I don’t see prayer as having an impact on anything in the cosmos. If prayer worked there would be no cemeteries, or hospitals, or poverty…and so on forever. What does work is emptiness, stillness and silence (One thing, not three), being here, now, present with, and conscious of, what is present with us, here, now, in a physical and spiritual way (I using “spiritual” to cover all that is beyond our physical senses. If we don’t/cannot know it is there, it is spiritual, like high and low frequency’s and what is going on with Tao, Psyche and Intuition (I have written books on these things, might check them out. They are all priced in the range of a cup of coffee.)
Spending time with things spiritual is a fine way to spend time, actually, the best way to spend time. Dropping into the emptiness, stillness and silence, is what Jesus had in mind when he said, “Pray without ceasing.” The silence is home to everything spiritual, and is a great way to hangout. Call it meditation if you want to, or prayer, just go there a lot and become aware of what is with us there. Knowing what meets us in the silence is the kind of knowing that changes the material world in the way that prayer does change things. Beyond question. Without a doubt.
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 