Effects of remote, retroactive intercessory prayer on outcomes in patients with bloodstream infection: randomised controlled trial
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Plain English Summary
One of the most mind-bending medical studies ever: a proper double-blind randomized trial asking whether prayer can heal people backward through time. In 2000, someone prayed for hospital patients who had bloodstream infections between 1990 and 1996 — four to ten years after they were already sick. With nearly 3,400 patients, results were genuinely strange. Mortality was slightly lower in the prayed-for group but not statistically significant. However, hospital stays were significantly shorter and fevers resolved faster. Blinding was perfect since nobody could tamper with outcomes already years in the past. Published in the BMJ's playful Christmas issue, it sits in a fascinating gray zone: either a hint that causality runs backward, or proof that clinical trials applied to supernatural claims yield absurd results.
Research Notes
The most extreme test of intercessory prayer: retroactive intervention 4-10 years after patients' infections. Perfect blinding was inherent in the design. Frequently discussed as either a genuine anomaly or a reductio ad absurdum of applying RCTs to supernatural claims. Relevant to both the distant healing controversy (#5) and retrocausation debates.
Double-blind RCT testing whether retroactive intercessory prayer affects outcomes in 3,393 patients with bloodstream infection at Rabin Medical Center, Israel (1990-1996). In July 2000, patients were randomized and a single person said a short prayer for the intervention group's recovery — 4 to 10 years after the infections. Mortality was 28.1% (475/1691) in the intervention group versus 30.2% (514/1702) in controls (P = 0.4, not significant). Length of hospital stay was significantly shorter in the intervention group (median 7 vs 8 days, P = 0.01), as was duration of fever (P = 0.04). Published in the BMJ Christmas issue, the study is both methodologically rigorous and conceptually provocative, testing retrocausal prayer with a large, well-balanced sample.
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- 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 — Benson, Herbert (2006)
- Integrative Noetic Therapies as Adjuncts to Percutaneous Intervention During Unstable Coronary Syndromes: Monitoring and Actualization of Noetic Training (MANTRA) Feasibility Pilot — Krucoff, Mitchell W (2001)
- Music, Imagery, Touch, and Prayer as Adjuncts to Interventional Cardiac Care: The Monitoring and Actualisation of Noetic Trainings (MANTRA) II Randomised Study — Krucoff, Mitchell W (2005)
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📋 Cite this paper
Leibovici, Leonard (2001). Effects of remote, retroactive intercessory prayer on outcomes in patients with bloodstream infection: randomised controlled trial. BMJ. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.323.7327.1450
@article{leibovici_2001_retroactive_prayer,
title = {Effects of remote, retroactive intercessory prayer on outcomes in patients with bloodstream infection: randomised controlled trial},
author = {Leibovici, Leonard},
year = {2001},
journal = {BMJ},
doi = {10.1136/bmj.323.7327.1450},
}