Magical thinking, or superstitious thinking,
is the belief that unrelated events are causally connected despite the
absence of any plausible causal link between them, particularly as a
result of supernatural effects.
Examples include the idea that personal thoughts can influence the
external world without acting on them, or that objects must be causally
connected if they resemble each other or came in contact with each other
in the past. Magical thinking is a type of fallacious thinking and is a common source of invalid causal inferences. Unlike the confusion of correlation with causation, magical thinking does not require the events to be correlated.
The precise definition of magical thinking may vary subtly when
used by different theorists or among different fields of study. In
anthropology (the earliest research), the posited causality is between
religious ritual, prayer, sacrifice, or the observance of a taboo, and an expected benefit or recompense. Later research indicates that magical thinking is also common in modern societies.
In psychology,
magical thinking is the belief that one's thoughts by themselves can
bring about effects in the world or that thinking something corresponds
with doing it.
These beliefs can cause a person to experience an irrational fear of
performing certain acts or having certain thoughts because of an assumed
correlation between doing so and threatening calamities.
In psychiatry, magical thinking is a disorder of thought content; here it denotes the false belief
that one's thoughts, actions, or words will cause or prevent a specific
consequence in some way that defies commonly understood laws of
causality.
Anthropology
In religion, folk religion, and superstitiousbeliefs, the posited causality is between religious ritual, prayer, sacrifice, or the observance of a taboo,
and an expected benefit or recompense. The use of a lucky item or
ritual, for example, is assumed to increase the probability that one
will perform at a level so that one can achieve a desired goal or
outcome.
Researchers have identified two possible principles as the formal causes of the attribution of false causal relationships:
"associative thinking", the association of entities based upon their resemblance to one another
Prominent Victorian
theorists identified associative thinking (a common feature of
practitioners of magic) as a characteristic form of irrationality. As
with all forms of magical thinking, association-based and
similarities-based notions of causality are not always said to be the
practice of magic by a magician. For example, the doctrine of signatures
held that similarities between plant parts and body parts indicated
their efficacy in treating diseases of those body parts, and was a part
of Western medicine during the Middle Ages. This association-based thinking is a vivid example of the general human application of the representativeness heuristic.
Edward Burnett Tylor coined the term "associative thinking", characterizing it as pre-logical,
in which the "magician's folly" is in mistaking an imagined connection
with a real one. The magician believes that thematically linked items
can influence one another by virtue of their similarity. For example, in E. E. Evans-Pritchard's account, members of the Azande tribe
believe that rubbing crocodile teeth on banana plants can invoke a
fruitful crop. Because crocodile teeth are curved (like bananas) and
grow back if they fall out, the Azande observe this similarity and want
to impart this capacity of regeneration to their bananas. To them, the
rubbing constitutes a means of transference.
Sir James Frazer (1854-1941) elaborated upon Tylor's principle by dividing magic into the categories of sympathetic and contagious magic. The latter is based upon the law of contagion
or contact, in which two things that were once connected retain this
link and have the ability to affect their supposedly related objects,
such as harming a person by harming a lock of his hair. Sympathetic
magic and homeopathy
operate upon the premise that "like affects like", or that one can
impart characteristics of one object to a similar object. Frazer
believed that some individuals think the entire world functions
according to these mimetic, or homeopathic, principles.
In How Natives Think (1925), Lucien Lévy-Bruhl
describes a similar notion of mystical, "collective representations".
He too sees magical thinking as fundamentally different from a Western
style of thought. He asserts that in these representations, "primitive"
people's "mental activity is too little differentiated for it to be
possible to consider ideas or images of objects by themselves apart from
the emotions and passions which evoke those ideas or are evoked by
them". Lévy-Bruhl explains that natives commit the post hoc, ergo propter hocfallacy, in which people observe that x is followed by y, and conclude that x has caused y. He believes that this fallacy is institutionalized in native culture and is committed regularly and repeatedly.
Despite the view that magic is less than rational and entails an inferior concept of causality, in The Savage Mind (1966), Claude Lévi-Strauss
suggested that magical procedures are relatively effective in exerting
control over the environment. This outlook has generated alternative
theories of magical thinking, such as the symbolic and psychological
approaches, and softened the contrast between "educated" and "primitive"
thinking: "Magical thinking is no less characteristic of our own
mundane intellectual activity than it is of Zande curing practices."
Types
Direct effect
Bronisław Malinowski's Magic, Science and Religion
(1954) discusses another type of magical thinking, in which words and
sounds are thought to have the ability to directly affect the world. This type of wish fulfillment thinking can result in the avoidance of talking about certain subjects ("speak of the devil and he'll appear"), the use of euphemisms
instead of certain words, or the belief that to know the "true name" of
something gives one power over it, or that certain chants, prayers, or
mystical phrases will bring about physical changes in the world. More
generally, it is magical thinking to take a symbol to be its referent or an analogy to represent an identity.
Sigmund Freud believed that magical thinking was produced by cognitive developmental
factors. He described practitioners of magic as projecting their mental
states onto the world around them, similar to a common phase in child
development.
From toddlerhood to early school age, children will often link the
outside world with their internal consciousness, e.g. "It is raining
because I am sad."
Symbolic approaches
Another theory of magical thinking is the symbolic approach. Leading thinkers of this category, including Stanley J. Tambiah,
believe that magic is meant to be expressive, rather than instrumental.
As opposed to the direct, mimetic thinking of Frazer, Tambiah asserts
that magic utilizes abstract analogies to express a desired state, along
the lines of metonymy or metaphor.
An important question raised by this interpretation is how mere
symbols could exert material effects. One possible answer lies in John L. Austin's concept of "performativity", in which the act of saying something makes it true, such as in an inaugural or marital rite.
Other theories propose that magic is effective because symbols are able
to affect internal psycho-physical states. They claim that the act of
expressing a certain anxiety or desire can be reparative in itself.
According to theories of anxiety relief and control, people turn to
magical beliefs when there exists a sense of uncertainty and potential
danger, and with little access to logical or scientific responses to
such danger. Magic is used to restore a sense of control over
circumstance. In support of this theory, research indicates that
superstitious behavior is invoked more often in high stress situations,
especially by people with a greater desire for control.
Another potential reason for the persistence of magic rituals is
that the rituals prompt their own use by creating a feeling of
insecurity and then proposing themselves as precautions. Boyer and Liénard propose that in obsessive-compulsive
rituals — a possible clinical model for certain forms of magical
thinking — focus shifts to the lowest level of gestures, resulting in
goal demotion. For example, an obsessive-compulsive cleaning ritual may
overemphasize the order, direction, and number of wipes used to clean
the surface. The goal becomes less important than the actions used to
achieve the goal, with the implication that magic rituals can persist
without efficacy because the intent is lost within the act.
Alternatively, some cases of harmless "rituals" may have positive
effects in bolstering intent, as may be the case with certain pre-game
exercises in sports.
Some scholars believe that magic is effective psychologically. They cite the placebo effect and psychosomatic disease as prime examples of how our mental functions exert power over our bodies. Similarly, Robin Horton
suggests that engaging in magical practices surrounding healing can
relieve anxiety, which could have a significant positive physical
effect. In the absence of advanced health care, such effects would play a
relatively major role, thereby helping to explain the persistence and
popularity of such practices.
Phenomenological approach
Ariel Glucklich tries to understand magic from a subjective perspective, attempting to comprehend magic on a phenomenological, experientially
based level. Glucklich seeks to describe the attitude that magical
practitioners feel which he calls "magical consciousness" or the
"magical experience". He explains that it is based upon "the awareness
of the interrelatedness of all things in the world by means of simple
but refined sense perception."
Another phenomenological model is that of Gilbert Lewis,
who argues that "habit is unthinking". He believes that those
practicing magic do not think of an explanatory theory behind their
actions any more than the average person tries to grasp the
pharmaceutical workings of aspirin.
When the average person takes an aspirin, he does not know how the
medicine chemically functions. He takes the pill with the premise that
there is proof of efficacy. Similarly, many who avail themselves of
magic do so without feeling the need to understand a causal theory behind it.
Cultural differences
Robin Horton maintains that the difference between the thinking of Western and of non-Western peoples is predominantly "idiomatic".
He says that the members of both cultures use the same practical
common-sense, and that both science and magic are ways beyond basic
logic by which people formulate theories to explain whatever occurs.
However, non-Western cultures use the idiom of magic and have community
spiritual figures, and therefore non-Westerners turn to magical
practices or to a specialist in that idiom. Horton sees the same logic
and common-sense in all cultures, but notes that their contrasting ontological
idioms lead to cultural practices which seem illogical to observers
whose own culture has correspondingly contrasting norms. He explains,
"[T]he layman's grounds for accepting the models propounded by the
scientist are often no different from the young African villager's
ground for accepting the models propounded by one of his elders." Along similar lines, Michael F. Brown argues that the Aguaruna
of Peru see magic as a type of technology, no more supernatural than
their physical tools. Brown says that the Aguaruna utilize magic in an
empirical manner; for example, they discard any magical stones which
they have found to be ineffective. To Brown—as to Horton—magical and
scientific thinking differ merely in idiom. These theories blur the boundaries between magic, science, and religion,
and focus on the similarities in magical, technical, and spiritual
practices. Brown even ironically writes that he is tempted to disclaim
the existence of 'magic.'
One theory of substantive difference is that of the open versus
closed society. Horton describes this as one of the key dissimilarities
between traditional thought and Western science. He suggests that the
scientific worldview is distinguished from a magical one by the scientific method and by skepticism, requiring the falsifiability
of any scientific hypothesis. He notes that for native peoples "there
is no developed awareness of alternatives to the established body of
theoretical texts."
He notes that all further differences between traditional and Western
thought can be understood as a result of this factor. He says that
because there are no alternatives in societies based on magical thought,
a theory does not need to be objectively judged to be valid.
In children
According to Jean Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development,
magical thinking is most prominent in children between ages 2 and 7.
Due to examinations of grieving children, it is said that during this
age, children strongly believe that their personal thoughts have a
direct effect on the rest of the world. It is posited that their minds
will create a reason to feel responsible if they experience something
tragic that they do not understand, e.g. a death. Jean Piaget, a developmental psychologist, came up with a theory of four developmental stages. Children between ages 2 and 7 would be classified under his preoperational stage of development. During this stage children are still developing their use of logical thinking.
A child's thinking is dominated by perceptions of physical features,
meaning that if the child is told that a family pet has "gone away" when
it has in fact died, then the child will have difficulty comprehending
the transformation of the dog not being around anymore. Magical thinking
would be evident here, since the child may believe that the family pet
being gone is just temporary. Their young minds in this stage do not
understand the finality of death and magical thinking may bridge the
gap.
Grief
It was
discovered that children often feel that they are responsible for an
event or events occurring or are capable of reversing an event simply by
thinking about it and wishing for a change: namely, "magical thinking". Make-believe and fantasy are an integral part of life at this age and are often used to explain the inexplicable.
According to Piaget, children within this age group are often "egocentric", believing that what they feel and experience is the same as everyone else's feelings and experiences.
Also at this age, there is often a lack of ability to understand that
there may be other explanations for events outside of the realm of
things they have already comprehended. What happens outside their
understanding needs to be explained using what they already know,
because of an inability to fully comprehend abstract concepts.
Magical thinking is found particularly in children's explanations
of experiences about death, whether the death of a family member or
pet, or their own illness or impending death. These experiences are
often new for a young child, who at that point has no experience to give
understanding of the ramifications of the event.
A child may feel that they are responsible for what has happened,
simply because they were upset with the person who died, or perhaps
played with the pet too roughly. There may also be the idea that if the
child wishes it hard enough, or performs just the right act, the person
or pet may choose to come back, and not be dead any longer.
When considering their own illness or impending death, some children
may feel that they are being punished for doing something wrong, or not
doing something they should have, and therefore have become ill.
If a child's ideas about an event are incorrect because of their
magical thinking, there is a possibility that the conclusions the child
makes could result in long-term beliefs and behaviours that create
difficulty for the child as they mature.
Related terms
"Quasi-magical thinking"
describes "cases in which people act as if they erroneously believe
that their action influences the outcome, even though they do not really
hold that belief".
People may realize that a superstitious intuition is logically false,
but act as if it were true because they do not exert an effort to
correct the intuition.
Prayer can take a variety of forms: it can be part of a set liturgy or ritual, and it can be performed alone or in groups. Prayer may take the form of a hymn, incantation, formal creedal statement, or a spontaneous utterance in the praying person.
The act of prayer is attested in written sources as early as 5000 years ago. Today, most major religions
involve prayer in one way or another; some ritualize the act, requiring
a strict sequence of actions or placing a restriction on who is
permitted to pray, while others teach that prayer may be practised
spontaneously by anyone at any time.
Scientific studies regarding the use of prayer have mostly
concentrated on its effect on the healing of sick or injured people. The
efficacy of prayer in faith healing has been evaluated in numerous studies, with contradictory results.
Various spiritual traditions offer a wide variety of devotional acts. There are morning and evening prayers, graces said over meals, and reverent physical gestures. Some Christians bow their heads and fold their hands. Some Native Americans regard dancing as a form of prayer. Some Sufiswhirl. Hindus chant mantras. Jewish prayer may involve swaying back and forth and bowing. Muslim prayer involves bowing, kneeling and prostration. Quakers keep silent.
Some pray according to standardized rituals and liturgies, while others
prefer extemporaneous prayers. Still others combine the two.
Friedrich Heiler is often cited in Christian circles for his systematic Typology of Prayer which lists six types of prayer: primitive, ritual, Greek cultural, philosophical, mystical, and prophetic. Some forms of prayer require a prior ritualistic form of cleansing or purification such as in ghusl and wudhu.
Prayer may be done privately and individually, or it may be done
corporately in the presence of fellow believers. Prayer can be
incorporated into a daily "thought life", in which one is in constant
communication with a god. Some people pray throughout all that is
happening during the day and seek guidance as the day progresses. This
is actually regarded as a requirement in several Christian
denominations,
although enforcement is not possible nor desirable. There can be many
different answers to prayer, just as there are many ways to interpret an
answer to a question, if there in fact comes an answer.
Some may experience audible, physical, or mental epiphanies. If indeed
an answer comes, the time and place it comes is considered random.
Some outward acts that sometimes accompany prayer are: anointing with
oil; ringing a bell; burning incense or paper; lighting a candle or candles; See, for example, facing a specific direction (i.e. towards Mecca or the East); making the sign of the cross. One less noticeable act related to prayer is fasting.
A variety of body postures may be assumed, often with specific
meaning (mainly respect or adoration) associated with them: standing;
sitting; kneeling; prostrate on the floor; eyes opened; eyes closed;
hands folded or clasped; hands upraised; holding hands with others; a
laying on of hands and others. Prayers may be recited from memory, read
from a book of prayers, or composed spontaneously as they are prayed.
They may be said, chanted, or sung. They may be with musical
accompaniment or not. There may be a time of outward silence while
prayers are offered mentally. Often, there are prayers to fit specific
occasions, such as the blessing of a meal, the birth or death of a loved
one, other significant events in the life of a believer, or days of the
year that have special religious significance. Details corresponding to
specific traditions are outlined below.
Origins and early history
A
kneeling position with raised hands expressed "supplication" in
classical antiquity. The word for "prayer" and for "supplication" is
identical in ancient languages (oratio, προσευχή, תְּפִלָּה
etc.), with no terminological distinction between supplications
addressed to human as opposed to divine powers. Statuette known as
"Praying German" or "supplicating barbarian". It is not known if this
figure was originally set in a context of religious prayer or of
military surrender.
Anthropologically, the concept of prayer is closely related to that of surrender and supplication.
The traditional posture of prayer in medieval Europe is kneeling or
supine with clasped hands, in antiquity more typically with raised
hands. The early Christian prayer posture was standing, looking up to
heaven, with outspread arms and bare head. This is the pre-Christian,
pagan prayer posture (except for the bare head, which was prescribed for
males in Corinthians 11:4, in Roman paganism, the head had to be
covered in prayer). Certain Cretan and Cypriote figures of the Late
Bronze Age, with arms raised, have been interpreted as worshippers.
Their posture is similar to the "flight" posture, a crouching posture
with raised hands, observed in schizophrenic patients and related to the
universal "hands up" gesture
of surrender. The kneeling posture with clasped hands appears to have
been introduced only with the beginning high medieval period, presumably
adopted from a gesture of feudal homage.
Although prayer in its literal sense is not used in animism, communication with the spirit world is vital to the animist way of life. This is usually accomplished through a shaman who, through a trance,
gains access to the spirit world and then shows the spirits' thoughts
to the people. Other ways to receive messages from the spirits include
using astrology or contemplating fortune tellers and healers.
Some of the oldest extant literature, such as the Sumerian temple hymns of Enheduanna (c. 23rd century BC) are liturgy addressed to deities and thus technically "prayer". The Egyptian Pyramid Texts of about the same period similarly contain spells or incantations addressed to the gods. In the loosest sense, in the form of magical thinking combined with animism, prayer has been argued as representing a human cultural universal, which would have been present since the emergence of behavioral modernity, by anthropologists such as Sir Edward Burnett Tylor and Sir James George Frazer.
In ancient polytheism, ancestor worship is indistinguishable from theistic worship (see also Euhemerism).
Vestiges of ancestor worship persist, to a greater or lesser extent, in
modern religious traditions throughout the world, most notably in
Japanese Shinto and in Chinese folk religion. The practices involved in Shinto prayer are heavily influenced by Buddhism; Japanese Buddhism has also been strongly influenced by Shinto in turn. Shinto prayers quite frequently consist of wishes or favors asked of the kami, rather than lengthy praises or devotions. The practice of votive offering
is also universal, and is attested at least since the Bronze Age. In
Shinto, this takes the form of a small wooden tablet, called an ema.
Prayers in Etruscan were used in the Roman world by augurs and other oracles long after Etruscan became a dead language. The Carmen Arvale and the Carmen Saliare
are two specimens of partially preserved prayers that seem to have been
unintelligible to their scribes, and whose language is full of archaisms and difficult passages.
Roman prayers and sacrifices were often envisioned as legal bargains between deity and worshipper. The Roman principle was expressed as do ut des: "I give, so that you may give." Cato the Elder's treatise on agriculture
contains many examples of preserved traditional prayers; in one, a
farmer addresses the unknown deity of a possibly sacred grove, and
sacrifices a pig in order to placate the god or goddess of the place and
beseech his or her permission to cut down some trees from the grove.
Celtic, Germanic and Slavic
religions are recorded much later, and much more fragmentarily, than
the religions of classical antiquity. They nevertheless show substantial
parallels to the better-attested religions of the Iron Age. In the case
of Germanic religion, the practice of prayer is reliably attested, but
no actual liturgy is recorded from the early (Roman era) period. An Old
Norse prayer is on record in the form of a dramatization in skaldic poetry. This prayer is recorded in stanzas2 and3 of the poem Sigrdrífumál, compiled in the 13th century Poetic Edda from earlier traditional sources, where the valkyrieSigrdrífa prays to the gods and the earth after being woken by the hero Sigurd.
A prayer to Odin is mentioned in chapter2 of the Völsunga saga where King Rerir prays for a child. In stanza9 of the poem Oddrúnargrátr, a prayer is made to "kind wights, Frigg and Freyja, and many gods. In chapter 21 of Jómsvíkinga saga, wishing to turn the tide of the Battle of Hjörungavágr, Haakon Sigurdsson eventually finds his prayers answered by the goddesses Þorgerðr Hölgabrúðr and Irpa.
Folk religion in the medieval period produced syncretisms between pre-Christian and Christian traditions. An example is the 11th-century Anglo-Saxon charm Æcerbot for the fertility of crops and land, or the medical Wið færstice. The 8th-century Wessobrunn Prayer has been proposed as a Christianized pagan prayer and compared to the pagan Völuspá and the Merseburg Incantations, the latter recorded in the 9th or 10th century but of much older traditional origins.
In Australian Aboriginal mythology, prayers to the "Great Wit" are performed by the "clever men" and "clever women", or kadji. These Aboriginal shamans use maban or mabain, the material that is believed to give them their purported magical powers. The Pueblo Indians are known to have used prayer sticks, that is, sticks with feathers attached as supplicatory offerings. The Hopi Indians used prayer sticks as well, but they attached to it a small bag of sacred meal.
Approaches to prayer
Direct petitions
There are different forms of prayer. One of them is to directly appeal to a deity to grant one's requests. Some have termed this as the social approach to prayer.
Atheist arguments against prayer are mostly directed against petitionary prayer in particular. Daniel Dennett
argued that petitionary prayer might have the undesirable psychological
effect of relieving a person of the need to take active measures.
This potential drawback manifests in extreme forms in such cases as Christian Scientists
who rely on prayers instead of seeking medical treatment for family
members for easily curable conditions which later result in death.
Christopher Hitchens (2012) argued that praying to a god which is omnipotent and all-knowing would be presumptuous. For example, he interprets Ambrose Bierce's
definition of prayer by stating that "the man who prays is the one who
thinks that god has arranged matters all wrong, but who also thinks that
he can instruct god how to put them right."
Among Christian theologians, E.M. Bounds stated the educational purpose of prayer in every chapter of his book, The Necessity of Prayer. Prayer books such as the Book of Common Prayer are both a result of this approach and an exhortation to keep it.
Rationalist approach
In
this view, the ultimate goal of prayer is to help train a person to
focus on divinity through philosophy and intellectual contemplation (meditation). This approach was taken by the Jewish scholar and philosopher Maimonides and the other medieval rationalists.
It became popular in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic intellectual
circles, but never became the most popular understanding of prayer among
the laity in any of these faiths. In all three of these faiths today, a
significant minority of people still hold to this approach.
In this approach, the purpose of prayer is to enable the person
praying to gain a direct experience of the recipient of the prayer (or
as close to direct as a specific theology permits). This approach is
very significant in Christianity and widespread in Judaism (although
less popular theologically). In Eastern Orthodoxy, this approach is known as hesychasm. It is also widespread in Sufi Islam, and in some forms of mysticism. It has some similarities with the rationalist approach, since it can also involve contemplation, although the contemplation is not generally viewed as being as rational or intellectual.
Christian and Roman Catholic traditions also include an experiential approach to prayer within the practice of lectio divina. Historically a Benedictine practice, lectio divina
involves the following steps: a short scripture passage is read aloud;
the passage is meditated upon using the mind to place the listener
within a relationship or dialogue with the text; recitation of a prayer;
and concludes with contemplation. The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes prayer and meditation as follows:
Meditation
engages thought, imagination, emotion, and desire. This mobilization of
faculties is necessary in order to deepen our convictions of faith,
prompt the conversion of our heart, and strengthen our will to follow
Christ. Christian prayer tries above all to meditate on the mysteries of
Christ, as in lectio divina or the rosary.
This form of prayerful reflection is of great value, but Christian
prayer should go further: to the knowledge of the love of the Lord
Jesus, to union with him.
The experience of God within Christian mysticism has been contrasted with the concept of experiential religion or mystical experience
because of a long history or authors living and writing about
experience with the divine in a manner that identifies God as unknowable
and ineffable, the language of such ideas could be characterized
paradoxically as "experiential", as well as without the phenomena of
experience.
The notion of "religious experience" can be traced back to William James, who used a term called "religious experience" in his book, The Varieties of Religious Experience. The origins of the use of this term can be dated further back.
In the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, several historical figures
put forth very influential views that religion and its beliefs can be
grounded in experience itself. While Kant held that moral experience justified religious beliefs, John Wesley in addition to stressing individual moral exertion thought that the religious experiences in the Methodist movement (paralleling the Romantic Movement) were foundational to religious commitment as a way of life.
Wayne Proudfoot traces the roots of the notion of "religious experience" to the German theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher
(1768–1834), who argued that religion is based on a feeling of the
infinite. The notion of "religious experience" was used by
Schleiermacher and Albert Ritschl
to defend religion against the growing scientific and secular critique,
and defend the view that human (moral and religious) experience
justifies religious beliefs.
Such religious empiricism would be later seen as highly
problematic and was – during the period in-between world wars – famously
rejected by Karl Barth.
In the 20th century, religious as well as moral experience as
justification for religious beliefs still holds sway. Some influential
modern scholars holding this liberal theological view are Charles Raven and the Oxford physicist/theologian Charles Coulson.
The notion of "religious experience" was adopted by many scholars of religion, of whom William James was the most influential.
The notion of "experience" has been criticised.
Robert Sharf points out that "experience" is a typical Western term,
which has found its way into Asian religiosity via western influences.
The notion of "experience" introduces a false notion of duality between
"experiencer" and "experienced", whereas the essence of kensho is the
realisation of the "non-duality" of observer and observed. "Pure experience" does not exist; all experience is mediated by intellectual and cognitive activity.
The specific teachings and practices of a specific tradition may even
determine what "experience" someone has, which means that this
"experience" is not the proof of the teaching, but a result of the teaching. A pure consciousness without concepts, reached by "cleaning the doors of perception", would be an overwhelming chaos of sensory input without coherence.
In the Hebrew Bible prayer is an evolving means of interacting with God,
most frequently through a spontaneous, individual, unorganized form of
petitioning and/or thanking. Standardized prayer such as is done today
is non-existent, although beginning in Deuteronomy,
the Bible lays the groundwork for organized prayer, including basic
liturgical guidelines, and by the Bible's later books, prayer has
evolved to a more standardized form, although still radically different
from the form practiced by modern Jews.
Individual prayer is described by the Tanakh two ways. The first
of these is when prayer is described as occurring, and a result is
achieved, but no further information regarding a person's prayer is
given. In these instances, such as with Isaac, Moses, Samuel, and Job,
the act of praying is a method of changing a situation for the better.
The second way in which prayer is depicted is through fully fleshed out
episodes of prayer, where a person's prayer is related in full. Many
famous biblical personalities have such a prayer, including every major
character from Hannah to Hezekiah.
Jesus encouraged his disciples to pray in secret in their private rooms, using the Lord's Prayer, as a humble response to the prayer of the Pharisees, whose practices in prayer were regarded as impious by the New Testament writers (Matthew 6:6).
Captain Samuel Cass, a rabbi, conducting the first prayer service celebrated on German territory by Jewish personnel of the First Canadian Army near Cleve, Germany, 18 March 1945
Observant Jews pray three times a day, Shacharit, Mincha, and Ma'ariv with lengthier prayers on special days, such as the Shabbat and Jewish holidays including Musaf and the reading of the Torah. The siddur
is the prayerbook used by Jews all over the world, containing a set
order of daily prayers. Jewish prayer is usually described as having two
aspects: kavanah (intention) and keva (the ritualistic, structured elements).
The most important Jewish prayers are the Shema Yisrael ("Hear O Israel") and the Amidah ("the standing prayer").
Communal prayer is preferred over solitary prayer, and a quorum of ten adult males (a minyan) is considered by Orthodox Judaism a prerequisite for several communal prayers.
There are also many other ritualistic prayers a Jew performs during
their day, such as washing before eating bread, washing after one wakes
up in the morning, and doing grace after meals.
Rationalist approach
In
this view, the ultimate goal of prayer is to help train a person to
focus on divinity through philosophy and intellectual contemplation.
This approach was taken by Maimonides
and the other medieval rationalists. One example of this approach to
prayer is noted by Rabbi Steven Weil, who was appointed the Orthodox
Union's Executive-Vice President in 2009. He notes that the word
"prayer" is a derivative of the Latin "precari", which means "to beg".
The Hebrew equivalent "tefilah", however, along with its root "pelel" or
its reflexive "l’hitpallel", means the act of self-analysis or
self-evaluation. This approach is sometimes described as the person praying having a dialogue or conversation with God.
Educational approach
In
this view, prayer is not a conversation. Rather, it is meant to
inculcate certain attitudes in the one who prays, but not to influence.
This has been the approach of Rabbenu Bachya, Yehuda Halevy, Joseph Albo, Samson Raphael Hirsch, and Joseph Dov Soloveitchik. This view is expressed by Rabbi Nosson Scherman in the overview to the Artscroll Siddur (p. XIII); note that Scherman goes on to also affirm the Kabbalistic view (see below).
Kabbalistic approach
Kabbalah uses a series of kavanot,
directions of intent, to specify the path the prayer ascends in the
dialog with God, to increase its chances of being answered favorably.
Kabbalists ascribe a higher meaning to the purpose of prayer, which is
no less than affecting the very fabric of reality itself, restructuring
and repairing the universe in a real fashion. In this view, every word
of every prayer, and indeed, even every letter of every word, has a
precise meaning and a precise effect. Prayers thus literally affect the
mystical forces of the universe, and repair the fabric of creation.
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as
it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our
debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us to the
time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one.
Christian prayers are quite varied. They can be completely spontaneous, or read entirely from a text, like the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. The most common prayer among Christians is the Lord's Prayer, which according to the gospel accounts (e.g. Matthew 6:9–13) is how Jesus taught his disciples to pray. The Lord's Prayer is a model for prayers of adoration, confession and petition in Christianity.
In medieval England, prayers (particularly the paternoster) were frequently used as a measure of time in medical and culinary recipe books.
Christians generally pray to God. Some Christians, such as Catholics, Lutherans, Orthodox, and Methodists pray for the dead; Roman Catholics, will also ask the righteous in heaven and "in Christ," such as Virgin Mary or other saints to intercede by praying on their behalf (intercession of saints).
Formulaic closures in many Christian denominations, such as Lutheranism
and Catholicism include "through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who
lives and reigns with You, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, through
all the ages of ages," and "in the name of the Father, and the Son, and
the Holy Spirit."
It is customary among Christians to end prayers with "In Jesus' name, Amen" or more commonly, with the sign of the cross while saying the Trinitarian formula. The most commonly used closure of prayer in Christianity is "Amen" (from a Hebrew adverb used as a statement of affirmation or agreement, usually translated as so be it).
Roman Catholic tradition includes specific prayers and devotions as acts of reparation which do not involve a petition for a living or deceased beneficiary, but aim to repair the sins of others, e.g. for the repair of the sin of blasphemy performed by others.
Other forms of prayer among Catholics would be meditative prayer,
contemplative prayer and infused prayer discussed at length by Catholic
Saints St. John of the Cross and St. Theresa of Jesus.
Pentecostalism
In Pentecostal congregations, prayer is often accompanied by speaking in an unknown tongue, a practice now known as glossolalia.
Practitioners of Pentecostal glossolalia may claim that the languages
they speak in prayer are real foreign languages, and that the ability to
speak those languages spontaneously is a gift of the Holy Spirit. Some people outside of the movement, however, have offered dissenting views. George Barton Cutten suggested that glossolalia was a sign of mental illness. Felicitas Goodman suggested that tongue speakers were under a form of hypnosis. Others suggest that it is a learned behaviour. Some of these views have allegedly been refuted.
Christian Science
Christian Science
teaches that prayer is a spiritualization of thought or an
understanding of God and of the nature of the underlying spiritual
creation. Adherents believe that this can result in healing, by bringing
spiritual reality into clearer focus in the human scene. The world as
it appears to the senses is regarded as a distorted version of the world
of spiritual ideas. Prayer can heal the distortion. Christian
Scientists believe that prayer does not change the spiritual creation
but gives a clearer view of it, and the result appears in the human
scene as healing: the human picture adjusts to coincide more nearly with
the divine reality. Christian Scientists do not practice intercessory prayer
as it is commonly understood, and they generally avoid combining prayer
with medical treatment in the belief that the two practices tend to
work against each other. Prayer works through love: the recognition of God's creation as spiritual, intact, and inherently lovable.
The Arabic word for prayer is salah.
In Islam, five daily obligatory prayers are considered as one of the
pillars of the religion. The command of ritual prayer repeatedly occurs
in the Quran. The person performs the prayer while they are facing the Kaaba in Mecca. There is the "call for prayer" (the adhan), where the muezzin
calls for all the followers to stand together for the prayer. The
prayer consists of actions such as glorifying and praising God (such as
mentioning ‘Allāhu Akbar’ (God is Great)) while standing, recitation of
chapters of the Quran (such as the opening chapter of the book (Al-Fatiha)), bowing down then praising God, prostrating (sujud)
then again praising God. It ends with the words: "Peace be with you and
God’s mercy." During the prayer, a Muslim cannot talk or do anything
else besides pray. Once the prayer is complete, one can offer personal
prayers or supplications to God for their needs, known as dua. There are many standard invocations in Arabic to be recited at various times (e.g. after the prayer) and for various occasions (e.g. for one's parents) with manners and etiquette such as before eating. Muslims may also say dua
in their own words and languages for any issue they wish to communicate
with God in the hope that God will answer their prayers. Certain Shi'a
sects pray the five daily prayers divided into three separate parts of
the day, providing several Hadith as supporting evidence; although according to Shia Islam, it is also permissible to pray at five times.
Baháʼí Faith
Bahá'u'lláh, the Báb, and `Abdu'l-Bahá
wrote many prayers for general use, and some for specific occasions,
including for unity, detachment, spiritual upliftment, and healing among
others. Followers of the Baháʼí Faith are also required to recite each day one of three obligatory prayers composed by Bahá'u'lláh. The believers have been enjoined to face in the direction of the Qiblih
when reciting their Obligatory Prayer. The longest obligatory prayer
may be recited at any time during the day; another, of medium length, is
recited once in the morning, once at midday, and once in the evening;
and the shortest can be recited anytime between noon and sunset. Baháʼís
also read from and meditate on the scriptures every morning and
evening.
Eastern religions
In both Buddhism and Hinduism, the repetition of mantras is closely related to the practice of repetitive prayer in Western religion (rosary, Jesus prayer). Many of the most widespread Hindu and Buddhist mantras are in origin invocations of deities, e.g. Gayatri Mantra dedicated to Savitr, Pavamana Mantra to Soma Pavamana, and many of the Buddhist Dhāraṇī
originate as recitations of lists of names or attributes of deities.
Most of the shorter Buddhist mantras originate as the invocation of the
name of a specific deity or bodhisattva, such as Om mani padme hum being in origin the invocation of a bodhisattva called Maṇipadma. However, from an early time these mantras were interpreted in the context of mystical sound symbolism. The most extreme example of this is the om syllable, which as early as in the Aitareya Brahmana was claimed as equivalent to the entire Vedas (collection of ritual hymns).
Buddhism
Buddhists praying with incense at Wat Phra Kaew, Thailand
In the earliest Buddhist tradition, the Theravada, and in the later Mahayana tradition of Zen (or Chán),
prayer plays only an ancillary role. It is largely a ritual expression
of wishes for success in the practice and in helping all beings.
The skillful means (Sanskrit: upāya) of the transfer of merit (Sanskrit: pariṇāmanā) is an evocation and prayer. Moreover, indeterminate buddhas are available for intercession as they reside in awoken-fields (Sanskrit: buddha-kshetra).
The nirmānakāya of an awoken-field is what is generally known and understood as a mandala. The opening and closing of the ring (Sanskrit: maṇḍala) is an active prayer. An active prayer is a mindful activity, an activity in which mindfulness is not just cultivated but is.
A common prayer is "May the merit of my practice, adorn Buddhas' Pure
Lands, requite the fourfold kindness from above, and relieve the
suffering of the three life-journeys below. Universally wishing sentient
beings, Friends, foes, and karmic creditors, all to activate the Bodhi mind, and all to be reborn in the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss." (願以此功德 莊嚴佛淨土 上報四重恩 下濟三途苦 普願諸眾生 冤親諸債主 悉發菩提心 同生極樂國)
The Tibetan Buddhism tradition emphasizes an instructive and devotional relationship to a guru; this may involve devotional practices known as guru yoga
which are congruent with prayer. It also appears that Tibetan Buddhism
posits the existence of various deities, but the peak view of the
tradition is that the deities or yidam are no more existent or real than the continuity (Sanskrit: santana; refer mindstream) of the practitioner, environment and activity. But how practitioners engage yidam or tutelary deities will depend upon the level or more appropriately yana
at which they are practicing. At one level, one may pray to a deity for
protection or assistance, taking a more subordinate role. At another
level, one may invoke the deity, on a more equal footing. And at a
higher level one may deliberately cultivate the idea that one has become
the deity, whilst remaining aware that its ultimate nature is śūnyatā. The views of the more esoteric yana are impenetrable for those without direct experience and empowerment.
Pure Land Buddhism emphasizes the recitation by devotees of prayer-like mantras, a practice often called Nembutsu. On one level it is said that reciting these mantras can ensure rebirth into a Sambhogakāya land (Sanskrit: buddha-kshetra) after bodily dissolution, a sheer ball spontaneously co-emergent to a buddha's enlightened intention. According to Shinran, the founder of the Pure Land Buddhism tradition that is most prevalent in the US, "for the long haul nothing is as efficacious as the Nembutsu." On another, the practice is a form of meditation aimed at achieving realization.
But beyond all these practices the Buddha emphasized the primacy
of individual practice and experience. He said that supplication to gods
or deities was not necessary. Nevertheless, today many lay people in
East Asian countries pray to the Buddha in ways that resemble Western
prayer—asking for intervention and offering devotion.
Hinduism
Shakta Hindus in Dhaka, Bangladesh, pray to the goddess during Durga Puja, October 2003
Hinduism has incorporated many kinds of prayer (Sanskrit: prārthanā), from fire-based rituals
to philosophical musings. While chanting involves 'by dictum'
recitation of timeless verses or verses with timings and notations, dhyanam
involves deep meditation (however short or long) on the preferred
deity/God. Again the object to which prayers are offered could be a
persons referred as devtas, trinity or incarnation of either devtas
or trinity or simply plain formless meditation as practiced by the
ancient sages. These prayers can be directed to fulfilling personal
needs or deep spiritual enlightenment, and also for the benefit of
others. Ritual invocation was part and parcel of the Vedic religion and as such permeated their sacred texts. Indeed, the highest sacred texts of the Hindus, the Vedas, are a large collection of mantras and prayer rituals. Classical Hinduism came to focus on extolling a single supreme force, Brahman, that is made manifest in several lower forms as the familiar gods of the Hindu pantheon. Hindus in India
have numerous devotional movements. Hindus may pray to the highest
absolute God Brahman, or more commonly to its three manifestations, a
creator god called Brahma, a preserver god called Vishnu and a destroyer god (so that the creation cycle can start afresh) Shiva, and at the next level to Vishnu's avatars (earthly appearances) Rama and Krishna or to many other male or female deities. Typically, Hindus pray with their hands (the palms) joined together in pranam. The hand gesture is similar to the popular Indian greeting namaste.
The Ardās (Punjabi: ਅਰਦਾਸ) is a Sikh prayer that is done before performing or after undertaking any significant task; after reciting the daily Banis (prayers); or completion of a service like the Paath (scripture reading/recitation), kirtan
(hymn-singing) program or any other religious program. In Sikhism,
these prayers are also said before and after eating. The prayer is a
plea to God to support and help the devotee with whatever he or she is
about to undertake or has done.
The Ardas is usually always done standing up with folded hands. The beginning of the Ardas is strictly set by the tenth Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh. When it comes to conclusion of this prayer, the devotee uses words like "Waheguru please bless me in the task that I am about to undertake" when starting a new task or "Akal Purakh,
having completed the hymn-singing, we ask for your continued blessings
so that we can continue with your memory and remember you at all times",
etc. The word "Ardās" is derived from Persian word 'Arazdashat',
meaning a request, supplication, prayer, petition or an address to a
superior authority.
Ardās is a unique prayer based on the fact that it is one of the
few well-known prayers in the Sikh religion that was not written in its
entirety by the Gurus. The Ardās cannot be found within the pages of the
Guru Granth Sahib
because it is a continually changing devotional text that has evolved
over time in order for it to encompass the feats, accomplishments, and
feelings of all generations of Sikhs within its lines. Taking the
various derivation of the word Ardās into account, the basic purpose of
this prayer is an appeal to Waheguru for his protection and care, as
well as being a plea for the welfare and prosperity of all mankind, and a
means for the Sikhs to thank Waheguru for all that he has done.
Iranian religions
Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrians are not fire-worshippers, as some Westerners wrongly believe. Zoroastrians believe that the elements are pure and that fire represents God's light or wisdom.
Zoroastrian worship practices have evolved from ancient times to the
present day.Over time, Zoroastrians developed the concept of worshipping
in temples, sometimes called fire temples.
New religious movements
Wiccan
prayers can include meditation, rituals and incantations. Wiccans see
prayers as a form of communication with the God and Goddess. Such
communication may include prayers for esbat and sabbat celebrations, for dinner, for pre-dawn times or for one's own or others' safety, for healing or for the dead.
In Raëlism
rites and practises vary from initiation ceremonies to sensual
meditation. An initiation ceremony usually involves a Raelian putting
water on the forehead of a new member. Such ceremonies take place on
certain special days on the Raelian calendar. Sensual meditation techniques include breathing exercises and various forms of erotic meditation.
In Eckankar,
one of the basic forms of prayer includes singing the word "HU"
(pronounced as "hue"), a holy name of God. ECKists may do this with eyes
closed or open, aloud or silently. Practitioners may experience the
divine ECK or Holy Spirit.
Practitioners of theurgy and Western esotericism
may practice a form of ritual which utilizes both pre-sanctioned
prayers and names of God, and prayers "from the heart" that, when
combined, allow the participant to ascend spiritually, and in some
instances, induce a trance in which God or other spiritual beings may be
realized. Very much as in Hermetic Qabalah
and orthodox Kabbalah, it is believed that prayer can influence both
the physical and non-physical worlds. The use of ritualistic signs and
names are believed to be archetypes in which the subconscious may take
form as the Inner God, or another spiritual being, and the "prayer from the heart" to be that spiritual force speaking through the participant.
Many
Thelemites recite "Resh" (Liber Resh vel Helios, or "Liber CC") facing
the direction of the ever-present sun as it rises in the East, triumphs
in the (northern-hemisphere) South, sets in the West, and "hides" in the
North. Image shows a close-up of the Stele of Revealing.
In Thelema
(which includes both theist as well as atheist practitioners) adherents
share a number of practices that are forms of individual prayer,
including basic yoga; (asana and pranayama); various forms of ritual magick;
rituals of one's own devising (often based upon a syncretism of
religions, or Western Esotericism, such as the Lesser Banishing Ritual
of the Pentagram and Star Ruby); and performance of Liber Resh vel
Helios (aka Liber 200), which consists of four daily adorations to the
sun (often consisting of four hand/body positions and recitation of a
memorized song, normally spoken, addressing different godforms
identified with the sun).
While no dogma within Thelema expresses the purpose behind any
individual aspirant who chooses to perform "Resh", note that the
practice of "Resh" is not a simple petition toward the sun, nor a form
of "worshiping" the celestial body that we call the Sun, but instead
uses the positioning of that source of light, which enables life on our
planet, as well as using mythological images of that solar force, so
that the individual can perform the prayer, possibly furthering a
self-identification with the sun, so "that repeated application of the
Liber Resh adorations expands the consciousness of the individual by
compelling him to take a different perspective, by inducing him to 'look
at things from the point of view of the Sun' [...]".
Scientific studies regarding the use of prayer have mostly concentrated on its effect on the healing of sick or injured people. Meta-studies
have been performed showing evidence only for no effect or a
potentially small effect. For instance, a 2006 meta analysis on 14
studies concluded that there is "no discernable effect" while a 2007
systemic review of studies on intercessory prayer
reported inconclusive results, noting that seven of 17 studies had
"small, but significant, effect sizes" but the review noted that the
most methodologically rigorous studies failed to produce significant
findings. Some studies have indicated increased medical complications in groups receiving prayer over those without.
The efficacy of petition in prayer for physical healing to a
deity has been evaluated in numerous other studies, with contradictory
results. There has been some criticism of the way the studies were conducted.
Some attempt to heal by prayer, mental practices, spiritual
insights, or other techniques, claiming they can summon divine or
supernatural intervention on behalf of the ill. Others advocate that ill
people may achieve healing through prayer performed by themselves.
According to the varied beliefs of those who practice it, faith healing
may be said to afford gradual relief from pain or sickness or to bring
about a sudden "miracle cure", and it may be used in place of, or in
tandem with, conventional medical techniques for alleviating or curing
diseases. Faith healing has been criticized on the grounds that those
who use it may delay seeking potentially curative conventional medical
care. This is particularly problematic when parents use faith healing
techniques on children.
Efficacy of prayer healing
To pray over an individual while laying hands on them is a form of faith healing in Christianity.
In 1872, Francis Galton conducted a famous statistical
experiment to determine whether prayer had a physical effect on the
external environment. Galton hypothesized that if prayer was effective,
members of the British Royal family would live longer, given that
thousands prayed for their wellbeing every Sunday. He therefore compared
longevity in the British Royal family with that of the general
population, and found no difference. While the experiment was probably intended to satirize, and suffered from a number of confounders, it set the precedent for a number of different studies, the results of which are contradictory.
Two studies claimed that patients who are being prayed for
recover more quickly or more frequently although critics have claimed
that the methodology of such studies are flawed, and the perceived
effect disappears when controls are tightened. One such study, with a double-blind
design and about 500 subjects per group, was published in 1988; it
suggested that intercessory prayer by born again Christians had a
statistically significant positive effect on a coronary care unit
population. Critics contend that there were severe methodological problems with this study. Another such study was reported by Harris et al.
Critics also claim that the 1988 study was not fully double-blinded,
and that in the Harris study, patients actually had a longer hospital
stay in the prayer group, if one discounts the patients in both groups
who left before prayers began,
although the Harris study did demonstrate the prayed for patients on
average received lower course scores (indicating better recovery).
One of the largest randomized, blind clinical trials was a remote retroactive
intercessory prayer study conducted in Israel by Leibovici. This study
used 3393 patient records from 1990–96, and blindly assigned some of
these to an intercessory prayer group. The prayer group had shorter
hospital stays and duration of fever.
Several studies of prayer effectiveness have yielded null results. A 2001 double-blind study of the Mayo Clinic
found no significant difference in the recovery rates between people
who were (unbeknownst to them) assigned to a group that prayed for them
and those who were not.
Similarly, the MANTRA study conducted by Duke University found no
differences in outcome of cardiac procedures as a result of prayer. In another similar study published in the American Heart Journal in 2006,
Christian intercessory prayer when reading a scripted prayer was found
to have no effect on the recovery of heart surgery patients; however,
the study found patients who had knowledge of receiving prayer had
slightly higher instances of complications than those who did not know
if they were being prayed for or those who did not receive prayer. Another 2006 study suggested that prayer actually had a significant negative effect on the recovery of cardiac bypass patients, resulting in more frequent deaths and slower recovery time for those patient who received prayers.
Many believe that prayer can aid in recovery, not due to divine
influence but due to psychological and physical benefits. It has also
been suggested that if a person knows that he or she is being prayed for
it can be uplifting and increase morale, thus aiding recovery.
Many studies have suggested that prayer can reduce physical stress,
regardless of the god or gods a person prays to, and this may be true
for many worldly reasons. According to a study by Centra State Hospital,
"the psychological benefits of prayer may help reduce stress and
anxiety, promote a more positive outlook, and strengthen the will to
live." Other practices such as yoga, t'ai chi, and meditation may also have a positive impact on physical and psychological health.
Others feel that the concept of conducting prayer experiments reflects a
misunderstanding of the purpose of prayer. The previously mentioned
study published in the American Heart Journal indicated that some
of the intercessors who took part in it complained about the scripted
nature of the prayers that were imposed to them, saying that this is not the way they usually conduct prayer:
Prior
to the start of this study, intercessors reported that they usually
receive information about the patient’s age, gender and progress reports
on their medical condition; converse with family members or the patient
(not by fax from a third party); use individualized prayers of their
own choosing; and pray for a variable time period based on patient or
family request.
One scientific movement attempts to track the physical effects of prayer through neuroscience. Leaders in this movement include Andrew Newberg, an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania. In Newberg's brain scans, monks, priests, nuns, sisters
and gurus alike have exceptionally focused attention and compassion
sites. This is a result of the frontal lobe of the brain’s engagement
(Newberg, 2009). Newburg believes that anybody can connect to the
supernatural with practice. Those without religious affiliations benefit
from the connection to the metaphysical as well. Newberg also states
that further evidence towards humans' need for metaphysical
relationships is that as science had increased spirituality has not
decreased. Newburg believes that at the end of the 18th century, when
the scientific method began to consume
the human mind, religion could have vanished. However, two hundred
years later, the perception of spirituality, in many instances, appears
to be gaining in strength (2009). Newberg's research also provides the
connection between prayer and meditation and health. By understanding
how the brain works during religious experiences and practices Newberg's
research shows that the brain changes during these practices allowing
an understanding of how religion affects psychological and physical
health (2009). For example, brain activity during meditation indicates
that people who frequently practice prayer or meditation experience
lower blood-pressure, lower heart rates, decreased anxiety, and
decreased depression.
Efficacy of prayer for fertility
One study found that prayer combined with IVF
treatment nearly doubled the number of women who were successfully
pregnant, and more than doubled the number of successful implantations. But three years later it was revealed that the results of the study were fake.
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