Magical Thinking

Do you roll your eyes or get angry when you hear the words “thoughts and prayers”? This is an expression increasingly associated with the gun lobby trying to force us to accept endless mass shootings.

But it is also an example of magical thinking. Does anyone think that their thoughts or prayers have any actual effect? Actually, millions do. About 2/3 of Americans pray at least once a week and most of them pray every day.

Ambrose Bierce defined prayer this way: “To ask the laws of the universe to be annulled on behalf of a single petitioner confessedly unworthy.”

A 2019 Psychology Today article summarized research on prayer. Starting with British statistician Francis Galton in the 1870s. Galton realized that the Royal Family receives vastly more prayers than anyone else, because the Anglican Church has such prayer as a weekly ritual.

Galton determined that the Royals have no better health or longevity than the rest of the British population.

The Templeton Foundation actively funds research to validate the power of religious beliefs and practices. Full disclosure: I am an indirect beneficiary of their funding. In 2006 they paid $2.4 million to fund the largest and most scientifically rigorous study of prayer. Both double blind and with a control group.

They studied over 1,800 coronary bypass patients in recovery. Divided into three groups: Two of the groups were prayed for. One group was told they may or may not be receiving prayers. The other was told they definitely were being prayed for. The third group was not prayed for, but they were also told they may or may not be getting prayers.

The result? A slightly higher rate of major complications for those who had been prayed for. Easily explained as just bad luck. Basically, no difference among the three groups.

The small French town of Lourdes receives over three million pilgrims each year, desperate for a cure. This has been going on since 1874. The Church claims to have documented 70 official “miracles.” I would be willing to bet a lot of money that not one of those miracles involved an amputee.

“God hates amputees” was an actual website. Based on the fact that there are many claims about miracle cures by God. But amputees never seem to get a break.

Even if those 70 “miracles” are real, why didn’t the other tens of millions of worthy pilgrims get cured? In Matthew 17:20, Jesus assures his followers that they literally can move mountains if they pray.

Emily Rosa was the youngest person to have a research paper published in a peer reviewed medical journal. At age nine she challenged “therapeutic touch” practitioners to a challenge. She blindfolded the practitioners and placed her hand above one of their hands. They did no better than chance guessing which hand. Others had tried to do such tests before. But she was able to get cooperative subjects because it was for her fourth-grade science fair and they must have thought this was cute. Actually, it was real science.

Why do I bring this up? Because it is easy to laugh at the absurdities of other people. But almost 20 years ago I bought the textbook Consciousness by British researcher Sue Blackmore and had a surprising discovery. I had met her at “The Science of Consciousness” conference. She amusingly signed the book with “Are you sure you’re conscious?”

But for decades before she studied consciousness, she studied paranormal phenomena. Certain that she would make a revolutionary discovery that would overturn our understanding of physics. It took her decades to realize this was not happening. One after another, the paranormal phenomena turned out not to be real or were misunderstood.

She publicly declared in 2000 that she was ending her search and throwing all those files in the recycle bin.

In Consciousness she offered this exercise: Set aside your magical beliefs for just a few days and see how life changes. That is when I realized that I have them, too. When my computer crashed and I tried in vain to reboot it, I would wish and hope it would recover. I tried her way. Just watch. Observe. Don’t wish, hope or try to will the outcome. It is a surprising feeling! Try it!

But what happens when a friend is going in for risky surgery? I still might say, “I hope all goes well.” But I am not meaning that my hope will change the outcome. I am just saying, “I care.”