A Theory of Prayer?

Jan, of Yearning for God, has posted this remarkable quote from The Soul of Christianity: Restoring the Great Tradition by Huston Smith (pp. 58-59):

The most important scientific discovery of all time--anticipated by Einstein, worked out in Bell's Theorem, and experimentally confirmed by the EPR (Einstein-Podosky-Rosen) experiment--proves that the universe is 'non-local.'

Described in everyday language, the story is this: Particles have spins. In paired particles, when one particle spins downward the other spins upward. Now, separate the two--distance is irrelevant; it can be an inch or to the edge of the universe--and when one particle goes into a downspin, simultaneously the other spins upward. For prayer, nonlocality suggests that the person praying and the person being prayed for are closer than side by side. Distance doesn't apply--they are in the same spaceless mathematical point. When the pray-er plunges deep down into his praying self, his prayer spins downward, so to speak, and spins its recipient upward. When Jesus prayed all night, and during the day, he was 'spun upward' by placing himself in the presence of his Father who so loved the world that he 'spun down'--into his Incarnation, Jesus--and transformed him.

This is possibly the best attempt at a scientific "theory of prayer" I've read. Whether it's right to make the attempt I'll leave to you to decide - but it's certainly worth allowing the picture Mr Smith is drawing to sink in. All that we are derives from God - why would we not be able to communicate with him on the most intimate level, if we will to do that. It's only the free will he's freely given us that could prevent it...