Living on a Prayer

When sickness strikes, we pray for healing. Even people who are not otherwise religious often find themselves thinking that prayer might help, that it can’t hurt. Public opinion polls report that 82 percent of Americans believe in the “healing power of personal prayer,” and — more surprisingly — 73 percent of U.S. medical doctors attribute the cures of some patients to “miracles” rather than medicine. Claims of healing through prayer are too numerous to count, and range from headaches to metastasized cancers.

So the question is: Can — and should — such claims be tested using the methods of modern science? If so, which methods? A number of scientists reject all quantitative study of the medical benefits of prayer, concerned that empirical studies will be misused to advance religious agendas. And some religious practitioners agree with this restraint, worrying that scientific testing could undermine faith. If prayer affects health — for better or for worse, and by whatever mechanisms — then it seems to me that patients, doctors and policymakers should all want to know. The problem is with how prayer usually is studied.