Prayer or placebo effect?

Question

For those who stated that prayer healed them.
Do you ever wonder if it was prayer that healed you or the placebo effect that may have induced natural healing with in yourself. Meaning essentially you healed yourself, yet with a placebo to get the ball rolling.
I ask because I havent actually ever prayed for medical reasons, but I have used meditation and other self calming techniques and have essentially healed myself. I have been able to overcome chronic ear infections, I have never got the flu (even one year when everyone in the house had it...I honestly convinced myself I would not get it) and I rarely get sick. I already know I must have a tough immune system as well as an extremely high tolerance for pain, yet I also know I can slow down my hearbeat so I do have some control.
Your thoughts?

Answer 1

I believe both to a certain extent.

I believe that God answers prayers, but only if it is in His best interest to do so, or in other words, only if it is in His plan. This could mean it is better for you that He does or does not, or it could mean that it is better for somebody else or multiple other people. No matter how faithful a person is, they can never hope to fully understand God.

On the contrary, I myself have also avoided sicknesses with willpower. One year every one in my house had the stomach flu, and I absolutely hate vomiting, so I convinced myself that I wasn't going to, and sure enough I never did. I have also held off many sicknesses for special events just by doing simple "healthy" things that would make me feel like I am defeating the sickness. I did not pray during any of these times.

Therefore, while I believe that there is a higher power in control who responds to our prayers, I also believe that fate is in our own hands and that we can actually fool ourselves with the placebo effect.

Answer 2

I think this is sometimes possible. However, placeboes will never last beyond a certain point. If what you hear is not God, then the message will fade and so will the results. For those of us who have had miracles performed in their lives that can not be explained away by any other explanation, we know that it was God that touched us. I am one of those...and I will be forever grateful to Him. Prayer is often a ritual or a habit...even for me...but I also find times nearly every day when I give Him a heartfelt thanks for something that has happened. I have never been disappointed in the eventual outcome when I have followed Him. It may not always happen the way I thought it should....but in the end, I come out far better off than I possibly could have on my own. One particular Bible verse summarizes how I see things. It is Romans 8:28. "And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

Answer 3

Good question, and I don't agree that "healing" all comes from within us, and I will tell you WHY. I was told 16 years ago I had MS. At the time, I was in a wheelchair and everyone expected me to die. A friend of mine suggested I seek the healing powers of the ancient "Gods" of Egypt. Within a year and ahalf I was out of the wheelchair and every year I gain strength. I have even been asked by a research center that they wish to study how come I am not DEAD yet, as most MS patients "are" or are severly disabled after having it as long as I have. If "prayer" is a "placebo" it is the greatest one I found as it has kept me ALIVE through the ANSWERS god in heaven has GIVEN me...........

Answer 4

Well, in order for prayer to be truely a prayer, you have to BELIEVE that God will heal you. And by FAITH you exspect to be healed. Which, when you expect something, that is in turn the Placebo effect. So technically you can say it is both. However, for some people, they need prayer to reach that effect. But, with that said, I have seen prayer work in areas other that health. I've seen financial situations taken care of, I've seen people saved from wrecks, I've seen those who were so far gone, come back to God because someone kept praying for them. So prayer is very powerful, but so is the human mind.

Answer 5

Well, it is hard to know if God answers prayers or not. I used to believe that he would, but I never noticed significant results. Many Christians would claim that God's purpose for me was not in granting my prayers, or that my prayers just were not practical enough, selfless enough, ect. (the list could drag on forever). Personally, I'm finding it progressively harder to have faith in God when I see few convincing results.

I do believe that the placebo effect is strong, and does have a huge affect on the physical and mental state of almost any given person, as scientists will testify to. Who am I to say God does not grant prayers? By definition, God is believed in through faith, not through scientific observation. Thus, it becomes very difficult to prove or disprove anything closely tied to faith. There are tons of reasons why one may believe in God, but none can quite be conclusive. This is why belief is called faith- it is belief in the absence of solid evidenece; either the leap the blessed must take to be with God, or a wickedly effective tool of theistic propaganda.

Answer 6

Yes I've wondered that...I have my undergrad in Behavioral Science & most good studies show there is a much greater benefit from prayer than the normal 30% placebo effect.

There's a corralation between meditation & healing as well, but it is closer to placebo numbers.

Here's some stats & a link to a great article.

- Hospitalized people who never attended church have an average stay of three times longer than people who attended regularly.

- Heart patients were 14 times more likely to die following surgery if they did not participate in a religion.

- Elderly people who never or rarely attended church had a stroke rate double that of people who attended regularly.

- In Israel, religious people had a 40% lower death rate from cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Answer 7

Well, let me tell you what happened in my husband's case and you decide whether it was prayer or just a placebo affect?

My husband had a brain tumor that in virtually every case, the surgery to remove the tumor causes the patient to have facial paralysis. This surgeon is the pioneer in the field and my husband is the first person on record to have no facial paralysis. Because the patients are in the hospital for several days, we met several other patients who had the exact same surgery by the same surgeon - all developed facial paralysis.

We estimate that nearly 250K people were praying for him all over the world, and there were some amazing "coincidences" that happened that led us to this surgeon. Each in themselves could be explained as mere coincidence, but when you consider each issue in combination, there is no other explanation other than God.

What about the fact that when my husband went back for the recheck, the doctor cannot explain why the remaining portion of the tumor continued to shrink and no further surgery was necessary. (larger tumors of this type typically are removed in two surgeries). This surgery was done almost 9 years ago and that tumor has never regrown.

So, while I do believe that there is some value to positive thinking, I also believe that when something cannot be scientifically explained, that there has to be some higher power that is behind the scenes.

I know that prayer works.

Answer 8

one of my employees brought her 2 month old daughter to work with her today, she often brings her because her mates hours over lap, hers by an hour, the baby had a high fever, and a stuffed up nose, I prayed for her when I was alone with her, and her fever was gone in 2 minutes.
is that a placebo effect? on a 3 month old?

Answer 9

whats the difference?
who are you?
look theres the you, you are aware of, your consciousness
and then theres all the stuff your not aware of
like most bodily functions
people tend think
that they are only the part that theyre aware of
but thats the tiniest fraction
actually you are all the stuff that your not aware of too
the stuff that happens by itself
like your heart beating
or the earth spinning around the sun
if you really examine it
you will see that there is no boundary separating
"you" from everything else
belief in this illusory boundary is the only sin
god became man and forgot he was god

Answer 10

Placebo, most likely, although It could be that prayer works. Placebo makes sense because there's no god of the gaps. Prayer means faith, placebo doesn't.