THE PRACTICE OF PRAYING FOR OTHERS: Eight Examples from Late Twentieth-Century America A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the California Institute of Integral Studies San Francisco, California In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy By Birrell Thomas Walsh September, 1999 Copyright © 1999 By Birrell Thomas Walsh May the Almighty bless you, with the power, to take your will and your desire and to make it God's will, so that your work will be God's work. And in so doing, may your work be effective, in reaching many people, and in benefiting many people, and in improving the quality of life for everyone. And may God shine His grace, His graciousness, upon you. And may you merit to be a favorite in the eyes of God. - Rabbi Shneor Stern I wish to thank the eight participants. It is their lives that made this work possible. The members of my dissertation group (Tim Lavalli, Michael Holley, David Welty and Scott Hajicek-Dobberstein) suffered through the writing with me. Nancy Grant edited every page, encouraged me from the beginning, and held my hand. May the Rabbi's blessing follow them, too. CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL I certify that I have read "The Practice of Praying for Others" by Birrell Thomas Walsh, and that in my opinion this work meets the criteria for approving a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree at the California Institute of Integral Studies. __________________________ Steven Goodman, Ph.D. Professor of Philosophy and Religion California Institute of Integral Studies __________________________ James Ryan, Ph.D. Professor of Philosophy and Religion California Institute of Integral Studies __________________________ Brendan Collins, Ph.D. Professor of East-West Psychology California Institute of Integral Studies Date: ___________________________ Abstract: This is a qualitative research study about the practice of praying, treating and shamanizing for others. A Religious Scientist, a Baptist minister, a Christian Science practitioner, a Reiki practitioner, a "Somatic" Buddhist, a Lubavitcher Chassidic rabbi, a Franciscan nun and a shaman were interviewed. Each participant was asked in detail what they did to pray for others, how they relate to those they pray for and to the Blessing Power, and how their practice has affected them. Each participant was asked to review and correct the material about their practice. Among the findings are the following: -the Religious Scientist worked by systematic identification with Divinity; -the Baptist conversed with God, and asked Him for all her needs; -the Christian Scientist looked for “identity” as the key to healing; -the Reiki practitioner stepped out of the way, allowing Reiki energy to work; -the Buddhist found and gave “space” and “company”; -the Chassidic rabbi brought down light and worked to integrate parts, while praying for the coming of the Messiah; -the Catholic contemplative brought everything to God, within Sacramental experience; -the shaman journeyed to bring back power or missing souls, and removed psychic intrusions. Some experiences were present in all of the interviews: -Each practitioner showed strong self-discipline. -Each prayed for others in the same manner as for themselves. -“Letting go” produced frequent unexpected (though positive) results. -The pleasure, or reward, for the practitioner was keeping company with the Holy. Among characteristics shared by only some of those interviewed were: -Channeling -Contraction as the creation of the universe -Theological reasoning in treatment -Openness and making space, melting within the larger, then reforming -Peace as a sign of completion -"Rising Up into Heaven," and journeys to other realms to get help Participants diverged along the following axes: -Cosmological/non-cosmological -Theistic/non-theistic -Gnostic/incarnational, or "ascender"/"descender." -(Divine) personality/impersonality -Sensory preferences in the NeuroLinguistic Programming sense. -Directivity/non-directivity about results -"Lineaged"/non-lineaged tradition The variety discovered is an existence proof of an extremely various "possibility space" for the practice of prayer. The study will (hopefully) permit sharing of methods and approaches, and preserve them for the future. TABLE OF CONTENTS The Practice of Praying for Others: ................................................................................. 1-1 Certificate of Approval .................................................................................................... 1-4 Table of Contents ............................................................................................................. 1-7 1 Introduction and Overview ......................................................................................... 8 2 Method ...................................................................................................................... 13 3 Margaret Stortz: "Constantly Go Back to Your Source" .......................................... 62 4 Jean Delaney: "Because He Said, Ask." ................................................................... 97 5 Deborah Klingbeil: "Perceiving Identity" ............................................................... 130 6 Priscilla Stuckey: "Getting Out of the Way" .......................................................... 160 7 Julie Henderson: "Their Clear, Laughing Vastness" .............................................. 187 8 Shneor Stern: "Drawing Down Light" ................................................................... 225 9 Sister Colette: "Prayer Is Not a Function; Prayer is a Life."................................... 257 10 Antonio Ramirez: "Healing With Knowledge that We Gain in Those Worlds" 283 11 The Usefulness of Agreements, Overlaps and Divergences ............................... 314 12 Bibliography ....................................................................................................... 364 1 INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW This project began when I found that prayer for others was my favorite spiritual practice. It seemed to serve others, while also allowing me to be in contact with the Divinity. It appeared, occasionally, to work. But I also believed that I was not doing it as well as I might, and that there was a lot I could learn from other persons who had taken up this practice. I read a great deal about prayer and treatment for others. I quickly found that persons across many denominations did it. Although they did not agree on the nature of the Universe and of Divinity, they did agree that one could act invisibly to help another. Some of these writings were extremely appealing, but I found that those that spoke to me were not all from the same denomination. If I was to find my exemplars, I would have to give up the idea of a perfect religious group that had all the answers. By this time I had entered a program in Comparative Religion at the California Institute of Integral Studies. The Institute had been founded by disciples of Sri Aurobindo and attracted Alan Watts, other Buddhists, Jews, Sufis, Christians, Neo-Pagans, and Feminists as well as Hindus. The Institute and the program shared my attitude that one profits when one goes respectfully to other religions. It was not possible to attribute all effective prayer and treatment to an easy perennialism, however. The theologies of practitioners varied widely. They often said that their theology was the essential element in the effectiveness of their prayers and treatments. Christians might rely on their personal relationship with Jesus. One Buddhist might rely Introduction on a community of Buddha-Nature to permit contact between the healer and the one being prayed for. A Theravadin who did not accept the idea of Buddha-Nature might practice the beautiful and ancient pre-Buddhist ritual of metta or lovingkindness. Practitioners of different traditions nevertheless borrowed from each other. Sometimes they borrowed directly, as when some Christians1 and Jews2 took up the Buddhist practice of metta. At other times they were apparently moved by the example of others to rummage in their own attic and dust off ancient practices. I noticed that when Transcendental Meditation had become common in the United States, more than a few Westerners re-discovered The Cloud of Unknowing3, Eastern Orthodox Christian prayer- disciplines such as the Jesus Prayer4, and Jewish meditation forms.5 While interest in these had never been completely absent, they blossomed again in the context of interest in Eastern meditations. 1.1 Motive 1 Meadow, Gentling the heart: Buddhist loving-kindness practice for Christians 2 Boorstein, That's funny, you don't look Buddhist 3 Ira Progoff had retranslated the Cloud in 1950's (Progoff, The cloud of unknowing: a new translation of a classic guide to spiritual experience revealing the dynamics of the inner life from a particular historical and religious point of view), and it gained some popularity by association with his Intensive Journal process. Brendan Collins tells me that the popular practice of Centering Prayer was actually developed by three Cistercian monks of St. Joseph's Abbey, Spencer, Mass: in the 1970's: William Meninger, Thomas Keating and Basil Pennington, based primarily on The Cloud of Unknowing. He recommends Keating, et al., Finding grace at the center 4 Gillet, The Jesus Prayer 5 Aryeh Kaplan wrote in part to tell Jews that they had a meditative tradition of their own (Kaplan, Jewish meditation : a