Millions of dollars have gone into studying the effects of prayer. Most of this money comes from faith-based organizations such as the Templeton Foundation.
One interesting study actually shows that prayer is bad for you! Specifically, if a sick or injured person is being prayed for and they are aware of that activity, their chances of recovery diminish by as much as 7%.
This may seem a contradiction with previous studies that show a positive correlation between recovery and some form of personal prayer or meditation, but there is a key, subtle difference between praying and having someone pray for you. The former may only improve your chances, but the latter provides only a source of additional stress.
In other words: keep your faith to yourself!
That is really interesting. I can say from personal experience though that prayer does help. I don't prescribe to any religious group, but I do see the practical power in some of the tools used by them, and prayer is really helpful. Though I have never asked anyone to pray for me, I have certainly used prayer myself, and the results are indisputable. This has little to do with petitioning any God or deity, and has more to do with positive mental reinforcement, and shifting my state of mind out of a negative rut. I would think that praying for others would have a similar effect? Like, "yeah these people care enough to place that positive intention towards me." I don't know, food for thought I suppose.
ReplyDeleteThere is much debate about the statistical significance of personal prayer in healing, but though I'm a skeptic by nature, I'm inclined to agree that there is likely some tangible benefit. However, I again want to stress the difference between praying for yourself (good) and praying for others (bad).
ReplyDeleteI want to caution you, Radarless, about the fallacy of arguing from personal experience and anecdote here. "X worked out for me, therefore X must be good / ok / etc. for everyone" is...well, wrong. In a sense, it's arguing from a position of privilege. If something fails for 99 out of 100 people, but it works for you, it's not something to generally recommend. I've seen this logic used to defend just about any position (gun control, abortion, etc.), but one thing to bear in mind is that numbers matter.
I think it very much also depends on the context in which it is done. Those who take comfort from faith are more likely to feel supported by a gentle, affirming prayer. Prayers that are "Hey, get better!" in nature are the ones more likely to stress someone out. Prayers about, say, the devil or evil or any other drama would totally make me stressed.
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