Suffering in Literature

A Review of Prayer is Good Medicine: How to Reap the Healing Benefits of Prayer by Larry Dossey, M.D., Harper San Francisco, 1996.

A Synopsis

Dr. Larry Dossey, M.D. informs readers in Prayer is Good Medicine: How to Reap the Healing Benefits of Prayer how they can exploit the healing potential of prayer, regardless of whether they have faith in God. He emphasizes that praying is not a replacement for medical treatment, but is an effective addition to it. Dossey's treatment includes the scientific evidence that validates the effectiveness of prayer in healing, the controversy surrounding prayer and healing in Western medicine, the meaning of prayer, and how to pray. He relies on studies linking prayer and health, varied argumentation against skepticism surrounding prayer and healing, and anecdotes to make his case.

Dossey provides readers with his views on the modern rift between Western science and religion, the difference between religion and prayer, how medical practitioners think about prayer, and the potential destructive side of prayer. Readers learn that intercessory prayer works across distances, that it is more valuable to seek general guidance through prayer than something specific, that a compassionate, sincere, and loving attitude will allow prayer to be truly beneficial, and that prayers are always answered, though not always with a "yes."

He broadly defines prayer as the following: "In its simplest form, prayer is an attitude of the heart –a matter of being, not doing. Prayer is the desire to contact the Absolute, however it may be conceived. When we experience the need to enact this connection, we are praying, whether or not we use words" (83).

Most readers of Dossey's work will be most curious about the validation of the effectiveness of prayer in healing by scientific experimentation. Dossey discusses the rewards and hazards of validating prayer through the scientific lens of Western medicine. The supposedly good news is that prayer experiments now offer credibility to the link between prayer and healing. These experiments also "level the praying field," says Dossey. "They show that prayer is a universal phenomenon belonging to every race and creed, and these studies, therefore, affirm tolerance" (19). Anyone can pray, in whatever way they are comfortable, whenever they want to connect to the Absolute.

The bad news is that recent scientific research has opened up a slew of ethical controversies: Does prayer offer false hope? Is it ethical to pray for others without their consent? Should public funds be used for prayer research? Given recent scientific findings, will physicians who refuse to prescribe prayer be vulnerable to malpractice lawsuits? Dossey examines these ethical issues and suggests solutions to some of them.

An Evaluation

Positively, Dossey does not come across as a lunatic. He is not anti-medicine and what he has to say about religion and prayer is not totally off the mark. Dossey does seem anti-establishment – of Western science, medicine, and religion – which makes him an understanding companion for many readers, since this sentiment is very in vogue.

At the worst, Dossey's book plays fast and loose with limited scientific experimentation and the fundamentals of prayer. Although written for a popular audience, his treatment of science and prayer is inadequate. He says that, "It is really no longer a question of whether experiments prove that prayer works; they have already done so" (14). Certainly, the majority of scientists do not agree with him. What may be agreed on is that certain behaviors – including some forms of prayer – lead to a "relaxation response" that consists of a lowering heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing rate, a reduced oxygen intake, less carbon dioxide production, and so forth. An attitude of hope also has better psychosomatic effects than does despair.

Although further could and should be said about Dossey's manipulation of scientific data, his fundamental understanding of prayer will be given more attention. Like Dossey, many describe or define prayer essentially in terms of personal activity. The initiative for prayer, its reality, and its value stems from the person praying. It creates the conviction that the direction, fruitfulness, growth, and development of personal prayer is necessarily related to personal effort and responsibility. Prayer is something people do and worse yet, the motivation for prayer is utilitarian – personal well-being.

Definitions of prayer vary, but all Christian explanations agree that the initiative comes from God, who moves people to the derivative act of praying. It is God's grace or loving presence that disposes people's hearts and minds and energizes their prayer. God is the center and starting point of prayer. Prayer is God revealing God's loving presence to people and shedding light on the mysterious reality of the people praying. The self-revelation of God leads people to a deeper knowledge and love of God, themselves, and others. The initiating activity of God invites people's response: a mutual, reciprocal, transparent relationship with God. Derivative prayer is people's appropriate response to their conscious awareness of God's activity and loving invitation to further communion. They are drawn to a more intimate, loving union with God.

People fundamentally pray because they are drawn by God's bond of love that satisfies their deepest longings, not for utilitarian reasons. When people respond to God's invitation to a mutual, reciprocal, transparent relationship, they can and should ask God for what they need. However, they are doing this not out of primary motivation, but because of their intimate relationship with God. If prayer has beneficial effects, it is because it corresponds to humanity's deepest reality. When people are in tune with God, they cannot help but experience deep well-being.

The late Catherine Mowry LaCugna, professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame, was once asked, "How can I find God?" Her reply, published in the book How Can I Find God?, also answers the question, "Why and how should I pray?": "One ‘finds' God because one is already found by God. Anything we would find on our own would not be GOD. If we think that by our own efforts, or our own ideas, we have found GOD, we may have ‘found' just a product of our own imaginations, or needs, or wishful thinking. But it might be difficult to tell the difference between the true, living God, and the God whom we have devised for ourselves, a God enshrined in expected religious symbols and ritual gestures. God who dwells in light inaccessible exceeds every concept and image we have of God; else, God would not be GOD." (95)

What Dossey did get right is that books on prayer and medicine in the U.S. sell and are profitable. The empirical evidence cannot be refuted.