This is partly because mystery is such a ubiquitous part of our world. From the inner workings of the human mind to the nature of the universe, there seem to be an infinite number of unanswered questions about our existence.
Why am I waxing philosophical all of a sudden? It has to do with a medical study that I recently read about. It’s forthcoming in the Southern Medical Journal. The study showed strong evidence for the healing power of “proximal intercessory prayer.” This is when one or more people pray for an individual while in their presence.
According to this article:
“A team of medical doctors and scientists led by Indiana University professor of religion Candy Gunther Brown found in the study, conducted in rural Mozambique, that prayer brought “highly significant” improvements to hearing-impaired participants and significant changes to the visually impaired . . . Two of the hard-of-hearing study participants were able to hear sounds at 50 decibels lower after the prayer session and three of the visually impaired subjects saw their vision improve from 20/400 or worse to 20/80 or better.”
Whatever your feelings about religion, this is a mysterious – and humbling – finding. Every now and then, it’s refreshing to be reminded how incomplete our understanding of our world really is.
