SpuriousMonkey - sorry to ignore your attempt to get back on course but just before leaving the faith/healing thing...
About two years ago I saw a news item from a Canadian university where blind tests conducted in a local hospital produced results suggesting that patients who were prayed for recovered better than those who were not, even though none of the patients knew who was being prayed for or who was part of the control group. This sounds unlikely but I tried to check it out. However I cannot find any other reference to the experiment. Anybody here ever come across it?
About two years ago I saw a news item from a Canadian university where blind tests conducted in a local hospital produced results suggesting that patients who were prayed for recovered better than those who were not, even though none of the patients knew who was being prayed for or who was part of the control group. This sounds unlikely but I tried to check it out. However I cannot find any other reference to the experiment. Anybody here ever come across it?