In 1988 a doctor named Randolph Byrd conducted a study to determine whether or not intercessory prayers on behalf of other people were effective.
The findings were amazing. The patients who were not prayed for were nearly twice as likely to suffer complications than patients who were prayed for (Dale A. Matthews, M.D., and Connie Clark, "The Faith Factor: Proof of the Healing Power of Prayer," New York: Penguin, 1999, p.199-200). The study seems to indicate that prayers, even by a stranger for a stranger, can help in fighting disease.
This study has spawned a great deal of criticism by academic scientists who argue that it is not sufficiently rigorous or reliable. But I am more interested in the spiritual question. From a spiritual perspective, are prayers really that powerful? Is this how prayer works?
In Leviticus, the Torah talks about a disease: tzara'at, which is a skin disease. While many commentators choose to allegorize this disease, the simple reading of the Torah is that it is a physical disease. The Torah refers to this disease as fasah hanega (Leviticus 13:5), the disease is malignant. It is a malignant tumor that appears on the body.
Even though it is a physical disease, the response is a spiritual one. The person with tzara'at comes to the priest (kohein). The kohein decides on the proper treatment. He might decide that the patient needs to be quarantined or that the patient is physically fine, or that the patient is tamei and is therefore in need of a healing.
The Sefer ha-Chinukh (a work published anonymously in Spain in the 13th century) offers the following commentary: This commandment is teaching us that the reason the person with this disease is commanded to come to the kohein is that perhaps if he stands in the presence of the kohein -- a spiritual man -- the kohein will inspire him to meditate introspectively. This is also the concept behind the quarantine; it will allow the patient to examine his affairs unhurriedly and examine his deeds.
The Sefer ha-Chinukh is not saying that all illness comes from sin. The most righteous people in the world can be afflicted with the most terrible illnesses. Instead, he is suggesting that one way to treat illness is through spiritual reflection. The patient comes to the kohein, who can guide him on a spiritual path to health. Perhaps the Torah is suggesting that the best way to treat sickness is with spirituality.
When I was in rabbinical school, we had classes on pastoral counseling. One time we had a class and the rabbi teaching the class gave us a situation. You walk into a hospital room and discover that the person has just been diagnosed with a terminal illness. What do you tell the person? The rabbi then went on to say, "I'll tell you what you don't say. Don't say, 'Now is the time for tehillim (psalms). You have to pray, get all your friends to pray.'"
I understood my teacher's words to mean that he was suggesting that prayers don't work to change a situation. He was arguing that from a medical and psychological perspective, the prayers won't heal you. Instead patients would do better to focus their energy on other areas.
I have come to disagree with this teacher's approach. With the affliction of tzara'at the Torah is telling us that prayers can and do work. Spirituality can provide mental and physical health. Spirituality can be a legitimate response to illness. This is what the medical, scientific community is slowly beginning to realize. Study after study shows how increased religiosity directly correlates to increased physical health.
A study of 2,754 men and women in Tecumseh, Mich., found that men and women who attend church more frequently live longer than those who attend less frequently. A study in Georgia shows that those who attend church more often have lower blood pressure -- even if they are smokers -- than those who attend less often. A study of 91,000 people in Maryland shows that people who attend church at least once a week had significantly lower risk for coronary disease (Matthews and Clark, "The Faith Factor," p.20). All of these studies -- and there are many more studies -- look at how frequently people attend worship services to pray. The more often one attends worship service, the healthier you are likely to be.
There are scientific reasons for this. Prayer relaxes us. It reduces stress by reminding us to care for our bodies and to constantly seek renewal, by giving us a purpose in life, and by providing us with a sense of being loved.
But let's not ignore the spiritual possibilities as well. Let's not ignore the possibility that prayers simply work -- that they actually heal the disease. When facing illness we should encourage a spiritual response, as well as a medical response. A spiritual response embraces the physical touch. A spiritual response will encourage holding the patient's hand, hugging the patient, kissing the patient gently on the forehead.
I will not bore you with miraculous stories about people who have been cured through faith and prayer. There are too many to tell. There are also too many stories of people who had tremendous faith and prayed incessantly and yet were not healed from their ailment. That's not the point. The point is that just like a medical approach does not always work, and yet we try it anyway. So too, a spiritual approach does not always work and yet it should be tried.
A spiritual approach to our health uses the words of our prayers in order to ground us, strengthen us and heal us. This is what faith is about. It should be something we embrace at all times in our life. God forbid, if one falls ill, the words of our prayers would offer comfort and healing as well.
Miriam the prophetess was stricken with tzara'at. When her brother Moses saw this, he cried out, "O God, please heal her" (Numbers 12:13). When seeing illness, we too have that power. We too can together cry out, "O God, heal the wounded."
Excerpted from 'Fifty Four Pick-Up: Fifteen Minute Inspirational Torah Lessons' (Gefen, 2012).
Candy Gunther Brown, Ph.D.: Testing Prayer: Can Science Prove the Healing Power of Prayer?
Mental state DOES affect the body, sometimes in very suble ways (muscle tension, gastrointesinal issues, headaches, decreased immune system) which can affect healing rates.
Modern medicine is wonderful in that now we have cures and assists towards diseases that were fatal not long ago!
I definately think the idea of taking a moment to breathe, to reflect on one's ideas/thoughts/faith/whatever, is not a bad one, and can compliment whatever treatment the person and their doctor decide to do.
So often we get caught in the web of trying to keep everthing going and "normal" during an illness, to pretend that "other than the chemo/surgury/terminal illness diagnose, I'm ok!" that we forget that it is a big event and change in our lives, and a little reflection is definately warrented. Peace.
oh please somebody shout and say to rabbi shmuel stop this nonsense in this day and age.
Healing through prayer is a tedious and very silly concept with not an iota of proof that it works. Why would a loving, merciful god randomly intervene and heal a negligible few but allow millions of others being prayed for to die in agony? No doubt the deluded apologists on these pages will use their usual pathetic platitudes as an excuse. "Mysterious ways"?
"A small girl prayed to God to heal her of an increasingly pain-filled illness, but the TB germs continued to torture her for years, `honouring God's purposeful design' with every bite they took of the child's life, comfort, and sanity."
E. T. BABINSKI
That means the study doesn't prove anything and its results may be experimental error or unintended bias. What science *has* been able to observe is that prayer has a measurable placebo effect. It provides benefits to a statistically significant minority of those who *believe* it will be beneficial.
The rabbi concludes: "{A) medical approach does not always work, and yet we try it anyway. So too, a spiritual approach does not always work and yet it should be tried."
Not quite. The spiritual approach should only be tried for people who believe in it. If the patient is not spiritual, then encouraging him to pray can't help -- and may be harmful.
Just as faith in God has a placebo effect, so do faith in your physician and in medical science in general. This placebo benefits atheists, too. But if an atheist's doctor suggests prayer the patient's faith in the M.D. may be weakened, stripping him of this placebo benefit.
So the correct conclusion is "A spiritual approach should be tried if and only if the patient is spiritual". It's not good medicine to prescribe prayer for everyone; tailor the treatment to the patient.
Of course the average life span would drop dramatically but, I guess that’s all good since they are just dying to go visit their God anyway.
So, no more surgery, no more Chemotherapy just sit home and pray and I’m sure it will all work out just fine.
Human beings have never regrown a limb, something we see in nature with other organisms. Are you telling me nobody that ever lost an arm, or a finger even, ever prayed to get it back? We as a species are zero for one bazillion on that prayer, unless of course they get it surgically attached by the modern doctor using nothing but science and medicine. We are so fortunate that after thousands of years to stumbling around the in dark god finally gave us permission to use surgery.
~ Diana Daffner
"He brings babies into the world and watches cancer devour them...He sends down no `manna' from heaven to feed the starving, not even if they are little children.”
A.E. HILLERICH
So, yes, how unsuccessful for the majority such experiences can be!
And yet god has not seen fit to restore one single amputated limb? I guess he prefers the 'miracles' that are a little harder to prove, huh?
Amazing how many miracles there are and the medics aren't given a second thought. It is always a "miracle." When challenged, God gave the doctors the skills to perform the miracle.
That's correct compared to the general population. The correct comparison is with people who remain socially active, and you get the same effect with people committed to their local soccer club, art group etc. We are social animals, and we are healthier in social groups. Religious organisations are just one option.
Here is a couple who has prayed with the MOST faith that is possible (so much faith that they are willing to forgo all other treatments options and put all their trust in God). And yet prayer could not have failed them more.
Faith in God has resulted in the death of their son and manslaughter in the second degree for both of them.
It's strange to think that there is some optimal amount of trust in God we should have to make prayers effective. Too much faith and mortality rates will sky rocket, but with just a little, like adding MSG or salt to a meal, we get to savor a little miracle with our good health.
27 million children die on this planet every year from disease, malnutrition and other afflictions, the greater majority of whom have little or no medical care. I suggest that many of these, if not all, will be prayed for by parents and family, yet he ignores those to randomly cure minimal numbers of people - usually in the western world - who are undergoing medical treatment. Strange that.