About Prayer (Warning: Rant)

Prayer works, some people are sure of it - I was talking with a friend, Eric, the other day who had an experience with cancer and felt that the prayer of friends around the world definitely helped. So I asked, Why does it only work sometimes? I was thinking of Jackie, who just died of brain cancer and had hundreds of people praying for her; people really good at prayer, people who were devotees of a guru and spent a lot of time connecting with each other metaphysically specifically to heal (this was her specialty).

Eric's answer was, there's a reason for it when it does or doesn't - also he said when he prays he doesn't ask for a cure, he asks for the right thing to happen. I said, hmm.

But lying in bed this morning, I had the following rant, in my head. What possible reason is there for all the horrible things that happen to people? I don't need to list them - make your own list (sources: news, history, documentaries, books, things that have happened to friends and relatives and maybe yourself). There cannot be a GOOD THING that comes from all that horrible suffering bad stuff to innocent kids, people, animals, planet.

Okay so the good thing may be interpreted as - other people will then realize how bad this is. And then be better. So the world should be gradually getting better. Except bad things keep on happening, people are not getting better at solving problems, people still kill each other with elaborate planning or spontaneous anger or by texting while driving. People still get horrid cancers. Species go extinct. The planet is whacked out on CO2 that is a measurement of our inability to curtail our greedy behavior. So some people are going green. Some people are meditating and reaching new levels of enlightenment. It is not saving the majority of suffering.

There's no balancing out going on. No justice, no fairness. Prayer may work - it does look like we are able to influence things outside our own bodies, we have connections to each other and possibly to all life that we haven't been able to measure or identify scientifically. But it only works sometimes, somewhat randomly, not for a grand design or because that person "still has work to do on this planet" - we are not that important. There is no grand scheme, unless it is to expel people from the planet and let it recover in peace.