There has been conjecture on whether prayer works in the healing process. As a Reiki Master and an interfaith minister, I have worked with and belonged to several groups that use prayer to help in the healing process. As a healer and student, I have been on both sides of the prayer issue -- experiencing healing through prayer, and also aiding healing with prayer. My experience, as well as evidence in double- blind studies, shows prayer to be very effective in the healing process.
History of the Prayer for Healing Movement
Mary Baker Eddy, who started the Christian Science movement,successfully used prayer to heal. She started this movement around 1900, along with others who used the same approach. Two of her students -- Charles and Myrtle Filmore -- were healed by using her method, and they, in turn, started helping others. The Filmores' success grew and fostered a movement called "Silent Unity," today also known as the Unity Church of Truth. The Catholic Church also has a charismatic movementwhere prayer and hands-on healing is used. There are many such movements in all religions and spiritual practices.
The Journal of Humanistic Psychology (Vol. 38, No. 3) reported a double-blind study involving a coronary unit at San Francisco General Hospital. One hundred ninety-two coronary patients were assigned randomly to a "prayed for" group, while others were put into a control group. Home prayer groups consisting of five to seven people prayed on behalf of each person in the "prayed for" group without the person's knowledge.
The patients for whom prayers were said were five times less likely to require antibiotics (three patients compared to 16 patients in the control group), and three times less likely to develop pulmonary edema (six patients compared to 18) -- a significant result. No one in the "prayed for" group required any mechanical ventilator equipment, compared to 12 who needed the equipment in the control group. And fewer patients died in the prayed for group.
Although various explanations have been offered for these startling findings, there have been other investigations to support the efficacy of prayer in the physical recovery.
What makes prayer so effective?
My own belief and experience is that it is a specifically directed intention -- prayer being divinely directed intention -- and raises the consciousness of the one who is insturmental in healing as well as the one being healed. Studies have shown many divine interventions -- "miracles."
Major religions of the world have used prayer effectively throughout history. There is a strong movement towards this type of healing as an integrative approach to health and wellness. Many doctors are experimenting with the same approach especially in terminally ill patients. Doctors Larry Dossey, MD, author of Healing Words(Harper San Francisco) and Bernie Siegal, MD, author of Love, Medicine and Miracles (Harper and Row) are leaders in the exploration of prayer and healing. Each has found prayer to be beneficial to many of their patients, aiding their quality of recovery and quality of life.
