For anyone who has ever spent anxious moments praying for a loved one either hurt or seriously ill, there may have be an accompanying doubt as to the ability of such prayer to have any real effect other than soothing the supplicant.

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In an era of new-age medicine and tailor-made spirituality, it may be hard to convince anyone in a strongly held faith in the power of prayer.

The prestigious Archives of Internal Medicine in America published some interesting and compelling findings a few months ago. Their conclusion? That prayer may benefit the sick, even if they are totally unaware of appeals on their behalf.

This conclusion emerged from an unlikely pioneer of metaphysical research, physiologist William Harris, who had been trying to discern the secrets of fish oil’s effect on blood lipids. In a discussion with some colleagues at St. Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City, the study by cardiologist Randolph Byrd on the effect of prayer on cardiac patients came up. Some loopholes had undermined the credibility of the study, and so Harris decided to replicate the study and determine if it could be conclusively proved.

He recruited a hospital chaplain and fifteen member prayer groups, using a private grant, and obtained permission from the hospital administration. People admitted to the coronary care unit were given patient numbers, and without ever being seen face to face, the first names of even-numbered patients were given to the prayer groups.

They were asked to pray every day for the patient’s speedy recovery without complications. Odd-numbered patients were the control group. In total, 466 patients received prayers, while 524 didn’t, and the volunteer supplicants (mostly women) were of various Christian denominations and had no idea of the yearlong study in progress.

Those prayed for by the prayer groups did 11% better than those who received no prayer, a very significant difference. Harris wrote: “It was intercessory prayer, not the existence of God, that was tested here.” He did not attempt to explain the mechanism, but instead said “I want to know how this can be maximised for healing … what kind of prayer works, and how many?”

Scepticism
The notion that prayer can have measurable effects has been gaining momentum, gaining (if a little grudgingly) admittance by the sentinels of academe. The Western Journal of Medicine recently published another carefully controlled study of the effects of distant healing.

It was conducted on forty AIDS patients by two psychiatry professors at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine. Supplicants from eight faiths, ranging from Catholic to Hindu, prayed for the patients, and where the prayed-for ones tended to stabilise, the controls declined.

This was measured by new opportunistic infections, number and length of hospital stays, and mood. Duke University deemed the study “airtight”, and has in progress a large distant-healing study involving several hospitals.

Harvard hosted a conference for a hundred distant-healing researchers, among whom were a number of prominent scientists. Their findings have yet to be released, which was based on a study of 1 800 patients admitted for heart surgery. The British publication, New Scientist, had an article on the issue of prayer and accelerated recoveries, showing the move within the scientific community to being receptive to this concept.

There is still a strong reluctance to talk about prayer as a viable option in the management of health and crisis care, because of the notion that it is an unstable and emotive argument, having no scientific basis. But as more prominent medical and research institutions take up the challenge to incorporate these findings into future research, prayer may well end up being standard practice, and not just the last resort.

 

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