“Scientific experiments claiming that distant intercessory prayer produces salubrious effects are deeply flawed…” — Michael Shermer (Scientific American) Whenever I link to one of Shermer’s profoundly skeptical observations, I get at least several angry responses from readers who dismiss my thinking as being hopelessly limited. I don’t mind; I think that this is an especially important time to subject faith to reasonable examination. Readers of FmH will know that I hardly limit myself to what is “scientifically” proven; I think scientific knowlege is a socially conditioned belief system like any other, producing important distortions and limitations in our understanding of reality. There are many sources of light that project the flickering shadows on the wall of the cave.

I tend to believe most paranormal phenomena involve a balance of a basis in fact and a basis in human credulousness. I agree with Shermer that distance prayer is one of the more in-credible claims from a scientific perspective, but also with the claims of adherents that such phenomena may not be amenable to scientific examination. However, I think most paranormal phenomena are ultimately comprehensible as manifestations of intuition. We have ways of knowing things about which we know very little, yet they are ultimately comprehensible mental faculties. Empathic resonance and mind-body connectivity go a long way to understanding “extrasensory” perceptions. My difficulty with fitting distance healing into this perspective is that the recipient does not know s/he has been prayed for. I have the same difficulty with the studies several decades ago that claimed to show that therapeutic touch made a difference to plant growth.

And, as a reader commented to me in a private email (entitled “not an angry response”), distance prayer may be more beneficial for the sender than the recipient, but that it is nothing to scoff at because it increases the sender’s compassion. Most of the most meaningful spiritual practice is dedicated to cultivating compassion, no matter in which system it is embedded. And that, by the way, is why Bush’s brand of faith-based evangelism is not by any stretch of the imagingation a valid spiritual position.