The Effect of Prayer on Healing

Cjjen1026
Grand Canyon University: HTC 302
December 18, 2011 The Effect of Prayer on Healing In this day and age of a more heightened sense of spirituality, it has come to the attention of the medical community that prayer contributes to many positive outcomes when used for and by sick patients. But the actual effect that prayer has on human beings still remains a mystery, although to some true believers, it is nothing short of miraculous. Prayer and/or meditation have always been an important part of life for anyone that believes in some sort of a higher power or existence. A Buddhist believes in the consciousness as the controller or the entire physical body, and therefore believes that by purifying the mind, they can also cleanse the body of sickness be removing any negative thoughts from their minds. This can also be done by a Lama for the sick person, who will lay their hands on the affected area, use blessed water, and sometimes even blow on the area needing to be healed. This is to transfer the positive flow of energy to the patient, while the patient is clearing their own mind of past negativities. A Christian will pray during sickness for God to heal them and be with them during this hardship, and can also receive prayers and even the laying of hands on them from their pastor or priest. And then the extra prayers from their friends, relatives, and churches can be healing to the patient, whether or not they are conscious of it or not. But it has also become a subject of research for many medical schools. Dartmouth, Duke, The University of New Mexico, and even the Harvard Medical School have all made an effort to research some type of evidence that prayer works on changing the makeup of different substances. And their combined results have shown a positive light on how important prayer is to healing. “These experiments have shown that prayer can take many forms. Results occurred not only when people prayed for explicit outcomes, but also when they prayed for nothing specific.”(ICBS,1998). Their results were said to positively effect high blood pressure, wounds, heart attacks, headaches, and anxiety, to name a few. In another study done on microorganisms, the results clearly showed that prayer had an effect on the way the growth of the fungus was inhibited. “The fact that prayer is non local, that it functions at a distance, and that spatial separation does not diminish the affect means that it does not have to be intrusive. There is cross-cultural evidence that prayer does work. The factors that seem to affect the outcome of these studies are qualifies of consciousness, like caring, compassion, empathy, and love. When you take these qualities away the outcome of the study is changed.”(Williams,1999). In contrast, is it possible to have a reliable outcome with researching the effects of prayer on anything? Is there any way to control the amount of prayer that one person receives? Can one person praying for another have the same effect as several people praying for the same person? These are just a few questions that remain unanswered, as there is no scientific way to process these processes. In the tests that were done on the microorganisms, the petri dishes were controlled, as were the amount of people asked to interact (pray) over them. But it still seems a little skeptical to compare human sickness with the results of the growth of fungi. And what about the evangelical ministers that supposedly were able to lay their hands on people and remove their ailments on the television? Was that real? Or was that really prayer in action? One thing I can say about the effect of prayer is that it is comforting to those going through a bad experience. Having a connection with God, or a higher power of some sort has proven to help those with a sickness heal faster and sometimes completely when there was no other hope. It has been reported by many that it can save a life in more ways than one. “The idea of faith healing is referred to in both the Old and New Testaments in the Bible, and in the New Testament Epistle of James, the faithful are told that to be healed, those who are sick should:
Call upon the elders of the church to pray over [them] and anoint [them] with oil in the name of the Lord.” (Faith Healing, 2007). In my own opinion, nothing can stop the power of prayer, or the effects it can have on healing the mind, the body, and the soul.

References faith healing. (2007). In Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained. Retrieved from http://library.gcu.edu:2048/login?qurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.credoreference.com/entry/chambun/faith_healing

ICBS, I. (1998). Proof that prayer works. Retrieved from http://www.1stholistic.com/Prayer/hol_prayer_proof.htm accessed 12.17.11

Williams, D. D. (1999). Scientific research of prayer: Can the power of prayer be proven?. Retrieved from http://www.plim.org/PrayerDeb.htm accessed 12.17.11