Have Scientists Proved the Power of Prayer?

Some think so, but ordinary people have extraordinary evidence that such intervention is real

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Does prayer’s power heal the sick, change lives, or fill our needs and desires? Should you bury a statue of St. Joseph if you want to sell your home or put St. Christopher on your dashboard as you travel this coming holiday season? There’s no definitive way to prove the power of prayer, but it’s not for lack of trying. Humans, including scientists, charlatans, and medical experts, have attempted to prove or disprove the efficacy of prayer since the beginning of intellectual curiosity.

The most surprising thing about these studies is we haven’t learned much. Some studies seem to show concentrated group prayer, whatever that is, has a measurable effect on AIDS patients.

A decade ago, Dr. Elizabeth Targ’s famous double-blind research convinced some that AIDS patients who were prayed for lived longer than AIDS patients not prayed for by a controlled group of prayer-sayers. How do you control that?

Reading university studies is interesting but confusing. Some show cardiac patients who believe in God doing better than those who don’t. On the other hand, in a Harvard study, it looks like cardiac patients assured of receiving prayers of intercession didn’t fare as well as others, and Charles Darwin’s Cousin Francis Galton determined that if a king’s subjects prayed for him, the poor guy lived a shorter life than other kings.

Consider this. Studies aside, nearly everyone has stories of friends, family, or acquaintances who lived a miracle brought about by prayer or devotion. A widow accidentally drops her keepsake wedding ring in the ocean. She prays daily that she will find it. Years later, it turns up in the local fisherman’s catch.

A missing child is inexplicably recovered when his whole community gathers to pray.

My husband was diagnosed with a terminal illness ten years ago. We prepared ourselves. We prayed a lot. He’s still around, and his medical team is astounded. He should not have had a positive outcome.

There are thousands of stories of humans visited by angels –some of them seem inarguable. We can’t get enough of George’s angel in It’s a Wonderful Life, and books about causing change through prayer fill bookstore shelves.

May all be free from sorrow and the causes of sorrow; May all never be separated from the sacred happiness which is sorrowless; And may all live in equanimity, without too much attachment and too much aversion, And live believing in the equality of all that lives. — Traditional Buddhist prayer

You can drive yourself to distraction Googling for answers on whether prayer has power or can effect change. SayingYourPrayers.pdf has a list of formal, rigorous scientific studies.

You can find first-hand prayer testimonials on the Miracle of Prayer post at Os.me, and, I dare say, all over the web.

Maybe the most rational conclusion was drawn by Wendy Cadge in the sociology department of Brandeis University, Massachusetts. An expert on how religion and medicine impact each other in today’s American culture, Cage remarked, “With double-blind clinical trials, scientists tried their best to study something that may be beyond their best tools; and (this) reflects more about them and their assumptions than about whether prayer ‘works.’ “ (emphasis added)

I’m a modern Buddhist — prayer for me doesn’t resemble the Pater Noster, and my higher power is substantially different from a biblical god. Still, I am tuned in to my spirituality every day. I survived cancer by way of a fantastic medical team and a nudge from my spiritual self. My husband weathered a potentially fatal illness some years ago, and the same thing happened. He’s still here, too. You can call that prayer.

Let me be willing to see the big picture in all things,
act in accordance with my best, most ethical self,
and grant the benefit of the doubt to all those I meet. — Abby Willowroot secular prayer

The question isn’t complicated. The answer doesn’t lie in studies funded by millions of tax dollars. If I attend to my spiritual growth, I have a relationship with my personal mode of prayer and with my higher power. When my devotion is honest, sincere — prayer can smooth out rough areas and improve the quality of my life.

With all that’s going on in our world now, it might be time to see the value of prayer with a clearer eye.

It might be time to believe in miracles.

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