Scientific studies on the power of prayer
Scientists are beginning to say what religious teachers have been saying for centuries -- that prayer that can work wonders.
A new study by the St Louis University’s School Of Medicine say although there is no “conclusive” evidence about the healing power of prayer, there is enough evidence to warrant further research.
Paul Duckro of the University’s Health Sciences Centre, and Philip R Magaletta of the Psychology Department, reviewed more than 30 years of scientific research on the effects of prayer. Their conclusions were published in a 1994 issue of the Journal of Religion and Health.
Duckro, a professor of psychiatry and human behaviour, acknowledges that there is not enough scientific data “to indicate with certainty that prayer directly causes better health or improved healing”. But he found several studies which suggest that prayer does produce positive results.
In a 1969 study, for example, 18 children with leukaemia were divided into two groups. Families in the church in another city were asked to pray daily for ten of the children. The other eight received the same medical treatment, but no prayer.
After 15 months of prayer, seven of the ten children prayed for were still alive. In contrast, only two of the eight in the “no prayer” group survived.
There had also been studies which focused on the germination of seeds and the growth of plants. Those studies consistently found that prayer increased growth by 5 to 35 percent. Oddly though, seeds grew more successfully even when people prayed for “no growth”.
Duckro and Magalette called for further studies with stricter controls over factor other than prayer which may have an effect on health.
They also suggested studies to see whether “some types of prayer, or some persons praying, might be more effective than others. They also called for more studies on the frequency and duration of the prayer.
Many of the studies which Duckro and Magaletta looked at have also been reviewed by another leading researcher on the power of prayer, Larry Dorsey.
Dorsey has just published a new book titled, Healing Words: The Power of Prayer and the practice of Medicine. His review of 130 scientific studies on prayer found that more than half showed that prayer dramatically improved the health of the person – or the object – prayed for.
Dorsey is co-chairman of the panel on mind/ body interventions in the Office of Alternative Medicine (OAM) at the US National Institutes of Health.
The OAM in 1993 awarded 30 research grants, worth US$30,000 each, for the study of various alternative therapies. One of the grants was for a project by the University of New Mexico to study if prayer can help victims of addiction.
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