Thought as prayer

Last year, I had the chance to attend a live talk given by the psychologist and author, Jordan Peterson, while on his tour for the pre-release of his latest book, We Who Wrestle with God. Peterson is someone whom I've learned many insights from--spanning from behavior psychology to the breakdown of personality, and his fascinating interpretations of classical stories. It was an exciting experience for me to see him in person after watching, listening, and reading several of his lectures, podcasts, and books the last couple of years. Having not read the aforementioned book (given it was the pre-release tour), I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect other than him covering the themes of several biblical stories. He did that and raised many great insights throughout the talk. And while I didn’t take any notes during the talk, one of the ideas that he said has stuck with me since, which is the idea that I’d like to discuss in this article.

The idea that he raised is of thought being a secular form of prayer.

Thought is [really] a secular form of prayer.

It's been groundbreaking for me to look at thoughts from this perspective.

Our brains are wired to be efficient problem-solving machines: our survival depends on it. We think to figure things out. Given that our brains are efficient, they will not waste precious energy trying to solve problems that are already solved. Therefore, there is no point in thinking about something that we already know the answer to. As a result, we spend most of our time thinking about something we don't know the answer to. And finally after some time of thinking and silence, without any intervention or conscious effort of our own, an answer rises to the surface. The same brain that raised the question comes back with an answer for us. How incredible is that?

While we may have been the one to raise the question, we can't admit that we are the one to raise the answer. We don't understand how the subconscious mind operates, by definition, as it sits below the level of our conscious awareness. It's invisible to us. It's out of our control. We can only observe what rises to the surface--to the conscious.

So how far off is it to say that thought is really a form of prayer?

When we (the conscious) think, we are querying (praying to) our subconscious mind to help us find an answer. And in time, the answer will be revealed to us through a revelation. Something that was previously unknown is made known.

These insights of thoughts as prayer and revelation have reframed the way I've thought about what God is and my relationship to God and the Divine in all of us. Some time ago, I fell out of religious practice, but I do feel that I've developed a stronger sense for the transcendent elements in our Being. It just makes sense to me logically and beyond the logical that we are connected to the eternal, the Divine, by virtue of being composed of the same elements that make up our universe for as long as it has always existed in one form or another. Generation after generation, through the process of evolution, the genes that make up who we are have been passed down by our ancestors; genes that have also been shaped by our environment. We are always connected to our ancestors and environment in this way. And so through these eternal elements, we have all this knowledge equipped inside of us, but most of it is inaccessible to us as it is buried in our Being, in our subconscious.

And so how can we access this buried knowledge and understanding that lives within us in the depths of our subconscious?

The answer is through prayer.

Through prayer, we summon the knowledge of this eternal source within us for an answer that we may receive through revelation.

The only thing left for us to do is to silence the room of our minds as it is only in silence (when the mind is still) that the voice of God speaks to us.