By Jerry Van Marter
Harare, 13 December (ENI)--So great is the power of prayer that health insurance companies should give discounts to those who pray regularly, according to Sidney Chang, a practitioner of a style of prayer advocated by Sukyo Mahikary, a London-based "spiritual organization"

Chang told a meeting on 10 December organised during the eighth assembly of the World Council of Churches, which is taking place in Harare, that a "universal circle of prayer" by people of all religions "can create a powerful positive vibration". The meeting - "Experimental Evidence that Prayer Works" - took place as part of the WCC assembly's "Padre" (meeting place).

Sukyo Mahikary was founded in 1969 by a Japanese businessman dissatisfied with all the religions he had tried, including Christianity.

Chang adopted the practice in 1991 when he experienced "relief" from a serious but unnamed chronic illness. However, he had to pause in the middle of his one-hour address on 10 December, saying he was short of breath from pneumonia. He asked an associate to complete the reading of his manuscript.

The purpose of prayer, Chang said, was the "uniting of our free will with God's divine will". The result was "the cleansing of our spiritual impurities".

Spiritual impurities were created, Chang said, by negative actions towards others; negative attitudes towards God; selfishness, resentment, anger and jealousy; and by "long-term exposure to environmental pollutants and prescription medicines".

As spiritual impurities were cleansed, he said, people were able to "give light" to others, enhancing the ability of people to cleanse themselves of their spiritual impurities. He demonstrated "giving light" by raising one of his hands in an open-palmed salute over the people he was giving light to.

The group's practice of prayer was "universalistic", he said, "because all religions are really one". However, Chang said that he was Anglican and that most of Sukyo Mahikary's practitioners in Europe and North America were Christian.

Giving light, Chang said in response to a question from ENI, could even occur beyond the grave. It was "quite believable", he added, that by cleansing ourselves of our spiritual impurities we could give light to our ancestors, enhancing their ability to cleanse themselves of their spiritual impurities in the next life and complete the cycle by giving light back to us. "We can inherit spiritual impurities and light from our ancestors just as surely as we inherit money and property and hereditary diseases." [413 words]

Photographs of the assembly are available from Photo Oikoumene

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WCC Assembly Web Site

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