range of prayers of different types. These ranged from the concrete 'Body' prayer, through 'Mind' prayer to 'Devotional' prayers. I involved both communal and private prayer. What I wondered was whether such a prayer sequence should form a discrete complete unit of time rather than being fragmented across the whole service. I wanted us to experience not only a range of prayer types but through experience, begin to feel the power of prayer. Prayer is a powerful and effective tool. This has been said over and over down the millennia, but now it would seem that modern research suggests that this might really true. Elana Serocki, in this month's Readers Digest, comments on a range of studies. One study carried out between 1987 and 1995 of 21,000 people suggested that there is a seven year difference in life expectancy between those who never attend a religious service and those that attend more than once a week. Another study, also in 1995, showed that patients with a strong faith were three times more likely to survive open heart surgery by six months than those with none. A 1997, primarily Hindu, study found that those who prayed regularly were seventy percent less likely to have coronary heart disease. Yet another study suggested a strong and significant protective effect against high blood pressure among those who considered religion very important and who attended church regularly. Lower rates of depression and anxiety were noted amongst those who prayed. Another study, on a slightly different tack, found that the prayer and meditative techniques such as continued repetition of sound, word, phrase, prayer or movement while disregarding other thoughts, showed a body response by reduction of high blood pressure, heart and breathing rate. It also suggested that there was a rise in our immunity levels. All religions request their followers to pray, sometimes often, communally and in private with set forms or as personal preference dictates. All religious services include prayer in one form or another. In fact, if you include hymns in this as a form of vocal communal prayer, a large amount of time is spent praying within a church service. There leaves only the sermon, and I am not sure that sermons have much of a healing effect - perhaps quite the reverse on occasion. So that leaves us with prayer as some researchers have suggested, as the main promoter of healing. So, if you pray then you live longer, are calmer and more able to cope with life's knocks. You are also less likely to be hospitalised or to smoke or drink in excess. This was so even when adjustments were made because of the 'support' effect that operates within all communities. All religions view prayer as being a central and important activity. The eastern religions have said for thousands of years that praying is important for the body as well as the soul. What else is said about prayer? Prayer is said to be the main thing that binds one person to another in the community or in the family. The phrase "pray together, stay together" is commonly seen as true. Certainly one study gives support to this. In this, a study of a Jewish community found that the 'normal' divorce rate was running at fifty percent but for those that attended their synagogue regularly, the divorce rate was only twenty two percent - a marked difference. So what is prayer trying to do? I suppose that there are five main types of prayer worldwide. One is a settling or preparation prayer. This is something that takes our mind off things and relieves the immediate personal tensions so that we can concentrate on the other forms of prayer. These are often body, action and awareness prayers. Another is for getting us looking at ourselves, bad as well as good, presumably to give us the basis for 'fresh start'. A common prayer is one that petitions or hopes to intercede for something. A healing prayer is of this sort. In this a person asks something for themselves, another or even many others. Then there is the prayer of thanks and praise used for recognition of something received. Finally there is the prayer of the Divine, the God prayer in which the idea is to experience God, to be in the presence of God or to be 'at one' with God. On this basis prayer can be summed up as being preparation, recognition, request, thanks and experience. To get a further handle on this thing called prayer let us look at what Jesus did. Do we know how he prayed? Not exactly but there are hints about what he did. To my mind Jesus was a master in prayer. Jesus 'prepared' himself when he sometimes withdrew from others to a 'special place'. Why did he go to the desert, or up a hill? It is because he knew the value of preparation and how this and the place influenced the quality of prayer. It is obvious to me that Jesus 'recognised' what was within him, what he had done, what he did do and what he was going to do. He seemed have total knowledge of himself as he seemed to have of others. In a sense he was totally in balance. He could not be this without equally recognising the negative and the positive within. He was not perfect. He had instances of anger. Jesus did make 'requests', rarely for himself but more often for others. There are many instances of this in the Bible. These were usually in the form of an intersession with God. Jesus often gave 'thanks' for what he or they had. There is also the inference is that he had direct 'experience' of God. He received knowledge and engaged in dialogue. If prayer is, as I have suggested, in the form of preparation, recognition, request, thanks and experience then what do I do? ... ... ... I attend church, when work permits, but not always the same one. I occasionally meditate. I am also a Reiki practitioner. Do I pray? If so, do I pray on a regular basis? This depends of course on how you define and recognise a prayer. My intermittent attendance at church, I would think, is not enough to reap the bodily benefits of prayer, never mind those of the Divine. Let us look at what I do in prayer at church. I settle myself down comfortably in a relaxed position. I close my eyes and ignore all other things and focus on the prayer, sometimes with more success than others, as my mind wanders. But never mind, as I recognise this, I pull myself back to the task and continue. Now that is interesting! That is what I do when I meditate. That is what I tell others to do when I lead meditation. I focus my mind on something. I give it a job to do while I relax and experience the benefits, sometimes with more success than others. Could it be that meditation is prayer - that prayer can be what we call meditation? Certainly there is the tradition of silent prayer within the Christian church as there also is contemplation. The techniques are so similar that it is easy to recognise this 'cross over'. At some level I believe that meditation can be prayer and used to prepare, to recognise, to request, to thank and to experience the infinite. What is interesting is that over the last month or so I have had an increasing desire to meditate on a daily basis, to turn inward, to open myself up to my greater self, my soul, to God. For me, this is becoming a more and more important need. I have to say that organising things so it can happen is a real headache and many, many times it has not been possible. For myself I recognise meditation as a prayer form. So where does my Reiki fit into all this? Apart that is from it being a central part of my life. Could this also be a form of Prayer? It certainly was responsible for drawing me back into attending a church, from which now I seem to be adding meditation as another activity. What do I do in Reiki? What is the essence of what I do? I ask, just like I did when we did the healing prayer. I also ask for guidance during the healing session. I 'listen' with my awareness to what seems right to do. I always say thank you for what happens. If this is so, then by default I must be praying and, as for me there is only one God and nothing else, then I am praying to God. If all that has been said about prayer is true then I am praying daily, sometimes many times a day. I have actually seen some benefits that I had, up to now, put down to Reiki as it largely predates church and meditation. Perhaps, after all, they are due to prayer. I am ill less often. I take fewer pills. I cope with stress more effectively. Perhaps I am better to live with but you will have to ask my wife about that. I do this prayer thing. What do you do? Joe Potter