Prayer involves reaching beyond our sense of self or ego and connecting with a higher power, whether we call this power God, Goddess, Allah, the Absolute, or some other term. When we invoke this power on behalf of others, we call it intercessory prayer. Intercessory or healing prayer is perhaps the most ancient form of therapy that exists. Healing prayer is a form of intention, because when we pray we are intending, desiring, willing, wishing, and wanting a beneficial outcome for another.

Until recently there was no scientific evidence for the effectiveness of prayer. This began to change during the 1980s, however, when physicians and medical researchers began to do actual experiments in hospitals to test prayer’s effects. These studies are called randomized clinical trials, and they are designed to test prayer as one would test a new medication. In these so-called double-blind experiments, a group of patients is given the treatment being tested–in this case, prayer–and another group, the control group, is not assigned prayer. No one knows who is receiving prayer–neither the patients themselves, nor the physicians and nurses caring for them. The results between the two groups are then compared.

Around two dozen major studies have been published that assess the effects of healing prayer in patients with various illnesses such as heart attack, advanced AIDS, and infertility. Over half of these studies have resulted in statistically positive results, meaning that the positive outcomes can’t easily be explained by attributing them to chance, positive thinking, or the placebo response.

These studies have been extended to non-humans. In these types of experiments, researchers study the effects of prayer and intention on the resolution of cancer in mice, the healing of wounds in animals, the growth rates of plants and microbes, and even the reaction rates of chemicals in test tubes. As in the human studies, these experiments show that prayerful intention has definite effects.

These studies are statistical, meaning that not all patients benefit from prayer, just as not everyone benefits from a particular drug or surgical procedure. But the effects are real, even though we cannot predict ahead of time who will benefit and who will not.

A consistent picture has emerged from this research. It is clear that no particular religion’s prayer is superior to any other in these experiments. Even secular, non-religious prayer works. Neither has any particular strategy of prayer proved superior. For example, prayer seems to work regardless of whether one prays for a specific illness to resolve, or whether one simply prays non-specifically, such as “May thy will be done” or “May the best outcome prevail.” The key factor is not how long or how often one prays, but how sincerely. Love and deep caring–not the duration of prayer or the numbers of people praying–matter most. We affirm this fact in daily life when we say that we pray for our loved ones: People we know and truly love, whom we pray for unconditionally and without reservation.

Although prayer-and-intention experiments have not been done in breast cancer in humans, such studies have been done in mice by William Bengston, Ph.D., and his colleagues. In repeated experiments, the mice that are extended healing recover from breast cancer that has been surgically implanted into them. Mice aren’t humans, and this study does not prove that the effects of healing intention will be as profound in humans as in animals. But these experiments nonetheless suggest a possible benefit, especially in view of the positive effects of prayer and healing intentions in other serious diseases in humans such as AIDS.

Is Prayer Right for You?
Should you pray for a friend with breast cancer? Should they pray for themselves? Should they request prayer from others? This is a deeply personal choice; no one can make this decision for you. To help you decide, you may wish to read about this field, which I’ve written about in my books Healing Words and Prayer Is Good Medicine. (For actual cases, see “Miracles,” a chapter in my book The Extraordinary Healing Power of Ordinary Things. For additional cases of people who have responded to prayer and healing intentions, I recommend Remarkable Recovery by Caryle Hirshberg and Marc Ian Barasch.)

If you desire prayer but are not comfortable praying, consider requesting prayer from others. I recommend a free non-denominational prayer effort, Silent Unity, which you can contact online.

Want to refine your healing efforts? In studying healing practices across many cultures and traditions, researchers Marilyn Schlitz and Dean Radin have identified five common guidelines that can help anyone cultivate their innate healing abilities:

1. Set an intention: Bring your awareness toward a healing response in the distant person, with a sense of purpose and efficacy.

2. Focus attention: Cultivate a state of concentration on the intention of producing a healing outcome.

3. Cultivate love and compassion: This involves selfless love, empathy, and caring for another’s suffering.

4. Suspend disbelief: Be confident and open to the healing method.

5. Take time: Professional healers often set aside at least an hour a day to practice their healing intentions.

Prayer and healing intentions are no substitute for medical and surgical treatments for breast cancer or any other illness. But because of the evidence supporting these effects, I believe we should give them serious consideration in all illnesses, alongside conventional therapies.

The medicine of the future will recognize that healing is not just a matter of tinkering with the body, but honoring the mind and spirit as well.

Larry Dossey, M.D., is the author of nine books, including Healing Words, Healing Beyond the Body, and, most recently, The Extraordinary Healing Power of Ordinary Things, and is the former executive editor of the peer-reviewed journal Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, the most widely subscribed-to journal in its field. For more about Dr. Dossey and his work, go to www.dosseydossey.com.

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