This is from Bruce Beach.
This is a continuation of the POP (Power of Prophecy or Problems of Prophecy) series that I am presenting, in which I am sharing some of my own experiences in that field of search.
Now, to explain what the growth inducer and the growth retardent were (in the previous email). They were prayer. Yes, that is correct - PRAYER. The plain side had received nothing else except prayer for its growth and the red side nothing else except prayer that it would not grow.
If you find this latter strange, please do remember that Jesus cursed the fig tree and that it withered. And that such a prayer could be very effective against cancer, plagues of locusts and such. But no matter, the experiment did go strangely, (the side receiving the prayer for growth - withering, and the side receiving the opposite - growing astoundingly strange). and later I shall explain to you why.
As I have said, these experiments, of the Power of Prayer on Plants, (there is a book by that name) have been conducted at Red Stone University, and elsewhere (I think perhaps Duke) and I know at the University of Wichita, because I later did them there myself.
The experiments have been thoroughly controlled and there is no statistical possibility that the results are attributable soley to chance.
POP this time stood for the Power of Prayer on plants, but we shall get around to the relationship between prayer and prophecy.
My interest in prayer had been long standing. I am a class taught student of the Massachusetts Metaphysical College which is the training received by Christian Science Practitioners. I had already served as a volunteer War Time Minister, and although I am no longer a Christian Scientist I still have a deep respect for its teachings and can give many testimonies to its effects.
Thus it was, at that time, I approached the Botany Department at the University of Wichita and asked permission to repeat my experiments there. I was granted use of the entire green house, and with the aid of the Department Chairman undertook the experiments on a much grander scale.
We emptied and scrubbed the green house. New flats were obtained along with wheel barrows of sterilized soil. The Chairman insisted that we use hybrid seeds known for their consistent response and even growth. A planting device was devised to assure that all were planted at the exact same depth. A more accurate watering method was stipulated, and so forth.
I won't go into the details, but the end result was that we had rows and rows and rows of the most evenly grown plants that one might imagine.
To my mind the outcome was the result of the exact same cause that had contributed to the reversed results in the first experiment. What in Christian Science is called mental malpractice.
I won't go into all the philosophical details, but there is good reason that Jesus said, "That whatsoever ye ask for secretly will be awarded to you openly."
Similar results had been reported in the Redstone experiments. What I think happened in the first case was that my former wife, who was quite distraught with me at the time, was present with the plants on the table all day long, and she was quite aggravated with me, them, and the experiment, and consequently the inverted result, as with much else in my life at that time.
In the University green house, many people made the trip down to the green house, having heard about the experiment, to laugh about it. Their cumulative mental influence and trust in the power of hybrid seeds far exceeded mine. Probably the world's most even crop ever.
Miracles are only miracles to the person for whom they occur. If by a miracle we mean the repudiation of natural law, there is no such thing, but rather there is application of supranatural (not supernatural) law.
Jesus said that if you have the faith of a mustard seed you can move mountains, but if one claimed this faith to a non-believer and they asked you to prove it, and you pointed at a mountain and prayed and it jumped into the sea they would simply say, "You were just lucky that an earthquake came along right then."
>From years of experience I know the power of prayer. I am no longer a Christian Scientist but it doesn't make any difference who prays. The sun shines on all, and God loves all.
Many do not know how to pray effectively. Myself included. It has been said that God punishes us in two ways. Either by not answering our prayers, or by answering them. I really don't have the wisdom to know what is good. Jesus plead to be delivered from the cross, but in the end He said, "Thy will be done". And that is where I always end up at, because I never know that what I wish is necessarily what God wishes.
Even my grandchildren pray with more direct desire than I do. And I think that is well. When I have gone to Christian Science practitioners for help it has been immediately forthcoming for health problems and all sorts of other problems.
On two occasions I was so broke that I had not eaten for 3 days. Both times I immediately received more affluence than I had previously had in my life. On the one occasion the next morning. A very dramatic story, but I won't tell it and on the other some the next day but within two weeks I had in my pocket over fifty million dollars. Literally. A cashier's check for $50 million dollars, plus a one hundred dollar bill that I took and placed with it, so that I could say that I had over $50 million dollars in my pocket at one time.
There are MANY other things that I could tell you about, but once again miracles are only miracles to those to whom they happen. And I don't like relying upon Christian Science practitioners. It is sort of like relying upon the Ouiji Board. It works. But we don't need it. We are supposed to walk these journey's on our own. Not that I am saying it is not good to pray with others, and to ask others for help with prayer when you need it, because that is a very good thing to do. But what I am saying is that I don't have it anywhere nearly all figured out as yet.
More to come. And it all does tie into the subject of prophecy - eventually.
Peace and love, Bruce Beach language@webpal.org
