Can Prayers Heal?
Even those who defend prayer research concede that such studies are difficult. For one thing, no one knows what constitutes a “dose”: some studies have tested a few prayers a day by individual healers, while others have had entire congregations pray together. Some have involved evangelical Christians; others have engaged rabbis, Buddhist and New Age healers, or some combination. Another problem concerns the mechanism by which prayer might be supposed to work. Some researchers contend that prayer’s effects – if they exist – have little to do with religion or the existence of God. Instead of divine intervention, they propose things like “subtle energies,” “mind-to-mind communication” or “extra dimensions of space-time” – concepts that many scientists dismiss as nonsense. Others suggest that prayer may have a soothing effect that works like a placebo for believers who know they are being prayed for. Either way, even many churchgoers are skeptical that prayer can be subjected to scientific
