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I'm and what prayer begins to do is to

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attenuate those stress responses if

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those stress responses are activated too

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frequently or for to prolonged a period

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of time again a lot of literature that

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demonstrates that that can be

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detrimental to one's health so those

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processes are attenuated what becomes

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augmented is the parasympathetic

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functioning and we get lots of goodies

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from parasympathetic functioning

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pro-social behavior positive affect the

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anabolic processes of the body are

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enhanced so its restorative reparative

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and of course the immune system to would

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be influenced in ways because of the

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intimate relationship between the

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nervous system and the immune system the

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immune systems functioning is enhanced

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in ways that would promote health as I

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mentioned it's a different animal when

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we talk about intercessory prayer so

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private periyar personal prayer we

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understand it we understand the outcomes

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more so we understand the naturalistic

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mechanisms again that provide the

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connection between prayer and outcomes

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when we talk about intercessory prayer

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we are talking about again prayer that's

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offered by an individual on behalf of

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someone else oftentimes the intercessors

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and the recipient are separated by large

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distance there may be an intercessory

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east coast who's praying for someone in

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the Midwest or on the other side of the

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planet and yet there's some data to

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suggest that health can be shifted in

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those individuals so consequently you

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we're not sure if the phenomenon exists

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we're not sure what the mechanisms are

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so there's a lot of debate in the

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literature around even conducting this

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research what I want to talk about today

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is three studies to set the foundation

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of in part why I went ahead and did my

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study on the non-human primates I want

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to begin with bird study in 1988 there

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was some literature on intercessory

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prayer that occurred prior but bird

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study was really the seminal piece of

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research that began

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increased interest in their intercessory

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prayer and led to the various trials

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that we've seen in the past 20 years

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what bird decided to do is take a look

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at the effects of intercessory prayer

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and approximately 400 coronary care unit

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patients the trial was randomized it was

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control that was double-blind patients

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were aware that they were participating

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in an IP study they were not aware

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whether or not they were receiving

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prayer so they were blinded to that the

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prayer was directed and when we talk

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about prayer being directed this would

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be instructions being given to the

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intercessors that they would pray for

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particular outcomes it happens often

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frequently in fact that intercessors are

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given directions there's little tracking

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whether or not the intercessors actually

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follow the directions because people who

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are engaged in an intercessory prayer

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practice can pray in a variety of

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different ways for health and healing

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but in this case it was directed daily

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IP by a team of Christian intercessors

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only during hospitalization for these

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patients they were given the patient's

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first name the diagnosis and updates on

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the condition of the patient while the

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patient was hospitalized what word took

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a look at was a number of factors length

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of hospitalization new problems that may

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have developed in the patient diagnosis

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therapeutic events during

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hospitalization were assessed now there

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were approximately 30 variables that

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bird was looking at so out of the 30

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some-odd variables that were looked at

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there were a few that were in fact

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significant the group that received the

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prayer was favored for fewer cases of

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congestive heart failure and pneumonia

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they required fewer antibiotics fewer

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diuretics and less intubation and

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ventilation bird also created a hospital

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course score and he stratified by good

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intermediate and bad and what were took

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a look at was numbers of new diagnosis

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therapies morbidity level risk of death

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and created this hospital course score

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which was also favored in the IP group

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their course was better than the

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patients who did not receive

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prayer for about a decade there was

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little that was happening in terms of

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prayer research the next study of some

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notice Harris's work in 99 driven in

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part by the fact that there had been no

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further IP research and they wanted to

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replicate bird study to see what they

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themselves would come up with they also

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use coronary care unit patients the

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sample approximately doubled it was

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close to a thousand also randomised

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controlled this was completely blind it

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was triple blind patients and staff were

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unaware that a trial was even being

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conducted so this was happening

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independently of any patients knowledge

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of staff's knowledge once again directed

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prayer daily five Christian intercessors

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following admission the prayer continued

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here for 28 days the intercessors were

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only given the patient's first name so

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they may have been given John or Mary

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even though out of the thousand patients

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there may have been multiple John's or

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multiple Mary's first name only the

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primary endpoint for this study was a

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score that was created by the research

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team the mahi CCU score and mahi is in

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an acronym verb Mid America Heart

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Institute the Medical Center where the

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study was based beeping then this

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primary endpoint was based on the

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hospital course score they created their

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own measure out of a number of factors

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from relatively minor occurrences like

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needing antibiotics to fairly major

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occurrences for example the patient died

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those outcomes were weighted so

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antibiotics would have been weighted

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much differently of course and if the

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patient ended up dying and there was no

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difference in terms of hospital stay

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just like birds group that didn't make

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any difference between the groups

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however looking at the mahi CCU score

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the weighted score the IP group fared

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better they also decided to just take a

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look an actual count of events so an

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unweighted score and compared the two

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groups and once again the group that

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received prayer fared better than the

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group that was not prayed for let's move

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forward a few years to the most recent

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trial that

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has gained attention in the literature

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and that was benson study in 2006 it was

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the most ambitious undertaking to date

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to study the effects of intercessory

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prayer the questions that this study

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posed were somewhat different than what

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we've seen in little bit in the

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literature to this point part of the

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interest of the researchers was to

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examine whether it was intercessory

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prayer itself or the knowledge or

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certainty of receiving intercessory

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prayer that would influence both primary

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outcomes which were complications

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relatively minor complications patients

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would experience or secondary outcomes

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which were more major major events or

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mortality and cabbage patients within 30

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days of cabbage surgery the patients

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were aware that they were participating

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in an IP study there were three groups

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of approximately 1,800 patients total so

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about 600 patients per group there were

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two groups that were uncertain of their

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receipt of prayer out of those two

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groups one group received prayer the

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other group did not but both groups knew

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that they might possibly be receiving it

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the third group was told they were

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receiving prayer and in fact received

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prayer directed intercessory prayer was

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provided for 14 days beginning the night

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before surgery there were three groups

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of Christian intercessors there was no

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difference in secondary outcomes across

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the group so there were no major event

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differences no death differences if we

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took a look at the two groups that were

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uncertain about receiving prayer there

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were no differences between those two

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groups but in the third group that were

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certain that they were receiving prayer

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and in fact received it there were

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significantly greater complications in

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that group when compared with the

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uncertain groups we can also of course

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look to reviews and see what

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meta-analysis or a systematic review may

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tell us about the body of literature

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that's out there the waters remain

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muddied if we look at reviews the data

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is

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ethical the Cochrane Collaboration

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conducted a review in 2008 and they

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summarized interpretation of the results

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can't be done with great confidence

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because indeed the data are equivocal

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however they're finding it findings

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indicated that there was enough evidence

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that further study into the effects of

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intercessory prayer on ill health would

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be justified the other camp masters and

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Spielman's are good examples of the

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secondary camp that essentially says

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this is a waste of time we should not be

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spending resources etc studying

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intercessory prayer their meta-analysis

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indicated a very small effect size and

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the efficacy of IP and healing didn't

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even approached significance so let me

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summarize some of the criticism this

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really is a highly contentious area of

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study there's a lot of emotion we see in

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the literature driven behind the

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criticisms of these studies and so on so

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I have a couple of slides of summary of

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that the criticisms essentially fall

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into one of I have three categories but

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there could be for theoretical ethical

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methodological criticisms and there's

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also theological criticisms of even

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approaching this kind of work first of