No single practice more clearly defines a religion than the act of praying. Nor is there any religious practice more apt to take place on the part of those who otherwise are not religious at all. For those of every religious faith, prayer is one of the primary modes of relating the divine and the human, and for those of no faith at all, occasions of deep crisis often evoke a spontaneous cry for help from the lips of those who may not really believe there is anyone to hear or to help. Prayer does assume, in most of its definitions and most of its practice, a higher power who is in touch with human life. It may arise out of such an assumption as a deep conviction of a person's life and faith, or it may be a momentary hope for one with little or no religious convictions.