c. 2006 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) It’s a profound if unanswerable question for many who ask God to heal the sick: Can prayer actually help another person recover from disease?

A group of prominent scientists recently sought at least part of the answer, in the largest study of its kind, and concluded that prayer from strangers had no effect on whether people suffered complications from coronary artery bypass surgery.

“The effect of intercessory prayer was neutral. It showed no sign of any benefit,” said Charles Bethea, an Oklahoma cardiologist and researcher who participated in the $2.4 million study by the John Templeton Foundation, which supports exploration of ties between religion and science.

The survey was released Thursday (March 30), and results will appear in the upcoming issue of the American Heart Journal.

Not only were effects of prayer by strangers neutral, the study said, but a selected group of patients _ who knew with certainty that strangers were praying for them _ experienced complications at higher rates than did two other groups who were told only that they might receive prayer. The group faring best was the only one not to receive strangers’ prayers.

The researchers acknowledged their study was not definitive and called for more research on the subject.

Underscoring the narrowness of the study’s scope, in a teleconference call with reporters, researchers refused to advise people to refrain from telling sick friends or relatives they were praying for them. The study focused only on prayer from strangers _ Christian clergy and lay people selected to pray for the study.

The study randomly divided bypass surgery patients from six hospitals into three groups:

_ 604 patients in Group 1 were prayed for by strangers after being told they may or may not receive prayer.

_ 597 patients in Group 2 did not receive strangers’ prayers, after being told they may or may not be prayed for.

_ 603 patients in Group 3 received intercessory prayer after being told they would receive it.

The strangers praying came from St. Paul’s Monastery in St. Paul, Minn.; the Community of Teresian Carmelites in Worcester, Mass.; and Silent Unity in Lee’s Summit, Mo. They prayed two weeks for each patient, starting from the night before the surgery.

Patients in Group 2, the only group not to receive the strangers’ prayers, fared best, with 51 percent suffering from complications within 30 days of surgery. Patients in Group 1 fared slightly worse, with 52 percent suffering from complications.

The biggest surprise, to researchers, was that 59 percent of patients in Group 3 _ who knew of the strangers’ prayers _ suffered from complications.

Researchers hypothesized that informing patients that strangers would definitely pray for them may have increased their anxiety levels.

“It raises a very interesting question: Did we, by making them aware … frighten them more than we needed to?” asked Bethea.

Researchers cautioned against drawing broad conclusions about prayer from the study. The study’s scope was narrow, they said, and did not involve personal prayer or prayer by a patient’s relatives or friends.

“Personal prayers people perform often break the strain of everyday thought and evokes (an) anti-stress response,” said Herbert Benson, president of the Mind/Body Medical Institute and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. “Could external prayer do the same thing? … In this particular study we did not find that was the case.”

One critic, Harold Koenig, co-director of the Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health at Duke University Medical School, said the study itself was ill-conceived.

“Science is powerful in predicting the speed of a bullet or how a rocket ship will get to the moon, or things having to do with the material universe,” he said. “But now we’re talking about stuff outside the material universe. … How can science prove that that occurs?”

(OPTIONAL TRIM FOLLOWS)

Some who have survived dicey medical moments scoffed at the study’s results, contending they have personally benefited from other people’s prayer.

Willie B. Ford, of Morristown, N.J., said she is convinced that prayers of her pastors and congregation helped her through recent problems involving colon surgery and chest pains. For the latter, a catheterization surprisingly showed she had no heart problems, she said.

“My chest was hurting and everything. I know it was prayer. The doctors were amazed. They thought something was there,” said Ford, 75, who is recovering from colon surgery. “Prayer does make a whole lot of difference.”

_ Angela Stewart contributed to this story.

(Jeff Diamant covers religion for The Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J.)

KRE/PH END DIAMANT

Editors: A similar, shorter version of this story was included Thursday (March 30) in the daily digest.