There's no scientific basis in January's taunts and mockings.
Forget about it.
Prayers can help the sick is a scientific
fact:
Studies
Find that
Prayer
Can Help the Sick
Vijai P. Sharma, Ph.D
A study on prayer fascinated me and I want to share it with
you.
This study was conducted by Dr. Randolph Byrd, a heart
specialist at the San Francisco General Hospital. This is how it
went.
Dr. Byrd took four hundred patients who were admitted to the
Hospital's Cardiac Intensive-Care Unit. He divided them in to two
groups: one group received regular medical care of the hospital,
called the "control group, "; the second group received not only
regular medical care but also prayers, called the "prayer
group."
To eliminate any selection bias, he let the computer randomly
assign patients to one of the two groups. People who met to pray
for the prayer group were given just the names of the patients and
a very preliminary information on their medical condition. All
patients, belonging to either of the groups, signed a consent form,
informing them of the possibility that they might or might not get
prayed for. So none of the patients knew whether he or she actually
got prayed for and at the same time, every one stood an equal
chance.
Needless to say that all patients, their friends and relatives
were free to pray on their own if they wanted to. No suggestion was
made about self initiated prayers one way or the other.
The point I am making is that these being such large groups, all
chance factors would equal out to make a strict comparison between
the prayer group and the control group. This enabled the
researchers to objectively study the effect of the additional
prayers that were organized by the hospital.
Furthermore, neither the staff, nor the patient knew who was
being prayed for. This is really important in a scientific study
because if the patients know or find out about such differences,
then, arguably, they may improve or get worse due to the placebo
effect.
For instance, the one who is prayed for, may get an additional
psychological booster and the other who knows he is not being
prayed, may feel deprived of something that may have a potential
for improvement.
By the same token, it is important that the treatment staff not
know which patient is participating in which group. Understandably,
if a member of the treatment team knows about the composition of
the groups, they may give certain patients preferential treatment,
give them more attention, or pass" on, unintentionally, their hope
and enthusiasm to the patient. All told, as concerns the
standards of unbiased and objective study, it met all the
requirements.
Now for the results of the
study.
Dr. Byrd found that the prayed for group did much better than
the group that was not prayed for. Several benefits were
noted for the group that was prayed for, they were much less likely
to develop congestive heart failure and pulmonary edema in which
the lungs fill with fluid; they were five times less likely to
require antibiotics; fewer needed to be put on ventilators and
receive artificial respiration; fewer developed pneumonia or had
cardiac arrests. All the benefits mentioned above were
statistically significant.
Studies following respectable scientific standards have also
been conducted comparing the effectiveness of the various types of
prayer. One such study comes from the Spindrift Foundation in
Salem, Oregon, which specializes in prayer studies.
For the purpose of this study, prayers are classified in two
types; the "directed prayer" and the "undirected prayer." Let
us see how they define the two types.
A directed prayer has a specific wish and a specific outcome in
mind.
Nondirected prayer is just the consciousness of who is being
prayed for. The prayer is simply for the best potential of
the individual to manifest or the best outcome to happen for that
person. So nondirected prayer is "thy will be done" type of
prayer.
This study was also done
on the germination of seeds. The seeds that
were prayed for always germinated more than the seeds that were not
prayed for, and the seeds that received nondirected prayers
germinated more than the ones that received directed
prayers.
Spindrift Foundation concluded that both types of prayers were
beneficial, but the nondirected prayers were three to four times
more effective.
My personal bias, which is not based on any scientific study, is
that a prayer for changing oneself into a better person is more
desirable than the prayers for some material benefits. I am
aware that my bias may have been determined by the fact that I am a
psychologist and I am in the business of personal change.
