Power of prayer from a medical and scientific perspective

Larry Dossey, MD, author of “Prayer is Good Medicine”, in his foreword to the book, “Meditations on Life of Mother Teresa” writes, “Prayer is one of the essential activities of human life. Throughout history, it has nurtured our grandest visions and provided meaning and purpose to our activities. It is impossible to imagine the evolution of any culture without prayer.”

Yet, many believe that prayer is old-fashioned in our modern scientific age, that prayer and science are incompatible, and that prayer belongs to the category of superstition and fantasy. One of the great ironies of modern age, however, is that proponents of prayer and proponents of science seem even more engaged now in a new and amazing dialogue in three different ways:

First, a high proportion of scientists today believe in a Supreme Being who answers prayer. This may come as a shock to people who have been taught that a genuine scientist cannot simultaneously believe in the Absolute and do good science. Researchers led by EJ Larson surveyed American biologists, physicians and mathematicians about their religious beliefs and published their results in the journal “Nature”. They found that 39% believe in God. The highest percentage of believers was found among mathematicians, who practise the purest kind of science that exists. And so we see that the prevalent views that science is godless, that atheists make the best scientists and that prayer and science cannot coexist are stereotypes to be challenged.

Second, medical scientists studying the effects of prayer find compelling evidence of the benefits of prayer, meditation and relaxation in individuals who pray. Our body appears to “like” prayer and responds in healthy ways in the cardiovascular, immune and other systems. But even more interesting are studies showing that intercessory or distant prayer also has an effect, even when the individual being prayed for is unaware of the prayer that is being offered. These studies are numerous, have been replicated by many scientists, and involve not only humans but nonhumans as the prayer recipients. The latter point is important: If prayer effects extend to animals and plants, they cannot be ascribed only to positive thinking and placebo response.

The third major development heralding the synthesis of science and prayer is the recent emergence of scientific theories on the nature of consciousness. In general, these views go beyond the old idea that the effects of the mind are confined to one’s individual brain and body. These new theories permit consciousness to act outside the physical body as with intercessory prayer. In light of these new ways of thinking about consciousness, it no longer seems outrageous to suggest that prayer might act at a distance to bring about actual changes in the world.

Significantly, more and more first rate researchers are examining the effects of prayer in healing at various medical schools, hospitals and research institutions. National conferences linking spirituality and health care are becoming routine.

A point to remember is that in studies of intercessory prayer, researchers have found no correlation between the “religious affiliation” of the praying individual and the effects of the prayer. This affirms the view that prayer is universal, that it belongs not just to a specific religion but to the entire human race and sanctions the importance of religious tolerance, asking us to honour the prayers and spiritual visions of other religious traditions, no matter how radically they differ from our own. Mother Teresa stated so well, “We must help a Hindu become a better Hindu, a Muslim a better Muslim, a Catholic a better Catholic.”

Although personal religion does not correlate with prayer’s effects in experimental studies, there’s a factor that does make a great difference though sounding quite old-fashioned: “love”. Without love, the prayer experiments don’t work as well, in fact, they often fall flat.

This finding intrigues us as physicians, because healers throughout history have uniformly proclaimed the importance of compassion, caring and empathy for the patient. The best physicians I personally know honour the power of love and care in healing. They believe that while an “antibiotic” is powerful, “antibiotic plus love” is still more powerful.

In my life’s journey, I confess I have tried my best to use my faith to work through the worse plights. If I have been successful to some measure it is because as a physician I always thought my job was not only to find the right treatment, but, what is more, to help the patient find an inner reason for living, resolving conflicts and harnessing free healing energy.

For the sake of truth we must say that God may indeed exist and prayer may indeed heal; however, let us concede that for important theological and scientific reasons, it is not possible to apply “randomised controlled studies” (the fulcrum of good medicine) to study the efficacy of prayer in healing to convince - as one would have wished - even the most renitent agnostic.

Mother Teresa of course insisted that prayer does not need science to validate. In fact people test prayer everyday in their lives and “life” clearly is the most important laboratory of all… But since science is one of the most powerful factors guiding modern life, we would be foolish to disregard what science has to say about prayer. Luckily, most of the comments to date are positive.

(Dr Francisco Colaço is a seniormost consulting physician and a social activist).