Mega-Resources on Prayer: Articles, Books, and more with Dr. B's "take" on how they relate to prayer research

 

Mega-Resources on Prayer up to 2009

 

NOTES ON TIME:

 I developed these resources over a decades time and ended around 2009…I am revisiting these to edit and add ideas in 2021, and I have made no effort to update them, i.e., I am MISSING the prayer literature from 2009-2021—a gap of 12 years that others will need to fill in for the future of prayer research.

 

                                                          NOTE ON FORMAT:

 All entries are arranged alphabetically by author’s last name and using an old edition of APA style. Next an abstract or summary of the work is presented. Finally, one or more ideas about prayer related to the resource is suggested—I often preface this with “My take” (but not always). I hope it will be clear that these are my opinions, and that the purpose of providing this is heuristic. I mean to stimulate ideas, creative thinking, possibilities for future research on prayer.

 

Abbot, Neil, Harkness, Elaine, Stevinson, Clare, Marshall, Paul, Conn, David, & Ernst, Edzard (2001). Spiritual healing as a therapy for chronic pain: A randomized, clinical trial. Pain, 91, 79-89.

 No statistically significant differences (outcome measures McGill pain questionnaire) between healing (face-to-face or simulated face-to-face for 30 minutes per week for 8 weeks, and distant healing for 30 minutes per week for 8 weeks) and control groups.

 

Abhishiktanada (Henri le Saux) (1967). Prayer. Delhi, India: ISPCK.

 

Acree-Cavalier, Carol (2000). Reading literature with prayer: The uses of Milton and Bunyan in 18^th century Anglo-American devotional practice (Doctoral dissertation, Cornell University). Dissertation Abstracts International, 61, 04A,1414.

 How Christians use different genres of devotional material (epic poems to novels) to structure and regulate religious emotions. Those that spend little time in public worship cultivate practices of private worship at home with reading literature being a central part of this worship. In my thinking, this highlights the literature-prayer connection. One can use literature to pray with. This seems especially relevant for poetry-prayer.

 

Adams, Patch, and Mylander, Maureen (1998, orig. 1993). Gesundheit! Rochester, Vermont: Healing Arts Press.

 "Brings good health to you, the medical system, and society through physician     service,  complementary therapies, humor, and joy"…the Patch Adams story.

 

Adams, Patch, and Van Amerongen, Jerry (1998). House Calls: How we can all heal the world one visit at a time. San Francisco: Robert D. Reed Publishers.

 Thoughts on well-being, things a visitor can do, how to be a good hospital patient, special concerns when visiting particular kinds of people. Seems to me that one of the things we can do is pray for people who are sick (silently and/or aloud, depending on the context).

 

Ahsen, Akhter (1992). Imagery of prayer: A pilot experiment on concepts and content. Journal of mental imagery, 16, 1-72.

 Imagery tests called Ahsen’s questionnaire upon imagery of prayer given to 40 subjects. Definitions of prayer, notions of prayer as joyousness, boldness, creation, nature covered. Experiment asks subjects to write out their view of prayer, forget what they wrote and move into some imagery activity (one re: shop, another of a lake), then to “keep prayer in mind and see the lake again”, subject rate vividness of images and comment on what they saw under different conditions. Results suggest impressions of prayer were different from pre to post, that “certain aspects of consciousness grew during the test” (about 20 mins long), that the flow of experience became richer as a result of keeping prayer in mind when reconsidering the images. My take: this could be adapted to another study using image of God and prayer, e.g. keeping your image of God in mind, or keeping your idea of prayer in mind, then describe God or prayer.

 

Ai, Amy L., Dunkle, Ruth E., Peterson, Chistopher., & Bolling, Steven F. (1998). The role of private prayer in psychological recovery among mid-life and aged patients following cardiac surgery. Gerontologist, 38, 591-601.

 Abstract: Issues related to psychological recovery following coronary bypass surgeries (CABG) have emerged in recent years. Other research has shown the effects of spiritual or religious activities on health and aging. However, little is known about the relationship of spiritual coping, including religious coping, to post-CABG adjustment. This study addressed multifactorial determinants of postoperative psychological recovery and the effects of private prayer, a form of spiritual coping, on the recovery of 151 older patients.  Results show that most patients pray about their postoperative problems and that private prayer appears to significantly decrease depression and general distress one year post-CABG.

My take: Curious about preoperative prayer—wouldn’t that be important to figure in—private prayer and for the patient, “known prayers from others.”

 

Ai, Amy, Bolling, Stephen, Peterson, Christopher (2000). The use of prayer by coronary artery bypass patients. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 10, 205-220.

Retrospective survey of 151 CABG (coronary artery bypass graft surgery) patients. 68% reported they used private prayer to cope following CABG. Path model found use of prayer to cope was associated with better postoperative emotional health. Predictors of use of prayer differed across patient age where older patients (over 65) were more likely to pray if religion was important to them whereas younger patients (under 65) were more likely to pray if they had lower incomes, better preoperative health, and more education. My take: where does this get us? What about the quality of the kinds of prayer, the types of prayer…?

 

Ai, Amy, Dunkle, Ruth, & Peterson, Christopher (2000). Spiritual well-being, private prayer, and adjustment of older cardiac patients. In J. Thorson (Ed.) Perspectives on spiritual well-being and aging (pps. 98-119). Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas Publisher.

 Conceptualizes private prayer as a type of spiritual coping. Examines private prayer in relation to 196 patients (40-80 years old) who had been admitted for their first CABG (coronary artery bypass graft surgery).

           

Ai, Amy, Peterson, Christoper, Bolling, Steven, & Koenig, Harold (2002). Private prayer and optimism in middle-aged and older patients awaiting cardiac surgery. The Gerontologist, 42, 70-81.

 Measured 3 aspects of prayer: belief in import of private prayer, faith in the efficacy of prayer based on previous experiences, and intention to use prayer to cope with the distress associated with the surgery. Sample of 246 patients awaiting cardiac surgery (1^st interview was 2 weeks before surgery and optimism measured the day before surgery by telephone). Private prayer (as a means for coping: prayer is important in my life, prayer doesn not help me cope with difficulties and stress in my life-reverse coded, I will use private prayer to cope with difficulties and stress associated with my cardiac surgery) predicted optimism, along with older age, better socioeconomic resources, and healthier affect. Neither measures of general religiosity nor any type of prayers (defined as 4 types: reading a relevant book or reciting memorized prayers, making an informal conversation with God, addressing the accomplishment of spiritual or material needs, and meditating or thinking about or experiencing the divine, including hearing God’s voice---from Poloma And Gallup, 1991) used by patients were associated with optimism. My question is: if the individual types of prayer didn’t predict optimism, then how could the private prayer variable predict optimism unless the prayers that were said did not fit the Poloma and Gallup typology? Maybe a better measure of optimism is needed, or other related measures like hope and resilience?

 

Ai, Amy, Tice, Terrence, & Peterson, Christopher (2005). Prayers, spiritual support, and positive attitudes in coping with the September 11 national crisis. Journal of Personality, 73, 763-791.

 Survey of 453 college students 3 months after Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks showed various types of prayers for spiritual coping. High initial negative emotional response was associated with use of prayer for coping, which was related to less distress in the structural equations model (other correlations in the model: faith predicting prayer (.77), negative emotion predicting prayer (.12), prayer predicting spiritual support (.37)…  Note no direct links to positive attitude or emotional distress because mediated by “spiritual support”. My take: it only seems natural that people will turn to the Divine in times of high distress…I wonder what the content of people’s prayers were: relief from suffering, but perhaps also wanting G to take revenge, or cursing kinds of prayers like the prophets of the Hebrew scriptures used?

 

Aina, Olatunji (2006). Psychotherapy by environmental manipulation and the observed symbolic rites on prayer mountains in Nigeria. Mental Health, Religion and Culture, 9, 1-13.

 Activities of the syncretic Aladura Church Movement on selected prayer mountains in southwest Nigeria were explored. Activities were of psychotherapeutic import through the manipulation of the clients’ cultural environment and the “prescription” of such “symbolic rites” as the use of Holy water”, “Anointing oil”, “mantles” and so on. These practices seem to benefit those patients that believe in them. My take: very difficult to translate prayer embedded in the landscape and culture in what sounds like an indigenous context to a western industrialized context. Only those things that are cross cultural might be applied across contexts.

 

Aiken, Lewis (1997). Assessment of adult personality. NY: Springer.

Excellent summary of methods and specific scales for measuring personality. The more               interesting ones deal with Erikson's stages and Levinsons stages of transition… My take: these could link different stages of adult development with different needs/types of prayer. What may be appropriate or needed at one stage of life may not be so at another, on the other hand, there may be some types of  prayer that are continuous and helfpful throughout the lifespan. Also has inventories for stress, temperament, vocation, employee selection, criminals…of special interest is the assessment of vocational personalities by Holland. There are realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional types. Does one’s world of work correspond to different types of prayer, perhaps the realistic also likes realistic prayer, as the artist might like creative prayer, on theother hand, if that is one's primary work all day, maybe people need a break and want something different from prayer, the realist needing something more creative and the artist needing something more structured…this is an empirical question that could be sorted out in prayer workshops where people take the Holland vocational test and also explore and rate the helpfulness of different types of prayer.

Ainslia, P. (1924). The way of prayer. NY: Fleming H. Revell Co.

 Aitken, Robert (1992). The dragon who never sleeps. Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press.

My take: is it possible to use the Buddhist gatha’s idea herein to translate to other religious/spiritual systems using the same principle, e.g. for Christian, taking a bath/shower as a reminder of one’s baptism, or something simpler, like turning on a light in a room as letting Christ’s light shine into the room, or putting on one’s shoes while thinking of spreading the “good news.”

Aitken, Robert (2002). Formal practice: Buddhist or Christian. Buddhist-Christian Studies, 22, 63-76.

Seven Buddhist practices are brought together with analogous Christian practices. The 7 Buddhist practices are Nembutsu (veneration), ekomon (merit back), Zazen (focused meditation), gan (vow or expression of aspiration), Sange or zange (confession), Mudra (ritualized presentations of realizations—can be gestures, hand positions, or postures), and Sutras (traditional Buddhist chants/texts).

 

Albrecht, S. L., & Cornwall, M. (1989). Life events and religious change. Review of Religious Research, 31, 23-38.

Partial abstract and Editorial: “…the importance of one’s religious beliefs and the importance of one’s church increases as a result of positive life events, while the opposite occurs following negative life events.  This pattern holds for events that are overly religious in nature as well as for events that may or may not have religious significance, such as illness or injury, divorce, and death of a loved one.”  Changes in religious belief and activity occur as a result of positive and negative life events. Method: questionnarie, n=136 members of the the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon). My take: While the authors did not specifically look at prayer and life events, prayer may serve as a precursor, accompaniment, or conclusion to life events (positive and negative) that may reinforce, change, or nullify the meaning attributed to the life events.

 

Aldrich, J. (1994). Reunitus: Building bridges to each other through prayer summits. Sisters, Oregon: Multnomah Books.

 Intensive 4 day prayer with God and others with no other agenda than to follow the leadings of the Holy Spirit, primarily with pastors, interdenominational Christian, same sex, prayer, forgiveness, reconciliation, unity, vision…instructions on how to start and run a prayer summit. My take: why limit to pastors, why not include the entire church, congregation, synogoue, temple…?

 

Alper, Harvey (Ed.) (1989). Mantra. NY: State University of New York.

Best book on mantras I’ve found. Series of chapters with topics like: vedic mantras, tantric ritual, mantras as speech acts, meaning and power of mantras, use of mantra in yogic meditation. While the most comprehensive, I like Easwaran’s Mantra Handbook better for practicality.

 

Altmann, I., & Taylor, D. A. (1973). Social penetration: The development of interpersonal relationships. NY: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.

 Could the metaphor of getting to know someone like the peeling of the layers of an onion, and the ideas of breath and depths of topics, be applied to getting to know the Divine? Is there not some imagery about taking off the veils between us and God in Hinduism or Sufi spirituality?

 

Amaldas (1983). Christian yogic meditation (Way of prayer series, vol. 8, Basil Pennington Consulting Editor). Wilimington, DE: Michael Glazier.

 This is the second book by Amaldas on Christian Yoga (the first entitled, Yoga and Contemplation dealt with the eightfold path of Yoga from the Christian viewpoint with an emphasis on Hatha Yoga).  The present work outlines the stages of Christian Yogic meditation: (1) growing in Christ Consciousness to Cosmic Christ Body consciousness by singing the mantra of the sacred Name,  (2) Using breathing to enter the eternal life movement between God and humans through Yeshu Abba (Jesus-Father) Consciousness, (3) Experiening the supernatural life movement, the inner life of God within oneself, between the Father and the Son in the Spirit by mythological symbolism of the serpent power Kundalini Shakti. The aim is the mystical marriage between male and female, between humans and God. The exercises help a person, “make use of his own faculties, senses, intellect, reasoning and thinking in order to transcend time, matter, and space and to enter into the ultimate silence beyond thoughts, words, ideas, concepts, etc. to where one’s spirit meets with the Supreme Spirit…” Sections on negative and positive withdraw, and on attachment and mystical union with the opposite sex are particularly enlightening.

 

Ambady, Nalini, & Rosenthal, Robert (1993). Half a minute: Predicting teacher evaluations from thin slices of nonverbal behavior and physical attractiveness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 431-441.

 People are able to form accurate impressions of others from mere glimpses of their behavior. Judgements of college teachers nonverbal behavior based on brief silent video clips (under 30 seconds) predicted global end-of-semester student evaluations of teachers (in a 2^nd study similar judgements predicted principal’s rating of high school teachers, and in a 3^rd study thinner slices of time (6 second and 15 second clips) were strongly related to criterion variables. My take: the implication for prayer research is that we only need to observe a “thin slice” of a person’s prayer behavior to determine what their prayer/spiritual life is like…this of course is still an empirical question, and for what purpose would we want to know this kind of information?

 

Ameling, Ann (2000). Prayer: An ancient healing practice becomes new again. Holistic

            Nursing Practice, 14, 40-48.

 Author describes personal account of prayer and breast cancer, shows how prayer was integral to everyday life in previous centuries, defines prayer, lists types of prayer (note addition of lamentation, crying out in distress and asking for vindication, and invocation, summoning the presence of the Almighty as new categories that we don't generally see in prayer typologies). Also distinguishes between "active" and "passive" (more meditative) types of prayer. Advances arguments for healing influence of prayer, spiritual assessments in nursing practice. Introduces "new vocabulary" for prayer as "stress reduction", "relaxation respons", "nonpharmacologic therapy", "integrative treatement"…curious phrases that respesent very different assumptions about prayer. This would be a good introductory piece for nursing students.

  

Amma (1998). Seeking the healing touch of a ‘Saint.’ Washington Post (Sunday, July 5, 1998) Available: http://www.ammachi.org/media/washington_post.htm, and Spiritual leader’s hugs filled with comfort, love, her followers say. Dallas Morning News (Monday, June 29, 1998) Available: http://www.ammachi.org/media/dallas_morning_news.htm. Best site is: http://www.Amma.org

 Mata Amritanandamayi (childhood name Sudhamani) meaning Mother of Immortal Bliss, shortened to Ammachi or Amma. In one day she hugged 2,000 peole; the people kiss her feet, put their heads in her lap and cry, she hugs them, whispers in their ears, blesses their heads with sandalwood paste…she heals their pain.  She recommends prayer and meditation as spiritual practices along with selfless service, bhajans, puja and japa, and satsang (this constitutes a complete spiritual system). My wonderings: How did she become like this? What is it that enables her to have such a healing effect on people? Where does she get the energy to do this? Are her teachings expounded upon somewhere, especially as a pragmatic system of prayer?

 

Ameling, A. (2000). Prayer: An ancient healing practice becomes new again. Holistic Nursing Practice, 14, 40-48.

 Majority of Americans believe in healing power of prayer, therefore, nurses should know what prayer is, should be familiar with the literature on the effectiveness of prayer, and understand uses of prayer as part of holistic nursing practice. Agreed, but how would this be implemented?

 

Amen, Daniel (1995). Two minutes a day to a lifetime of love. Waco, TX: WRS

            Publishing.

 Reminds me of time management book, except this bk is targeted for couples in creating life goals together. Only 3 pps on spirituality under "meaning/purpose" in life. A curious quote attributed to Einstein…if spend 15 mins a day reading in a particular topic area for one year, you will be an expert in that area (if 5 years, a national expert). What evidence is there for this? There is the expert in 10k hours idea, but Angela Lee Duckworth blows this out of the water with her work on GRIT. This work also highlights the impt of prayer in a relationship with another, how do couples that prayer together relate differently to each other than couples that do not pray together, and how much variance is there in "praying together"? saying a memorized prayer together, praying for partner's needs, seeking god's will, etc…What are the divorce rates of people that regularly pray together, in addition to times at religious services, verus couples that don’t pray together at all. Don’t forget to include meditation and prayer.

 

Amen, Daniel (www.amenclinics.com/bp/articles.php?articleID=20, retrieved April, 5,

            2007). Healing the hardware of the sould: Nine principles of the Amen Clinic.

 Article on website called Welcome to BRAINPLACE: Brain SPECT information and resources. Quote: The brain is the hardware of the soul. Gives advice for maximizing developing and keeping a healthy brain (do's and dont's)…the idea here is that prayer would impact brain function and visa versa…there have been many fmri imaging studies on prayer/meditation and brain function…would need to update this.

 American Academy of Religion (2008). Database.

         inlcudes faculty rank, institutional affiliation, geogrraphic loca, e-mail, office and    phone, highest         degree, and titles of recent academic publicas relevant to topics     in the database (i'm in the                 database).

         would be gd to search this for prayer topics and contact people doing prayer         research and                 share your p resources with them.

 Amma (1998). Seeking the healing touch of a saint. Washington Post, July 5.

44-year old woman called Amma (Mata Amritanandamayi, mother of immortal bliss) has said to the United Nations Interfaith Celebration, “The intellect has reached its peak, but the heart has remained dry. Knowledge without devotion is like eating stones.” She is one with Krishna and shares her abundant energy with 1,000’s of people on her pilgrimage through the states. She sleeps only a few hours and will give hugs to 100’s of people during one service which may take all day.

The questions I wish I could ask her, and that people doing prayer research should be investigating: How does this women channel God’s energy flow? What is her prayer life like? Can ordinary people taste such abundant life?

Anandarajah,G., & Hight, E. (2001). Spirituality and medical practice: Using the HOPE Questions as a practical tool for spiritual assessment. American Family Physican, 63, 81-88.

 HOPE—H=Sources of hope meaning, comfort, strength, peace, love, and connection (wonder what percentage of people list prayer here?), O=Organized religion (not specifically mentioned but couldn’t corporate prayer, i.e., worship with others, fit here?), P=Personal spirituality/practices (prayer and meditation are listed as possibilities in this section, but so are attending religious services—shouldn’t that be under “O”? and listening to music, hiking, reading scriptures…for these to be “prayer” they need a certain kind of spiritual intention to accompany them), E=Effects on medical care and end-of-life issues, prayer is not mentioned here but it seems to me that if I were undergoing treatments for cancer or surgery or about to die that I would want my family with me praying for me aloud.

Anderson, Chris (2000). Teaching as believing: Faith in the university. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press.

University is about knowledge, reason, inquiry, analysis; faith is about experience, beliefs, advocacy, dogma…one needs a good measure of both to have a full and meaningful life.  Thus the academic study of prayer can be possible in the university, and it can inform faith outside the university as well.  This is also critical for teaching…to say who you are and what you believe and why is not to deny other positions, it’s to provide a context for others to understand your position in the university where multiple interpretations, possibilities, critical thinking, and humility in knowledge are possible…this acknowledges faith and reason…

The BIG questions this raises is: How am I to be a prayer researcher, a teacher that prays (and/or a teacher of prayer), a prayerful person of faith in and outside of the university?

Andreasen, Nancy (1984). The broken brain: the biological revolution in psychiatry. NY: Harper and Row.

 History of mental illness, biological revolution in psychiatry (more history), competing models of mental illness (psychodynamic, behavioral, and biological as varied by cause of illness, methods of study, types of illness, and methods of treatement, p. 21), revolution in neuroscience details on brain, revolution in diagnosis and treatement with aid of brain imaging, future research.

How could one take all of the info on brain physiology and apply it to the study of prayer.

 Andreasen, Nancy (2005). The creating brain: The neuroscience of genius. NY: Dana  Press.

 Creativity defined in terms of domain of knowledge, field of experts, and role of person. Intelligence of creative people only need be modest. Personalities of creative people open-ness to experiencxe, adventurous, rebellious, individualism, sensitivity, playful, persistent, curious, and simplicity. Case studies of introspective accounts of creativity show a flow, a process that is mostly unconscious, that takes them over for periods of time. Neuro creativity PET  study showed that creativity can happen in what people called the “control” where s’s would rest, Nancy renamed this R.E.S.T. random episodic (personal memories vs symantic impersonal things) silent thought that occurred in the frontal, parietal, and temporal lobes that gather info from senses and link it all together. The nonlinear processes in REST parallel the case study free association of ideas. Nature and nurture arguments for creativity. Building better brains, advice for being more creative. 

The pattern of the book’s structure would make for a good book on prayer, how it was defined, historical pts of interest, personality of the prayerful person, case studies of prayerful people, neuroscience of prayer, nature and nurture arguments for prayerful person, and advice on becoming a more prayerful  person.

 Ang, Dennis, Ibrahim, Said, Burant, Chris, Siminoff, Laura, & Kwoh, Kent (2002). Ethnic differences in the perception of prayer and consideration of joint arthroplasty. Medical Care, 40, 471-476.

 Based on 596 patients attending primary care clinics aged 50+ and having chronic, moderate-to-severe knee pain, hip pain, or both. Black patients scored higher than white patients on the religiosity scale, were more likely to perceive prayer as helpful in the management of their arthritis, and were less likely to consider surgery for severe hip/knee pain.

What are other black-white differences regarding prayer, and more importantly, WHY are there these differences?

 Angha, Molana (1998). Al-Salat: the reality of prayer in Islam. Riverside, CA: M.T.O. Shahmaghsoudi.

 Salat is one of the five pillars of Islam, a series of movements and recitations that are designed for unity with God. Salat is performed 5 times a day: morning prayer (dawn until the sun approaches), noon prayer (sun at zenith), late afternoon prayer (shadow of objects equals their height), sunset prayer (after the sun has disappeared beneath the horizon), and night prayer (after the beginning of night and before midnight).

Note how everything revolves around the sun. Standing posture during prayer indicates steadfastness, while bowing total submission to God. There is much more on the content of the prayers. The commitment to pray 5X a day puts most Christian pray-ers to shame who find it difficult to pray for one 15 min. period a day with the exception of those in Christian monestaries that prayer the holy hours together.

 Anonymous (1989). The golden book of prayers. Milford, OH: The Richle Foundation.

 Compilation of written prayers that some would classify as “rote” prayer, but this isn’t accurate as many of the prayers are the distillation of the life experience of a holy person, something that they thought important enough to write down and pass on to future generations, something like poem prayers.

I wonder what we will pass down of value to the next generation? Does anyone for instance recite any of these prayers anywhere in the world today, or are these kinds of things simply forgotten? What are the most important prayers and/or ways of praying that we need to pass on to the next generation. In reading more about Catherine Ingram’s take on human extinction, it’s easy to get discouraged and forget about the idea of legacy—indeed, legacy for what if we’re all dead…although no specific year is mentioned, this paints a pretty dismal picture, and the only thing we can do is LOVE: https://www.catherineingram.com/facingextinction/

Anonymous priest of the Byzantine Church. (1978). Reflections on the Jesus prayer. NJ: Dimensions.

Based on six years of experience following the hesychast way of life; series of reflections, not the words of a staretz (originally appeared in journal form). Revelation of God through cosmos, self, church, scripture, sacraments (I would add other people). Instructions on prayer, relax, find place of heart, attend to God’s presence, use heartbeat to syncronize with prayer (based on Horologion—divine office of Orthodox Eastern Church). Prayer is, “Lord Jesus Christ, son of god, Have mercy on me a sinner.”

 Of what value is this kind of prayer for people living in modern life, in the industrialized west?

 Anonymous Russian peasant (1978). The way of a pilgrim (H. Bacovcin, Trans.). NY: Doubleday.

 Diary type account of a 19^th century wandering Russian peasant’s experiments with the “Jesus prayer”.  Some of the claims seem quite miraculous, hard to separate embellishment from fact.

Does make one wonder what would happen if exclusive attention were given to a manta type prayer for an extended period of time, what type of transformation of consciousness might one expect? Possible series of case studies?

 Andresen, Jensine (2000). Meditation meets behavioural medicine: The story of experimental research on meditation. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 7, 17-73.

 Defines and distinguishes meditation from prayer, claiming that prayer is discursive (mental states that entrertain multiple objects serially) and meditation nondiscursive (mental states that entertain only a single object serially).

I think this is a gross misunderstanding of Christian contemplative prayer which is primarily nondiscursive in nature (see Thomsa Dubay’s writings). Outstanding review of scientific studies of meditation and impact on diverse number of health outcomes. Much could be learned about prayer from this review.

 Andresen, Jensine, & Forman, Robert (2000). Methodolgical pluralism in the study of religion: How the study of consciousness and mapping spiritual experiences can reshape religious methodology. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 7, 7-14.

 Topics of special issue of JCS discussed: titles inlcude: functional approach to mysticism (instrumental vs receptive states of consciousness described via intent, self, work, consciousness, and communication), critical reflections on Christic visions (normal, volitional, percetual—kinaesthetic, visual, haptic, auditory--, effects to spatio-temporal-causal order), promise of inegralism, consciousness evolves whenself dissolves (im me, mine), relationship between cognitive models and spiritual maps (evidence from Herew language mysticism).

Follow-ups to the reference section of these articles would be most valuable.

 Ap Sion, T. (2008). Distinguishing between intention, reference and objective in an analysis of prayer requests for health and well-being: Eavesdropping from the rural vestry. Mental Health, Religion, & Culture, 11, 53-66.

 Archives of Internal Medicine (2002). 162, 1420-1423. Series of letters discussing prayer, science, and religion, and research.

             Harris, William & Isley, William, Massah and mechanisms (p. 1420)

            Smith, Philip, The effects of prayer: Scientific study (p.1420)

            Bodey, Gerald, Can the efficacy of prayer be ?tested (p. 1420)

            Lanciani, Carmine, Must science and religon be separate? (p. 1421)

            Neumann, Joseph, Research and religion (p. 1421)

            Cinball, John, Jeral, Joseph, & Cerullo, Michael, In reply (1421-1422)

            Bolton, Brian, God, science, and intercessory prayer (p. 1422)

            Chiball, John, Cerullo, Michael, & Jeral, Joseph, In reply (p. 1423)

             What are we to make of this, for what purpose, who does it serve?

 Argyle, Michael (2001). The psychology of happiness (2^nd ed.). NY: Taylor & Francis.

 Reviews some of the literature on prayer and relation with God…closeness to God correlated .16 with happiness and satisfaction when church attendance is controlled for, devotional intensity (frequent prayer and feeling close to god) was the strongest predictor of life satisfaction, peak prayer experiences and prayer experience were best predictors of well-being.

Thus, one might say prayer influences happiness to some degree.

 Arico, Carl (1993). The companion to the Christian contemplative tradition paper. Unpublished ms. Butler, NJ: contemplative Outreach, Ltd.

 A review of individuals representing the contemplative Christian tradition organized by: name, life, historical context, contemplative dimension, major works, and quotes. The point of interest is the contemplative dimension excerpts since most of these deal directly with prayer. Individuals reviewed: Augustine of Hippo, Dom Augustine baker, Benedict of Nursia, Bernard of Clairvaux, Pierre de Berulle, John Cassian, Dom John chapman, John Climacus, Cloud of Unknowing, Jean-Pierre de Caussade, Jane de Chantal, Desert Fathers and Mothers, Evagrius Ponticus, Francis de sales, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory the Great, Guido the Carthusian, Hildegarde of Bingen, Walter Hilton and Richard Rolle, Imitation of Christ, John of the Cross, Julian of Norwich, Dom Vital Lehodey, Mechtilde of Magdeburg, Meister Eckhart, Thomas Merton , Pseudo-Dionysius, Jan van Ruysbroek, John Tauler, Teresa of Avila, Therese of Lisieux, and William of St. Thierry.

This would make for a good foundation for a qualitative piece on insights on prayer from the Christian Contemplative tradition.

 Arnet, E. (1937). Christian prayer. St. Louis, MO: Concordia.

             Prayer is “…the getting together of God and ourselves…”(p.9)         

 Arnett, Ronald (1986). Communication and community. Carbondale, IL: Souther Illinois University Press.

 "…The major problem within our human community for the remainder of this century and into the next would be communication from polarized positions…the inability to believe or seriously consider one's own view as wrong and the other's opinion as truth." (p. 15).

 I think a prayerful person would be much more willing to open themselves to another's pt of view, for openness to God is a key character trait for the contemplative…Arnett suggests moving from control to dialogue, from image to authenticity, from independence to interdependence from participation to collaboration…developing prayerful lives would facilitate all of these "moves".

 Arnett, Ronald (1992). Dialogic eduation: Converesation about ideas and between persons. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.

 Dialogue is always an invitation, cannot be forced, don't know outcome ahead of time, requires openness and respect [so also with prayer…each component is    impt…could write an essay expanding on each of these components…invitation,   not forced, unknown outcome, openness, respect].

Dialogic education is a  combination of information (acquiring and looking at implications of implementing for for personal lives and society), relationship building, value discussion, and        character development. Ideas on dialogues from Richard Johannesnsen, John Stewart, Martin Buber, and Carl Rogers.

 Aron, Arthur, Aron, Elaine, & Smollan, Danny (1992). Inclusion of other in the self scale and the structure of interpersonal closeness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 596-612.

         Relational Closeness Inventory consists of time spent together (frequency), variety of interactions          engaged in together (diversity), and degree of perceived influence other has on one’s decisions,             activities, and plans (strength). These ideas are represented in the Inclusion of Other in the Self             Scale which consists of a pairs of circles (from nonoverlapping to completely overlapping). Note         that all of these ideas can be tied to relationship with God and prayer, especially interesting are             the variety of interactions (variety of prayer contexts) and perceived influence (how far does                 prayer penetrate a person’s life in terms of decision-making, activities engaged in, planning---do             people pray about these things?). In addition, the idea of creating a visual representation of a                 person’s relationship with God could be depited as two circles (completely nonoverlapping being          no relationship with G and completely overlapping being complete union with G).

 Ashby, Jeffrey, & Lenhart, Scott (1994). Prayer as a coping strategy for chronic pain patients. Rehabilitation Psychology, 39, 205-209.

         Diverting Attention/Praying-Hoping (DA/PH) is a subscale of the Coping Strategies                                Questionnaire (see Rosenstiel & Keefe, 1983, and Keefe & Dolan, 1986) that in a group of 105             persons experiencing chronic pain was positively correlated with greater degree of disability.                 Prayer was thus viewed as an avoidance strategy, a passive form of coping. I don’t care for the             idea of prayer as passive coping—if one is praying, then there is some degree of activity, not                 passivity, and that could be considered a kind of “coping.” Also, I don’t like viewing prayer as an          avoidance strategy. On the contrary, prayer can be bringning one’s concerns and needs to G as a             positive coping strategy, to co-create ideas for problem solving and decision making as examples.

 Astin, Alexander (2004). Spirituality in Higher Education: A national study of college students’ search for meaning and purpose (2004). Available at: http://www.spirituality.ucla.edu

         Astin is director of the UCLA research center but no authorship is ascribed to the series of white             papers on-line that highlight some of the findings from 2000-2003 that explore the trends,                     patterns, and principles of spirituality among college students.  Research questions included: what         spiritual/religious practices are students attracted to (prayer and meditation are listed as options),             how does spiritual/religious practices affect students’ academic and personal development?                     

        Findings related to prayer: 77% report that they pray, 72% believe people can reach a higher                     spiritual plane of consciousness via meditation or prayer, 30% have had a “spiritual experience”             while meditating [note doesn’t ask while praying…what would that be?], several questions ask if         religious/spiritual beliefs help with coping on various issues [they should add “does prayer help             you cope” with these issues], 14 item “spirituality” scale developed that includes an item on                 meditating [but no items on prayer—why not?], this measure is then correlated with physical and          psychological health, optimism, civic responsibility, empathy, racial/ethnic awareness and                     tolerance, academic performance, etc [these variables could be used as predictive/discriminative             validity for developing a general measure of prayer], fine arts/humanities majors score higher on             spirituality than computer science and physical science majors.  “The single activity that is most             strongly associated with the outcomes of ‘integrating spirituality into my life’ and self-rated ‘                "spirituality’ is prayer. The amount of time that the student spends in prayer also shows a                         substantial positive relationship with attendance at religious services.” The only variable that is             negatively associated with spirituality is the number of hours that the student spends “partying.”

Several scales developed based on review of the literature, expert judges, and pilot study: spirituality (14 items, only one deals with prayer called “meditating” although others labeled spiritual experience could be considered types of prayer), aesthetically-based spiritual experience (4 items—all could be considered types of prayer), religious commitment 14 items (2 deal directly with prayer, reason for prayer as (a) help in solving problems, and (b) emotional strength), self-esteem, equanimity (6 items, could be considered consequences of prayer), spiritual distress (5 items, could be considered reasons for prayer), psychological distress (3 items, could be reasons for prayer), spiritual/religious growth (3 items, may be a indicator of growth in prayer), growth in (a) global understanding, (b) tolerance, (c) leadership, religious engagement (10 items, many of these could be prayer, e.g. reading sacred texts, religious singing), charitable involvement, religious/social conservatism (7 items, 1 deals directly with prayer, reason for prayer as forgiveness, religious skepticism, spiritual quest (10 items, several seem to be part of a prayer life, e.g. finding answers to the mysteries of life, attaining wisdom, searching for meaning/purpose in life), social activism, artistic orientation. My critique: could be more explicit with questions about a person’s prayer life. No information on the content of prayer, function of prayer, contexts for prayer with others, etc. Would like to know how prayer specifically contributes to these other spiritual and non-spiritual variables.

 Austin, James, H. (1998). Zen and the brain: Toward an understanding of meditation and consciousness. Cambridge, MS: MIT Press.

Excellent review of literature on Zen, meditation, neurology (highly technical section), states of consciousness, mystical experiences, absorption, and awakening and enlightenment. More broadly, this literature on meditation could be related to the prayer literature. How are prayer and meditation similar? Different?

 Avalos, Hector (1997). Can science prove that prayer works? Free Inquiry, 17, 27-32.

 Many critical points raised by this piece. We cannot create a prayer experiment because there can be no controlled experiment on prayer because one cannot create a control group of people that have no one praying for them. One cannot know if a prayer has been answered by the Christian God because we cannot know a being who is infinite. An all-good, all-knowing, and all-powerful God would not want suffering (goodness), know any cases of suffering (knowing), prevent suffering before it happened (powerful). We cannot know if it was the Christian God or some other God that is responsible for healing since all religions claim that their God is the one that answers prayers. We cannot scientifically claim supernatural healing because we cannot know and rule out all possible natural causes.  Bible says that the Hebrew God will not listen to prayer when he is is angry with a whole nation (IS 1:15) so how can studies account for God not hearing prayers. In the author’s experience as a “faith healer” he notes that all cases of “healing” were due to one or more of the following: false assumptions, erroneous information, and wishful thinking. There are of course, reasonable counterarguements to all of these point (e.g., C.S. Lewsi, G.K. Chesterton, Peter Kreeft), but they are good points that show the limitations/boundaries of scientific method and logic.

 Ave Maria University (2007). Trends in religion and business converging. Religion Watch Newsletter, 22, 3.

Catholic University called Ave Maria in FL is e.g. of community built around the University rather than the other way around. One might explore ethnographically, what the prayer life of people is like in an environment like this compared to another traditional Catholic Universities that are simply another part of a city.

 Aviles, Jennifer, Whelen, Ellen, Hernke,Debra, Williams, Brent, Kenny, Kathleen, & Kopecky, Stephen (2001). Intercessory prayer and cardiovascular disease progression in a coronary care unit population: A randomized controlled trial. Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 76, 1192-1198.

Intercessory prayer, defined as prayer by one or more persons on behalf of another (we need much more detail for the prayer protocol here, for example, how would one replicate such as study without detailed instructions on “how to perform intercessory prayer”), was administerd for 26 weeks by 5 intercessors per patient.  Patients were divided into high or low risk groups based on 5 risk factors. At 26 weeks assessments were made of: death, cardiac arrest, rehospitalization for cardiovascular disease, coronary revascularization, or an emergency department visit for cardiovascular disease.   Results showed no significant effects on medical outcomes for high or low risk groups that were prayed for vs not  prayed for.

 Aycock, Don (1998). Prayer 101: What it is, what it isn’t, how to do it. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

Based on authors experience as a pastor for 20 years. Targeted to Christians that want to know how to make their prayer life different and better, i.e. informal, practical approach.

 Azari, Nina, Missimer, John, Seitz, Rudiger (2005). Religious experience and emotion: Evidence for distinctive cognitive neural patterns. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 15, 263-281.

Rather obvious finding that religious experience is correlated with the emotion and social-relational cognition mediated by a specific neocortical network. I take this to mean that prayer is a dimension of religious experience that would also be mediated by a specific neocortical network. Is this brain network related to communication with others? With the Divine? Would it make any difference in who the target of the prayer was for the parts of the brain that light up?

 Azari, Nina, Nickel, Janpeter, Wunderlich, Gilbert, Niedeggen, Michael, Hefter, Harald, Tellmann, Lutz, Herzog, Hans, Stoerig, Petra, Bimbacher, Dieter, & Seitz, Rudiger (2001). Neural correlates of religious experience, European Journal of Neuroschience, 13, 1649-1652.

 If there are neural correlates of religious experience, then prayer, since it is a part of religious experience, should share these correlates. Religious experience is not simple primitive/abnormal limbic brain reactions to external stimuli but it also has a cognitive component, involving meaning making, conditioning, etc. The conclusion reads: “religious experience emerges as ‘thinking that feels like something.’” (well—duhh)!

 Babbie, Earl (1985). You can make a difference: The heroic potential within us all. NY: St. Martin's Press.

 Fork in the road: us or humanity/survival. Nature of heroes and possibility of salvation (classic and contemporary examples). Has students do an extra credit project…find a social problem and fix it (must be assumed not assigned, undertaken not imposed, and declared not duty). My question: where does one find the motivation, energy, and direction for such undertakings. Could it be possible that prayer/mediation is a part of such motivation? A venture that a prayerful contemplative person can see and will do something about the suffering of the world out of compassion, including praying for the “other.”

 Babin, Pierre (1991). The new era in religious communication (David Smith trans.). Minneapolis: Fortress Press.

Claims that the new medium is Christ, that the way of beauty includes sounds and images revealing God (is not this part of the purview of prayer?). The difference here is the emphasis on the mediated aspects of communication (could this be translated as the mediated aspects of prayer?).

 Bachvarova, Mary (2002). From Hittite to Homer: The role of Anatolians in the transmission of epic and prayer motifs from the Near East to the Greeks (Doctoral dissertation, University of Chicago) University Microfilms No. 3060281.

         Hittite and Greek prayers are discussed in detail on pps 129-170.

  Bade, Mary, & Cook, Stephen (1997). Functions and perceived effectiveness of prayer in the coping process. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Chicago.

 Describes multiple functions of prayer in the coping process for members of Christian groups.  Combines qualitative (open ended question: In what ways do you use prayer to deal with personal difficulties?) and quantitative (questionnaire) methods to assess s’s experiences. Study 1: First analysis found 58 items from 36 s’s dealing with using prayer in coping processes. Clusters included: seeking God’s help to handle difficulties, seeking direction, focusing on others, focusing on the situation, asking for resources, gaining a sense of calm and focus, meditating and reflecting, seeking resources, giving control to God, putting faith and trust in God, acknowledging lack of control to God. Study 2: Second analysis was cluster mapping revealed 3 bipolar dimensions: approach/avoidance, internal/external focus, and deferring/self-directing. Study 3: validation and assessment of prayer functions. Most frequent prayer coping items were: ask God to help me through the difficult times, give thanks, know someone is listening, prayer for strength to handle difficulties, and prayer for God to lead me in the right direction. I have used the idea of prayer as a coping mechanism in much of my own research.

 Bade, M. K., & Cook, S. W. (2008). Functions of Christian Prayer in the Coping Process. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 47, 123-133.

             Very similar to the Bade and Cook paper presented in 1997.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ideas and Questions for the Future of Prayer Research

This next section is a list of some ideas from the prayer scrolls i kept in the red tube...i'm missing other brainstorming sessions written on large poster paper that i will add to this list...i also have not (yet) organized this list into clusters of topics...

i heard an inspirational sermon tonight that made me think about "legacy" and i thought: "If i die tonight and do not post something, the legacy with be nill, and no one will be able to run with any of these ideas (even if only one person benefits, that is enough)--i need to pass on the baton to the next runner before it's too late...so with my cup of dandelion tea, i write this at 11 pm on a Saturday in late September of 2019...a very rough draft for YOU...

Turn On the Light of Prayer 

Conceptual foundations:What is prayer?

How is it similar/different than: meditation, contemplation, reflection, wishful thinking, hypnosis, magic, mindfulness, centering, kything, yoga…

Some questions to ask people to get at a definition of prayer:
How would you define prayer?
In one sentence, define the essence of prayer.
What's another word/phrase for prayer?
Lis some synonms for prayer.
What is the opposite of prayer?
What is a person doing when they pray?
What are the essential characteristics of prayer?
What images come to mind when you see/hear the word "prayer"?
Attempt to define: prayer ways, prayer types, methods of prayer.
List as many kinds of prayer as you can for one minute?
What are the dynamics of prayer>?
How would you categorie/classify different tyeps of prayer?
How would you describe prayer growth/development/stages?
How did you learn to pray?
Who taught you to pray?
What resources have you found helpful in prayer?
How would you teach others to pray?

What counts as prayer messages? How do we know a given messages is prayer?

Sociodemographic variables associated with prayer: frequency of prayer (we have much of this data: poor, black, female, southern part of U.S., less education is correlated with higher frequency of prayer), but what about correlations with other aspects of prayer like: duration of prayer, frequency of different types of prayer (petition, intercession, praise and worship, corporate, dyadic, dialogic, meditative, contemplative, and so forth)? For those that do and don't pray at the extreme ends of the normal curve (3 standard deviations in either direction), what reasons do they give for their prayer life (or lack of prayer life)?

Non-verbally, could individuals identify from a picture a prayerful: face, voice, posture, place?

What artifacts (non-human things) are associated with prayer, e.g., candles, rosary beads, prayer beads, statues, mats, shawls, attire, pews, chairs, cushions…?

Can different kinds of language be considered prayer: a word, phrase, declarative sentence, question…developing a lexicon of prayer? The semantic space of prayer using the original measurement of meaning idea from Osgood et. al. semantic space.

Forms of prayer: silent, verbal (spoken, chanted, sung, shouted…), nonverbal…

Musical prayer--the proliferation of music videos since MTV in the early 1980's has changed the way many of us experience music...why not use this medium to promote prayer through music?

Dancing as prayer--Gabrielle Roth's 5 Rhythms seems like a good place to start--the wave of: flowing, staccato, chaos, lyrical, and stillness speaks to me of the rhythm of prayer and the rhythm of life, like a wave, each part having it's time and place (her book "Sweat your prayers" provides details and explanation of the method).

Art as prayer--drawings, paintings, sculpture, woodwork, video production, theatre...two perspectives, one as prayer in the creation of these artifacts, and second prayerfully viewing/appreciating/observing these artifacts--see book: "Praying in Color" for ideas

Poetry as prayer--i love the Haiku form of poetry--three simple lines, the first sets the context, the second leads us to expect something, to want to know the ending, and the third line, if it's a good haiku, will provide us with a surprise ending, breaking the context and imparting insight, and sometimes wisdom. There are of course many other forms of poetry, and poetry as "spoken word" provides another context/medium to share prayer with a live audience.

How is prayer defined based on different disciplines, especially: psychology, sociology, communication, medicine, anthropology, theology, and philosophy. Included here would also be THEORIES of prayer in all of these different disciplines, of special interest would be interdisciplinary theories of prayer.

Communication theories of prayer--since prayer is a type of communication, it makes sense that each communication theory should have something to contribute to the understanding of prayer. What can we learn from each communication theory about prayer: Burgoon's expectancy violations theory, Berger's uncertainty reduction theory, Peace and Cronin's coordinated management of meaning theory, Baxter and Montgomery's relational dialectics theory, Tannen's Genderlect styles, Aristotle's rhetorical theory, Fisher's narrative paradigm, Altman and Taylor's social penetration theory, and so forth...

What are the functions of prayer?

How can prayer be used to make decisions? Solve problems? Mediate? Negotiate? prayers of thanksgiving, petition, confession, intercession are some common categories to begin with.

Coping with stressers in life…school, work, recreation, relationships, health…

What is the ideal prayer environment?

Color, textures, tastes, lighting, icons, plants, furniture, air quality, inside or outside? Descriptions of where people best prayer, and favorite prayer places/spaces.

How does the way an individual prays related to: their relationship with G, and their image of G?

What are individual’s prayer: expectancies, beliefs, attitudes, affect, behavior…whole constellation of possible variables here.

Prayer quotes--a compilations of short quotes from holy books, wisdom sayings, and other sources about what prayer is, advice for praying, and so forth.

Prayers for every occasion--sample prayers for different occasions, settings, circumstances, emotions, problems/challenges, decisions, and so forth...prayers in times of: sorrow, grief, joy, happiness, friendship, divorce, before a test, job interview, road trip, the list here is endless...like a handbook, could look up anything and there would be a prayer for it.

Lots of research on frequency of prayer, less on quality of prayer…descriptions of the phenomenological experiences of prayer…difficulty of mapping consciousness as a person is praying, fmri doesn’t help much in that blood flow associations with different parts of the brain doesn’t tell us about the content of the experience

Homilies and Sermons on prayer--what do priests, rabbi's, gurus, monks...have to say about prayer and how to pray? Collecting these sermons (transcripts and/or videos) and content analyzing for themes by religion/spiritual tradition/faith would be a monumental task, but if these leaders are the "experts" on prayer, what advice do they have for us is an important question to answer.

Prayer and Relationship with God--how does the person praying conceptualize their relationship with God. Andrew Greeley the priest-sociologist maintains in Religion as Poetry that all of our relationships are based on our fundamental relationship with God.

There are many different ways to conceptualize human relationships: strangers, acquaintances, friends, lovers, parent-child, co-workers, co-creators, servant-master.

There are many descriptors that could describe any of these relationships such as the continuums of: shallow-deep, apathetic-involved, formal-casual, controlling-free, distant-close, dishonest-honest, competitive-cooperative, hostile-loving, serious-playful, active, receptive (and some of these could be both at different times, e.g., sometimes in contemplative prayer the relationship on the human side seems more receptive, and sometimes in singing/chanting prayer the relationship on the human side seems more active--so it may be best to measure some of these on an intensity dimension, or to describe different kinds of prayer and rate each of these separately)--to what degree do these human terms mirror one's relationship with the Divine?

There are many different names that one might use to describe their relationship with the Divine, for example, Yahweh, Allah, Father, Mother, Goddess, God, Shiva, Spirit, and so forth...is there a comprehensive list of these names and the qualities/characteristics associated with each name? What does this tell us about the person's relationship with the divine and the kind of prayer they are likely to engage in?

Prayer progressions, stages, sequences, levels…what is the goal of prayer, can one be positioned on a continuum of prayer in relation to a goal, what is the best way to visualize the process of praying?

Inter-religious prayer—is this even possible. Different religions prayer in different ways, to different deities or beings or ancestors or…is there any common ground among the many different ways of praying that might make inter-religious prayer possible? What would an inter-religious prayer sound like? What are the different methods of prayer recommended by the world religions, and what are the functions of prayer according to the different religions?

Interdisciplinary prayer, health, and healing--Interviews with individuals representing multiple academic disciplines in the arts and sciences, with practioners in the medical and religious professions, about the topics of prayer, health, and healing. The results could be used to design a workshop-retreat on prayer for those with chronic illnesses and those that care for them. An attempt at such research is published in Journal of Communication Research 2008, vol. 31, 24-53 entitled, "Exploring interdisciplinary prayer research in a health context" by E. James Baesler.

Prayer stories—if one were to ask individuals, “tell me a story about a time you prayed”what kinds of stories would they tell, what does this reveal about their assumptions regarding prayer, the ways of prayer, the functions of prayer, the language of prayer, their relationship with G, and so forth…stories could reveal much about prayer. I'm recalling what DeMello once wrote (paraphrased)...Read a story once and be entertained, read it twice and apply it to your life for knowledge, read it a third time and carry it your heart, let its fragrance and melody haunt you for real wisdom.

Phenomenology of prayer-related to prayer stories but focused more on the experience of prayer--how do individuals describe their prayer experiences in first person language, what kinds of metaphors, images, language do they invoke, what senses seem to be most prevalent, and how do individuals describe the undescribable moments of bliss, awareness, void, silence, and so forth...?

Neuroscience of prayer--what is going on in the brain when an individual is praying different kinds of prayer, e.g., meditative prayer on a sacred word versus intercessory prayer for the healing of a specific person in their social network...does it even matter what parts of the brain light up to indicate more blood flow during prayer to certain parts of the brain? perhaps the most spectacular result would be minimal blood flow and a reported experience of ecstasy! See Andrew Newberg and Richard Dawson's work.

What does it mean to have a prayer practice? A prayer life or life of prayer?

Is it possible to pray without ceasing? To be in a constant state of prayer? What does this mean on a pragmatic level? If part of working memory is devoted to prayer would this be a cognitive impairment for the individual, or is it more like a mantram that runs continually in the background without conscious attention?

Un/answered prayer…how does one go about verifying if a prayer has been answered, especially for cases of healing prayer for nonphysical ailments…do we look to medical records, subjective experience/self-report, observations from others in the person’s environment for changes in attitude and behavior, or all of the above?

How does prayer change a person over time? For those elders that have prayed for decades, how would they say prayer has changed them? For others that take up a prayer practice, e.g. daily centering prayer, do those they live with notice any differences in their language, behavior, disposition over time? Does prayer make one more “saintly”, inspire more virtuous/ethical behavior, more kindness, compassion? Does prayer make one more resilient, hopeful, peaceful, loving?

Representations of prayer in popular culture and social media, especially cinema, you tube videos, magazines, twitter, facebook, novels, and music (do different genres of music reflect different styles of prayer, e.g. are country western lyrics about prayer different than hip-hop lyrics about prayer).

What are the typical “occasions” of/for prayer, e.g. greetings, departures, blessings, birthdays, holy days, anniversaries, weddings, rites of passage, before a medical procedure, before an exam…could one develop a sample prayer for each of these unique situations as “prayer starters” for individuals.

Do individuals with different personalities tend toward different kinds of prayer (e.g., extroversion and singing prayer, and introversion and silent prayer?).

Are prayers associated with different character strengths as in the Clifton strength finder (e.g., resilience, hope) or the Values in Action survey? The idea is to "pray with one's strengths"

Are certain foods and drinks associated with prayer? One example for Catholics is the eucharistic bread and wine.

Teaching prayer: what is the best way to introduce young children to prayer--modeling, behavioral reinforcement, memorized prayers, centering prayer...how about teenagers, young adults, middle aged, elderly?

Lifespan prayer--are there differences in the way different stages of the lifespan pray, and how much of this is related to the technology they grew up with (e.g., radio, televisions, computer, mobile phone devices...)? 

Wisdom of the Ages--what advice do elders have for prayer?

Prayer Inventory--a comprehensive and systematic inventory of an individual's prayer life including socio-economic variables, religious/spiritual variables, frequency, duration, types of prayer, a history of prayer, prayer stories, and so forth. Develop a short version of the prayer inventory for medical practitioners and chaplains so they know how to pray with their patients if that is their desire.

Prayer prescriptions--advice for particular kinds of prayer that physicians and nurses would provide to their patients as complementary to their regular medical care.