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Many churches regularly pray for those who are sick. At St. Simon’s NV, we often give thanks for answered prayer, particularly in the area of healing in body, mind or spirit. Healing prayer is mysterious in its effect. In recent years, there have been a number of studies on the effects of healing prayer. Dr. Candy Brown wrote a ground-breaking book entitled “Testing Prayer” which gave preliminary indications that there is a measurable impact in healing prayer. Her research involved the ethnographic approaches of participant-observation, written surveys and oral interviews, clinical measurements and statistical tests, and narrative analysis and archival research. Dr. Brown’s team of researchers used audiometers and vision charts to test hearing and vision before and after times of healing prayer. Many but not all participants in healing prayer showed significant improved function in the post-prayer diagnostic tests. Dr. Brown suggested that the empirically observable effect deserves more research and followup, involving larger-scale more-refined clinical trials of the effects of healing prayer.
Science cannot prove why healing prayer works, but it can measure its effects in helpful ways. The founder of Christianity, Jesus, was consistently involved in teaching, preaching and healing the sick. His early followers regularly participated in healing prayer. For over two thousand years, healing prayers have been offered up for those in need. It is encouraging that careful research is being done, indicating that healing prayer makes an empirical difference. My expectation over the next number of years is that many more scientific tests will be done, that will teach us a lot more about the empirical nature of healing prayer.
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1 comment:
Thanks for this piece, Ed. Only yesterday I met a couple with whom I had a conversation in which they shared with me a story of the wife's healing, and the role prayer played in it. That occurred some years ago, and she is now senior and is very well. ~~+~~
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