Prayer is the act of attempting to communicate with a power, energy, or spirit outside of the human understanding.  Purposes for this may include worshipping, requesting guidance, requesting assistance, confessing sins, as an act of reparation or to express one's thoughts and emotions. The words of the prayer may take the form of intercession, a hymn, incantation or a spontaneous utterance in the person's praying words. Secularly, the term can also be used as an alternative to "hope". Praying can be done in public, as a group, or in private. Most major religions in the world involve prayer in one way or another.  This does not mean that prayer itself is a religion.  There are many people that pray who are not religious at all or belong to any type of religion.

Prayer is more commonly used when people are troubled in life or someone close to them is ill or dying of a disease.  It seems most often it is used in a request for help or guidance.  It is also used daily among families before engaging in a meal as a form of gratitude or thanks.

There have been many studies where prayer seems to have been associated with the healing or surviving of a sick or dying loved one.

It seems like prayer works best when the receiver of the prayer believes as much in the prayer as the givers of the prayer.  There’s also a belief that the person who is ill or dying must want to live and when you combine all of these ideas together positive results quite often are seen.

No matter how you view prayer it definitely cannot hurt and most often empowers people in a way that makes them feel a part of the healing process and removes the feelings of helplessness.

When prayer can be performed with or along the side of the ill it seems that results are even better.

With modern medicine continuing to loss the battle of chronic disease people are looking for any and all other ways of healing.  Prayer is one of those ways and integrative medicine is another.

We have discovered when people combine all form of healing in a systematic way the patient without a doubt has a much better chance of improvement or complete recovery.

Many people need a reason to live or heal and anything you can do to involve them in the process will make all the difference in the world.

Love and need are very powerful ways of encouragement to the sick and aged. 

It has been known for years that most diseases have a mental / emotional component to them and part of the healing may require releasing all fears, guilt, hurt, and anything lying on your heart.  Our immune system functions best when we let go are not suppressing our feeling.

What doctors have seen with prayer alone:

Prayer allows the body to heal naturally. By counteracting stress and promoting positive emotions, prayer frees the body’s natural healing processes. It releases the immune, hormonal, and cardiovascular systems to heal disease, illness, or injury. It is these mind-body mechanisms that scientists are seeking to better understand. Within the past year there has been an explosion of research documenting the negative effects of depression, psychological stress, and social isolation on immune function, coronary artery disease, cancer survival, and other disease outcomes. For those with faith, prayer makes the supernatural possible. These are things researchers cannot understand and may not be able to study or explain with the natural and limited tools of science.

Whichever way you choose to heal, be sure you feel positive and confident in the process.  The cells in your body are reactive to every feeling you have and the need for positive input is critical for proper healing.