That is not true. When people are praying they are expecting a telepathic being to be capable of sensing the prayers, whether the prayers are being spoken aloud or just meditating without speaking.

I don't think it's anything like schizophrenia, but just a genuine belief. They're not necessarily talking to themselves, so much as it is to nobody at all. But I believe if it makes them happier and it doesn't adversely affect anybody else then let be.

There's definitely aspects to praying that are psychologically detrimental. Talking to one's self is different from thinking you can change reality with your mind. When I was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2008 I knew how my mind worked, and I knew the strength and stubbornness of my willpower, and I understood that if I believed in the power of prayer, I'd have spent all my time in the hospital praying nonstop, which would've essentially been thinking about my illness, concentrating on the negative, the situation I was in the entire time I was waiting for surgery to have my tumor removed.

The number of seizures I had between diagnosis and surgery was reduced dramatically by how calm and cool I kept myself, and by the fact that I was cracking jokes and having fun in the hospital with the staff the entire time - mostly because I was in the moment, enjoying the time I had because from my perspective, I might as well enjoy myself as much as possible, because there may not be a tomorrow. I acknowledged that the situation was out of my control, and was able to relax once I came to that realization, because I was a logical individual. I am 100% certain that if I'd been conditioned to believe in the power of prayer, I'd have buckled down and prayed the entire time I was in the hospital and stressed out and seized the entire week I was admitted, from the ambulance ride to the day of surgery. My atheism and secular thinking just may be the reason I'm here today. (I hope that answers your question.)

When you pray you only talk to self no God only you. You do it self only alone.

When one person talks to their self they are crazy when many people do it - its religion.

Sometimes, I think, "talking to God" serves a useful purpose. It's like talking to yourself, but positioning a rhetorical second person into the "conversation." Like arguing with yourself in the mirror, which I do, I'm not really arguing with myself, of course, but acting out a different perspective. I think that a lot of people use "God" as that perspectival other without even knowing they're doing so because they've been enculturated that way. If pressed, their notion of "belief" becomes rather apparently thin.

Why, when people talk to god, others think he's religious. Yet when a person says that god talks to them, the're crazy.