Write a summary, the summary should identify key points in each reading, including a statement of the thesis or central claim. Do NOT USE ANY OUTSIDE SOURCES, I will know if they are used. Ensure that

Conclusion What Science Can Show about Prayer T his book began by asking about the relationship between science and religion, a ffi rming the importance of respecting their distinct magisteria but also suggesting the advantages of bringing scient ifi c perspectives to bear on religious practices in a manner that is not simplistically reductionist. Although science can never prove nor dis- prove the so- called healing power of prayer, empirical perspectives can reveal a great deal about prayer for healing— just as attunement to religious perceptions can illumine much about the nature and prac- tice of science. Th e preceding chapters presented a s eries of views of how scientists and religious practitioners construct healing prayer, and of the empirical outcomes of praying for healing. Th e fi rst assign- ment of this conclusion is to bring the images re fl ected by each chap- ter into focus in order to e valuate intersections between perceptions and mea sure ments of healing. Th is assessment lays the groundwork for a s econd charge— developing a t heoretical model for interpreting the e ff ects of healing prayer practices. Studying Healing Prayer in the Context of Global Pentecostal Networks Th e prevalence of expectant prayer for healing among Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians makes these groups a logical focus for exploring Brown, Candy Gunther. Testing Prayer : Science and Healing, Harvard University Press, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pensu/detail.action?docID=3301122.

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276 Testing Prayer questions about prayer and healing. In par tic u lar, as the Apostolic Network of Global Awakening and Iris Ministries grew out of the Toronto Blessing, they made prayer for healing a prominent feature of conferences and international ministry trips, coincidentally providing con ve nient settings for empirical research. Participants in such pente- costal networks identify as members of a global Christian community that apparently transcends markers of ethnicity, language, and social class, as healing prayer functions as a defi ning ritual. Healing prac- tices spread as the global North imports a supernatural worldview in which God, angels, and demons intervene in natural a ff airs, whereas the global South imports a dem o cratized model in which ordinary Christians act as agents of healing. Th e e ff ects of globalization, including the globalization of pentecostal networks and healing practices, are not uniformly benign. Pentecostal approaches to h ealing can obscure or even intensify the pathogenic eff ects of systemic economic and po liti cal inequities. But participation in healing practices can also provide a strategy for social and po liti cal empowerment and produce tangible physical and emotional bene fi ts.

Early critics of the Toronto Blessing charged that the event failed to produce global revival or to b ene fi t eco nom ical ly poor people. From the vantage of 2011, it appears that Toronto became less signi fi cant as a pilgrimage destination as its in fl uences diff used, and other loca- tions, prominently including some of the poorest areas of the world— places such as the favelas of urban Brazil, ostracized gypsy communi- ties in Bulgaria, and mud- hut villages in rural Mozambique— became hosts to Toronto- in fl uenced revivals in which prayer for healing is a characteristic practice.

Why Scientific Methods Should Be Used to Study Prayer and How to Do It To ask the question of whether science can prove or disprove the heal- ing power of prayer points toward the unparalleled cultural authority of “science” in the modern Western world. Yet science in its current form is itself a culturally constructed category, simultaneously incor- porating both scienti fi c approaches and a v ariety of core sensibilities about the nature of the material world. Indeed, the arguments wielded Brown, Candy Gunther. Testing Prayer : Science and Healing, Harvard University Press, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pensu/detail.action?docID=3301122.

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Conclusion 277 in debates over prayer studies illustrate that scientists do not always behave dispassionately but can be just as driven by doctrinaire philo- sophical and theological agendas as can adherents of religious commu- nities. Debates over whether prayer should be the subject of scientifi c study began as an intramural argument between Eu ro pe an Protestant and Catholic Christians, with the latter fi nding support from main- stream scientists. In the nineteenth century, scienti fi c naturalists took the lead in urging empirical studies, whereas Protestant Christians re- sisted. A c entury later, both sets of cultural players switched sides. Sci- enti fi c naturalists opposed the study of prayer, while Protestant and Catholic Christians could be found among the supporters (and oppo- nents) of prayer studies. Strangest of all, the dictum of separating the magisteria of science and religion has sometimes devolved into dog- matic insistence that religious practices are off limits for scient ifi c study, coupled with an assertion of the absence of empirical e ff ects from practices that lack scienti fi c validation.

Despite the controversies generated by empirical studies of prayer, such studies should be undertaken. Given global health crises that con- ventional medicine has not adequately addressed, people every where pray for healing, expecting it may help and assuming it will not hurt.

It is an empirical question whether prayer for healing does, under cer- tain circumstances, produce empirical e ff ects. If prayer is demonstra- bly bad f or one’s health, then the widespread application of interces- sory prayer as a complementary therapy may be ethically problematic.

If, conversely, prayer directly or indirectly produces health bene fi ts, then studying prayer practices may provide insights that can be used to improve global health. Prayer can be studied empirically without any inappropriate blurring of science and religion. Although the mech- anisms by which prayer may a ff ect health are so far poorly understood, a growing body of empirical evidence points toward plausible physiolog- ical and psychosocial mechanisms by which thoughts, emotions, and social interactions infl uence health— without resorting to “supernatu- ral” explanations. Th is book has argued that an appropriate role for theology in empirical research on prayer is as an analytic tool to design studies with construct validity and ecological validity. In other words, studies should be designed to take into account beliefs and practices involved Brown, Candy Gunther. Testing Prayer : Science and Healing, Harvard University Press, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pensu/detail.action?docID=3301122.

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278 Testing Prayer in praying for healing in specifi c, natural contexts— such as Toronto- infl uenced pentecostal networks. Th eologically attuned studies are more likely to fi nd any e ff ects that exist while reducing the likelihood of seeming to fi nd e ff ects that are not really there. Empirical fi ndings, even of a therapeutic bene fi t from prayer, do not justify the theological conclusion that scientists should promote pentecostal prayer, just as neuroscienti fi c st udies of Buddhist meditation do not justify the cor- ollary that doctors should endorse Buddhism. In designing empirical studies of prayer, it is important to u se types of data and methods suited to t he par tic u lar questions considered. As the scienti fi c theorist Peter Lipton advises, “variety in the data” is an “evidential virtue.” Th e goal of comprehensive explanation can tempt the best researchers to st retch fi ndings further than they naturally ex- tend. Researchers have, for example, been susceptible to r elying on a single data pool— such as medical rec ords or survey responses— to an- swer such a co mplex question as whether prayer really results in heal- ing. Not fi nding compelling evidence based on one data set or method, researchers may prematurely conclude that there is no e ff ect, in viola- tion of the rationalist astronomer Carl Sagan’s dictum that the “absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.” Such fi ndings may reveal more about the limitations of relying too heavily on any one form of evidence or research method than they do about the empirical e ff ects of prayer.  Using a Variety of Data to Ask and Answer Appropriate Questions Medical Rec ords: Are Healing Claims Documented?

Medical evidence provides one index of whether someone claiming healing exhibits improved health. Medical rec ords can indicate that a problem was at one point diagnosed by a c redentialed professional and that on subsequent examination the condition appeared better or resolved, and that there is no obvious medical or natural explanation.

Despite the apparent objectivity of x-rays, laboratory reports, and doctors’ notes, the signifi cance of such documents requires subjective interpretation. Medical documentation cannot prove that prayer ac- Brown, Candy Gunther. Testing Prayer : Science and Healing, Harvard University Press, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pensu/detail.action?docID=3301122.

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Conclusion 279 counts for a r ecovery or that a d ivine or other suprahuman agent or force is responsible, or even that a co ndition has been permanently cured. Nor does the absence or incompleteness of medical documen- tation constitute evidence of the absence of healing.As with controversies surrounding clinical tests, there is a c ultural history to how scientists and religious practitioners construct medical documentation and how medical rec ords have been used in debates over religious healing. In the early twentieth century, those interested in discrediting religious healing claims were the fi rst to propose using medical rec ords as the standard for determining whether healings had occurred and how claims should be explained. Between the 1960s and the early 1990s, North American Charismatics took the initiative in collecting before- and- a ft er medical documentation of attested heal- ings. Since the 1990s, North American pentecostals have largely backed away from collecting medical rec ords, focusing instead on testimonies of subjectively experienced improvements. Re fl ecting a l ong- standing ambivalence toward modern medicine and a developing, postmodern esteem for narrative, spiritual experience, and physical sensation, some pentecostals view interest in medical documentation as the antipode of faith. In diff erence to medical validation of healing testimonies encour- ages exaggeration of the numbers of healings reported, and in some instances the intentional falsi fi cation of healings that never occurred.

Despite the challenges of collecting medical rec ords and the inher- ent limitations to what such rec ords can reveal, data collected between the 1960s and 2011 do indicate that some, though not all, individuals attesting to r eligious healing exhibited medically surprising recover- ies. Medical rec ords point to r esolution of a w ide variety of diseases and disabilities, including severe auditory and visual impairments and metastasized cancers. Th is evidence does not, however, by itself explain these recoveries. Th ere are also cases in which the medical evidence reveals in fl ated and even fraudulent claims.

Surveys: How Do Su ff erers Perceive Healing Prayer?

Surveys of participants in GA a nd IM healing conferences provide a cross- sectional gauge of certain people’s perceptions of the meanings Brown, Candy Gunther. Testing Prayer : Science and Healing, Harvard University Press, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pensu/detail.action?docID=3301122.

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280 Testing Prayer and outcomes of prayer practices at one moment in time. Th e survey conducted for this project was not designed to a ssess any cumulative eff ects of participating in multiple healing conferences. Survey data cannot con fi rm the accuracy of perceived changes in physical health or attributions of divine causation. Nor can surveys re fl ect how per- ceptions may diff er at another point in time. Nevertheless, how people experience and interpret their participation in healing rituals consti- tutes one important dimension of understanding the e ff ects of prayer practices. Most of the Brazilians and North Americans surveyed attested to past experiences of divine healing of physical ailments. Past healings, even of relatively minor conditions, elicited commentary years or de- cades later. Respondents interpreted healings that had stood the test of time as evidence of divine superintendence over their lives. Past heal- ing experiences, even if only partial, encouraged respondents to seek future prayer for the same or additional problems. Most conference attendees reported a c urrent need for healing of a p hysical problem, although relatively few conditions appeared to be life threatening. Many, but far from all, conference attendees reported experiencing healing at the current conference. Demographic factors (including race, nationality, education, income, age, gender, and pentecostal identity) did not predict healing needs, expectations, or experiences. Respon- dents were more likely to report hea ling of a physica l than an emot iona l or spiritual problem, just as they were more likely to have reported needing a physical healing; the most common problem noted was pain.

People were no more likely to report healing of conditions with less severe symptoms, of shorter duration, or of a less life- threatening na- ture than the conditions they had reported needing healed. Most re- spondents based their assessment of healing on the alleviation of phys- ical symptoms and, consequently, did not report healing of conditions that produced no or inconsistent symptoms. Respondents did not understand healing as an all- or- nothing phe- nomenon but as a pro cess that oft en takes time and repeated prayers to complete, especially for more serious conditions; even dramatic improvements are understood as the result of previously laid ground- work. Most respondents had a lready sought medical help, possibly Brown, Candy Gunther. Testing Prayer : Science and Healing, Harvard University Press, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pensu/detail.action?docID=3301122.

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Conclusion 281 alongside alternative remedies. Most had a lso prayed for healing of the same condition before the current conference, and most planned to continue praying, and possibly seeking medical treatment, if they were not healed during this event. It is interesting that those who re- ported a h igh expectation of healing during the surveyed event were no more likely to experience healing than those who admitted to not expecting healing.Th e typical respondent claiming healing reported being “almost completely” healed from pain related to t he same physical problem she came to t he conference wanting to ha ve healed. Respondents attrib- uted sicknesses to natural and spiritual causes, but they credited heal- ing following prayer to d ivine activity, possibly mixed with human faith. Th ose reporting healing oft en explained the experience as tan- gible evidence of God’s love and power.

Prospective Trials: Can Health Outcomes of Prayer be Mea sured?

Prospective clinical trials of proximal intercessory prayer (PIP) are well suited to a nswering the question of whether prayer practices re- su lt in mea sur able hea lt h cha nges. (Indeed, t hey are bet ter suited t ha n the more common approach of studying distant intercessory prayer.) As with any form of data, there are limits to the information about heal- ing experiences that quantifi able mea sure ments can provide. Scien- tifi c equipment cannot mea sure qualitative e ff ects, such as the physical sensations and avowedly spiritual phenomena that people sometimes cla i m to ex perience du ri ng prayer for hea li ng. Th e study we conducted, which focused on mea sur ing auditory and visual thresholds before and aft er P IP, was designed to de termine whether PIP results in any mea sur able e ff ects; the study did not seek to isolate responsible mech- anisms or to assess whether changes were long term. We began with the null hypothesis that PIP would have no signi fi - cant e ff ect. In rural Mozambique, we mea sured highly signi fi cant im- provements in hearing and statistically signi fi cant improvements in vision across the tested populations. Two auditory subjects exhibited hearing thresholds reduced by over 50 dBHL (on a 0 – 100 scale from Brown, Candy Gunther. Testing Prayer : Science and Healing, Harvard University Press, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pensu/detail.action?docID=3301122.

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282 Testing Prayer perfect hearing to deafness). Th ree visual subjects improved from be- ing unable to read the top line of an eye chart (20/400) to being able to read relatively fi ne print (20/80 or better); one visual subject who could not count fi ngers from 1 ′ away before PIP a ft erward read the 20/125 line of a vision chart. Potential confounds such as inadvertent hypno- sis or suggestion do not obviously account for these fi ndings. Much as survey respondents typically perceived improvement along a co ntin- uum, we mea sured improved hearing and vision thresholds rather than generally fi nding a cha nge from total deafness or blindness to a clinical standard of perfection. We partially replicated these results in a follow- up study in urban Brazil. We found statistically signi fi cant improvements in visual thresholds; hearing thresholds also improved signi fi cantly, but this result must be viewed with caution, due to post- PIP reduction in ambient noise in the Brazil data. In the few cases where we could conduct retests the following day, we mea sured fur- ther improvements— supporting the perception that post- PIP improve- ments are sometimes progressive. We attempted similar tests in the United States, but found the fi eld conditions surprisingly more chal- lenging, because fewer people actively seek prayer for healing of im- paired vision or hearing, and testing procedures proved more disrup- tive to natural prayer practices.

Follow- up: Do Healing Experiences Produce Lasting E ff ects?

Longitudinal follow- up observations and interviews of subjects re- porting healing help to a nswer the question of whether healing ex- periences lead to a ny long- term changes. As with every other class of data, there are limits to what follow- up, even when conducted over as many as eight years as in this study, can demonstrate. Th e case study approach is not well suited to statistical analysis, nor is it easy to dem- onstrate that selected examples are representative. Th e claim that a healing has been maintained over time does not in itself constitute proof. Th ere is oft en no way to verif y in for ma nts’ cla ims— for insta nce that someone was dead and then resurrected, or oppressed by demons and then liberated— but it is sometimes possible, through repeated observations, to n ote changes in a p erson’s demeanor and behavior Brown, Candy Gunther. Testing Prayer : Science and Healing, Harvard University Press, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pensu/detail.action?docID=3301122.

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Conclusion 283 aft er a p erceived healing and to t race lines of in fl uence on other people. Th e interlocking set of case studies analyzed indicate that, in cer- tain instances, healing experiences reshape the attitudes and behaviors of those who perceive themselves to have been healed. Th ere is also evi- dence that the e ff ects multiply as in fl uences extend to family, friends, and other people in the healed individual’s social network with whom relational ties may be weak, indirect, or transitory. Th rough a complex web of social interactions that bridge distinct geographic and social groups and mediate cultural and linguistic di ff erences, a single healing experience can generate a domino e ff ect that reverberates through global pentecostal networks. One individual who experiences healing prays for another, who also experiences healing, who prays for another, and so on as the e ff ects branch outward. Healings set o ff chain reactions. For instance, they may inspire forgiveness of those who caused an a ffl ic- tion, which is understood to release more healing for the one who for- gave, and prompt the one forgiven to express love, possibly by praying for others to be healed. Th ose who convert to pentecostal Christianity typically point to successful healing interactions, oft en following un- successful attempts to experience healing through other medical and religious practices, as motivating their decisions. Indeed, there is evi- dence that the global expansion of pentecostalism occurs primarily through the repetition of many such healing exchanges. Individuals interviewed recalled past healing experiences as de fi n- ing life events through which they personally experienced God’s love and power. Healing experiences attributed to d ivine love motivated in for mants to forgive those who had wronged them; to pray for other people’s healing, both close to h ome and by traveling to o ther coun- tries; to participate in acts of social benevolence intended to bene fi t eco nom ical ly poor people; and to engage in high- risk behavior for the purpose of helping others. Not all such e ff orts achieved their intended eff ects; examples can be cited in which the same actions that socially powerful agents constructed as “loving” may have been constructed by recipients as paternalistic, coercive, and harmful. But where sick- ness tended toward self- focus, healing removed obstacles to seeing the needs of others, and the experience of relief from su ff ering heightened Brown, Candy Gunther. Testing Prayer : Science and Healing, Harvard University Press, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pensu/detail.action?docID=3301122.

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284 Testing Prayer compassion for other people’s suff ering. In for mants understood love as a key to releasing power for healing. Although in for mants acknowl- edged delays and failure in seeking healing for themselves and for others, many refused to stop believing, loving, or praying for a f uller release of love and power to heal.

Toward a Theory of the Effects of Healing Prayer None of the empirical perspectives presented, alone or in combina- tion, proves that prayer results in healing for the reasons given by practitioners. Nevertheless, the widespread perception that prayer re- leases divine healing has demonstrably real social e ff ects, and in some cases the social interactions involved in healing rituals produce mea- sur able health e ff ects. Many pentecostals practice prayer for healing in the context of globalized social networks. Th eories of pentecostal prayer should therefore involve a social networks perspective. Th e frequency with which the pentecostals studied correlate heal- ing experiences with expressions of love suggests that a study of pen- tecostal healing is in part a st udy of the emotions, particularly social exchanges of love, including altruistic behavior. Here it is useful to build on the so cio log i cal theories of social constructionism, social networks, interaction ritual chains, love energy, and Godly Love that were outlined in the introduction. Th e Godly Love model posits a per- ceived “dynamic interaction between divine and human love that en- livens and expands benevolence.” Th e model does not imply ontologi- cal claims about whether or not divine or suprahuman agents or forces actually exist or intervene in human a ff airs. Th e crucial theoretical question is how socially mediated perceptions a ff ect the behaviors of individuals and interdependent social units. Using the labels exemplars (a k i n t o my t e r m leaders), collaborators (a k i n t o partners), bene fi ciaries (akin to recipients ), and God (akin to suprahuman source/object ), Lee and Poloma depict Godly Love as a “diamond model” of interactions among occupants of four social roles ( fi gure 7.1).  Th e diamond model accentuates the theoretical claim that “Godly Love is ultimately about interactions in a network, not character traits of individuals.” By i mplication, altruism may be explained less as a Brown, Candy Gunther. Testing Prayer : Science and Healing, Harvard University Press, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pensu/detail.action?docID=3301122.

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Conclusion 285 product of exceptional personality traits or biological dispositions than as a result of social interactions that generate love energy. Th e eff ects may multiply as they spread because, as Lee and Poloma ex- plain, a “fl ame can light many torches.” Th us, one Godly Love interac- tion can produce off shoots that diff use widely through interrelated social networks.  My study suggests that social interactions focused on healing ritu- als create an e ff ervescence or augmentation of morally su ff used emo- tional energy. To put it simply, individuals who experience healing through pentecostal prayer rituals credit divine love and power for their recoveries, and they consequently feel motivated to express greater love for God and other people. As motivational energy empowers benevolent actions, the e ff ects snowball. Even one dramatic healing experience can position an individual in the social role of a leader in pentecostal net- works, someone who models healing practices for partners and recipi- ents. Leaders function as brokers of social capital as the widespread, even global, dissemination of exemplary healing testimonies bridges GOD EX EM P L AR EX EM P L AR’ S COLLABORATORS BENEFI CI ARI ES Figure 7.1. Th e diamond model of Godly Love. Reprinted with permission from Matthew T. Lee and Margaret M. Poloma, A So cio log i cal Study of the Great Commandment in Pentecostalism: Th e Practice of Godly Love as Benevolent Ser vice (Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen, 2009), 29.

Brown, Candy Gunther. Testing Prayer : Science and Healing, Harvard University Press, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pensu/detail.action?docID=3301122.

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286 Testing Prayer otherwise separate social networks and spurs others to e xpress love within and across networks. As leaders and partners direct their energy toward recipients— by praying for healing or seeking to m eet other practical needs— leaders and partners both disburse and draw energy from these interactions; as a r esult, the net volume of energy ava i lable to do benevolent work i ncreases. Somet i mes eff orts to extend love misfi re, as when inequitable power relations allow leaders— intentionally or not— to coerce partners and recipients to r espond to initiatives in par tic u lar ways. Yet the willingness of pentecostals to expend energ y is sustained by t he perception t hat t heirs is not a closed system in which the total value of energy must be conserved. Rather, pentecostals perceive themselves to be continually receiving additional energy input from a hypothesized divine source. Th is perception of the ongoing entry of unlimited love— regardless of whether any such i n- fl ow actually occurs— facilitates the productive social interactions that generate new energy as leaders, partners, and recipients all experience love through their mutual exchanges. Any diagram of the healing exchanges that cement and proliferate pentecostal networks must necessarily be highly selective and incom- plete. Figure 7.2 uses some of the individuals who populate this book to represent a si ngle sector of a m uch wider, decentralized network system. Repositioning the camera would bring di ff erent individuals into the center of view. As narrated in chapter 6, Randy Clark ’s heal- ing at age eigh teen generated ripples that augmented into surging cur- rents to e xpand the reach of pentecostal networks. Just as concentric circles surround Clark— with the closest embracing members of the Revival Alliance, the next encompassing other ministry partners, and the fi nal circle denoting recipients— a similar set of circles could be drawn around other individuals in this network. Double arrows indi- cate mutual relationships; single arrows suggest primarily unidirec- tional infl uences. Certain individuals exhibit thicker network connec- t i o n s , w h e r e a s o t h e r s a r e m o r e p e r i p h e r a l t o t h e hu b s s e l e c t e d h e r e — b u t many of these apparently minor fi gures play major leadership roles in diff erent spheres of in fl uence. Even individuals fi gured here as recipients become partners and leaders when interacting with other recipients.

Th e outer ring represents a kind of expanding universe of love energy, Brown, Candy Gunther. Testing Prayer : Science and Healing, Harvard University Press, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pensu/detail.action?docID=3301122.

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Conclusion 287 with participants in healing rituals envisioning themselves as receiv- ing love as they extend love to other people and back toward the pre- sumed energy source.Although not numerically quanti fi able, the love energy generated by participating in healing rituals can be mea sured qualitatively, draw- ing on the fi ve mea sures proposed by the sociologist Pitirim Sorokin:

intensity, extensity, duration, purity, and adequacy. In for mants report- ing healing experiences commonly report subsequent changes in their behavior that can be interpreted as exhibiting increases in both the in- tensity and extensity of their expressions of love, although sometimes Pierce Wimber Magiera Chavda Johnson Casa de Davi Mimi Susan Donna Antonio Fernando Katshinyi Francis Love Energy Arnott Cabrera Annacondia Bottari Baker George Maloney Bentley Ahn Banov Howard- Browne Freidzon Oates Ernesto Clark Figure 7.2. A network model of love energy fl ows.

Brown, Candy Gunther. Testing Prayer : Science and Healing, Harvard University Press, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pensu/detail.action?docID=3301122.

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288 Testing Prayer there appears to be a t radeoff between these qualities. Th ose who be- come pentecostal network leaders a ft er themselves receiving healing may give more sacri fi cially, or intensely, of their time, money, or energy to meet other people’s needs. For instance, they may spend many hours praying for others; fast from food while praying for breakthrough; or provide homes for orphaned children. Leaders may not only show con- cern for family, friends, or in- group members but, more extensively, undertake grueling international travel schedules to b ene fi t those in other countries. Th ere is a tension here between extensity and intensity, b e c a u s e s e r v i c e t o o t h e r s , p a r t i c u l a r l y w h e n i t i n v o l v e s t i m e - c o n s u m i n g or high- risk behaviors, can take away from time and energy available for investing in immediate relationships with family and friends. For some individuals, there is evidence that the e ff ects of a si ngle healing experience endure over a period of years or de cades, prompting con- tinual exertion on behalf of others. It seems though that those indi- viduals who respond to healing experiences primarily by undertaking international ministry trips may exhibit love energy of shorter dura- tion than those who engage in longer- term forms of ser vice. Evidence suggests that those who perceive themselves to be the recipients of intense experiences of divine love— expressed through healing of a condition that is especially severe or long term, or that has a p oor prognosis— may express qualitatively higher degrees of love energy compared with those who experienced more minor healings. It seems also that healing experienced aft er per sis tent prayers over a longer pe- riod of time may make a deeper, more enduring impression on recipi- ents than healing that is rapidly and easily experienced.  Th e fi nal two mea sures, purity and adequacy, are more di ffi cult to gauge, because they involve more complex considerations. Th ere is clear evidence of the impurity of motives of those individuals who can be demonstrated to have falsi fi ed their healing claims or dehuman- ized those for whom they prayed while seeking to add to pseudostatis- tical tallies of healings; such actions appear self- promoting rather than benevolent. Certain pentecostals, perhaps unconsciously, may use heal- ing rituals to bolster their own po liti cal and economic positions at the expense of other members of their social networks. Most of those active in praying for others do seem concerned with the well- being of recipi- Brown, Candy Gunther. Testing Prayer : Science and Healing, Harvard University Press, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pensu/detail.action?docID=3301122.

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Conclusion 289 ents, although those praying may at times exhibit condescending atti- tudes and engage in controlling behaviors. Leaders and partners in healing rituals may also hope to reap immaterial benefi ts, such a s in- creased faith, the privilege of witnessing apparent miracles, and future- oriented heavenly rewards, from participating in global revivals. Th ere is suggestive evidence that participation in healing rituals in the con- text of pentecostal networks builds social capital and indirectly exerts largely positive health eff ects on all participants, regardless of whether their role is that of leader, partner, or recipient. Such interactions map uneasily onto predominant understandings of altruism, which require that truly altruistic actors must not be mo- tivated by even immaterial self- interest. Such a restrictive de fi nition of altruism may, however, miss the dynamics of the production of love energy and in e ff ect de fi ne out of existence a sig ni fi cant social phe- nomenon. Leaders and partners need recipients as targets of their benevolence and draw emotional energy from their interactions with them. But it is signi fi cant that the result is a n et increase in the love energy available to be spread throughout and beyond involved social networks. Moreover, because individuals and larger social units can simultaneously occupy multiple network roles, bestowal of benevo- lence does not necessarily imply patronizing attitudes or a hierarchical relationship among those occupying various roles. Indeed, in the pente- costal worldview, those positioned as recipients— in other words, those who need help from other network members and especially those who lack worldly power and status— are accorded higher spiritual status and envisioned as potential partners and leaders. Th us, a range of motives seems to be involved in healing rituals, and the presence of immaterial forms of self- interest does not seem inherently opposed to the expres- sion of altruism.  Th e question of adequacy seems particularly germane to evaluating whether prayer for healing should be classed as a form of benevolence.

One way to e valuate adequacy is to a sk whether prayer for healing results in healing or cure. Th ere is evidence that many, though by no \bm eans all, recipients of prayer perceive themselves to have been healed; medical rec ords con fi rm that some of those reporting healing exhibited medically surprising recoveries; and data indicate that Brown, Candy Gunther. Testing Prayer : Science and Healing, Harvard University Press, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pensu/detail.action?docID=3301122.

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290 Testing Prayer proximal intercessory prayer sometimes produces mea sur able health eff ects. Th ere are also clear instances of failure, as when people remain blind or deaf or die of cancer despite repeated prayers for healing.

Some of those for whom a c ure remains elusive doubtless experience disappointment, frustration, and intensi fi ed su ff ering. Yet some of those who fail to e xperience a c ure indicate that they feel loved be- cause of the social support of having someone pray for them or that they feel bene fi ted by a partial improvement in symptoms. When suc- cessful, the per for mance of healing rituals motivates recipients to ac t as partners and leaders who seek to e xpress love for others, for in- stance, by praying for other people’s healing or by seeking to meet the practical needs of eco nom ical ly poor people. Th ere is reason to sus- pect, however, that privileging divine healing as a pa rticularly valu- able embodiment of love may also lead to myopia regarding systemic social and po liti cal causes of su ff ering, thereby promoting disinterest in using natural tools to meet people’s needs. If, moreover, prayer ex- erts its bene fi ts through natural mechanisms, but practitioners inac- curately attribute healing to d ivine activity, even inadvertent decep- tion may undermine the adequacy of the ritual as an expression of love. Conversely, the argument can be forwarded that practices are adequate as long as they result in healing, whether or not the causes are fully understood. To add f urther complexity, perception of a d i- vine pro cess, whether or not accurate, may activate therapeutic mind- body interactions. Th ere may also be a tensi on between adequacy of eff ects and purity of motives, because the practices most e ff ective in producing healing may yield the greatest bene fi ts for leaders and part- ners as well as recipients. Th e fi ve mea sures of love energy assessed here provide one, but cer- tainly not the only, tool for interpreting the social signi fi cance of heal- ing prayer rituals. In actual practice, most prayer for healing occurs in the fl uid context of relationships, oft en under the pressure of intense human su ff ering. Mortal humans, faced with needs that appear to be more than a match for their material resources, call out for divine or suprahuman assistance. When help seems to come, people respond in gratitude by doing what their ritual participation has taught them Brown, Candy Gunther. Testing Prayer : Science and Healing, Harvard University Press, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pensu/detail.action?docID=3301122.

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Conclusion 291 how to do: pray for themselves and for others, oft en in the context of pentecostal social networks.

Future Research Th is book has not answered all the questions it raised, and this has not been the intention. My hope is that other researchers will build in various ways on the foundations laid here and accept an invitation to bring science and religion into dialogue to e xamine empirical e ff ects of prayer for healing. I, too, am continuing to build— with plans for at least two related books about spiritual healing practices, both within and beyond Christian cultures. I w ould also like to s ee larger- scale, more re fi ned clinical trials of the e ff ects of proximal intercessory prayer on subjects in such co untries as Mozambique, Brazil, India, and the United States. Perhaps the most obvious conclusion to draw from fi nd- ings collected to date is that, regardless of what researchers have to say, people from around the world will continue to p ray for healing and perceive healing, and many of them will do so in the context of expand- ing global pentecostal networks. Given this empirical fact, it seems prudent to draw on as many perspectives and methods as possible to understand the implications for how people will experience the twenty- fi rst- century world.

Brown, Candy Gunther. Testing Prayer : Science and Healing, Harvard University Press, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pensu/detail.action?docID=3301122.

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