The Power of Prayer around the World - Research on Prayer

The Power of Prayer around the World - Research on Prayer

Because prayer is such a fundamental component of religious traditions, many people have wondered about the benefits of prayer. Can it be tested and how can we know if it works? There are those who think that empirical research cannot be conducted on matters of faith and there has been little support for this type of research in the past. Another difficulty involves the setting up of objective models to test the results of prayer.

One study in 1988 conducted by R. C. Byrd tested the therapeutic effect of intercessory prayer on heart patients in San Francisco. Half of the almost four hundred patients were randomly selected to be prayed for daily by Christian volunteers.

These patients were studied for more than ten months and then their cases were analyzed in twenty-six categories, such as the need for antibiotics while in treatment; the occurrence of pulmonary edema; the need for intubation (use of a breathing tube); and other measures of health benefits. The research concluded that in twenty-one of the twenty-six categories, the patients who were recipients of prayer fared much better. For all patients, prayer was used in addition to standard medical care. Medical schools are beginning to acknowledge the role played by prayer and spirituality in the healing process. There has been a rapid increase in medical school courses that help students learn to understand and utilize a patient’s religion during treatment. This number has increased from three in 1993 to at least thirty in 1997, to seventy-two in 2000.


A recent study conducted by Harold Koenig at Duke University Medical Center recently announced the findings that elderly patients who pray regularly are healthier and happier than those who do not. They found that prayer and meditation reduce stress and thus can dampen the body’s production of damaging stress hormones such as adrenaline. A drop in stress hormones has been linked to a number of health benefits, including a stronger immune response, which can help fight off disease. For more than thirty years laboratories at the Harvard Medical School have systematically studied the benefits of mind/body interactions. The research established that when a person engages in a repetitive prayer, word, sound, or phrase and when intrusive thoughts are passively disregarded, a specific set of physiological changes ensues. There is decreased metabolism, heart rate, rate of breathing, and distinctive slower brain waves. These changes are the opposite of those induced by stress and have been labeled the relaxation response. The efficacy of prayer can be tested and confirmed. For those who pray, it becomes clear that prayer benefits not just the person being prayed for, but also the person praying.


Conclusion

A woman had a daughter who had received a beautiful garnet cross for her birthday. It was really quite lovely and expensive and a bit too much of a responsibility for the ten-year-old girl to wear on a daily basis. The woman was drawn to it and, with her daughter’s permission, began wearing the cross. It radiated a special beauty that came from its precious jewels as well as its religious significance. Once day the girl realized how attached her mother was becoming to the cross and asked that it be returned to her. There was no way to refuse the request, so the cross then became the daughter’s constant companion. One night, the mother had a dream. In the dream she was longing for the cross that had such inner and outer beauty. A voice came from the distance and said, “I will show you how to make a cross for the new church.” Using a finger, the unidentified voice in the dream pushed the left hand arm of the cross down to the bottom of the main stem, so that it formed a backward “L.” The corresponding right hand arm was slanted up at a forty-five degree angle, so that the entire figure looked like a person in prayer. The voice then said, “This is the new cross.”


Perhaps now is the time to take up the new cross, the symbol of prayer. This is not a call for martyrdom or unnecessary sacrifice. It is a call for communion with the Divine. When we feel weak and powerless, we call out for help. From that feeling, we can pray to move to a state of faith in a loving wisdom and creative force that is God. At that point, we are no longer crying alone in the wilderness, but are sheltered and led to live good lives—lives that are not ruled by selfish desires, but by the search for goodness and truth.

This image of the cross has a deeper meaning. During the Crucifixion, according to the Gospels, Jesus first called out for help, “Oh God, why have you forsaken me?” His very human side was in pain and sadness. Then something happened. At the end, before his human body died, Jesus began to pray for his persecutors, saying “Forgive them for they know not what they do.” He then called out, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit,” and with that his body died. No matter what religion we are born into or which, if any, we choose to follow, there is deep meaning in this transition— from a call for help to love for others, from helplessness to compassionate power. This new cross is not one of suffering; it is one of deep connection. When we join our hearts and minds with the wish to know and do the will of God, we are in prayer. Turning to prayer provides us with the means to change our lives and our worlds if we but open up to the possibility.


Ask and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives, and one who seeks finds, and to one who knocks it will be opened (Luke 11: 9–10).