The power of prayer is to some more a state of mind than a hard truth. Many believe prayer will heal the sick and dying. However a study was performed by an organization funded by the John Templeton Foundation. This Foundation spent 2.4 million to study the power of prayer. The Johns Templeton Foundation used different authority figures in well respected fields to validate the study.

Some of them include a Dr. Charles Bethea, who is a cardiologist at “Integris Baptist Medical Center. Another person that helped with the study was Dr. Richard Sloan, a professor of behavioral medicine at Columbia University. Another author of this study was a chaplain by the name of Dean Marek. He serves at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.

All these men had different opinions on the results founded in the study. The Chaplain Dean Marek thought this study did not support the theory that prayer had no effect on recovery, especially when it pertained to family and friend’s prayer. The doctor’s views on the study were all generally the same. They believed the study showed that the health of the patients were affected by them knowing they were being prayed for and that caused negative results. Apparently it raised the body’s heart rate and caused flutters in the hearts rhythms.

The power of prayer may not be proven by scientists, but that still does not stop many from believing in prayer. Remarkable accounts of people’s lives have been documented, being healed miraculously from sicknesses that doctors couldn't treat. It comes down to basic faith, and the power of the mind over the body.