This is a huge topic and I will only touch on it here. What is truly exciting about it is that even scientific studies have shown prayer to be effective. I say “even scientific studies” because I am not a real fan of trying to prove the existence of God, or of soul, or spirit, or whatever you feel comfortable calling that ineffable primary force of the universe, in a scientific manner. The scientific method,and believe me, there is a very clear “method” of determining what is real scientifically, is designed to shed light on material phenomena. The mechanism of prayer, or of any other metaphysical event, it essentially non-material (this is where the scientists go bonkers, spouting out “how can something be non-material, yet be discerned by the material senses?” —Dreams are an obvious response, show me the set of chemicals or material particles that make up all of the dizzying variety of images in one simple dream…they’ve been working on this for a while with no real materialist conclusion.)

I digress.

Dr. Larry Dossey, a medical doctor who has made quite a name for himself in the field of medical metaphysics—faith healing, mind body connection, and the efficacy of prayer—has had quite a bit to say about all of this. In his book Healing Words he assessed some of the early studies regarding prayer and came to the astounding conclusion, scientifically, that prayer was indeed highly effective. Of course there have been studies that counter his conclusions since, and many scientists believe that something like prayer’s efficacy cannot really be studied in this manner. They do have a point. And again, a study like this is fun and exciting, but to me it doesn’t prove much of anything that needs any proving. The concepts of prayer, love for another, God, the power of intention, etc. are far too complex to allow easy dissection by a realist’s reductionist method of inquiry. The total is greater than the sum of its parts. Emergence theory shows us this very clearly, and it is a newer science that may hold to the key to understanding quite a bit in the metaphysical world that up until now has been relegated to the promissory materialism heap of matters waiting for the day when all can be explained by Newtonian physics.

I digress.

Back to prayer. Take a look at these interesting tables. I thank Charles Tart, Ph.D. and his wonderful book The End of Materialism for his comments on this research done with mice and the healing hands of a faith healer. Several mice were wounded by cutting a piece of skin out (all in the name of science, of course). The size of the subsequent wound was measured. A control group of mice with wounds was left to attend to their own healing. Another group was held by a faith healer with the intention of healing the wounds. Someone who was not a known faith healer, and with no intention of healing, held a third group (the charts call this group “Heat Control”). Look at the results of the size of wounds after 14 days. Pretty cool, eh?

size of mouse wounds before treatment

size of mouse wounds after 14 days of treatment

It is interesting to note that no one seems to pay much attention to these and similar studies. According to The Washington Post less than $5 million was spent worldwide on any sort of prayer research in 2008. Pretty paltry. These studies and their results slip right past blind eyes just as almost everything else of this nature. It is a shame…I have my theories as to why this is the case, but that is for another blog. Keep praying folks!

I would love to hear from you! Please click the “comments” link below to leave a comment. Ask me any questions as well. Thank you!

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