Prayer and Healing

Prayer is simply meditation; it is a connection between one being and a higher deity. It is both an act of submission and an attempt to soothe the mind and body. Many in depth reports have been compiled to try and unravel the relationship between prayer and crisis resolution. Some affirm that prayer is conducive to good health and spiritual peace, while others dismiss it as simply another form of meditation.

According to TIME Magazine, Dr. Elizabeth Targ has been awarded $611,516 for one study and $823,346 for another by The National Institutes of Health to analyze the therapeutic effects of prayer on cancer and AIDS patients. She acknowledged that the presence of another person reciting prayers with the ill patient had an effect, even if it was a short term placebo effect. However, Dr. Targ decided to study prayer and its healing effects from a distance. She wanted to discover if prayer from a party removed from the ill patient could actually help the patient to heal.

For one hour for ten weeks, healers concentrated on pictures of ill patients and prayer to miraculously cure or treat the illnesses. Dr. Targ found that the patients who were prayed for had fewer and less illnesses, doctor visits, hospitalizations and showed more positive and upbeat moods than those who were not prayed for. Targ also observed the same effect on animals that were being prayed for, noting some mice had shrunken tumors after they were prayed for. Targ suggests the turn around ""could be actuated through the agency of God, consciousness, love, electrons or a combination."

In R. A. Torrey's book The Power of Prayer, Torrey struggles with another issue. Torrey asserts that Christians end up in spiritual and bodily poverty because they do not ask. Torrey uses James 4:2 as her reference which states: "Ye have not, because ye ask not." This notion sheds new light on the notion of prayer. It is possible that people do not handle pressure well, become ill and are trapped in desperate situations because they are so terrified by their prospects that they actually forget or simply overlook the need to pray. If you don't ask for anything, you can never receive it. Perhaps the easiest route to success is the simplest one.

Throughout hard times in life, Christians have turned to their god. Perhaps all these years they have simply been praying for the wrong thing. Perhaps Christians must be specific with their prayers and actually lay all of their burdens, problems and wishes upon God's ear and then simply wait for the response. Torrey also asserts that insistent, consistent and determined prayer works better than simply praying once about a subject. If it is possible to keep prayer close to your heart and closer to God's ear, then it is possible that a better outcome will occur.

Torrey also makes a distinction between praying to the Holy Ghost and praying in the name of Jesus Christ. Usually Christians do not place this distinction on prayer since technically their god is a trinity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. So, praying to one is essentially praying to all.It is possible that there is some chance for rehabilitation through prayer. Persistence and faith is needed, but prayer can change things in certain situations. It is true that prayer will not work in every situation, but it helps to turn to faith in times of stress and trouble. It will soothe and give a sense of well being if nothing else and puts the soul at rest.