When sickness strikes, people around the world pray for healing.
Many of the faithful claim that prayer has cured them of blindness,
deafness, and metastasized cancers, and some believe they have been
resurrected from the dead. Can, and should, science test such
claims? A number of scientists say no, concerned that empirical
studies of prayer will be misused to advance religious agendas. And
some religious practitioners agree with this restraint, worrying
that scientific testing could undermine faith. In Candy Gunther
Brown's view, science cannot prove prayer's healing power, but what
scientists can and should do is study prayer's measurable effects
on health. If prayer produces benefits, even indirectly (and
findings suggest that it does), then more careful attention to
prayer practices could impact global health, particularly in places
without access to conventional medicine. Drawing on data from
Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians, Brown reverses a number of
stereotypes about believers in faith-healing. Among them is the
idea that poorer, less educated people are more likely to believe
in the healing power of prayer and therefore less likely to see
doctors. Brown finds instead that people across socioeconomic
backgrounds use prayer alongside conventional medicine rather than
as a substitute. Dissecting medical records from before and after
prayer, surveys of prayer recipients, prospective clinical trials,
and multiyear follow-up observations and interviews, she shows that
the widespread perception of prayer's healing power has
demonstrable social effects, and that in some cases those effects
produce improvements in health that can be scientifically verified.
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