Comments on: Silly research on prayer finds little or negative effect http://psychoanalystsopposewar.org/blog/2006/03/31/silly-research-on-prayer-finds-little-or-negative-effect/ Thoughts by Stephen Soldz on war, peace, politics, psychoanalysis, and research methods Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:19:54 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: Jack Shalom http://psychoanalystsopposewar.org/blog/2006/03/31/silly-research-on-prayer-finds-little-or-negative-effect/#comment-421 Jack Shalom Mon, 03 Apr 2006 23:32:16 +0000 http://psychoanalystsopposewar.org/blog/2006/03/31/silly-research-on-prayer-finds-little-or-negative-effect/#comment-421 I think you miss--or don't comment on an important point here. The purpose of such a study is not necessarily to affect believers one way or the other--but to investigate an objective question: can the act of prayer by strangers affect a medical outcome. Suppose the results of the experiment were positive. Then we would have an interesting phenomenon of action at a distance with no apparent physical mechanism. Certainly something worth investigating further, no? It seems to me similar to experiments in parapsychology. If indeed one can bend spoons with only the power of one's mind, wouldn't we want to know more about the mechanism of what was happening? Now in the spoonbending and other similar experiments, action at a distance always turns out to be negative or a scam, and hence uninteresting. But the article mentions that prayer by family has been shown to have a positive effect, so it seems only natural to want to further investigate what mechanism is in operation here. Isolating the variable of relationship to the patient seems a reasonable avenue to pursue. To summarize, the purpose of such a study to my mind, is not the effect it has on the patient, but to get closer to an understanding of just what is happening when one prays for another. Jack Shalom I think you miss–or don’t comment on an important point here. The purpose of such a study is not necessarily to affect believers one way or the other–but to investigate an objective question: can the act of prayer by strangers affect a medical outcome.

Suppose the results of the experiment were positive. Then we would have an interesting phenomenon of action at a distance with no apparent physical mechanism. Certainly something worth investigating further, no?

It seems to me similar to experiments in parapsychology. If indeed one can bend spoons with only the power of one’s mind, wouldn’t we want to know more about the mechanism of what was happening?

Now in the spoonbending and other similar experiments, action at a distance always turns out to be negative or a scam, and hence uninteresting. But the article mentions that prayer by family has been shown to have a positive effect, so it seems only natural to want to further investigate what mechanism is in operation here. Isolating the variable of relationship to the patient seems a reasonable avenue to pursue.

To summarize, the purpose of such a study to my mind, is not the effect it has on the patient, but to get closer to an understanding of just what is happening when one prays for another.

Jack Shalom

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