I think that we all have the power to make things happen for ourselves, sometmes we pray when we feel a need for faith. The beauty of prayer is that it gives us faith and hope and that in itself is what gives us the strength to carry on and make things happen in our lives.

Psychically speaking there may be a positive connection on a higher lever of brain waves that we don't fully understand yet. Very possibly the very fact that we are directing our positive energy upon another may actually be beneficial towards them.

I believe in the power of prayer - I believe the greater number of people praying for the same thing, the better the results...I am speaking of real, deep, meaningful prayer....

I believe in the power of prayer. God knows I wouldn't be where I am today if people hadn't prayed for me.And I know for a fact its helped for people I've prayed for to. Whatever you do don't stop!There is a reason for everything. "when two or more are gathered in prayer He is in the mist of us." Thats a scripture I trust.

We also have to remember that the help we get may not be what we had expected or wanted. Sometimes the answer is "no". Depending on the situation, that can be a good thing.

I don't believe in prayer, but I think it is helpful for people to know that others are thinking about them and supporting them in their time of need.

Yes, I've seen it work many a time and felt it myself. I might not be here if it weren't for prayer.

I was never too sure on whether prayer might be helpful. I read this article in the New York Times a while ago, and I think I know now. Long-Awaited Medical Study Questions the Power of Prayer By BENEDICT CAREY Published: March 31, 2006 Prayers offered by strangers had no effect on the recovery of people who were undergoing heart surgery, a large and long-awaited study has found. And patients who knew they were being prayed for had a higher rate of post-operative complications like abnormal heart rhythms, perhaps because of the expectations the prayers created, the researchers suggested. Because it is the most scientifically rigorous investigation of whether prayer can heal illness, the study, begun almost a decade ago and involving more than 1,800 patients, has for years been the subject of speculation. The question has been a contentious one among researchers. Proponents have argued that prayer is perhaps the most deeply human response to disease, and that it may relieve suffering by some mechanism that is not yet understood. Skeptics have contended that studying prayer is a waste of money and that it presupposes supernatural intervention, putting it by definition beyond the reach of science. At least 10 studies of the effects of prayer have been carried out in the last six years, with mixed results. The new study was intended to overcome flaws in the earlier investigations. The report was scheduled to appear in The American Heart Journal next week, but the journal's publisher released it online yesterday. In a hurriedly convened news conference, the study's authors, led by Dr. Herbert Benson, a cardiologist and director of the Mind/Body Medical Institute near Boston, said that the findings were not the last word on the effects of so-called intercessory prayer. But the results, they said, raised questions about how and whether patients should be told that prayers were being offered for them. "One conclusion from this is that the role of awareness of prayer should be studied further," said Dr. Charles Bethea, a cardiologist at Integris Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City and a co-author of the study. Other experts said the study underscored the question of whether prayer was an appropriate subject for scientific study. "The problem with studying religion scientifically is that you do violence to the phenomenon by reducing it to basic elements that can be quantified, and that makes for bad science and bad religion," said Dr. Richard Sloan, a professor of behavioral medicine at Columbia and author of a forthcoming book, "Blind Faith: The Unholy Alliance of Religion and Medicine." The study cost $2.4 million, and most of the money came from the John Templeton Foundation, which supports research into spirituality. The government has spent more than $2.3 million on prayer research since 2000. Dean Marek, a chaplain at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and a co-author of the report, said the study said nothing about the power of personal prayer or about prayers for family members and friends. Working in a large medical center like Mayo, Mr. Marek said, "You hear tons of stories about the power of prayer, and I don't doubt them." In the study, the researchers monitored 1,802 patients at six hospitals who received coronary bypass surgery, in which doctors reroute circulation around a clogged vein or artery. The patients were broken into three groups. Two were prayed for; the third was not. Half the patients who received the prayers were told that they were being prayed for; half were told that they might or might not receive prayers. The researchers asked the members of three congregations — St. Paul's Monastery in St. Paul; the Community of Teresian Carmelites in Worcester, Mass.; and Silent Unity, a Missouri prayer ministry near Kansas City — to deliver the prayers, using the patients' first names and the first initials of their last names. The congregations were told that they could pray in their own ways, but they were instructed to include the phrase, "for a successful surgery with a quick, healthy recovery and no complications." Analyzing complications in the 30 days after the operations, the researchers found no differences between those patients who were prayed for and those who were not. In another of the study's findings, a significantly higher number of the patients who knew that they were being prayed for — 59 percent — suffered complications, compared with 51 percent of those who were uncertain. The authors left open the possibility that this was a chance finding. But they said that being aware of the strangers' prayers also may have caused some of the patients a kind of performance anxiety. "It may have made them uncertain, wondering am I so sick they had to call in their prayer team?" Dr. Bethea said. The study also found that more patients in the uninformed prayer group — 18 percent — suffered major complications, like heart attack or stroke, compared with 13 percent in the group that did not receive prayers. In their report, the researchers suggested that this finding might also be a result of chance. One reason the study was so widely anticipated was that it was led by Dr. Benson, who in his work has emphasized the soothing power of personal prayer and meditation. At least one earlier study found lower complication rates in patients who received intercessory prayers; others found no difference. A 1997 study at the University of New Mexico, involving 40 alcoholics in rehabilitation, found that the men and women who knew they were being prayed for actually fared worse. The new study was rigorously designed to avoid problems like the ones that came up in the earlier studies. But experts said the study could not overcome perhaps the largest obstacle to prayer study: the unknown amount of prayer each person received from friends, families, and congregations around the world who pray daily for the sick and dying. Bob Barth, the spiritual director of Silent Unity, the Missouri prayer ministry, said the findings would not affect the ministry's mission. "A person of faith would say that this study is interesting," Mr. Barth said, "but we've been praying a long time and we've seen prayer work, we know it works, and the research on prayer and spirituality is just getting started."

ABSOLUTELY

Praying for someone else- no. However, I think praying for yourself can give you the confidence necessary to achieve your goal.

I think the Power of praying and feeling will help

It cannot hurt, and I think there is alot to be said for a person having as much support and help and "energy" sent their way when they re ill or in a bad place.

Can't hurt

My experiences have proved that prayer changes life's circumstances.

Yes I do. I think it can help alot in some people's cases.

Absolutely!!

I don't know about you, but when I pray for someone I frequently think about what I can do to help them and that is something that obviously good them. And it's usually something I never would have thought of otherwise. Even a total unbeliever can see how useful that would be.

Yes. In His service, <:))))<>< "Sin is not hurtful because it is forbidden; it is forbidden because it is hurtful." Anonymous

I say no, and my reasoning is this: According to the religious "facts" if herd, if god has his "master plan" running, then everything that happens in life happens for a reason and is already planned out. Remember, god knows everything. Because humans are not as powerful as god, no matter what we do, we cannot really change anything, because god has already decided everything. So why pray, when the outcomes, decisions, and everything have already been decided by god? Why should god change his plan just because you want something?

Not if your an athiest... hehehe

I believe prayer changes things. It has power and I know God listens from personal experience.

It does and I've seen it work. And answers or help come in many fashions, not always how we expect.

Yes.

Yes I do..I know it doesn't hurt.

Yes I do, when it is sincere and deep from within the heart.

I once read a study where they looked at sick patients who were: A. not prayed for B. prayed for but didn't know about it C. prayed for it and did know about the prayers. Interestingly enough group C faired the worst. This surprised the people who created the study. One explanation is that if you think that it is in God's hands then you take the locus of control away from you making you feel less empowered. I'm not saying that this study has been repeated and proven, but its interesting.

I think yes.

Not unless they know you are doing it.

Yes I do. And it helps me too.

Yes, very much so. I think when God hears his children pray he is glorified and will answer there prayers. But it is our trust in him that counts the most. If you dont believe,you cant trust and you will doubt. You have to have total faith in God, he will except nothing less.

Praying with the right heart condition is very helpful. Just always remember, ultimatly, it is God's will and not ours. Don't lose faith if your prayers seem unanswered.

I'm not a believer of than. And Here's why: Think of it this way. God is like some kid and the people on earth are ants on an ant hill. God could spend years trying to find out which ones where good and bad, but they all look like ants. And if the kid smited the ants, they could be praying all that time, but he wouldn't have heard. The only thing you can do is live our lives with as much kindness as posible. (and trying not to dwell on god standing over us with his smitng finger.

Yes I believe all prayers are answered.

If i am prying to someone like myself No If i am prying to GOD then Yes

Oh yes, there's a lot of power in prayer!

All of the evidence from studies done on this issue shows that praying for others has absolutely no effect.

I don't believe that any higher being or whatever hears prayers, and I don't know anything about telepathy, brainwaves and electromagnetic...ghosts...and stuff. But like, if someone feels better just knowing you pray for them, that can help, in a certain way. It doesn't solve their problem, but it might ease their pain, just knowing someone is thinking of them, kinda like what Mina in Dracula said about sympathy.