posted October 31, 2018 02:55 PM
While those were some interesting ideas and concepts, prayers seem more of an inner-concept to me rather than directed at either alien beings or sky gods.A big example would be when Granny prayed to Jesus for me when she had a psychic experience of my immanent death. But I saw Freya (a goddess I needed more than Jesus at that time, though I do believe the psilocybin in my body fat + starvation made this experience possible) who told me I had to find the strength to stand on my own rather than depend upon a higher power. Freya was exactly what I needed, though it would surprise many that I think Granny's prayer to Jesus sparked my own mystical experience, and it also doesn't seem to fit what that video claims is happening with prayer.
In any case, I did. When I was escaping someone (I was a runaway on the streets during this time) I didn't pray, but repeated a comforting poem to myself while I wore away at the rope binding me. I found the strength in myself to escape rather than begging the aid of some unseen observer (who would've witnessed all that went on before while doing nothing).
Later I'd learn some Shugendo practices that were mostly inner-alchemy of sorts, though a hint of earth-based (especially mountain) mysticism was part of it (but even that was more working with spirits and forces rather than praying to), that enabled me to do some amazing things (and thus come to believe in myself and my inner-development). Naturally, this was focused on myself, and what animist aspects there were focused on beings in the earth rather than the sky. And yet, years later, I found that entertainers in Hollywood accomplished very similar things in a completely secular way through state of the art trainers and equipment, meaning the mysticism was optional all along (at least for those with the money to hire the best and have the time for it).
I'd later do an experiment on using spells (that often worked for me--but only once, each one had to be tailored made to the situation and based on my creativity as opposed to using rituals or the spells of others) and prayers (which failed so badly that even those that SHOULD have worked based on probability also failed, which let me know that praying to forces outside of myself was sabotaging myself).
Reflecting upon this, I realized it was a life pattern repeating itself, and I could trace it back to when I was newly 5. I'd once tried to go to the drunken 'rents to wake them to feed me to get knocked across the room (among other badness), so now prayer also worked badly as it was repeating that painful lesson to me (the powers prayed to will not only reject me but even reach out to hurt me and deprive me of control of my own life). The next time I figured out how to do it for myself (using a chair to reach the cereal and grabbing it using a spatula & wooden spoon, after that the bowl and milk was easy), and such a warm feeling of accomplishment filled me that let me know that however capricious the world of adults got, I could depend upon myself to get through it (and thus spells as well as other mystical practices focusing on my own inner-power worked as long as I practiced creativity & originality as I did when I got my own cereal).
I share that as to me it does not seem particularly compatible with what she was saying about the nature of praying (but she did urge to have an open mind, which hopefully was sincere rather than a disingenuous "accept what I say and close your mind to anything else" as some people mean it), so I'm sharing. While I can certainly share some odd tales of people praying to specific gods and entities that does appear as if the power came from outside themselves, that could just be the power of Archetypes that we are all supposedly plugged into (the Matrix, or astral internet, if you will)...and if there is divinity, then it should be inside us as well as everything else that can give power to those Archetypes.
Though interesting enough, my grandmother died recently (the same one who prayed to me in the name of Jesus and I got a vision from Freya), and both me and my cousin (who she had helped raise when we were children) both had this powerful urge to sing (my cousin playing the guitar) The Last Unicorn but the Baptist Church wouldn't allow it saying it wasn't Christian (though it was well known that she loved this movie, likely one of her favorites). I will say the song they chosen was a beauty (I can't remember the name of it) and she'd have loved it, but it was a church song rather than the one me and my cousin felt strongly that we should do for her. So we did so in the unofficial wake (after the official one) in my granny's home (now mine, technically speaking) and as we did me and my cousin felt her presence as if she was really with us and we could feel her gratitude and like we had somehow helped her...and I, at least, felt something like an egg-shaped bubble around me (I mention it because something similar gets described in that vid, only one should do it for themselves) that I'm not sure what it means, but felt protective as well as powerful, and it was as real to me as a physical sensation...and I'm not prone to heavy mystical experiences like that.