AH-SO ON PRAYING

14.3.85

Often people are puzzled when they have prayed very deeply and that prayer wasn't answered, and they want to know "Why? Why wasn't my prayer answered?"

There are several reasons for this. First, the answering of that prayer may not have been in your life plan. As most of you know, and as we have told you, you are born in this life with the broad general outlines of your life-plan.

Some details of this can be changed as you progress through your life. The thing about which you are praying may be in your life-plan for a very definite purpose and this is why your prayers are not answered.

Another reason, and this is what we wish to concentrate on tonight, is the method of the prayer. To have your prayers answered it is important, and many of you have heard us say this before, to use imagination rather than will-power. As soon as you start to use will-power you get yourself in the way of the energy, which is the best way I can describe the medium through which your prayers are answered. When you use will-power you are thinking of 'I'. You are thinking that the individual ego which is manifested in this world is doing the work. In reality, what you need to do is to turn yourself into a channel through which the underlying energy can be formed, can be guided, used, or what you want. Again, with will-power you are usually using words. Words are an ineffective way of praying. They will be answered if it is part of your life-plan, but words are ineffective to change something in your life-plan. To get your prayer answered, first use imagination, because when you use imagination the focus is on the picture of what you want. Now you must be careful not to use a negative type of picture. Do not focus on the present situation which is unpleasant to you. Make sure your imagination is of what you want. Later we are going to give you an exercise to practice, and we will demonstrate in that what we mean by this. We want you to picture the idea.

If you are taking the approach of wanting something removed from your surroundings, if you think of removing that thing, you are really concentrating more on it and so it will stay there. If you want something removed rather think of the state that your situation would be if it were not there, leaving that out of the picture. Let's take a very trivial thing which probably wouldn't occur in practice. Say, you have been given a table which you dislike. You can't offend the giver by throwing it out or selling it, or what have you, but you would very much like it removed. Do not focus on that table being removed. Imagine rather, the room without the table. Think what would be in the place of that table. If there would be nothing there, picture the rug or floor-covering, whatever, but you can see all of it without the table obscuring part of it. If there is a pattern you might imagine seeing the pattern without the table standing there. If you see the pattern, there is nothing to occlude your seeing the whole of it. That was a very trivial example of a very concrete thing.

What if you are wanting an abstract thing removed? Again, focus upon what you want rather than perhaps thinking that you don't want to suffer that particular condition. Instead of focussing on not being sad, focus on being happy. Trying to feel within you the inner happiness which is always with you through all trials and tribulations. Deep within you there is always that core of happiness. You will not always be able to contact it, you will often be overwhelmed by what is happening to you. But if you can remember that deep within you there is that happiness it will carry you through those times and eventually you will be able to feel it again.

So now, if you are not to use will-power, how do you develop that prayer. First, you must be VERY SPECIFIC (great emphasis) about what it is you want. You must know in detail, because to use your imagination you must be able to picture the thing, whether concrete or an abstract thing, or an event. You must be able to picture it in detail. It is no good perhaps concentrating on wanting children - you might get five at once! You must state precisely, you must give dimensions, you must give a time period, you must give locality, colour if it is an object, and whatever. You must be very specific. You cannot imagine something the way you need to, unless you know the details, unless you know exactly what you want. You must be able to picture it precisely. This is a very important point.

So you decide what you want. You have this picture. First, and this will not be new to you, you must be in a relaxed state of mind. Now, we do not mind what it is you do in order to attain a relaxed state. We prefer that you do not use aids such as alcohol, smoking or any of the mood altering drugs. We prefer it, however, in important matters, if you absolutely cannot relax without them, by all means indulge. The important thing is to be relaxed. These things that I mentioned just now affect the aura, changing the vibration and that makes it more difficult for spirit to operate through you or with you. Abstaining from these will improve your spiritual progress if you have been indulging.

So, you are relaxed. Form this picture, build it up in detail in your mind. Just thinking about it, you are not willing it, you are using your imagination, much as a young girl will perhaps imagine what it is like to be married. She will picture her wedding dress, she will perhaps think of what her young man will be like, and often she will carry this in her mind. Again, perhaps someone has the ambition to be something, perhaps to be a movie-star, and you will carry that in your mind. Now, these are rather ephemeral things and will not materialise unless they are in your life-plan. If they are in your life-plan then this will bring them through.

For something which you deliberately want to change, you have to change, expand the window of your consciousness. We have spoken before, that you have three layers of consciousness. In your daily life the window is open at, for want of a better word, the "middle" layer. You need to expand it to cover the three layers. You have the sub-conscious, the conscious and the super-conscious, these are the three main identifiable regions. Now, as you are relaxed and you have built up your picture, and this is where I have difficulties with words. We can let this medium know what I mean. She can experience it, but I have to use words to pass it on to you and I am not sure that we have the right words. To start, I have to use directional words, and, as most of you here tonight know, there is no real direction in spirit. But you have concepts of direction in your world and so I have to use them.

Try to go within yourself. For you it may be somewhat easier to think of going over the top and into the spine, you may use whatever imagery prompts you to do it. You may wish to contract in, but it is getting to that 'within' state. It somehow takes you behind the conscious mind and you get in contact with the other regions. Contacting the super-conscious mind expands your consciousness beyond yourself. And, here I really cannot put it into words for you. The process of going within you should mean to try and eventually find for yourself that you are expanding.

You will probably have the concept of expanding about your head. In reality it is expansion all round, and in that state your picturing can be materialised. You will not need to take specific actions to remove the table, it will go. What you need will come to you, what you want to achieve you will do, in spite of all obstacles.

Now, for what sorts of things should you use this technique? You know what I am going to say. You must use it only for good. When you use it for your own aggrandisement, it will back-fire. You may achieve what you want, but you will find there is a bitterness with it. You will find that it wasn't really what you need. You may use it to help others. It is an effective healing technique, but remember that unless it is in the other person's life-plan, the material healing may not occur, but they may get mental and spiritual healing. When you are using this technique for other people, you also get the other person's vibrations involved. It is no longer only you. It will work when the other person is open to you. When they are compatible with you. The compatibility is only important in the material world. You need to establish rapport with the person you wish to heal. Sometimes this has to be done instantly, and you will need, when you meet your, shall we say, client, to behave in ways that do not cause that person to reject you. Do not be over-bearing in manner, but do not be the other way. Do not seem to be insecure or shy or lacking faith in yourself. You need to be calm and self- confident. Be quiet. You should not dress in extremes of dress. You should not dress in jarring colours. Quiet colours are to be preferred. The mixture colours are very good, so are the pastels, the greys, the beiges. But they should be colours that you feel at ease in. Cultivate a concerned manner, a welcoming manner, but do not be over-effusive. Do not fuss over your client. This will tend to introduce unnecessary movements and so your aura may be affected by these.

The furnishings in the room should be simple but not stark. A pleasant picture on the wall. We feel it preferable not to have some of the modern art which is very garish, jerky, square, angular. Some abstract art is good, gentle, flowing, or use art of the realistic type. The room must be comfortably warm, it should not be too hot, nor too cold. Flowers may be helpful. Have whatever furniture you think you need. You may prefer to have a stool for your client to sit on, but if you talk with your client beforehand have a comfortable chair for them. Have available water in case you client needs it and you may need it yourself; have it easily available. And, if you are lucky and your client has a life-plan that involves that healing from you, it will be more likely to occur in these types of surroundings.

Try not to be disheartened if you feel the healing has not occurred. Remember, you are making yourself available, but by using the correct imagery techniques you are not doing the work. And you should acknowledge that it is not your material ego that is doing the work. You may acknowledge, if you feel it is correct, that you are contacting a greater source, and that this source is being channelled through you.

Does anyone have any questions at the moment?
(There were no questions)

Either I have been very lucid or very obtuse. Now, we are aware that you badly need rain in your city. There are some clouds about which will help, and we are going to ask you now to try our technique and to picture rain. Now, how much rain do you want?

(It was decided to concentrate on receiving half-an-inch of rain to fall during a four hour period during the next two days, and then everyone would carry out the visualisation at 9.30 p.m. each evening. The quantity of rain could be increased after the first half-inch.)
Make yourselves comfortable and relax. Watch your breathing, let it come and go. Picture the rain falling, slow, steady, soaking rain. Sometime in the next two days, picture the clouds coming together. Picture their colour. Picture the rain on your back. You can see rain coming down through the window, running down the pane. Are you out in it? Feel it hitting your skin. Is your hair getting wet? Do you have an umbrella? Do you have gumboots on or a raincoat? Hear rain beating on the roof. Do you have a leaking roof? Is there an animal outside in it (i.e. the rain)? What does its fur look like? Look up at the clouds. While I give you these pictures, do not use will-power on them, just let them run through your mind. Slowly contract with it - go down into the spine, use whatever imagery you like. Going within and holding these pictures, relax, imagine.
(Five minute pause.)

Gently come back.
Is it possible for all of you to agree on a time when you could all do this during the next week?
(It was agreed to do it at 9.30 p.m. each night.)

Question from the medium. She asks if this could be like sympathetic magic which is used by what is called primitive tribes, in which they try to show their gods what it is they want.

Primitive people make a physical representation or try to act out their wants. So if they want to catch a lot of fish, they will perhaps do a dance which imitates the movement of fish and they will make a fish figure on the beach. This sort of thing will show the Gods what they want. We should say there is a germ of similarity in it that the magic men in the tribes picked up this type of instruction from Spirit, but because of their level of expertise it was mis-understood to be calling for representation in a material way. They did not fully understand; or the medicine men did not pass on the instruction in the way it could be grasped by the rest of the tribe. With the passage of time, in other instances, the succeeding medicine men did not have the level of attunement of the first one, and with time it was mis- interpreted and changed into physical representation. The mental imagery we are asking you to do, picture it in a way the material manifestation, shall we say, sort of knows what to conform to, but it operates on a different level. It is calling into play wider concentrations of energy, of mental energy. The wider concentrations are more able to affect the patterns in your world so that material things can come to pass, or pass away. Or so that people in your surroundings can pick up the vibrations - we mean sub-consciously, pick-up the vibrations - and re-act to them.

Now, we feel it is time that we departed. Thank you for your presence, we wish you well till we meet again.

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