Prayer, Religion, and Healing
Posted on Mar 31st, 2006
by 
Cynthia
Cynthia
When I read in the news today that Prayer Doesn’t Affect Heart Patients, I sensed that there is much more to this breaking news story than first meets the eye. On the face of it, this newest remote prayer study, costing $2.8 million, funded primarily by the John Templeton Foundation and appearing today in the American Heart Journal, indicated that the 1,800 study heart bypass surgery patients who were prayed for in the study encountered just as many complications as those patients who received no such prayers. Even more troubling were the findings that patients who were told they were being prayed for seemed to suffer even more complications than any other study group.
I've written articles before on the fact that Scientific Research Confirms Distant Healing, and followed a number of scientific studies on these topics ever since first hearing about them many years ago at a talk given by Dr. Larry Dossey, so I'm quite familiar with this topic being on the cutting edge of alternative health care research... or "the bleeding edge," since there have been so many strong opinions voiced on this politically heated topic.
Research Design
It's helpful to note the methodology employed in prayer studies, in order to discover what assumptions were made, what environmental factors were taken into consideration, and what was the nature of the research design. For this most recent study published in the American Heart Journal, more than 1,800 patients were divided into three groups:
(1) Patients who were told that someone was praying for them;
(2) Patients who were told only that someone might pray for them and got prayers;
(3) Patients who were told someone might pray for them but received no prayers.
About 65% of the patients said they strongly believed in the power of prayer. Prayer services were provided by two Catholic monasteries and one Protestant group who were given patients' first names and the first initial of their last names, and who began praying the night before each patient's surgery and continued for two weeks after surgery. All people doing the praying were instructed to recite the same prayer for the patients being prayed for, requesting:
"a successful surgery and a quick, healthy recovery and no complications."
Interference of Background Prayer
While this study attempted to set up controls so the effects of prayer could be closely monitored, it did not factor out "background prayers" of family members and friends and others who were praying for some study participants more than others. This means that people who were prayed for by study participants may or may not have been receiving more or less prayers than was expected based on the prayer groups activities... which means that these prayer study results cannot be considered to clearly differentiate between results of people who receive prayer and those who don't.
Religion Can Interfere with Healing
The most surprising finding from this recent American Heart Journal study is that individuals who were informed that they would be prayed for and then were prayed for suffered the highest incidence of medical complications of all three groups. If we hear the words, "You will be prayed for," many of us may feel a sense of increased concern... wondering if we're hearing this because we are in more danger than we even realized... and wondering if we are being prayed for by people who may believe differently than we do. These study participants were not asked, "Would you like to receive prayers?" and then asked "Who would you like to receive prayers from?" but were instead told what was happening, whether they like it or not.
So perhaps we shouldn't be so surprised to discover that religion might interfere with healing. People have been known to sicken and even die when they felt they were being prayed for or energetically treated by someone whose beliefs did not match their own, such as Edgar Mitchell describes in his excellent book,
The Way of the Explorer: An Apollo
Astronaut's Journey Through the Material and Mystical
Worlds. Astronaut Edgar Mitchell describes how his mother, who was was a devout born-again Christian who was legally blind and could not drive without glasses, once attended a conference with him and received healing from a healer from the Orient. After the healer worked on her, she woke up and was amazed to see that her vision was so good that she could read fine print without glasses. She drove back home hundreds of miles after the conference without her glasses, since she'd smashed them to prove she didn't need them any more. A little while later, Edgar got a phone call from his mother; she was concerned that since the healer who worked on her had an Oriental sounding name, he must not be a Christian. When Edgar confirmed to her that he was not Christian, his mother wondered if since the healer wasn’t saved, he must be an agent of the devil, so she disavowed all of his healing effects. Almost immediately, her vision deteriorated, and she once again could not see without glasses.
The interesting observation we can make from all this is that religion can interfere with healing, particularly when the recipients of healing do not feel comfortable receiving the prayers/healing of those outside their own spiritual path. Future prayer studies will do well to take this point into consideration.
 Cynthia Sue Larson and Elisabeth Targ |
 Edgar Mitchell |
Access: PublicTagged with: religion, healing, elisabeth targ, prayers, edgar mitchell, larry dossey, remote prayer, distant healing, prayer study, john templeton foundation, templeton foundation, american heart journal, research design, alternative health, way of the explorer, astronaut, surgery, healing energy, highest good, energy medicine
alternative health
April 2008
Great article, thanks for sharing it. I'm not sure exactly what to make of it, but it's nice to another perspective.
Thanks for being right on top of this breaking new story, Cynthia. I like the insight from the study reported by Edgar Mitchell. There's probably many deeper layers to look at when people receive help from outside sources.
Yes, there is undoubtedly a great many more layers here… it is clear that both those sending healing energy and those receiving it can influence the final outcome and make a difference in whether or not (and to what extent) healing actually occurs.
I followed this story as it broke– and one of the things that struck me (as a former test designer) right up front was this: The people who knew they were being prayed for exhibited the “worst results.” To me, it sort of follows that if you have the knowledge that others are “doing the work for you” it might lead to that person's own “will to heal” to diminish in such a way that the effect of the prayer was lost. I could be way off base on that… but still.
That is an excellent point, Peter! I agree that knowing that others are “doing the work” is bound to put one into a very different state of mind and being than would otherwise be the case. There are certainly a lot of questions being raised here!
Very interesting story, Cynthia. Given the past studies, I can say I was definitely surprised by the results of this one.
One of the things I've learned about prayer is to pray for what I want – with the caveat of “this or something better for the highest good of all concerned.”
Interesting - maybe the “highest good” wasn't for the prayer to “work”. Maybe, just maybe, that means that they really did work? Brain twister, I know. But it somehow makes sense to me. =)
Cynthia - thank you writing this good response. You give many good insights here.
One response I have is that I believe it’s not so much that “religion interferes with healing”, but rather, it’s the sense of ego-based separation (that manifests in judgement, distrust, resentment, and other types of emotional tension) that closes one off to receiving the healing effects of prayer. The reason for creating this “wall” of tension can be anything, not just differing religions. It could stem from people’s discomfort with differing nationality, culture, race, lifestyle, sexual orientation, and many others. Tell a member of the religious right that the gay community is praying for him - and you can bet that he’s not going to be receptive to those prayers.
I believe that ego-separation and resulting emotional tension is the fundamental cause of all (or the majority) of disease - particularly chronic illness such as heart disease, cancer, etc. So it’s quite possible that the people in the study - who may have felt uncomfortable about strangers praying for them - were aggravating their own conditions.
I’d like to agree that the person who is healing (or seeking healing) MUST not be complacent about it. There must be a sincere desire, paired with will (willingness), to heal. It’s hard to know what was going on the psyches of the people who were in this study. Spirituality (and thus, the effectiveness of spiritual-based healing) is so closely linked to the subjective experience. I imagine that it these prayer studies will be very hit and miss unless there is some attempt to understand the subjective experience of those involved, and incorporate that into the study as an independent variable.
My 2 cents :-)
These are excellent comments! I’ve noted that prayer studies such as the ones conducted by Spindrift that I mention in this blog post indicate that distant healing by prayer works most effectively when the prayers are not specific at all… but instead are “for the best,” whatever that might be.
Truly there is an issue with distant healing studies that include specific types of groups doing the praying, since people so often are wary of having energies sent to them other than what they would most prefer to receive. Perhaps this is akin to food preferences; we may so strongly dislike a certain cuisine that even if we were starving to death we’d decline it. This indeed is a state of separation, isolation, fragmentation and very often continuing dis-ease.
I’d love to see that distant healing researchers were investigating (perhaps via focus groups) what’s going through peoples’ minds who are about to receive prayer. Knowing how individuals feel most open to welcoming prayer / energy assistance seems like the obvious missing piece of information in this field of inquiry.
Cynthia, thank you for the invitation to read this fascinating entry. As someone who has often prayed for the sick, it was a shock when I read about the study. After I got over my shock, I thought the same thing you surmised – that perhaps those who were told they were being prayed for had some additional stressors as a result of that information. You suggest it was because of a particular religion. I thought perhaps the stress of not disappointing all those people praying for you might have played into the results.
My granddaughter battled leukemia for six years. One of the things that got her down was that her illness affected so many other people – caused them pain. On the one hand it was comforting to know that people cared and were going to be there for you. On the other hand, it made her feel guilty and at times did not help the healing environment.
Linda
Cynthia, thanks for the invite to the conversation. I love praying, and have built my faith by doing it and seeing the results - gnosis! I too was surprised to see the study headline, and haven't read the whole thing - but I did find it very odd that people were not asked whether they wanted to be in the study. That sounds so fishy - and a bit pushy!
I had a friend recently who died of cancer at the age of 30. She almost gave up treatment early on, and then did just give up treatment and wait to die. There was no talking her out of it. No praying her well. It made me wonder about “Thanatos” - the drive to die. I don't think our prayers would help someone who wanted to die - unless it helped them to die faster, more peacefully, and with less pain and more meaning.
Anyway, I'm curious who here studies energetic medicine and what the heart represents. Just guessing - the power to love and be loved?
Namaste from Seattle, Peter
hey cynthia,
have not “checked in” since your kind invitation to sign on at your pod. so glad i did and saw this post.
i'm down with dossey on this one.
also, found interesting something that jeffrey mishlove (who commented above) wrote about recently on his blog, under “the pigasus awards irony.”
excerpt:
“…Brenda Dunne (and her co-author Robert G. Jahn) had written a detailed, scientific book called Margins of Reality: The Role of Consciousness in the Physical World – explaining how many different lines of scientific inquiry suggest that direct mental influence can be understood as a natural phenomena.
This is precisely the point that I made in my Manifesto For Psychic Liberation where I stated: “The abilities of the human psyche are natural - even though they may be labeled 'supernatural' or 'paranormal.'”
we'll peeling the onion, right? it is perhaps no consolation to those who are sick and suffering today to say, we're learning. and advances in medicine over the last century have alleviated so much suffering; cured so much disease; made routine what once was impossible. however, isn't it certain that, someday, we'll look back and shrug at “medicine” as it's practiced today, just as we look back now at blood-letting and surgery without anesthesia?
thank you, dear heart.
and thank you, edgar mitchell, for the institute of noetic sciences!
Dear Cynthia,
A fairly simple point - those prayers were answered - but consciousness (aka the universe) doesn’t compute ‘no’ very readily.To pray for ‘no complications’ was more likely to usher the concept of ‘complications’ into those heart patients’ realities than to bring them speedily to full recovery.
This is a well known feature of consciousness which hypnotherapists (I’m one) have to work around all the time. Our subconscious finds it difficult to handle negatives. Nouns are much more powerful. For example tell a child ‘don’t stick your fingers in that flame’ - and watch what happens. They will often ‘stick fingers in flame’. Much more effective to say to a child ‘the flame will burn your fingers’. The consciousness of the Universe appears to work much the same way.
Consider the struggle people have to ‘give up’ smoking or ‘lose’ weight. Or how ineffective prayers to ‘stop the war in Iraq’ appear to have been. Once we recognise this feature of consciousness, we are able to see why the best laid plans often fall apart and also how to create prayers/meditations that are effective.
Thanks for your inspiring and always thought-provoking newsletter.
With best wishes,
Lisa
Thanks for all the brilliant comments! I agree that it’s best to avoid mention of what one doesn’t wish to manifest in one’s intentions, affirmations, and prayers. When I first heard what the prayer statement was for this experiment, I wondered, “Why aren’t they using the information gleaned from previous prayer studies about the most effective prayer statements?†The Spindrift Institute has shown rather conclusively that the very most effect prayer statement for helping plants to grow (that works better than any with particular specifics) is non-directed prayer (where instead of a specific outcome, a general sense of what’s best is intended). Spindrift’s prayer experiments showed that it’s usually best for growing organisms to receive the non-directed form of prayer, rather than receive prayers to “grow HUGEâ€, because non-directed prayers keep organisms in better balance.