Paper 91 Overview: The Evolution of Prayer

Prayer as a religious phenomenon evolved from non-religious antecedents in monologue and dialogue expressions, progressing through various stages of sophistication that mirrored humanity's expanding consciousness of deity. This evolution traversed from primitive luck petitions and magical incantations to genuine communion with the Universal Father, reflecting the transformative religious journey from superstitious fear to spiritual faith. Throughout this development, prayer has functioned as a powerful mechanism for preserving values, promoting social evolution, and facilitating personal spiritual transformation.

The trajectory of prayer's evolution illustrates the complex interplay between human spiritual aspiration and religious comprehension. Beginning with simple verbalized wishes directed toward an emerging alter ego concept, prayer gradually incorporated increasingly sophisticated theological understanding, ultimately reaching toward contact with superconscious levels and the indwelling Thought Adjuster. This developmental pathway demonstrates prayer's remarkable adaptability across cultural contexts and religious frameworks, serving variously as a psychological procedure and spiritual technique that operates simultaneously for individual growth and collective advancement, while maintaining its essential character as the seeking of communion between finite creatures and their infinite Creator.

Prayer, as a religious agency, evolved from pre-religious expressions of monologue and dialogue. With the emergence of self-consciousness in primitive humans came the inevitable corollary of other-consciousness, establishing the dual potential for social response and God recognition. This crucial developmental milestone provided the foundation upon which increasingly sophisticated forms of prayer could develop.

The earliest prayer forms were not addressed to any deity but resembled casual expressions to friends before undertaking important endeavors. They were essentially "wish me luck" statements. Early humans, deeply influenced by magical thinking, considered luck (both good and bad) as a pervasive force affecting all aspects of life. Initially, these luck petitions manifested as monologues, essentially thinking aloud by practitioners of magic. Subsequently, these practitioners enlisted support from friends and family, eventually developing ceremonial practices involving entire clans or tribes. With the conceptual evolution of ghosts and spirits, petitions began addressing superhuman entities, and with growing god-consciousness, such expressions reached the level of genuine prayer.

The primary function of early evolutionary religion was to conserve and augment essential social, moral, and spiritual values as they gradually took form in human consciousness. This crucial religious mission operated largely unobserved by humankind, primarily effected through prayer, which represented an unintended yet powerful personal and collective effort to actualize the conservation of higher values. Without prayer's preservative influence, religious holy days would have rapidly devolved into mere secular holidays, lacking their deeper spiritual significance and cultural value.

Religion and its primary agency, prayer, functioned exclusively in connection with values recognized by society and approved by the group. When primitive humans attempted to gratify base emotions or achieve selfish ambitions, they were denied religion's consolation and prayer's assistance. Individuals seeking antisocial outcomes were compelled to utilize non-religious magic and sorcerers, thereby forfeiting prayer's assistance. This limitation established prayer as a powerful catalyst for social evolution, moral advancement, and spiritual attainment. Despite the primitive mind's inconsistency and illogical tendencies, early humans began praying for material blessings like food, shelter, and rain, constituting a perversion of prayer's spiritual purpose while simultaneously encouraging economic, social, and ethical development through collective effort.

Prayer transcended monologue in all but the most primitive minds, rapidly expanding into dialogue and group worship. This evolution signified that pre-magical incantations had developed to a level where human consciousness recognized the reality of beneficent powers capable of enhancing social values and moral ideals—powers perceived as superhuman and distinct from the self-conscious individual. Genuine prayer does not appear until religious ministry is conceptualized as personal rather than impersonal or abstract.

The earliest prayers manifested as verbalized wishes expressing sincere desires. Subsequently, prayer evolved into a technique for achieving spiritual cooperation before advancing to the higher function of helping religion conserve worthy values. Both prayer and magic emerged as adaptive responses to the Urantian environment, yet beyond this generalized relationship, they share little commonality in purpose or effect. Prayer has consistently indicated positive action by the praying individual, often with psychic and sometimes spiritual dimensions, whereas magic typically attempted to manipulate reality without affecting the practitioner's own nature.

Despite their independent origins, magic and prayer frequently became interrelated in later developmental stages. Magic occasionally ascended through goal elevation from formulas through rituals and incantations toward the threshold of genuine prayer. Conversely, prayer sometimes became so materialistic that it degenerated into pseudo-magical techniques, substituting ritual for the genuine effort required to address life's challenges. When humans realized prayer could not coerce the gods, it transformed into petition and favor-seeking. However, the truest expression of prayer transcends petition, manifesting as genuine communion between humans and their Maker.

The introduction of sacrifice in religion inevitably diminished prayer's higher efficacy by substituting material offerings for the consecration of one's will to divine purposes. Religions without a personal God concept transform prayer into theological or philosophical discourse rather than spiritual communion. For the average person in daily experience, prayer often resembles intercourse with their own subconscious mind. However, intellectually alert and spiritually progressing individuals may achieve contact with superconscious levels where the indwelling Thought Adjuster operates, constituting a distinct spiritual dimension of true prayer entirely separate from human and intellectual associations.

Children learning language frequently think aloud, expressing thoughts verbally even when alone. As creative imagination dawns, they demonstrate a tendency to converse with imaginary companions, developing their emerging ego through communion with a fictional alter ego. Through this developmental mechanism, children transform monologue conversations into pseudo-dialogues where the alter ego responds to verbal thinking and wish expression, establishing patterns that often persist into adulthood, where much thinking continues in conversational form.

Primitive prayer resembled the semi-magical recitations found in certain contemporary indigenous tribes, expressions not addressed to any specific entity. These prayer techniques naturally evolved toward dialogue through the emergence of the alter ego concept, which gradually elevated to divine status. Through successive generations of praying humans, the alter ego evolved from ghosts and fetishes to spirits, then to polytheistic gods, and finally to the concept of One God, a divine being embodying the highest ideals of those who pray. Prayer thus functions as religion's most potent agency for conserving the highest values and ideals of praying individuals.

Faith prayer represents a mighty evolution in human experience, transforming ancient conversations with the fictional alter ego of primitive religion into exalted communion with the Infinite Spirit and genuine consciousness of the eternal God and Paradise Father. Ethical prayer powerfully elevates the ego and reinforces self-improvement through higher attainment. Prayer induces the human ego to seek assistance from both the subconscious reservoir of mortal experience and the superconscious borders where material mind contacts the spiritual realm of the Mystery Monitor. This dual function makes prayer an inseparable psychologic procedure and spiritual technique—an enlightened approach that recognizes both the external, personal Universal Father and the internal, impersonal divinity of the indwelling Adjuster.

Prayer cannot be considered ethical when the petitioner seeks selfish advantage over others. Selfish and materialistic praying fundamentally contradicts ethical religions predicated on unselfish divine love. Such unethical prayer inevitably regresses to primitive pseudo-magic levels, proving unworthy of advancing civilizations and enlightened religious systems. Prayer must never be degraded into a substitute for action but should function as a stimulus to personal effort and a guide to progressive striving toward idealistic goals of superself-attainment and spiritual growth.

All ethical prayer requires fairness; we cannot expect God to demonstrate partiality or to love us more than his other children, whether friends, neighbors, or even enemies. While the prayers of natural or evolved religions were not initially ethical, they progressively developed greater ethical consciousness. Prayer may be either egoistic (self-centered) or altruistic (focused on others), and its orientation determines whether it approaches true worship. Egoistic prayers typically involve confessions, petitions, and requests for material favors, while more ethical prayer concerns forgiveness and wisdom for enhanced self-control. Despite the strengthening effect of unselfish prayer, materialistic praying inevitably brings disappointment as scientific discoveries reveal the universe as governed by law and order rather than capricious intervention.

The childhood of individuals and races characteristically involves primitive, selfish, and materialistic prayer. To some extent, such petitions prove efficacious precisely because they inspire the efforts and exertions that contribute to their fulfillment. The genuine prayer of faith consistently contributes to improved living techniques, even when the specific requests may lack spiritual merit. Spiritually advanced individuals should exercise caution in discouraging primitive minds from such prayers, recognizing that while prayer may not change God, it frequently produces profound and lasting changes in those who pray with faith and expectation, contributing to peace of mind, cheerfulness, courage, and self-mastery throughout human evolutionary history.

In ancestor worship, prayer functioned to cultivate ancestral ideals. However, prayer as an aspect of deity worship transcends these practices by fostering divine ideals. As the alter ego concept in prayer evolved to become supreme and divine, human ideals correspondingly elevated from merely human to supernal and divine levels. This transformation enhanced character development and profoundly unified human personality through connection with higher values and spiritual realities.

Prayer need not always be practiced individually; group and congregational prayer demonstrate remarkable effectiveness through their socializing repercussions. When groups engage in community prayer focused on moral enhancement and spiritual uplift, all participants benefit through spiritual reactivity. Prayer devotions throughout history have inspired individuals, cities, nations, and entire races toward reform efforts and courageous achievements. Establishing the habit of praying daily for someone you tend to criticize represents one of the quickest and most effective methods for transforming your attitude toward them, particularly when the subject knows they are being prayed for and when you maintain regular social contact with them.

Over time, prayer inevitably becomes institutionalized as a core feature of organized religion. Prayer gradually associates with numerous secondary agencies—some beneficial, others detrimental—such as priests, sacred texts, worship rituals, and ceremonials. Those with greater spiritual illumination should exercise patience and tolerance toward those with less developed intellects who require symbolism to mobilize their spiritual insight. The spiritually strong should not disdain the weak who find it difficult to worship God without forms and rituals, recognizing that in prayerful worship, most mortals envision some symbolic representation of their devotional object-goal.

Prayer cannot directly affect the physical environment without coordination with the will and actions of personal spiritual forces and material supervisors governing a realm. While definite limitations constrain what prayer can request, these boundaries do not equally restrict the faith of those who pray. Prayer does not function as a technique for curing organic diseases, though it has contributed immensely to mental, emotional, and nervous ailment treatment and has often enhanced the efficacy of other remedial procedures, transforming irritable invalids into paragons of patience who inspire fellow sufferers.

Despite scientific skepticism regarding prayer's efficacy, sincere faith prayer constitutes a mighty force for promoting personal happiness, self-control, social harmony, moral progress, and spiritual attainment. Even as a purely human practice, a dialogue with one's alter ego, prayer represents an efficient approach to accessing the reserve powers of human nature stored in the unconscious realms of the human mind. This psychological value exists independently of prayer's religious implications and spiritual significance. We should not indolently ask God to solve our difficulties, but we should never hesitate to seek divine wisdom and spiritual strength to guide and sustain us while we courageously confront life's challenges.

Prayer has been indispensable to religious civilization's progress and preservation, with significant contributions still to offer for society's enhancement and spiritualization. However, those who pray should do so in light of scientific facts, philosophic wisdom, intellectual sincerity, and spiritual faith. Pray as Jesus taught his disciples—honestly, unselfishly, with fairness, and without doubting. The efficacy of prayer in personal spiritual experience does not depend on intellectual understanding, philosophic acumen, social status, cultural development, or other mortal attainments. The psychic and spiritual benefits of faith prayer are immediate, personal, and experiential, providing every individual, regardless of other accomplishments, with direct access to communion with the Creator, where the finite creature contacts the infinite reality of the indwelling Thought Adjuster.

Mysticism, as a technique for cultivating awareness of God's presence, merits approval when it avoids leading to social isolation and religious fanaticism. What overly emotional mystics interpret as divine inspiration frequently originates from their own deep mind rather than external divine sources. While contact between the human mind and its indwelling Adjuster can be facilitated through devoted meditation, it more commonly develops through wholehearted, loving service to fellow creatures, establishing a balanced approach to spiritual growth that embraces both contemplation and action.

The great religious teachers and prophets throughout history were not extreme mystics but God-knowing individuals who most effectively served deity through unselfish ministry to their fellow mortals. Jesus frequently took his apostles aside for brief periods of meditation and prayer but predominantly kept them engaged in service-contact with the multitudes, demonstrating that the soul requires both spiritual exercise and spiritual nourishment for balanced development. Religious ecstasy, while permissible when arising from psychologically sound foundations, more commonly results from emotional influences rather than profound spiritual character. Genuine spiritual ecstasy typically manifests with remarkable outward calmness and nearly perfect emotional control, distinguishing it from pseudo-hallucinations and trance-like states.

The practical test for evaluating mystical experiences, ecstasy, and claimed inspiration lies in observing whether these phenomena produce seven specific outcomes: improved physical health; more efficient and practical mental functioning; more complete and joyful socialization of religious experience; greater spiritualization of daily living while faithfully discharging routine responsibilities; enhanced appreciation for truth, beauty, and goodness; conservation of recognized social, moral, ethical, and spiritual values; and increased spiritual insight or God-consciousness. Prayer bears no substantial relationship with these exceptional religious experiences and can become problematic when overly aesthetic or contemplative, potentially losing its socializing influence and leading toward mysticism and devotee isolation—a danger corrected through group prayer and community devotions.

Prayer contains a genuinely spontaneous dimension, as primitive humans found themselves praying long before developing clear concepts of deity. Early humans typically prayed in two distinct situations: when experiencing dire need, they felt compelled to seek help, and when jubilant, they expressed joy impulsively. Prayer did not evolve from magic; each arose independently with fundamentally different purposes. Magic attempted to adjust deity to circumstances, while prayer seeks to align the personality with divine will—one manipulative, the other transformative.

Prayer may become an established custom, with many individuals praying simply because others do or from fear of negative consequences if they neglect regular supplications. For some, prayer expresses calm gratitude or participates in social devotions through group expressions of praise. In true praying, however, the spiritual nature of the creature engages in sincere and trusting communication with the omnipresent spirit of the Creator. Prayer's expressions span an extraordinary range: spontaneous God-consciousness or meaningless theological recitation; ecstatic praise of a God-knowing soul or fearful obeisance; childlike pleas for impossible outcomes or mature entreaties for moral growth and spiritual power; angry vengeance cries or merciful intercessions for enemies; hopes to change God or powerful techniques for self-transformation.

Modern individuals often feel perplexed at the prospect of personal conversation with God, with many abandoning regular prayer except during unusual pressure or emergencies. While humans should approach God without fear, only spiritual children would presume to persuade or change the divine will. Genuine prayer achieves reality through utilizing the universe's ascending spiritual currents, elevating humans through progressive techniques. Authentic prayer contributes to spiritual growth, modifies attitudes, and yields satisfaction through divine communion—a spontaneous outburst of God-consciousness. Divine response to human prayer comes through increased revelation of truth, enhanced appreciation of beauty, and augmented concepts of goodness. Words themselves hold minimal importance in prayer, functioning merely as intellectual channels for spiritual supplication; God responds to the soul's attitude rather than verbal formulations. Prayer should focus on values rather than things, on growth rather than gratification.

For prayers to achieve effectiveness, practitioners must adhere to specific laws governing prevailing petitions. First, one must qualify as a potent prayer by sincerely and courageously confronting the problems of universal reality with genuine cosmic stamina. This fundamental spiritual readiness prepares the individual for meaningful communion. Second, the petitioner must have thoroughly exhausted all human capacity for adjustment and demonstrated consistent industriousness in addressing their challenges through personal effort before seeking divine assistance.

Third, every wish of mind and craving of soul must be surrendered to the transforming embrace of spiritual growth, experiencing an enhancement of meanings and elevation of values that transcends material concerns. Fourth, the individual must make a wholehearted choice to follow divine will, eliminating the "dead center" of indecision that prevents spiritual progress. Fifth, beyond merely recognizing and choosing the Father's will, the petitioner must effect an unqualified consecration and dynamic dedication to actually implementing divine purposes in practical living.

Sixth, prayer must be directed exclusively toward obtaining divine wisdom for resolving the specific human challenges encountered during the Paradise ascension toward divine perfection, focusing on spiritual growth rather than material concerns or selfish interests. Finally and fundamentally, the petitioner must possess and exercise living faith, the spiritual confidence that sustains communion with God and provides assurance of divine response appropriate to the individual's spiritual needs and developmental status. These seven conditions establish a comprehensive framework for effective prayer that balances human responsibility with divine receptivity, creating the optimal environment for genuine spiritual communion.