Recently I published a post on the physiological and psychological effects of prayer and meditation. The piece summarized some of the latest scientific research on how spiritual practices help to lessen stress levels and improve our health. So I was surprised when many of the comments on the article focused less on the substance of these findings than on the reputed sins of religion.
Some mocked the act of prayer as "childish behavior," "a primitive superstition" and "sending telepathic thought messages to an invisible being in the sky." Several people suggested that the effects of prayer were imaginary, or the results of what they called "the placebo effect." Others pointed out that any relaxation technique where one sits quietly and lets go of the stress of the day can lead to the improvements cited in the studies.
I don't disagree. The research which correlates spiritual practices with health benefits does not ascribe these benefits to the intervention of a supernatural being. It does not prove that the God who people are praying to actually exists. It merely establishes that those who pray and meditate tend to be statistically healthier than those who don't-- end of story. And as for the placebo effect, you will get no argument from me there either. It is when people say "just a placebo effect" that my hackles rise.
The placebo effect is arguably the most underrated discovery of modern medicine. Replace "just the placebo effect" with "the amazing placebo effect," "the mind boggling placebo effect." To my way of thinking, the very existence of this mysterious effect proves that God exists. That's right, you can find evidence for the foundational truths taught by religion in virtually every double blind medical research study!
OK, I know that some of you are scratching your heads thinking that I have perhaps been smoking some illegal substances lately. But hold your horses-- I admit that the God I am talking about might not be the one that many religious folks ascribe to. Alright, it might not be the God that you believe in either-- or disbelieve in. But I think that I can make a credible case for the existence of this God.
So here's my argument. But before I get into the question of who or what God is, let's begin with a few words about what-- in my view-- God is not. This is the easy part. God is not some grey bearded white guy sitting on a throne in the sky. God is not the reclusive author of just one immemorial bestseller, the Hebrew Bible, now retired from writing. He is not the ghostly father of just one son, Jesus. He is neither a male nor a female, a person nor a nonperson, physical nor nonphysical, old nor young... the list goes on.
I can hear some of you thinking-- wait a second, now it sounds like you are saying that God does not exist. Well no, my point is just the opposite, that the reality pointed to by the word "God" is so vast and all encompassing that we cannot limit it in the usual ways. We can't point to one thing and say "this is God," and to another and say "this is not God."
Remember the part of the Ten Commandments where the Lord commands the Israelites to "make no images"? That is precisely the place where most people -- including religious believers -- go wrong. We make an image in our minds of what God is, and then we proceed to either argue for it or against it.
But this is idolatry. Anyone who clings to a fixed position on the nature of the sacred is an idolator, because Spirit, according to mystics in all traditions, has no form. Or to put it more precisely, spirit is the ground of all forms, it is the source and foundation for all that exists.
This may sound hopelessly abstract and philosophical. But it is actually very concrete. We are talking about the most immediate and intimate reality of all. Allah in the Holy Koran proclaims, "I am closer to you than your own jugular vein."
What a strange thing for God to say! When we try to imagine Divinity, we generally picture an aloof and distant, somewhat tyrannical power external to ourselves which is dictating our fate. But here one of the world's foundational scriptures is suggesting that the truth is the reverse. If God is hard to find, it is not because the Divine is too far away, too lofty, too remote from our "fallen" human nature, it is because it is too close, too intimate, the very ground of our own essential selves.
It is like the eye attempting to see itself. However hard it tries, it cannot do this. We can't find God, because, paradoxically, we are already the God that we are seeking.
I know this sounds odd, even blasphemous. But I am not saying that you and I in our egocentric and separate selves are God. It is rather the other way around -- when we drop the elaborate pretense and disguise of being these limited and conditioned entities, we discover that we are not separate or apart from anything. We are part and parcel of all that exists.
Granted, this is hard to grasp until we actually experience it. Yet all of us get glimpses at moments of the existence of a higher, more loving and expansive potential within ourselves. When mystics speak about being "one with God," they are not making an egotistical statement. It flows from their experience that the ego is but a thin veneer painted over their real selves. And the real self cannot be defined in any way. What we are (to quote Winston Churchill out of context) is "a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma."
Which brings us back to the placebo effect. It is mysterious, right? We don't know how it happens. A person was sick and they take a sugar pill and next thing you know -- voila -- they are healthy. To call this "the placebo effect" is to dress up our ignorance in words. What has actually happened is nothing short of a miracle. Science has got no explanation for it-- something immaterial (a thought?) has impacted something material (our body) in a way which utterly defies logic.
And that is what prayer is all about. Prayer is based upon the conviction that the immaterial is more powerful than matter itself. Whether we call this immaterial force "God," "the ground of our being," "Spirit," or "higher consciousness" doesn't matter. The point is-- there is an uncanny power (which all of us without exception have got access to) which performs miracles. The sick can be cured, the broken can feel whole again.
And the greatest miracle of all is that this power can connect us to a place within ourselves of boundless love, peace and well being. Do we need any other proof for the existence of God?
Denene Millner: Birthing While Black: An Experience I'll Never Forget
One of the most widely esteemed physicians of all times, Nobel Laureate Albert Schweitzer, once observed that:
“The greatest discovery of any generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering the attitudes of their minds.”
But this mysterious miraculous power in each of us is beyond comprehension of even the most brilliant human minds. Thus, Albert Einstein one of the greatest scientific geniuses of modern times, believed in God as Universal Intelligence far beyond comprehension of the human mind. He said:
“The harmony of natural law…reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection.”
See http://sillysutras.com/einstein%E2%80%99s-belief-in-god-as-universal-intelligence/
Like Einstein, many people refer to this immense ineffable power beyond our comprehension as “God”.
But whatever you may call it, or if you don’t name it, it’s existence has been intuited and mystically experienced by saints and sages for millennia, as imminent in each of us.
Thus Jesus described both himself and others as “the light of the world” saying “the Kingdom of Heaven is within.”
I respectfully suggest that those commenters who have reflexively criticized this deeply insightful article, deeply reconsider their negative remarks.
(It's extremely difficult to satirize theologians and mystics. The satirist constantly asks him-or herself: How can I top THAT?)
Be carefull what you write about science being proof of whatever you personaly believe, instead of the reality of the world I live in every day, my friend.
http://www.science20.com/alpha_meme/how_belief_could_be_physically_effective_through_quantum_physics_ii-86125
Your poetry may be inspiring but your knowledge of science is not.
Seriously? Thoughts are electrical, chemical and hormonal.... If you don't think chemicals and hormones affect your body you are in a fantasy world. Thoughts effect mood which effects health... This article is rubbish.
Part of the reason that we observe changes in placebo groups is that not all patients are at equivalent points in disease course. Another is that disease severity can vary significantly among patients. Finally, there are various issues of bias, like confirmation bias, that are involved as well. Sorting through these various, and other, factors is quite complicated.
But I do agree that HP shouldn't be giving garbage like this a national audience ;-)
Chopra was describing the placebo effect to MMY, and MMY interrupted and said " this is how Brahma , whispering to Himself, creates the entire universe, and you dismiss it as 'placebo'!"
"Science has got no explanation for it...."
Only if you aren't reading the decades of Science research and explanations.
From Scientific American:
"In recent decades reports have confirmed the efficacy of various sham treatments in nearly all areas of medicine."
"The Placebo Effect can arise not only from a conscious belief in a drug but also from subconscious associations between recovery and the experience of being treated—from the pinch of a shot to a doctor’s white coat. Such subliminal conditioning can control bodily processes of which we are unaware, such as immune responses and the release of hormones.
Researchers have decoded some of the biology of placebo responses, demonstrating that they stem from active processes in the brain."
I believe God, *IS the placebo effect.