Can I Pray For Myself?

“The greatest gift Christianity gave to me was the approval to pray for myself…” Turtle-Dove

As a member of a church—strongly tied to Hinduisum with a smattering of Christian ideology and a guru. Prayer was taught to me in a universal way, which is taught in religions that practice pantheism.

Webster defines pantheism as a doctrine that equates God with the forces and laws of the universe and the worship of all gods of different creeds, cults, or peoples indifferently.

Our prayers in this church (which still has a worldwide base) were directed “outward” towards the universe in general.

Think of the planet covered by a blanket and if part of the blanket is torn, the entire fabric is compromised.

Prayer was explained as an energy force that we could project towards the world crises and that we could actually control. They teach we’re divine beings, a bubble in God’s ultimate sea. We were told that we could create an energy force that would heal what ailed our world without having to leave our meditation cushions.

Everything we did, even on an individual bases affected some other part of the world, and that was their theory on prayer.

Prayer involved creating energy in our hands by rubbing them together and "thrusting" this energy into the air, chanting OM, and whirling our hands around and and around and chanting OM, imagining our healing energy going out to whoever needed it. Thus we were God, healing people.

I myself led this technique in what they called a World Wide Prayer Circle every Thursday night at a local temple.

When you pray in this manner, you disassociate with self, as you are praying in an impersonal way to pray. Also, where is God in this? We can not heal anyone, unless we're a doctor!

If someone you love dies of cancer; you’ll blame yourself for not throwing enough energy their way.

We were told that asking God for anything personal was “begging,” and we were not to be beggars before God. Coming to our Lord and petitioning him was selfishly wrong.

Though I meditated and loved God, I only approached Him as a great universal energy, a cosmic force to experience in deep meditation, not a loving, caring, embracing Father who could help me if I asked. We were told to only consider the needs of others—to “be aware beyond self,” and never to reflect on the needs of our own; otherwise we were succumbing to ego. Nor were we to have “predetermined expectations from God.”

Jesus says we are to expect answers! “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” Mark 11:23.