don's report archive

by Donald B. Ardell, Ph. D.

Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)

Yesterday I described highlights of the First International Wellness Conference held in Galveston, TX that I attended for nearly a week, and noted that it was a very fine event. I also emphasized that it needed a forum where alternative perspectives could be offered regarding ideologies advanced by keynoters. In no case was this need more evident than with claims made for something called "intercessory prayer" by physician Larry Dossey.

Dossey is convinced that a celebrated study by Randolph C. Byrd demonstrated the therapeutic efficacy of "intercessory prayer to the Judeo-Christian God." A cardiologist at San Francisco General Medical Center, Byrd claims to have followed 393 patients between August 1982 and May 1983. He divided the group into 192 patients who were prayed for, and 201 who were not prayed for. He reported that, among other things, the people who were prayed for were five times less likely to develop pulmonary edema. None required endotracheal intubation, and fewer patients died. That's it. On this basis, claims for the efficacy of prayer are made near and far by fervent believers. What sets Dossey apart is that he does so as a physician, claiming scientific studies such as Bryd's work as support for the uses of prayer. Hard to believe but true. Yet, not even Dossey defends the Byrd study as statistically significant, when pressed. It turns out that 13 patients (7%) in the prayed-for group died, compared with 17 (8.5%) in the control group. Big deal. Dossey admits that these and other differences between the two groups of patients were statistically insignificant. Stated Dossey: "Do we know any more about the possible effects of prayer from this experiment? I am afraid the answer may be no." (Source: Gary P. Posner, Free Inquiry, "God in the CCU?" Spring 1990.

Some doctors with a strong religious orientation are on record acknowledging the "fatal flaws" with Byrd and other so-called scientific experiments employed to support claims for the healing powers of prayer. These medical theologians claim there are even greater philosophical and theological problems. These occur when efforts are made to show scientifically that the Christian god and other gods answer prayers. Perhaps, but the claims seem most vulnerable due to three secular factors: (1) false assumptions, (2) erroneous information and (3) wishful thinking.

Dossey promotes prayer in the Judeo-Christian tradition, as was clear in his lengthy closing prayer at the International Wellness Conference. It seemed odd that his closing displayed little regard for his hippie dippy notion of prayer as "communicating with the Absolute."

There are many problems with the claims for intercessory prayer. I'll sketch a few.

Would and should doctors impose their spiritual beliefs on patients? How could anyone be sure that a prayer was answered? Critics are unanimous in pointing out that there can be no such thing as a controlled experiment concerning prayer. Subjects can't be organized into groups that received prayer and those that did not, for there is no way to know who did and did not receive prayer. How could investigators control for relatives engaged in unauthorized prayers or prayers said on behalf of all sick people everywhere? Further, what kind of prayers work best? Are Baptist prayers number one? Or, do the Presbyterians or, god forbid, the Unitarians do it better? Is it possible to assess the degree of faith in patients too sick to be interviewed? What about non-believers being prayed for? Do they get better from prayer, too? How about praying that someone will come to harm? If you can do good with prayer, how about malicious prayer (voodoo?) For that matter, how could Dossey or anyone demonstrate scientifically that it was their Christian god who answered a prayer, if a healing is attributed to divine intervention? After all, there are a lot of gods out there, most of them known to our species long before the current gods gained the upper hand with the contemporary inhabitants of the planet.

Dossey's response to these concerns is to claim that such objections are not important. As to problems with human subjects, he claims prayer works from a distance on animals, rodents, bacteria, yeast and crystals, who are not distracted or affected by the experimental process. Again, in addition to the fact that studies show no such thing, the fact is there are people all over the world praying for the well-being of all life on Earth, so it is impossible to separate bacteria, fungus, mice and so on into prayed-for and non-prayed-for groups. For all I know, someone might even be praying for the likes of me at this very moment, without my consent yet!

Also, many if not all of these studies are funded or conducted by believers who want to see efficacy of prayer outcomes. Dossey told the folks in Galveston that "all the researchers I know who are currently investigating the effects of intercessory prayer embody a sense of sacredness in their work, as if they are treading on sacred ground." Not a single experiment (human and nonhuman) has been replicated by independent organizations.

Curiously, Dossey seems pleased to associate intercessory prayer and religion with parapsychology, noting a growing dialogue between the two areas. Unrelated to Dossey's claims for healing prayer, there is a larger question that might only occur to a skeptic, namely, what's the point of praying anyway to a god that is supposed to be all-knowing, all-good, and all-powerful? Do the gods not know what is best for humans and other mortal subjects? Is it not, for instance, a bit of a presumption for football players like Kurt Warner to ask the Great One to favor their team in the NFL playoffs? There is so much "God bless America" chanting since the horrors of September 11. Wouldn't such a blessing have been timelier before 8:48 AM on that day? Or, to cite a quote from Nancy Willard that Dossey used in his speech at the conference, "If prayers worked, Hitler would have been stopped at the border of Poland by angels with swords of fire." Where are intercessory prayer results when really needed? Never has there been a documented prayer claim for incontrovertible healing, such as the regeneration of a missing limb, or the regrowth of an eye. Now THAT would get my attention Yet, such a thing would hardly seem much of a challenge for any deity credited with constructing an entire universe -- in a week yet, according to one popular myth!

Well, I mention Dr. Dossey's keynote to make my point about the need for a give and take of alternative perspectives on important topics. As mentioned yesterday, the International Wellness Conference was terrific, and I recommend you look into it for next year.

Who knows -- they might even stage a few debates next year. Let's look on the bright side and hope they do.

(Note: This essay will be filed in the archives in the MENTAL DOMAIN under the skill area of stress management. Additional articles related to this theme may be found there.)

(Ed. Note: Views expressed in this and other columns are those of the author and not necessarily those of the SeekWellness Editorial Board.)

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