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all right

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well good morning i want to begin by

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thanking the society for the invitation

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to come and speak today it's uh

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an honor for me to have the opportunity

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to do so

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and in terms of time i know i'm asked to

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keep to 45 minutes we're starting a

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little late so if you want me to just

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finish by ten just cue me and i'll try

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to speed through some of my material

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mainly i just i will cut off the

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speakers strictly five minutes before

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the end just so there's time for

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questions okay great

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well um today we're going to be talking

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about prayer and i'm going to begin by

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providing some background information on

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prayer and healing before we segue into

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talking about my project which is the

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effect of intercessory prayer on wound

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healing in non-human primates

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we see an increasing interest in

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spirituality and religion in our society

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particularly over the last 15 and

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20 years or so

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and out of the number of factors of

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spirituality and religion that seem to

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be peaking people's interest one of

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those is the relationship between those

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in health and in part driven by the

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fairly robust literature that we have

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that establishes a relationship a

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positive relationship not always but

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mostly positive between those constructs

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and health outcomes we're also

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quite a religious and spiritual society

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if we look at data from the general

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social survey back in 2006

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individuals who endorsed themselves as

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at least moderately religious if not

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very religious was 63 percent with 15

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percent saying they were not religious

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at all

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the picture is a little different with

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spirituality the numbers are somewhat

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higher 71 in 2006 identifying themselves

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as quite spiritual with nine percent not

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spiritual at all and even though the

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levels of religiosity appear to be

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staying approximately stable across time

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that's not so with spirituality people

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are beginning to feel themselves as

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being more spiritual across time and

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willing to identify themselves that way

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if we pose a somewhat different question

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and ask people about their belief in god

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or some higher power we see those

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numbers spike up considerably around 95

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percent of people endorse the fact that

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they believe in some

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creator some divine

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something

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some god and of course there's some

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variation by certain factors for example

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by age we see spirituality and

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religiosity increasing with age uh

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there's some variation in terms of

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geographic location in our country with

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the south having particularly high

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levels of both those constructs and

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there's an inverse relationship with

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education and spirituality and religion

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even though spirituality and religion

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talk about uh two somewhat different

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animals spirituality is more about the

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individual's

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quest for a relationship with the

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transcendent or the divine that happens

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individually independent of community

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most times religion we think of as an

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institution or a social phenomenon it is

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a community and people are gathered

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together in community around some common

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factors common sets of beliefs common

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practices rituals symbology and so on

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there are some shared behaviors across

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both those constructs and prayer is one

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of them so what is prayer simply defined

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it's a communion

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or communication with the divine or the

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creator

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it is practiced in some form by

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virtually every religion on the planet

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there are a number of different types of

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prayer there has been some work to

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empirically identify categories of

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prayer that occurred across the last two

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decades or so

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and we see that there may be somewhere

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between four and nine categories and

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i've given you a selection of those up

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here we can have conversational prayer

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where one is engaged in some

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conversation or dialogue with the

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creator or the divine

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thanksgiving prayers of gratitude

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meditative or contemplative prayer we

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can think of this as a more receptive

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kind of prayer where one may be sitting

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listening for the voice of god or

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experiencing god in some capacity

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petitionary prayer is prayer that an

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individual offers up on behalf of

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themselves with some request in mind

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typically it may be for some material

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gain it may be an answer to some problem

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in one's life it may be a request for

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healing

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intercessory prayer is prayer that an

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individual offers on behalf of someone

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else and it's offered on behalf of

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someone else to provide that other

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person some benefit and it may actually

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be to pray for healing of that other

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do people use prayer for healing in our

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society and the data would suggest that

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in fact they do in 2004 the cdc

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published a

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survey of the use of complementary and

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alternative medicines in our society and

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prayer is listed as a cam

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and individuals endorse the use of

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prayer for health reasons as the most

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common cam

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in the year prior

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45

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used it the year prior with 55

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indicating that at some point in their

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life they actually prayed for health of

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prayer specifically offered for one's

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own health about 43

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in the year prior with 52 lifetime use

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and prayer by others for one's own

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health or being the recipient of

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intercessory prayer a little over 24

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reported that they were aware that they

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were the receipt they were receiving

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prayer for their own healing the year

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prior

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many patients endorse the fact they

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would like their physicians to pray with

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them and the numbers are fairly high

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about 70 percent would like their

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physicians to pray with them at least

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under some circumstances and how

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frequently do health care providers

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actually use prayer that varies it

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varies depending on the type of provider

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it certainly varies on the individual it

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will vary in terms of the healthcare

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setting where the provider finds

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themselves if it's a setting that is

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more open to the use of prayer and

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practice then we may be more likely to

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see it

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here's some data 2005 survey that

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queried uh critical care nurses

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nationally to see about their use of

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prayer and prayer was viewed as

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legitimate therapy by most of the nurses

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that were surveyed with 73 percent

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identifying that they had used prayer in

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their own practice

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many recommend its use to patients

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and almost 80 percent reported that

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patients or their families had actually

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and does personal prayer or private

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prayer we're going to talk about

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intercessory prayer it's a little

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different animal in just a minute so

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does private or personal prayer actually

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influence health and the data is clear

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that by and large it does in positive

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ways there are positive benefits to

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engaging in personal prayer and we see

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this across a number of categories of

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outcomes coping with stress

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it helps people to cope with acute and

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chronic stress

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helps individuals to deal with illness

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we see a reduction in terms of

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psychiatric symptoms and disorders so we

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see lower levels of psychological

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distress

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lower levels of depression for example

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and the converse not only is the our

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negative consequences or negative affect

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diminished we see an augmentation of

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positive effects so people experience

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greater levels of happiness and

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satisfaction and well-being as a result

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the pathways the causal pathways that

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help us understand how personal prayer

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can actually affect positive health

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outcomes are really quite

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straightforward they're naturalistic

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there's nothing about this that is

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exceptional there are several categories

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that they're mentioning as a result of

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engaging in personal prayer there can be

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psychological changes within an

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individual there can be cognitive shifts

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there can be cognitive processes that

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are

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shifted in the direction of providing

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salutary benefit to one's body

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for example control and self-efficacy

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are two cognitions that are robustly

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related to positive health outcomes and

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we see individuals who pray have a

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greater sense of control in their life

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or their level of self-confidence about

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being able to approach problems

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increases

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we see emotionality shift so that

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negative affect diminishes and positive

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affect is enhanced as i mentioned in the

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slide prior

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there are some behavioral changes that

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occur as a result of prayer rest and

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relaxation occurs

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uh increased health promoting behaviors

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oftentimes with a consequent decrease in

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risk enhancing behaviors

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we see that there can be social

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consequences of engaging in prayer if

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one is in conversation with the divine

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that can instill a feeling in the

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individual that they're actually cared

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for or cared about in social factors of

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course again another robust category for

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predicting positive health outcomes and

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it's likely that there are some common

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physiological pathways that shift as a

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result of some of these prior categories

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and these have to do with the

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neuroendocrinological pathways or

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primarily the stress response systems

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and there are two

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when an individual experiences a

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stressful event there are two stress

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response systems that come online one is

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a sympathetic nervous system the other

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is the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal

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axis or the hpa axis with the