Have you ever wondered whether prayers actually do anything?
Well, it turns out that there’s compelling evidence suggesting prayers do in fact impact living beings.
Sometimes significantly.
(love it when science and spirituality meet)
I have a prayer request at the end of this post.
But first I’d love to share about Dr. Larry Dossey and the power of prayer.
Dr. Dossey, a New York Times best-selling author and physician, received an M.D. in 1967 from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
Before Dr. Dossey’s works, only three medical schools incorporated courses exploring prayer in medicine.
Today, up to about 80 medical schools have incorporated such courses (!), many of which use Dr. Dossey’s books as textbooks.
He is best known for his best-selling book Healing Words: The Power of Prayer and the Practice of Medicine.
A confessed spiritual skeptic, Dr. Dossey admits…
“For many years, I’d ignored prayer. I considered it an arbitrary, optional frill that simply was not in the same league as drugs and surgery. I had in fact tried to escape spiritual or religious influences in healing, fancying myself a scientific physician.”
That was of course until he came across a scientific study supporting the power of prayer, which sparked his curiosity and sent him on a Divine journey.
As he dug deeper into the research, he found over one hundred scientific studies, the majority of which were conducted under strict conditions.
It wasn’t long before Dr. Dossey was convinced of the healing power of prayer.
He devoted a decade of research to the role prayer plays in healing, which resulted in Healing Words, where he cites a multitude of sound case studies revealing the healing power of prayer.
One such study was conducted in Korea with a group of women struggling with fertility.
Half the group received prayer (unbeknownst to them) and the other half did not.
The half who received prayers had success rates impressively higher than the others.
In his article titled A Conversation About the Future of Medicine, Dr. Dossey cites another remarkable study…
“In 1998, Dr. Elisabeth Targ and her colleagues at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, conducted a controlled, double-blind study of the effects of ‘distant healing,’ or prayer, on patients with advanced AIDS. Those patients receiving prayer survived in greater numbers, got sick less often, and recovered faster than those not receiving prayer. Prayer, in this study, looked like a medical breakthrough.”
These are just two of the many profound studies.
While the evidence strongly supports the healing power of prayer, no one really understands how it works.
When asked about how prayer works, Dr. Dossey simply responds “the short answer is that no one knows.”
Although the “how” remains mystic, what matters most (in my opinion) is that prayer works!
Dr. Dossey interestingly notes that prayers should be genuine.
And he cautions those who pray for harm on others of the boomerang effect.
***
SPECIAL PRAYER REQUEST
The world is transforming as we speak.
Our experiences of this transformation vary.
Many are rising and thriving.
Many are hurting and caught in fear and disempowerment.
My request is to pray for everyone.
May all those rising and thriving continue to flourish.
May all those who are hurting shift into an inner space of faith, possibility, and power.
May they see and connect to the Truth of who they are and Whose they are.
May they reach out for any needed support.
May they experience a profound breakthrough and transformation in thinking and being.
May they receive the Love we send.
Amen.
***
POWERFUL QUOTE
“Your heart knows the way, run in that direction.”
I know a lot of you are facing major life decisions right now.
Be still, and listen to the Heart of your Soul.
When it speaks, you will feel it.
The clarity you are seeking is already within you.
