Science Investigates Distant Healing

Distant healing may seem eccentric to some people but researchers at prominent instituitions such as Duke Medical Centre in North Carolina, the Pacific Medical Centre in San Francisco and the Mind/Body Institute in Chestnut Hill, Mass. are all involved in the field.It is also worth noting that the National Institutes of Health’s National Centre for Complementary and Alternative Medicine has spent 2.2 million dollars on studies of prayer and distant healing since 2000.

In 1998 cardiologist Randolph Byrd did the first major clinical study on distant healing at San Franscisco General Hospital. There were 393 heart patients divided into two groups. One group was sent prayers from christians outside the hospital; the others were not. His study was published in the Southern Medical Journal. It found that the patients who were not prayed for needed more medication and were more likely to suffer complications. The study attracted considerable attention.

In an article published in the Annals of Internal Medicine in 2000, researchers reported on 23 studies on various distant healing techniques, including religous, energy and spiritual healing. Thirteen of the 23 studies indicated positive effects to distant healing.