Religious traditions frequently involve prayers for healing. Scientists have attempted to examine these claims using various methodologies; while some have demonstrated evidence of healing, other have not.
Oral Roberts famously used the phrase, “There is no distance in prayer” to describe a collapsing of physical space during his healing prayer performances, with this overt theological claim covering an integral material component of his technique.
Spirituality
Spirituality is an approach to life that acknowledges there may be more to life than what people can perceive on an empirical level. It may involve religious traditions centered on belief in an ultimate power or an holistic belief system such as community or cosmic connection. Spiritual practices include prayer and meditation.
Spirituality can bring many advantages to your life, yet there are some considerations you should keep in mind before making spirituality the cornerstone of your lifestyle. One possible drawback could be using spiritual ideals as an escape route when dealing with problems or emotions or conflicts; similarly, be wary if using spirituality as an excuse to neglect others’ needs.
Spirituality provides meaning and purpose, helping individuals cope with stressful situations by offering hope and support. There are various paths to spirituality: exploring your consciousness, engaging with nature and the world around us, or serving others – each offering something different!
Recent randomized controlled studies have demonstrated the power of distant intercessory prayer to mitigate illness; however, these investigations rely heavily on assumptions which make them incapable of studying divine intervention or producing non-interpretable results.
These studies assume that distant prayer works via creating a placebo effect. According to this theory, people respond positively to prayer because they believe it will improve their health – something it often does in fact do. Other factors can also have an effect on outcomes in research studies, including participant expectations, beliefs regarding prayer and personal characteristics.
A meta-analysis of these trials demonstrated that distance healing had a substantial positive impact on psychological well-being, likely as a result of increasing levels of hope and perceived control provided by distant healing. Although this finding is promising, further research should be undertaken in order to verify if its results can be replicated using other approaches.
Science
Religious rituals and prayers have long been associated with healing, with several proposed mechanisms including placebo response, regression to the mean, the Hawthorne effect, nonspecific emotional support, and expectations being key among them. More recently randomized controlled trials have reported efficacy of remote intercessory prayer; however these trials lack theoretical foundation and produce non-interpretable results that remain unknown to interpretors.
Likewise, intercessory prayer may activate some uncharted mental energy with curative effects that is yet unknown to us. Therefore, it would be beneficial to gain an in-depth knowledge of its nature as well as any physical processes which might mediate its influence.
Leibovici’s study challenged traditional notions of time, space, prayer, consciousness, and causality by comparing the efficacy of remotely intercessory prayer with standard medical treatment in managing 3393 septic patients. This randomised, controlled trial demonstrated that experimental group had significantly better outcome measures than control group. As such, this result was not attributable to mere chance – suggesting divine intervention may have contributed significantly towards its improvement. Future research on distant healing intention should adhere more closely to evolving guidelines, thus meeting quality standards expected by scientific journals and ensuring its findings will be more readily accepted by scientists.
Techniques
Distance healing employs various techniques, such as prayer, meditation, visualization, mindfulness, qi gong and reiki energy. These practices may help clients heal on physical, emotional or spiritual levels. The main idea behind distant healing is that an intention from one healer can be transmitted across space and time to influence recipient health; scientific communities refer to this phenomenon as psychogenic or placebo effects; one explanation may be hope or expectation leading to positive psychological results for them both parties involved in distant healing sessions.
Over the past decade, several double blind, randomized controlled studies of remote intercessory prayer have been conducted; however, their findings remain inconclusive. Leibovici published an inconclusive study with 3393 septic patients that showed no statistically significant differences between groups regarding mortality, length of hospital stay or duration of fever; hence suggesting remote intercessory prayer did not significantly improve outcomes.
Spiritual healing communities widely believe that psychic healing from a distance works. Twenty years ago, a study was released claiming scientific proof for such psychic healing; it involved 40 healers praying simultaneously for AIDS patients with distant intercessory prayer compared with 40 praying simultaneously with no results showing that those receiving distant intercessory prayer experienced less new illnesses, needed less hospital visits and were in better spirits than those not receiving intercessory prayer at a distance.
One difficulty associated with studies such as this is its inability to reliably determine what form of healing is being practiced and its efficacy; also making it hard to ascertain whether results were actually due to prayer alone and not something else, such as placebo effect. As distant healing relies heavily on human consciousness rather than medical devices or pharmaceutical agents, conducting proper scientific evaluation is a formidable task.
Results
There have been various studies done on healing through distant prayer, in which individuals who are not physically near a patient pray for them from a distance. Although these studies have often been criticised by scientists who contend it’s impossible to scientifically study spiritual acts, some have produced interesting results; for instance, in 1988 Cardiologist Randolph Byrd conducted one that discovered prayerful heart patients experienced less complications than unprayered ones.
Other experiments have yielded less-than-encouraging results. A study by researchers at the University of California-Berkeley discovered that though healers did help patients living with AIDS, their effects could likely be explained by placebo effects or other factors. A separate research team at Penn found that those who were prayed for had shorter hospital stays and fewer complications compared with those who weren’t prayed for, although again this may have been caused by other factors.
Though there is little concrete evidence, a vast majority of people still believe that distant prayer works. This belief is supported by numerous accounts of dramatic healing involving distant prayer or meditation, including one person who healed of a tumor in his neck after being prayed for over the phone by an acquaintance. Furthermore, according to an American College of Physicians survey more than half reported having personal experiences with distant prayer or meditation for healing purposes.
Candy Gunther Brown of Indiana University Bloomington has conducted extensive analysis on these studies in Testing Prayer, also discussing their theological ramifications. Her research indicates that intercessory prayer in close proximity with those for whom one prays can lead to improvements in vision and hearing impairment, provided there is an explicit request from those receiving prayer for improvements from those receiving it.
The National Library of Medicine states that the most reliable data on distant prayer therapy comes from randomized controlled trials, in which two groups – one receiving healing through distant prayer and another receiving standard care – are compared. Results of such trials are typically published in scientific journals. There have been no safety issues reported with distant prayer therapy; however, its use should only ever take place under professional medical advice and supervision.
