Power of Prayer
One of the most quoted scientific studies of
prayer was done between August of 1982 and May of 1983. 393 patients in the San
Francisco General Hospital’s Coronary Care Unit participated in a double blind
study to assess the therapeutic effects of intercessory prayer. Patients were
randomly selected by computer to either receive or not receive intercessory
prayer. All participants in the study, including patients, doctors, and the
conductor of the study himself remained blind throughout the study, To guard
against biasing the study, the patients were not contacted again after it was
decided which group would be prayed for, and which group would not.
It was assumed that although the patients in
the control group would not be prayed for by the participants in the study,
that others-family members, friends etc., would likely pray for the health of
at least some of the members of the control group. There was no control over
this factor. Meanwhile all of the members of the group that received prayer
would be prayed for by not only those associated with the study, but by others
as well.
The results of the study are not surprising
to those of us who believe in the power of prayer. The patients who had
received prayer as a part of the study were healthier than those who had not.
The prayed for group had less need of having CPR (cardiopulmonary
resuscitation) performed and less need for the use of mechanical ventilators.
They had a diminished necessity for diuretics and antibiotics, less occurrences
of pulmonary edema, and fewer deaths. Taking all factors into consideration,
these results can only be attributed to the power of prayer.
The August 31, 1998 issue of Jet Magazine questioned whether prayer could lower blood pressure in high blood pressure sufferers. Again the obvious conclusion was reached. The magazine reported of a study conducted by Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC. This study had over 4,000 participants over the age of 65. The study found that those who pray and attend religious services on a weekly basis, especially those between the ages of 65 and 74, had lower blood pressure than their counterparts who did not pray or attend religious services. They found that the more religious the person, particularly those who prayed or studied the Bible weekly, the lower the blood pressure. According to the study these people were 40% forty percent less likely to have high diastolic pressure or diastolic hypertension than these were who did not attend religious services, pray, or study the Bible.
“Studies have shown prayer can prevent people from getting sick — and when they do get sick, prayer can help them get better faster,” Duke University’s Harold G. Koenig, M.D., tells Newsmax Health.
An exhaustive analysis of more than 1,500 reputable medical studies “indicates people who are more religious and pray more have better mental and physical health,” Dr. Koenig says.
“And out of 125 studies that looked at the link between health and regular worship, 85 showed regular churchgoers live longer.
The proof of the power of prayer is overwhelming, says researcher and writer Tom Knox, a one-time atheist who became a regular worshipper after doing in-depth study of the medical benefits of faith.
“What I discovered astonished me,” admits Knox. “Over the past 30 years a growing and largely unnoticed body of scientific work shows religious belief is medically, socially, and psychologically beneficial.”
Study after study backs up the benefits of having faith, especially in prolonging life.
In 2006, population researchers at the University of Texas discovered that the more often you go to church, the longer you live.
“Religious attendance is associated with adult mortality in a graded fashion,” says Knox.
“There is a seven-year difference in life expectancy between those who never attend church and those who attend weekly.”
The American Journal of Public Health studied nearly 2,000 older Californians for five years and found that those who attended religious services were 36 percent less likely to die during that period than those who didn’t.
A study of nearly 4,000 older adults for the U.S. Journal of Gerontology revealed that atheists had a significantly increased chance of dying over a six-year period than the faithful.
Crucially, religious people lived longer than atheists even if they didn’t go regularly to a place of worship.
Read more: Studies Prove the Healing Power of Prayer
• In the 1950’s a study on germinating seeds done by Dr. Franklin Loehr, a Presbyterian minister and scientist, the objective was to see in a controlled experiment what effect prayer had over living and seemingly non-living matter. In one experiment they took three pans of various types of seeds. One was the control pan. One pan received positive prayer, and the other received negative prayer. Time after time, the results indicated that prayer helped speed germination and produced more vigorous plants. Prayers of negation actually halted germination in some plants and suppressed growth in others.
• In another experiment two bottles of spring water were purchased. One container was used as a control, receiving no prayer; a group prayed for the second. The water was then used on pans of corn seeds layered in cotton, with one pan receiving the prayer water and the other receiving the control water. The pan receiving the prayer water sprouted a day earlier than seeds in the other pan. The prayer seeds had a higher germination and growth rate. The experiment was repeated with the same result each time.
