504).
Given the limitations mentioned above, researchers studying intercessory prayer are also banging their heads against reality because they are claiming to make discoveries that are "incompatible with current views of the physical universe and consciousness" (Sloan, p. 504). That having been said, if IP studies are held to the "standards of science" and if "more precise hypotheses are tested" then a "scientific revolution" is not beyond imagination (Sloan, p. 513).
Using personal prayer for health reasons. An article published in 2004 reports on a national survey that was conducted in 1998; in that survey researchers found that 35% of participants used prayer for "health reasons" (McCaffrey, et al., 2004, p. 858). Of those respondents, 75% prayed for "wellness" and 22% prayed for "specific medical conditions" (McCaffrey, p. 858). Of the 22% who prayed for specific medical conditions 69% "found prayer very helpful,' McCaffrey reports on page 858. This research offers a disclaimer that while there is no "proven therapeutic efficacy of prayer" there has been a great deal of interest in the relationship between spirituality and health, hence the need for discovery and experimentation.
There were a total of 2,055 respondents to the survey (which was done over the telephone); the specific question asked was: "Have you ever used prayer or spiritual practice for your own health concerns?" (McCaffrey, p. 860). It should be noted that overall of those who were praying for any health concerns some 72% were "simultaneously using conventional medicine"; and moreover, 74% of those praying for relief from cancer were "also seeing a physician in the same 12-month period" (McCaffrey, p. 860).
Conclusion:
The bottom line of McCaffrey's research is that "about one-third of U.S. adults surveyed used prayer for health reasons"; most often prayer was used to treat depression, headaches, back and/or neck pain, digestive problems, allergies and other "painful or aggravating symptoms" (pp. 860-861). People who use prayer for health reasons, "…report high levels of perceived helpfulness" but they "rarely" have discussions of prayer or spiritual matters with doctors, McCaffrey writes (p. 861). The bottom line for this proposal is that sufficient evidence -- through verifiable, scholarly research -- is available to proceed with the theme that intercessory prayer does have validity. Certainly more research is needed, and more research will be conducted...
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