Year: 2005
Type: article
Abstract: The idea that prayer can affect living organisms is an ancient belief spanning ideology, religion, culture, and race.As anthropologist Stephan A. Schwartz states, "The shamanic cave art of Altamira, Tres Frères, and Lascaux presents compelling testimony that our genetic forebears had a complex view of spiritual and physical renewal, one that has survived to the present unchanged in at least one fundamental respect.The intent to heal, either oneself or another, whether expressed as God, a force, an energy, or one of many gods, has consistently been believed to be capable of producing a therapeutic result" [1].For at least 50 000 years, shamans and healers have believed that it is their duty to engage the spiritual beliefs of sick persons in the task of restoring health.This fact alone?the enduring centrality of spiritual interventions in the healer's repertoire?should make us modern physicians pause before rejecting this form of therapy.What is spirituality?I consider it a felt sense of connectedness with "something higher," a presence that transcends the individual sense of self.I distinguish spirituality from religion, which is a codified system of beliefs, practices, and behaviors that usually take place in a community of like-minded believers.Religion may or may not include a sense of the spiritual, and spiritual individuals may or may not be religious.I regard prayer as communication with the Absolute, however named, no matter what form this communication may take.Prayer may or may not be addressed to a Supreme Being.Buddhism, for instance, is not a theistic religion, yet prayer, addressed to the universe, is a vital part of the Buddhist tradition. Prayer ExperimentsEven if prayer connects us with the Absolute, does it work in an empirical sense?Rudolf Otto, the eminent theologian and scholar of comparative religions, asserted that it is "a fundamental conviction of all religions" that "the holy" intervenes "actively in the phenomenal world" [2].This is an empirical claim, and science is the most widely accepted method of adjudicating such claims.The earliest modern attempt to test prayer's efficacy was Sir Francis Galton's innovative but flawed survey in 1872 [3].The field languished until the 1960s, when several researchers began clinical and laboratory studies designed to answer 2 fundamental questions: (1) Do the prayerful, compassionate, healing intentions of humans affect biological functions in remote individuals who may be unaware of these efforts?And (2) can these effects be demonstrated in nonhuman processes, such as microbial growth, specific biochemical reactions, or the function of inanimate objects?
Source: The AMA Journal of Ethic
Author: Larry Dossey
Language: English
Subfield: Health
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W134021057