Book Description

Prayer is a constant mental input into our world. Do we pray for what we need or what we want? Do we pray to heal or to hurt? Terrorists pray. Healers pray. Millions pray. Motivations for prayer are investigated by the Spindrift researchers. One discovery was that non goal-directed prayer--"Thy will be done"--produced different test results than goal-directed prayer. A Journey Into Prayer explores the struggles, triumphs, and persecutions of two spiritual healers, Bruce and John Klingbeil, who developed scientific laboratory tests to investigate the effectiveness of prayer. This father and son team added to the centuries old anecdotal evidence the modern day standard of proof demanded by science and medicine. Spindrift translated some spiritual experiences and religious language into the scientific language and experiments of our times. Spindrift isolated positive and negative effects of prayer. Spindrift ignited spiritual dynamite by asking, "What can we know about prayer scientifically?" Author Bill Sweet weaves with a rare sense of humor this Spindrift adventure and the outrage it sparked. ABOUT A JOURNEY INTO PRAYER One of the most predictable consequences of exploring the bridge between science and religion is that the simple act of questioning authority, on either side of that bridge, is guaranteed to evoke furious emotions in those who believe they already know the "truth." Bill Sweet's Journey into Prayer is the story of a father and son who courageously risked everything to explore the power of prayer, an overview of what they discovered, and a poignant reminder of the risks faced by all true pioneers. --Dean Radin, Ph.D., Senior Scientist, Institute of Noetic Sciences, Author of The Conscious Universe and Entangled Minds, interviewed in the movie What the Bleep: Down the Rabbit Hole The name Spindrift is synonymous with what at first seems an oxymoron--the scientific study of prayer. This group's ground-breaking work, which has been part of an enormous shift in consciousness, was brought forth at great personal cost--the apparent suicides of the father-son research team. Bill Sweet's meticulous account reads like a mystery--one that may never be solved. But regardless of the tragedy, the Spindrift research is an important part of the bridge between science and Spirit. May all the good these researchers have done return to them as an enduring blessing of peace. --Joan Borysenko, Ph.D., Author, Seven Paths to God and A Woman's Journey to God cofounder and former Director of the Mind-Body Clinic, Harvard Medical School This book describes the work of some original thinkers, supported by over 20 years of meticulous experimental and analytical research of ingenious design. It bears on the nature of prayer and of healing, and of powers of the human mind little appreciated by most people. Because the philosophical background and the experimental work differs from the mainstream, the research and its important implications for all of us has been largely overlooked. Bill Sweet's homely and disarming writing style presents the material in a personal way that is easily accessible to readers of all backgrounds. Read it, enjoy it, and save your judgment until you have finished and pondered it a while. --Theodore Rockwell, nuclear engineer and Author of The Rickover Effect and Creating The New World