Why Prayer (magic) works

 

We know now there are no separation between things in the universe.  Used to be called the butterfly affect but we now have harder science on it.  I affect my couch as it does me - even though the table is 4 feet away I know there is no separation between us.  It has to do with how human's perceive the world that makes us believe there are separations between objects or between objects and people or between people and people.  There are a few ways to understand this - if two people are about a block away from each other on the beach both walking in the shallows of the water.  Along comes a wave and despite you not being close to each other the wave knocks you both down at the same moment.  Any particle having been in contact with another will change it's orientation in space at the same moment regardless how far away they are from each other - referred to as spooky action at a distance - this means everything each of us does affects the entire universe.  Finally the way quantum particles work is they can be located in space OR you can measure their speed but you cannot measure both at the same time - the most compelling info to draw from that is that our observation of them has a direct impact on how they behave/manifest (I say manifest because they pop into and out of existence also based on how we observe them).  The moral of the story is that our reality is much more intangible than it appears to us PLUS just our observation of things (plus what we think about them - our perceptions of them) change their action/characteristics/real-ness.  Also and here is the clincher for me - NOTHING happens minus an observer.  To me that is pretty darn close to proving god in the respect that at the very least we know some sentient being had to be observing us when the big bang occurred and it's/his/her perception colored what that was going to be!!  And why a whole lot of physicists have stopped being atheist because at base they KNOW through scientific method these things I mentioned are in fact true (maybe the science is not fully complete but it is complete enough for us to travel in space or do surgery via VR or create robots etc - alot of why that stuff even works is because of our knowledge of how quantum mechanics (as well as relativity) works even if it seems nonsensical to us; facts is facts!!

So how does that tie into magic/religion/spirituality/prayer/ritual??  This is largely theoretical and being studied currently but consciousness still hasn't been found in the human brain - sure we can see where we make decisions (our mammalian/emotional mind not our logical mind makes our decisions - sure we use our logical brain to plan and create and all kinds of stuff but our decisions come from the part of the brain that controls emotions and is in every mammal hence why it is referred to as our mammalian brain).  To me it seems not just a little plausible if not downright the truth that our brains are receptors and transmitters of information but consciousness is EVERYWHERE and we unknowingly tap into that naturally then our genetics plus history colors it then we make a decision emotionally followed by our logical brain (unique to humans) rationalizing them and plan how to go about them.  For instance answering the problem 2+2 requires your emotional brain (which seems to be located not just in our head but in our gut which does "talk/speak" to us but in a more subconscious way - being aware of one's gut reaction is very important and can save your life).   If one is gambling and believing that this or that strategy is going to make one win this is magical thinking as is football players always wearing the same socks on big game days will help them win - who knows maybe it does but this also is referred to as magical thinking (ie it is not backed by science hence many would say it simply is useless - but I don't think it is that simple at alllll). 

Scientists generally believe prayer is magical thinking yet we have done studies that show quite dramatically that those prayed over tend to become healthier than those not.  So since we are all connected with no spaces in between us and consciousness being something not limited to our bodies/brains argues hard that we can and do affect others at a distance - most people put this into practice via prayer and ritual - candle burning is a ritual as is cannibalizing Jesus via transubstantiation so not at all limited to folks calling themselves Wiccans who are considered heretical for not believing the Jesus dying to save us from having to pay for our sins story.  So ritual is merely prayer acted out vs said in our heads or aloud - there is no logical reason to say one is more right than the other especially when religions claim they practice no rituals save fasting - which is untrue and a means of tricking people by feeding them misinformation about who is heretical and who not.  Like there are few if any Christians who will admit they practice any ritual because they are so afraid of being tied to a group they consider doomed - but they practice just as much ritual as any religion.  Bottom line is prayer/ritual works due to physical attributes of nature - quantum mechanics plus consciousness in this case.  

How does that tie into mental illness?  It is my belief and I am not alone in this that bipolar and schizophrenic minds access more of their brain and hence are alert to the spiritual world - even if it is confused often by true psychosis - there often enough is a nugget of truth (mind-bending truth) about things not normally experienced by the general population.  Unfortunately due to that confusion drs rarely give any of it any credibility what's more it's darn near impossible to experiment on because just the experiments can adversely affect it's subjects as well as the data (due to the fact that the drs are going in with perceptions that actually DO affect the outcome of the results or even of every test - it depends largely what their perceptions are as well as what it is they wish to prove) - in proving it there is still the complication that quantum particles are basically doing as told by the drs themselves not by the subjects LOL.  Just because it is difficult doesn't mean we won't ever get there.  Plus I have met many bipolar and schizophrenic folks and they are largely super intelligent - my thinking is that they are accessing parts of their brains the general population doesn't ordinarily have access to.  But that is just theory based on LOTS of experience :)