O'Laoire S
Altern Ther Health Med. 1997 Nov;3(6):38-53.
Randomized, controlled, double-blind study.
496 volunteers: those who prayed (agents, n = 90) and those who were prayed for (subjects, n = 406).
Agents were randomly assigned to either a directed or nondirected prayer group; photos and names of subjects were used as a focus. Subjects were randomly assigned to three groups: those prayed for by nondirected agents, a control group, and those prayed for by directed agents. Prayer was offered for 15 minutes daily for 12 weeks. Each subject was prayed for by three agents.
Five pretest and posttest objective measures and six posttest subjective measures were taken.
Subjects improved significantly on all 11 measures. Agents improved significantly on 10 measures. A significant positive correlation was found between the amount of prayer the agents did and their scores on the five objective tests. Agents had significantly better scores than did subjects on all objective measures. Subjects' views of the locus of God's action showed significance in three objective measures. Improvement on four objective measures was significantly related to subjects' belief in the power of prayer for others. Improvement on all II measures was significantly related to subjects' conviction concerning whether they had been assigned to a control or an experimental group. Possible explanations include the placebo/faith effect, the time displaced effect, and extraneous prayer.
随机、对照、双盲研究。
496名志愿者，包括祈祷者（施予者，n = 90）和接受祈祷者（受试者，n = 406）。
施予者被随机分配到定向祈祷组或非定向祈祷组；以受试者的照片和名字作为祈祷焦点。受试者被随机分配到三组：接受非定向施予者祈祷的组、对照组以及接受定向施予者祈祷的组。祈祷为期12周，每天进行15分钟。每位受试者由三名施予者为其祈祷。
进行了5项测试前和测试后的客观测量以及6项测试后的主观测量。
受试者在所有11项测量指标上均有显著改善。施予者在10项测量指标上有显著改善。施予者祈祷的次数与其在5项客观测试中的得分之间存在显著正相关。在所有客观测量指标上，施予者的得分显著高于受试者。受试者对上帝行动轨迹的看法在3项客观测量指标上显示出显著性。4项客观测量指标的改善与受试者对为他人祈祷力量的信念显著相关。所有11项测量指标的改善与受试者对自己被分配到对照组还是实验组的信念显著相关。可能的解释包括安慰剂/信念效应、时间置换效应和额外祈祷。
