Study results leave experts still questioning if prayer heals or not

The healing power of prayer is a tenet of many world religions including Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Now, empirical research might indicate that prayer could play a role in the medical field.

Candy Gunther Brown, IU associate professor of religious studies, worked with colleagues in a study in Mozambique and Brazil to measure the effects of prayer on patients suffering from visual and audio problems.

Patients came to Brown’s team and were given tests to measure their sight and hearing. The patients were prayed for and encouraged to pray for healing. After a period of time, the patients were given the same assessments by Brown’s team.

“One of the distinctive things about our study was that we did not rely on self-reports,” Brown said.
The amount of change Brown’s team saw was surprising.

“Even though we had a relatively small number of subjects, the results were large and consistent enough that they are statistically significant,” Brown said.

Dr. John Peteet, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, is one of the critics of the study. He said the results of Brown’s study are still preliminary because no effects were found for the results and there was no follow-up.

“Other research suggests that prayer in medical settings is very common, and experienced by patients as helpful,” Peteet said. “I don’t think we know enough about what these findings mean to say yet what they imply for medical staff.”

Rev. Bill Breeden of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Bloomington said although Unitarian Universalists have their own beliefs about prayer, there is a common prayer in the church’s services.

“I can only speak for myself,” Breeden said. “I think prayer is important not because of who is listening, but because of who is praying.”

Brown said no one should draw the conclusion that prayer needs to be added to medical care. She said it is rare that a study is conclusive, and this one is no exception.

“It’s not appropriate to draw religious conclusions from empirical findings,” Brown said. “It’s an indication that further studies should be done.”

Peteet said personally, he believes that some prayers for healing are answered by whoever they are addressed to.

“There are psychological reasons such as suggestion and caring that probably account for some effects, but the findings in this study don’t seem so easily explainable on this basis,” Peteet said.

Prayer can often unlock healing in one’s body, Breeden said, whether or not any deity hears it.

“Prayer is an expression of our deepest joys and sorrows and, as such, has therapeutic values regardless of whether or not anyone else is listening, be they human or other,” Breeden said.