By Barbara Bradley Hagerty

Ninety percent of Americans say they pray — for their health, or their love life or their final exams. But does prayer do any good?

For decades, scientists have tried to test the power of prayer and positive thinking, with mixed results. Now some scientists are fording new — and controversial — territory.

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  3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkbpXRSIUnE
    Research From Dr. Masaru Emoto, says that human thoughts are directed at water before it is frozen, images of the resulting water crystals will be beautiful or ugly depending upon whether the thoughts were positive or negative. Emoto claims this can be achieved through prayer, music or by attaching written words to a container of water. Since 1999 Emoto has published several volumes of a work titled Messages from Water, which contains photographs of water crystals next to essays and “words of intent”.
    Category: Education

  4. Laughter is a good thing too.

    US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has told the Chinese government its investments in the US are “very safe”, despite a growing budget deficit.

    Mr Geithner is on his first official visit to China, the biggest foreign investor in US treasury bonds.

    Ahead of meetings with President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, he said the US and China must work together to fix the global economic system.

    Mr Geithner said the US would move swiftly to get its debt under control.

    In a speech at Beijing University at the start of his two-day visit, Mr Geithner reassured his Chinese hosts that they need not worry about the estimated $770bn (£475bn) they have invested in US treasuries, a class of US government debt.

    “Chinese financial assets are very safe,” he said, drawing laughter from the audience.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8076642.stm

  5. Kaplan’s faith is unorthodox, but it’s central to her life. She was raised Jewish, and although she claims no formal religion now, she prays and meditates every day. She believes God is keeping the virus at bay and that her faith is the reason she’s alive today.

    “Everything starts from a thought, and then the thought creates a reaction,” she says. “And I have the power to control my mind, before it gets to a physical level or an emotional level.”

    –I don’t agree that god is keeping the virus at bay, however, thoughts are energy. Remeber that..

    Of course, mind-body medicine — the idea that my thoughts and emotions can affect my own health — has been standard teaching at many medical schools for years. But does that mean my thoughts can affect another person’s body?

    “The answer is pretty unequivocally no,” says Richard Sloan, professor of Behavioral Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center.

    Sloan notes that studies in the 1980s and ’90s seemed to show that praying for a patient in a hospital sped up his recovery. But he says those studies were flawed. More recent, more rigorous studies, he argues, showed prayer either had no effect, or the patients actually grew worse.

    –I hope that Professor Sloan resigns his position for his ignorance. Off the top of my head, check out some of the work by Elizabeth Targ, MD, Larry Dossey, PhD, Daniel Benor,MD, Norm Shealey, MD, Elmer Green, PhD, founder of the ISSSEEM

    There is more to you than just a body and brain…

  6. Positive thinking and placebo effects are one thing, prayer is another. Either Transcendent reality is, or prayer is simply an illusion. If it is, then science, empiricist by definition, can tell us absolutely nothing about this. The reality of the Transcendent, which by definition is absolute or unconditioned or self-existent, is the pivot of religion.

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