In my experience --- the experience of others may differ --- it's way, way more effective to pray on behalf of people when certain conditions are met and way less effective when the conditions are not met. The most pertinent is how much the person on the other end appears to me as being a real person. It is always easier to pray on behalf of someone I am close to in my personal life than a total stranger.
For people I "know" through the online world, it's way easier for me to pray on their behalf if I know their actual name and have seen a picture of them so I can better focus my prayers. If I have never interacted with a person, have no clue what they look like, and direct my prayers towards either a pseudonym or initials, I feel that the prayers are way, way more tenuous in reaching the recipient. That doesn't mean that I don't try, I do. But it feels way more like acting in the dark.
My experiences are pretty common: if you put in a prayer request at the Crystal Silence League --- http://crystalsilenceleague.org/public/prayer_input.php?pt=Prayer%20for%20Myself --- they ask for your name, description and even an image. Some of this is optional, but not all. This seems to me pertinent and worthy to bring up for discussion: it appears that the efficacy of prayers are increased when there is a better formulated sense of the person one prays on the behalf of.
This relates to an important magical principle which touches on prayer: one always gets better results the more fully one can throw oneself into the scales. Using initials or pseudonyms and no image of oneself clearly is less involved than using a real name and an image of oneself so that people can better direct prayers. They also ask for one's address, and one's life ambition.
This is, again, my experience and apparently the experience of others. It seems to me worthy to note, though. If one really wants success, it may be worth using one's real first name at least and even considering posting an image of oneself. If one wants others to pray on one's behalf, it may be worth considering doing so with daring and full engagement.
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In my experience --- the experience of others may differ --- it's way, way more effective to pray on behalf of people when certain conditions are met and way less effective when the conditions are not met. The most pertinent is how much the person on the other end appears to me as being a real person. It is always easier to pray on behalf of someone I am close to in my personal life than a total stranger.
For people I "know" through the online world, it's way easier for me to pray on their behalf if I know their actual name and have seen a picture of them so I can better focus my prayers. If I have never interacted with a person, have no clue what they look like, and direct my prayers towards either a pseudonym or initials, I feel that the prayers are way, way more tenuous in reaching the recipient. That doesn't mean that I don't try, I do. But it feels way more like acting in the dark.
My experiences are pretty common: if you put in a prayer request at the Crystal Silence League --- http://crystalsilenceleague.org/public/prayer_input.php?pt=Prayer%20for%20Myself --- they ask for your name, description and even an image. Some of this is optional, but not all. This seems to me pertinent and worthy to bring up for discussion: it appears that the efficacy of prayers are increased when there is a better formulated sense of the person one prays on the behalf of.
This relates to an important magical principle which touches on prayer: one always gets better results the more fully one can throw oneself into the scales. Using initials or pseudonyms and no image of oneself clearly is less involved than using a real name and an image of oneself so that people can better direct prayers. They also ask for one's address, and one's life ambition.
This is, again, my experience and apparently the experience of others. It seems to me worthy to note, though. If one really wants success, it may be worth using one's real first name at least and even considering posting an image of oneself. If one wants others to pray on one's behalf, it may be worth considering doing so with daring and full engagement.