Largest Study of Prayer to Date Finds It Has No Power to Heal

$2.5 million study at six hospitals, largest ever, 1800 patients involved:

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The largest study yet on the therapeutic power of prayer by strangers has found that it provided no benefit to the recovery of patients who had undergone cardiac bypass surgery.

In an unexpected twist, patients who knew prayers were being said for them had more complications after surgery than those who did not know, researchers reported Thursday.

The complications were minor, and doctors surmised that they could have been caused by the increased stress on patients worried that their conditions were so bad they needed prayers.
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"The study was designed as a randomized and blinded trial, meaning that most patients did not know whether someone was praying for them or not. Such trials are considered the gold standard for scientific proof.

More than 1,800 patients were divided into three groups: those who were told someone was praying for them; those who were told only that someone might pray for them and got prayers; and those who were told someone might pray for them but received no prayers. About 65% of the patients said they strongly believed in the power of prayer."
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Hard as it may be to get over the pleasurable egotism of believing otherwise, apparently the gods do not actually give us all emergency red phones.

Another from Bob Harris among others, quite a few Bloggers linked to this one.