Summary
Highlights
Gregg Braden recounts a powerful experience during a severe drought in New Mexico with a native friend, David, who demonstrated a unique form of prayer. Instead of praying 'for' rain, David focused on 'feeling' the rain and its effects as if it had already happened, incorporating sensory details like the smell of rain, the feel of mud, and tall corn. This method, rooted in indigenous wisdom, suggests that feeling the desired outcome as already present is the language the universe understands, acknowledging an existing field of possibilities.
Braden connects David's prayer to ancient spiritual traditions, particularly referencing the Nag Hammadi Library, which contains texts like the Gospel of Thomas. He highlights a crucial difference in the original Aramaic translation of a biblical passage. While the King James Bible states, "Ask and you shall receive," the original text implies, "Ask without hidden motive and be surrounded by your answer. Be enveloped by what you desire that your gladness be full." This emphasizes experiencing the desired outcome as already fulfilled, rather than merely asking for it.
Braden explains the distinction between thoughts, emotions, and feelings. Emotions, associated with lower energy centers, provide power (e.g., love, fear). Thoughts, linked to upper centers, provide focus. The unique union of emotion and thought creates a 'feeling,' which resonates from the heart center. This heart-felt feeling is identified as the language that communicates with the universal field, influencing reality. Science now supports this, suggesting that participating in the desired outcome through feeling (e.g., feeling peace) empowers the field to manifest it.
Braden cites scientific studies from the 1970s and 80s, including the International Peace Project in the Middle East, demonstrating how collective feelings of peace can lead to measurable reductions in crime, accidents, and even terrorist activities. These studies showed that when a small, calculated number of people (the square root of 1% of a population) simultaneously feel peace, its effects are observable in the surrounding community. This suggests a powerful, interconnected consciousness that can be harnessed for global change.
Braden warns about the transhumanism movement, where external technology replaces human biology, suggesting that this could lead to the atrophy of our innate self-healing and creative abilities, summarized by the phrase "use it or lose it." He argues that our internal 'soft technology' – our capacity for complex emotions, healing, and spiritual connection – is sacred and powerful. He emphasizes a cautionary pause to understand who we are as humans before compromising these abilities with external devices.
Addressing concerns about misusing this power for negative outcomes, Braden introduces 'nature's fail-safe': whatever we create and project, we first experience within ourselves. Harmful intentions would destroy the creator internally before manifesting externally. He encourages consulting our 'heart wisdom,' or 'Shanti Ishta' in Cherokee tradition, to discern what is right for us in any moment. He shares a personal healing story as evidence of this principle's efficacy.
Braden advises living our individual truths with kindness and compassion, especially in challenging environments. He distinguishes compassion from mere sympathy or empathy, defining it as the ability to witness suffering without judgment or getting lost in it. He recounts an interaction with a Tibetan abbot who identified compassion as the force holding the universe together, aligning ancient wisdom with modern scientific discoveries about interconnected energy fields. Humanity's creations, like art and music, can serve as reminders of this powerful internal technology.
Braden presents a three-part template for effective, feeling-based prayer, inspired by computer programming logic: 1. A clear 'declaration statement' to the universe about the prayer's intention (e.g., "This is a prayer of healing"). 2. The core 'code' involves feeling the desired outcome as already achieved, expressing gratitude for its present reality. 3. A powerful 'closure' using the Aramaic phrase "La alam amen amen," meaning "I seal this prayer in trust, in faith, and truth." This method allows direct communication with the universal field in its own recognized language.