“If you talk to God, you are praying. If God talks to you, you have schizophrenia.”
Thomas Szasz
In previous blogs I’ve mused a bit about the relatively high base rate of leadership incompetence (estimated to be 50%) and the challenge of predicting future leadership behavior.
Maybe praying for leaders can’t hurt–or can it?
I’ve become a bit more interested in the association between spirituality and religiosity with health given some research I am involved in with those who suffer from a pretty challenging chronic illness called Multiple Sclerosis ((Giesser, B., Coleman, L., Fisher, S., Guttry, M., Herlihy, E., Nonoguch, S., Nowack, D., Roberts, C. & Nowack, K. (2005). Living Well: An integrative approach to wellness with multiple sclerosis. Paper presented at Annual Conference of The American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine (ACRM) Board/American Society of Neurorehabilitation (ASNR), Chicago, Illinois. UCLA Department of Neurology and National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Southern California Chapter)).  In our own research we have seen that through a structured 12-week cognitive behavioral health program, clients with multiple sclerosis report enhanced spirituality and well-being at the end of the program compared to when they started. I’ve also wondered alot about the relationship between being prayed for and recovery from a medical condition and illness.
Although a number of published studies have tested this hypothesis, only three have sufficient empirical  rigor to truly evaluate the impact of remote prayer on health and well-being ((Powell, L., Shahabi, L., & Thoresen, C. (2003). Religion and Spirituality: Linkages to Physical Health. American Psychologist. 58, 36-52)). Two of these studies used similar designs and examined the impact of remote prayer on patients recovering in the coronary care unit. Both of these coronary heart studies found those who received daily prayers from distant healers experienced significantly less complications and medical problems than the control groups.
The third study was with 40 patients with advanced AIDS who were randomized into a 10 week distant healing group or to a control.  Those prayed for had lower medical utilization, fewer complications and lower severity scores than the control group.
In 2008, a study including 1,802 patients in six hospitals by Hebert Benson and his colleagues at Harvard Medical School ((Benson H, Dusek JA, Sherwood JB, Lam P, Bethea CF, Carpenter W, Levitsky S, Hill PC, Clem DW Jr, Jain MK, Drumel D, Kopecky SL, Mueller PS, Marek D, Rollins S, Hibberd PL. (2006). Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer (STEP) in cardiac bypass patients: a multicenter randomized trial of uncertainty and certainty of receiving intercessory prayer. 151(4):934-42)) failed to show any impact of remote prayer although there has been some criticism of the study design (e.g., 45% of those invited to participate elected not to be part of the study, intercessors were not allowed to pray their own prayers and it was impossible to limit prayers for those in the “control” group). Benson’s study was supposed to answer once and for all whether remote prayer really could make a difference on those with an illness or not.
One unexpected  finding of Benson’s study worth noting was that those who knew they were being prayed for did worse than the other two groups.
Well, research on the link between spirituality and religiosity is pretty messy but all of studies mentioned above are hard to explain and the strongest evidence of significant findings seemed to be for outcomes that were mostly subjective, rather than, hard medical endpoints. In at least a few studies, remote prayer did seem to impact some important aspects of patients medical course and conditions.
I’m sure many of us who have ever worked for difficult bosses went home after a long day were hoping that spontaneous prayer by others might actually convert them  into caring, participative and involvement oriented leaders.
I guess it can’t hurt but if Benson’s research is spot on, we definitely want to keep it a secret….Be well….
[tags]emotional intelligence, competent jerks, remote prayer, stress, leadership,spirituality at work, talent management, engagement, productivity, bad bosses, kenneth nowack, ken nowack, nowack[/tags]
Ken Nowack
Kenneth Nowack, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist (PSY13758) and President & Chief Research Officer/Co-Founder of Envisia Learning, is a member of the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations. Ken also serves as the Associate Editor of Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research. His recent book Clueless: Coaching People Who Just Don’t Get It is available for free for a limited time by signing up for free blog updates (Learn more at our website)
