Research has revealed that prayers from a third party do not affect the recovery process of patients. In contrast, the researchers noticed a possible proof of the power of negative thinking
Christine Soares, Scientific American
I wonder what or who the dog and the cat pray to?
Researchers who tried to assess whether the prayers of a third party affect the recovery of patients found no evidence of divine intervention. And yet they noticed a possible proof of the power of negative thinking.
The three-year study examined the medical effect of prayers of supplication and its results were published on April 4, 2006 in the American Journal of Cardiology. The study, called STEP, after its English acronym, is the most extensive attempt to date to apply scientific methods to measure the effect of one person's prayers on the well-being of another.
In the study, 1,800 patients who underwent bypass surgery were examined. Two weeks before the surgery, religious groups began to pray for a group of patients. Each patient was assigned a group of 70 worshipers, none of whom knew the patient personally. The study found no difference in survival rates or the level of complications between those operated on in this group and patients who were not prayed for. A single statistically significant difference was found in the subgroup of patients who knew they were being prayed for. These patients suffered more from heart rhythm disturbances after surgery (59% compared to 52% in the patients who were not aware of the prayers).
The research team - a psychologist, a clergyman and doctors from six institutions, including Harvard Medical School and the Mayo Clinic - blamed it, according to his hypothesis, on nerves. At a press conference held in April 2006, Charles Berthy, a physician at Integris Baptist Heart Hospital, one of the research sites in Oklahoma City, said, "We know that high levels of adrenaline released in response to anxiety can worsen arrhythmias. The patient may think, 'Am I so sick that they had to pray for me?'"
The head priest of the Mayo Clinic, Dean Mark, believes that there is a possible flaw in the design of the study: "There is a lack of community here. You can call it an impersonal prayer rather than a prayer of supplication."
The authors of the article avoided the suggestion that the healing power of prayers offered by friends and family members lies in the personal relationships and not necessarily in the prayers themselves. They announced that they did not intend to conduct further research. This research, supported primarily by the John Templeton Foundation, cost $2.4 million.
They knew mysticism and its dangers
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