Book Review - Mystically Wired

I will readily admit that my prayer life as a Christian is not as strong as it should be. Yes I pray daily but I often seem to find myself in a prayer rut of sorts. Therefore I was excited to get this book and work toward improving my prayer life. Unfortunately, this book fell short of my expectations. The first several chapters are more of a "science meets religion" primer on how the brain is wired to pray. I'm a science-oriented kind of person, but this book seemed poorly written and almost confusing as it jumped from topic to topic on how our brains are wired for prayer and where our brains "take us" when we pray.

My faith is strongly grounded, but for someone who is still searching or who is a new Christian, this book could get very confusing as it compares the Christian faith to Eastern religions and how meditation can be an important part of prayer life. Not that I don't see the author's point of view - meditating on Scripture should be a part of the Christian walk, but the way the book approaches the topic is off to me.

There were several good suggestions that I plan to implement, especially setting aside a quiet place to pray and praying outside in God's creation. Other suggestions were less appealing to me, especially praying through a particular set of pre-written prayers. I believe speaking to God is personal and I prefer using my own words when I pray. If pre-written prayers work for someone else, that's great, but this author really seemed to be pushing this particular book written by someone he knows. The book's title came up in several different chapters, which automatically turned me off from even considering it since he seemed to be pushing it at me.

Overall, I'm convinced there are better books on prayer out there than this one.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher, but the view expressed here are entirely my own.