“Say a prayer for me”.
We have all heard someone say that to us. Sometimes it’s said in jest, as in, “I have 15 family members coming for dinner, say a prayer for me!” Other times it is said with piercing sincerity, “I am having surgery in the morning, please say a prayer for me.” Since human beings first sensed that they were separated from their source (God, Creator, Spirit…), prayer has been a spiritual practice that has soothed many a suffering spirit. Whether whispered in private spaces, or shared with fervour in public squares, prayer is a reflex to a world of uncertainty, an opening of oneself to a higher power in an attempt to bring some control to the randomness of things.
The question prayer always evokes in us, however faithful a practitioner we may be, is: does it work? I can name many people who will declare without hesitation, “YES”, to that question. They claim they have seen it work. Others are a little more hesitant. Their experience may have been different. Haven’t we all prayed for something that didn’t come to pass?
An interesting study was recently completed at the University of California by cardiologist Randolf Byrd, suggesting that there is something to this thing called prayer. During a 10-month study, 393 men and women admitted into the coronary care unit of the San Francisco General Hospital were randomly assigned into two groups. 192 patients were prayed for by home prayer groups, and 201 patients were not assigned to prayer groups. It was a double-blind experiment, meaning neither the patients, doctors, nor nurses knew which patients were being prayed for. Byrd then recruited both Catholic and Protestant prayer groups in all parts of the country. They were given the names of the patients and information on their conditions, and they were asked to pray for them. Each patient had five to seven people praying for him or her.
The results were quite striking! Prayed-for patients differed from the others in many ways:
- They were five times less likely than the non-prayed-for group to require antibiotics.
- They were three times less likely to develop pulmonary edema.
- None of the prayed-for group required endotracheal intubation, an artificial airway inserted into the throat (twelve of the other group required this).
That is pretty amazing!!
While this study doesn’t conclusively prove that prayer works, it certainly suggests that when people gather to pray, something special happens.
No one will convince a person who believes in the power of prayer that prayer is ineffective. Just as no one who is adamant that prayer is fantasy will be easily swayed from their opinion. But this interesting study gives us pause to consider the power of prayer in our own life.
All I know is that when I pray, I feel better, I feel calmer, and I feel more connected to my source. And if my prayers can send healing energy into the universe that may help another, then I’ll keep right on sending them out there.
“Please pray for me”. Absolutely!
