
INTERFAITH RESEARCH BASIS
INTERFAITH APPLICATIONS
Every theistic faith has the same two ancient forms of prayer, meditation and contemplation, which enables our research to be interfaith.
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MEDITATION is engagement of the imagination either with or without verbalization, which includes adoration, contrition, thanksgiving and supplication (ACTS).
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CONTEMPLATION is silent, focused prayer on a sacred word or image as a symbol of our desire to be with God. Some faiths use the word “meditation” for both forms, even though historically and etymologically, the Latin origin meditatio means “to think,” hence just applicable to the first form. We are especially interested in research on contemplation. Christian based Centering Prayer and interfaith theistic based, Oneness Prayer, are methods for opening ourselves to contemplation.
EXISTING RESEARCH
There are two promising categories of sound medical research that don’t often dialogue their results with each other, theistic and non-theistic:
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THEISTIC: There is a vast amount of valid research summarized in the Handbook of Religion and Health, which shows the healing effects of having a theistic faith, regular liturgical attendance and frequent prayer, most often meditation. These results apply regardless of the faith or denomination.
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NON-THEISTIC: There is a great amount of reputable research showing the healing effects of focusing on a mantra, which is analogous to contemplation, but without a belief in a higher power.
RESEARCH FOCUS
Our interest is research on the infrequently studied theistic contemplation. We seek to fill this perceived void because we expect theistic contemplation will compound the overall healing impact in two ways. The first is by combining the beneficial effects of both existing research categories as defined above. The second is by broadening the clinically proven healing applications, since approximately 87% of the population is theistic and believes in an afterlife.
MINISTRY IMPLEMENTATION
Based on positive research results, organized programs will be established to apply what was learned to help heal patients suffering from various diseases. These programmed ministries will be added to the Interfaith ministries section of this website.
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PUBLISHED PAPERS