Researchers Look at Prayer and Healing

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Washington Post Newspaper

Friday, March 24, 2006; Page A01

 

Researchers Look at Prayer and Healing

Conclusions and Premises Debated as Big Study's Release Nears

 

By Rob Stein

Washington Post Staff Writer

 

At the Fairfax Community Church in Virginia, the faithful regularly

pray for ailing strangers. Same goes at the Adas Israel synagogue in

Washington and the Islamic Center of Maryland in Gaithersburg.

 

In churches, mosques, ashrams, " healing rooms, " prayer groups and

homes nationwide, millions of Americans offer prayers daily to heal

themselves, family, friends, co-workers and even people found

through the Internet. Fueled by the upsurge in religious expression

in the United States, prayer is the most common complement to

mainstream medicine, far outpacing acupuncture, herbs, vitamins and

other alternative remedies.

 

Joseph Agbor visited the new " healing room " at Immanuel's Church in

Silver Spring in hopes that prayer would help improve his blurred

vision.

 

" Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism -- every religion believes

in prayer for healing, " said Paul Parker, a professor of theology

and religion at Elmhurst College outside Chicago. " Some call it

prayer, some call it cleansing the mind. The words or posture may

vary. But in times of illness, all religions look towards their

source of authority. "

 

The outpouring of spiritual healing has inspired a small group of

researchers to attempt to use the tools of modern science to test

the power of prayer to cure others. The results have been mixed and

highly controversial. Skeptics say the work is a deeply flawed and

misguided waste of money that irresponsibly attempts to validate the

supernatural with science. And some believers say it is pointless to

try to divine the workings of God with experiments devised by

mortals.

 

Proponents, however, maintain the research is valuable, given the

large numbers of people who believe in the power of prayer to

influence health. Surveys have found that perhaps half of Americans

regularly pray for their own health, and at least a quarter have

others pray for them.

 

" It's one of the most prevalent forms of healing. Open-minded

scientists have a responsibility to look into this, " said Marilyn J.

Schlitz of the California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco.

 

The contentious enterprise is at something of a crossroads. Two new

studies are about to report no benefit of having people pray for the

sick, the only study underway is nearing completion, and the

largest, best-designed project is being published in two weeks. Its

eagerly awaited findings could sound the death knell for the field,

breathe new life into such efforts, or create new debate.

 

" I will guarantee you that study will have a very interesting impact

on a lot of people's thinking, " said Mitchell W. Krucoff of Duke

University, who wrote an editorial that will accompany the closely

guarded findings in the American Heart Journal. " But how you

interpret the results will probably depend on your point of view. "

 

Many studies done over the years indicate that the devout tend to be

healthier. But the reasons remain far from clear. Healthy people may

be more likely to join churches. The pious may lead more wholesome

lifestyles. Churches, synagogues and mosques may help people take

better care of themselves. The quiet meditation and incantations of

praying, or the comfort of being prayed for, appears to lower blood

pressure, reduce stress hormones, slow the heart rate and have other

potentially beneficial effects.

 

But the most controversial research focuses on " intercessory "

or " distant " prayer, which involves people trying to heal others

through their intentions, thoughts or prayers, sometimes without the

recipients knowing it. The federal government has spent $2.2 million

in the past five years on studies of distant healing, which have

also drawn support from private foundations.

 

San Francisco cardiologist Randolph Byrd, for example, conducted an

experiment in which he asked born-again Christians to pray for 192

people hospitalized for heart problems, comparing them with 201 not

targeted for prayer. No one knew which group they were in. He

reported in 1988 that those who were prayed for needed fewer drugs

and less help breathing.

 

William S. Harris of St. Luke's Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., and

colleagues published similar results in 1999 from a study involving

nearly 1,000 heart patients, about half of whom were prayed for

without their knowledge.

 

But these and other studies have been called deeply flawed. They

were, for example, analyzed in the most favorable way possible,

looking at so many outcomes that the positive findings could easily

have been the result of chance, critics say.

 

" It's called the sharpshooter's fallacy, " said Richard Sloan, a

behavioral researcher at Columbia University. " The sharpshooter

empties the gun into the side of a barn and then draws the bull's-

eye. In science, you have to predict in advance what effect you may

have. "

 

Joseph Agbor visited the new " healing room " at Immanuel's Church in

Silver Spring in hopes that prayer would help improve his blurred

vision. more contentious, such as a 2001 project involving fertility

patients that became mired in accusations of fraud.

 

" I would like to see us stop wasting precious research dollars

putting religious practices to the test of science, " Sloan

said. " It's a waste of money, and it trivializes the religious

experience. "

 

 

Even some advocates of incorporating more prayer and spirituality

into medicine agree.

 

" I don't see how you could quantify prayer -- either the results of

it or the substance of it, " said the Rev. Raymond J. Lawrence of New

York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center. " God

is beyond the reach of science. It's absurd to think you could use

it to examine God's play. "

 

Krucoff, a cardiologist, published a study last summer involving 748

heart patients at nine hospitals. That study failed overall to show

any benefit. But Krucoff said he did find tantalizing hints that

warrant follow-up: A subset of patients who had a second group of

people praying that the prayers of the first group would be answered

may have done better.

 

That underscores one of the many difficulties that critics and

advocates say makes studying prayer problematic: There is no way to

quantify the " dose, " and no way to know whether people outside the

study may be praying for its subjects, diluting the effects.

 

Joseph Agbor visited the new " healing room " at Immanuel's Church in

Silver Spring in hopes that prayer would help improve his blurred

vision. (By Preston Keres -- The Washington Post)

 

Two smaller, more recently completed studies illustrate yet another

problem. Each involved about 150 patients with brain tumors or AIDS.

Only some were targeted by " distant healing " and only some knew they

were the recipients. But in addition to traditional prayers, many of

the dozens of " healers " used other approaches, such as visualizing

patients and sending a " healing intention " or " energy " or " light. "

Both studies, which will be published later this year, did not show

any effect. But neither of the researchers who led them is

advocating giving up, saying their studies may have been doomed by

including too many healing variations.

 

The only ongoing study is also testing whether a spectrum of healers

can help -- in this case, women who are recovering from

reconstructive surgery after breast cancer. Doctors are inserting

tiny tubes under the skin of about 90 women to measure the growth of

collagen, which is necessary for healing, to see if those targeted

by healers accumulate more than those who do not. The study will end

this spring.

 

Krucoff and others say it is also important to study prayer as an

adjunct -- not a replacement -- to standard medical care, to make

sure it is safe.

 

" Human physiology is a very delicate equilibrium. When you throw

energy you don't understand into this, it would be naive to think

you could only do good, " he said.

 

In the hope of shedding light on that and other questions,

researchers are awaiting the results of the study led by Herbert

Benson of Harvard University, which involved about 1,800 heart-

bypass patients at six centers who were divided into three groups.

Only some of them knew whether they were receiving prayer.

 

" What that study finds will help tell us which way to go -- whether

there are intriguing findings or the book ought to be closed on this

topic, " said Harold Koenig of Duke University.

 

But researchers on both sides, as well as those who believe in

prayer, say the results of that and other studies are unlikely to

change many minds.

 

" I don't think it will alter my beliefs one way or the other, " said

Trish Lankowski, who started a healing room at Immanuel's Church in

Silver Spring this past Sunday night. " I believe in the power of

prayer wholeheartedly. I know it works. "