Can Prayer Heal?

We’ve all heard it before. A friend has someone close to them injured or sick, and they ask for your thoughts and prayers. Can praying for the sick really help? According to an international study led by religious studies Professor Candy Gunther Brown, it can. In a study titled “Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Proximal Intercessory Prayer (STEPP) on Auditory and Visual Impairments in Rural Mozambique,” Brown measured the effect of prayer on vision and hearing. The study found surprising improvements where glasses and hearing aids are not readily available.

“We chose to investigate ‘proximal’ prayer because that is how a lot of prayer for healing is actually practiced by Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians around the world,” Brown said. “These constitute the fastest-growing Christian subgroups globally, with some 500 million adherents, and they are among those most likely to pray expectantly for healing.”
Brown and her colleagues carried out the study as part of a larger research program on the cultural significance and experience of spiritual healing practices.

Brown and her team studied the effect supposed healers has on people who had vision and hearing impairments located in Mozambique and Brazil.
The team used vision charts and audiometers to evaluate subjects in 14 rural Mozambican who had reported having some type hearing deficiency and 11 who had some sort of absence of vision. They carefully evaluated these subjects both before and after they received ‘proximal intercessory prayer’ (PIP). The reason Professor Brown and her team focused on vision and hearing impairments is because these ailments can be measured by mechanical devices such as vision charts and hearing machines. By doing this, the team can see if improvements have really occurred instead of taking the word on the subject.

So according the results of these tests, subjects did have improvements in their vision and hearing after receiving PIP. Three subjects had their tested vision improve from 20/400 or worse to 20/80 or better. Two subjects with impaired hearing reduced the threshold at which they could detect sound by 50 decibels.

Professor Brown recounted that one subject, a woman named Maryam, could not see a person’s hand that was only one foot away. A healer put her hand on Maryam’s eyes, and prayed for less than a minute. After the prayer the person held five fingers in front of Maryam, who was able to count them and even read the 20/125 line on a vision chart.

Professor Brown said that this study will be published in the September issue of the Southern Medical Journal.

These results may sound promising, but many scientists disagree. Terry Sanderson, President of National Secular Society (NSS) said “This study, as it describes itself, is unscientific and therefore of no worth beyond its use as religious propaganda. It exploits the desperation of people living in extreme poverty who are unable to access proper medical care in order to bring them under the influence of these Pentecostal churches.”

Neurologist Dr. Steven Novella (personal hero of mine) had some doubts about this study as well. On his blog NeuroLogica he brought up the fact that “these tests had no blinding or control group.”  He explains that “everyone in the study, subjects and experimenters, knew that every subject was getting the treatment.” Dr. Novella goes on to state that “the protocol also calls for multiple interventions if initial treatments are not effective – essentially the subjects receive repeat treatments as long as possible until they report a response.”

Just like Terry Sanderson, Dr. Novella makes a similar statement in his blog- “At this point anyone with any reasonable familiarity with how to assess the quality of medical studies should see that this is a worthless study. This barely qualifies as a pilot study. It really doesn’t matter what the treatment is or how plausible it is – you simply cannot draw any meaningful conclusion from 24 self-selected subjects with no controls and no blinding.”
Dr. Novella writes that vision and hearing is subjective even if proper medical tests are administered and that it is essential to get subjective feedback from the subjects. The problem this test poses is that it allows subjects to exaggerate their limitations before treatment and try hard to perform better after the intervention.

The consensus seems to be the same in most of the medical reviews I have read on this subject matter. Personally I think this study is irresponsible. What it is showing is that it alright to rely on prayer as opposed to medical treatment, which is dangerous and negligent. It has nothing to do with personal belief in a deity, it’s just foolish.

References:
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/health/proximity-could-be-key-to-success-of-healing-prayer_100407893.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1300506/Prayers-really-heal-sick-finds-international-study.html
http://www.theness.com/neurologicablog/?p=2188

The Million Ghost March to Protest TAM8.

Yes you read the title right, something called “The Million Ghost March” will be protesting The Amazing Meeting 8 in Las Vegas, Nevada this year. There has been a bit of discussion on whether this is a spoof or something serious. The director, Dr. Paranormal (no real name is ever mentioned) claims to be the head of a school called the “Edgar Allen Poe Community College.” This “school” supposedly grants their graduates with an associate’s degree in Applied Psychic Arts. Just don’t get to excited you paranormal enthusiasts, don’t even bother Googling it, no such degree or college exists. So I tend to agree with my fellow skeptics that this is just a spoof. However if this is the real thing, many big names (all of which are deceased) are said to make an appearance!

“Many celebrity spirits are expected to join the march, including Michael Jackson, Ronnie James Dio and Brittany Murphy,“ states Doc Paranormal. “At the first Million Ghost March, celebrity ghosts included such Las Vegas legends as gangster Bugsy Seigel, entertainers George Raft, Liberace and George Jessel, the Rat Pack and journalist Hunter S. Thompson, author of the book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. We expect that this year’s march will feature an international cast of contemporary spirits.”

 This cannot be real; it is to funny be to taken seriously. I am sure the JREF are shaking in their boots at these claims. Better yet, maybe Dr. Paranormal and his band of Woo Woo’s can take their amazing roster of 923,985 spirits and prove the existence of the afterlife, win that million dollar challenge live at TAM8. I can see the headlines now; “The Million Ghost March Wins The Million Dollar Challenge.” It would be amazing (no pun intended). Sadly no such thing will happen, because Dr. Paranormal unknowingly confirms the belief of many skeptics, that the paranormal is just the product of one’s imagination:

“It’s a celebration of:

*The human imagination.

*Creativity.

*Diversity. In thought. And action.

*The mystery of our existence. Life is much more than a card trick.”

 Well one thing I do agree with, life is indeed much more than a card trick. Yet in sharing that same sentiment, one doesn’t have to share belief that there are 923,985 spirits signed up and ready to protest a skeptical conference. I will follow up on this “Million Ghost March” and if it turns out to be a sham, I will be having some words with Jeff Belanger over at http://www.GhostVillage.com for producing such rubbish on a site he claims is full of valuable information.

http://www.ghostvillage.com/news/2010/news_06142010.shtml

http://www.askdocparanormal.com/?p=1200

http://www.askdocparanormal.com/?p=1015

When Good Games Go Bad

One of the most controversial tools ever used in spirit communication, a tool that is still used today, is a simple wooden board. It comes in many different sizes, with a variety of beautifully painted scenes and symbols. Yet they all share certain characteristics: located somewhere on the surface of these boards are the words “Yes”, “No” and “Goodbye“, the letters A through Z. and the numbers 0 through 9. With this board comes a pointer called a planchette. The planchette is a triangular or heart-shaped device that will point to the letters, numbers or words, spelling out phrases, names and dates. The planchette actually predates these boards. Planchettes were originally used with a pencil attached for automatic writing (a method used a lot during the spiritualist movement). But now the planchette and this board go hand in hand. This board goes by many names such as a talking board, a witch board, or a spirit board. But most of us know it as the Ouija board.

The Ouija board is quite possibly the most infamous tool used in paranormal research. I would venture to bet that most people reading this have heard a terrifying story that has either happened to a friend or a friend of a friend that involves the Ouija board. But when was the Ouija board created? What’s the history of this fascinating tool of devilish mischief? Was it constructed under candlelight in a dark dungeon sometime in the Dark Ages? Or maybe it was created by a witch who practiced black magic and satanic rituals. Many will be surprised to learn that the Ouija board is fairly young and it was made as a novelty item.

On May 28th 1890, a patent was filed by three individuals: Elijah Bond, Charles W. Kennard and William H. A. Maupin. The patent was for a novelty item developed by The Kennard Novelty Company, and the first boards were stamped February 10, 1891. Kennard was the one who named the board Ouija. People say the name Ouija means yes-yes because oui is French for yes and ja is German for yes, but Kennard claims to have named Ouija after an Egyptian word for good luck. In all actuality the word scarab means good luck in Egyptian (or Arabic) and not the word Ouija. The story goes the board itself repeatedly told Kennard that Ouija meant good luck in Egyptian and the name just stuck. The company only produced the Ouija board for fourteen months but kept corporate control until 1898.

In 1898 the Ouija board was appointed to a man that would revolutionize the board’s history, William Fuld. It was this man who said that he invented the board and that the name meant yes-yes. In 1919 Fuld bought the remaining rights and sold millions of these boards along with other toys. Sadly Fuld would die from a horrible accident falling from his company rooftop while supervising a flag pole replacement. This didn’t stop Fuld’s children from taking over the business or the production of Ouija boards. In 1966 the business was sold to Parker Brothers who still own the rights today.

So what happened? When did the Ouija Board get associated with evil? The history seems harmless, so why is it so closely related to Satan and demons? Although I cannot be 100% sure, while researching the subject I found that almost all negative reports relating to the board came about in the 70’s, after a novel was published and then turned into a movie two years later. The movie is a classic horror story about a teenage girl who tells her mother she has been talking to a person named Captain Howdy through the Ouija Board. Later this girl becomes possessed by the devil, which causes her body to contort, she spits up the classic green pea vomit and her head spins 360 degrees. Yes, you guessed it, I’m talking about “The Exorcist.” Now The Exorcist is “based” on a true story of a 14-year-old boy who was possessed and actually required three separate Rites of Exorcism from three different Christian denominations: Episcopalian, Lutheran, and Roman Catholic. The case happened in 1949 and the boy did admit to playing with a Ouija board. One thing to remember here is that religious groups had already become involved when this claim came out, so the Church automatically would assume this was the reason behind the possession. Just because the Church assumes this doesn’t make it fact. After 1973 (the year The Exorcist came out) there was a skyrocket of claims dealing with Ouija boards and demons; that’s the fact but the movie isn’t all at fault. After this another group that heavily promoted the Ouija Board as the work of the devil would be Christians.

I personally have received many claims from people telling me their stories, and as I suspected most are second- or third-hand. One thing people kept assuring me was that evil has been associated with this board since at least the 50′s, possibly earlier. There are two things I noticed in these stories, though: A. Hardly any of them had demons or possession associated with them. B. All were told that the board was evil by clergy or family members with strong religious views. This still holds me to my theory that the Church has a large role in why this toy is evil. From experience growing up in Christian house hold, I know the Church views any type of spirit communication as a product of the devil. The church has two views on where a spirit goes when it departs from the body, ones that go to Heaven and ones that go to Hell. I have even been taught that ghosts are actually demons portraying loved ones to win over trust so we will “let them in.” With that being said, the very fact that the Ouija board claims to be able to contact spirits would automatically be looked down on by the church, whether it be a toy or not. But still I will say I believe the reason why people have associated this board game with the devil is largely due to the movie The Exorcist.

So one has to wonder whether the Ouija board really is a tool that contacts demons or even Satan himself? Maybe it isn’t demons but entities that exist on a lower plane. Maybe it isn’t anything except one’s imagination. When dealing with controversial subjects, I feel it is important that we have to look at both sides: the side of belief and the side of doubt. With that being said, let’s look at something called the Ideomotor effect, a term that was coined by William B. Carpenter in 1852. With the power of suggestion or expectation and the subtle unconscious movements made by the hand, one may trick oneself into thinking that something supernatural is occurring. William also states that the muscle movements can be made by the brain independently of emotions. This simply means we do not know we are the ones influencing the planchette to move. This same effect also could explain pendulums and dowsing rods (actually that’s why this explanation was created).

Another common factor in the Ouija stories I received (and have heard in the past) is most of them end with someone burning the board to get rid of the evil, but to their surprise it isn’t affected by the flames. I have heard many other stories that consist of the smell of flesh when the board is thrown in the fire pit, even a board screaming in the flames. But the biggest commonality is that the fire has no effect on the board. Could this stem from the belief that the Ouija board is closely connected with demons and the Devil, and the belief that fire is associated with Hell? It is difficult for me to believe something made out of wood could survive the fireplace.

Still this common factor is interesting, so I contacted a man by the name of James “The Amazing” Randi, to talk about this. For those who don’t know who James Randi is, he is an investigator of paranormal claims. His foundation “The James Randi Educational Foundation” currently offers a $1,000,000 check to anyone who can prove paranormal abilities and/or claims. You may have even heard of this as the “Million Dollar Challenge”. This challenge has been going on since the 70′s and has never been won. So Mr. Randi told me to present everyone here with an experiment, in his words: “Have everyone go out and buy a Ouija board and set it on fire. If it doesn’t burn, they’ll win a million dollars.”

 

James Randi has also done tests on the Ouija board. To prove it is nothing more than the ideomotor effect, he blindfolded the operators, and the results produced were nothing but nonsense. No words, names, or phrases, no yes, no or dates–it was only gibberish. Surely demons or evil spirits would be able to spell the same whether the operator is blindfolded or not, so what happened? The logical explanation according to Randi is that it’s all done subconsciously by the operator. When the operator can’t see the board, the operator can’t produce positive results. It is also important to note that in controlled tests, the board has never produced any information that isn’t already known to the operators.

One major problem with the modern day paranormal investigator is lack of common sense.  People jump to conclusions way to quickly and let myths become fact.  Based on all the information I gathered while studying the Ouija board, I have to conclude the following.  The Ouija board is and has always been a board game, a children’s toy.  It has never been and is not a portal to hell, it does not let entities of any sort in through some invisible doorway, it does not conjure demons or Satan himself.  It matters not of your intent or belief, it is a piece of wood or cardboard with fancy paintings and designs, nothing more.  I have personally tested the burning of the Ouija board and it may surprise most readers, but it does in fact burn.  I heard no screaming, I smelled no burning flesh, it wasn’t waiting for me on the mantle magically rejuvenated, however it was a waste of 15 dollars.