(NaturalNews) The time for preparedness is over. Now those who are in the path of Hurricane Sandy and the converging "superstorm" must hunker down, ride out the storm and stay focused on safety and survival. They need the blessings of all of us who are not in harm's way, so today Natural News urges all our readers to say a prayer for those who are about to find themselves at ground zero.

The National Weather Service has issued a public warning describing the storm as "...AN EXTREMELY DANGEROUS STORM TO IMPACT THE AREA..."

It goes on to urge residents to heed evacuation warnings, adding, "THINK ABOUT THE RESCUE/RECOVERY TEAMS WHO WILL RESCUE YOU IF YOU ARE INJURED OR RECOVER YOUR REMAINS IF YOU DO NOT SURVIVE."

This is unusually blunt language from the National Weather Service. In fact, I don't recall ever seeing NWS warnings with this kind of urgent language.

Immediately after this story was published, the NWS pulled its online warning, but we captured a screen shot of the full alert before it was pulled. Here it is:

Before you pray, don't forget to prepare

My motto is: Prepare, then pray. Prayer cannot take the place of preparedness, of course. To sit around praying while doing nothing to take responsibility for your own preparedness is foolish. But prayer can help lend strength and courage to those who need it most. The scientific literature reveals many rigorously tested clinical trials showing that patients recover from surgery more quickly when others pray for them, even in a so-called "double-blind" test where those doing the praying have never met the person they're praying for.

The reason prayer works is because we are more than just physical beings. We are spiritual beings experiencing life through physical bodies, but our consciousness is non-physical and exists above and beyond our physical brain. This understanding, if fully embraced, would revolutionize our world and our civilization, because so much of the evil in this world today is based on the "materialism" view of science which says that humans are mere biological machines with no minds, no free will and no consciousness.

The higher truth of the matter is that material things are only the beginning. We may at first appear to be made of matter, but our consciousness interfaces with our brains and bodies through a non-material pathway which has not yet been identified. When we pray, we broadcast a desirable outcome to the cosmos, and while we are not Gods and do not have the power to reshape worlds by merely wishing, we do have the power to subtly influence apparently "random" events, nudging them toward the direction of our desired outcome.

This, too, has been well demonstrated in the scientific research. An outstanding book summarizing some of the non-material phenomena of which the mind is capable is Science and Psychic Phenomena: The Fall of the House of Skeptics by Chris Carter and Rupert Sheldrake. I also highly recommend Science Set Free by Sheldrake, an impressive thinker, writer and philosopher.

Prayer is, after all, an appeal to a non-material consciousness to aid in achieving a more positive outcome. Even those who have been lifelong skeptics of prayer are instantly transformed into true believers the moment they experience it themselves. Read the astonishing book Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife by Eben Alexander, M.D. You will be absolutely enthralled by the journey of this brain surgeon from hard-core skeptic to passionate believer.

The simple truth is that the power of prayer is real. It works because there's more to us than just our physical bodies and brains. We are beings of immense energy and light, capable of achieving great things not just with our hands but also with our minds. Our entire universe, I believe, is but one of an infinite number of other realms brought into existence by our Creator -- a highly advanced consciousness which has been given a thousand different names throughout human history but which ultimately stands for the same unified concept: LOVE is the fabric of the cosmos, and through prayer, or meditation, or even just practicing gratitude, we can broadcast love to those who need it most.

Today, the people in the path of Hurricane Sandy are in need for our prayers and our support. May they find safety and comfort during this difficult time, and may they emerge from this test with a greater appreciation for life and all that it offers. While hurricanes may destroy material things, the experience of surviving one can only strengthen that part of us which is not material: our souls.

http://www.naturalnews.com/z037731_Hurricane_Sandy_preparedness_prayer.html