Prayer — does it work? what the evidence shows

The scientific study of prayer is one of the most complex territories in the intersection of religion and research — full of methodological challenges, mixed results, and genuinely surprising findings. Studies on intercessory prayer have produced inconclusive results, but research on the practice of prayer itself — its effects on the practitioner's wellbeing, attention, sense of connection, and capacity for compassion — shows consistent and significant effects. The question 'does prayer work?' may itself be the wrong question: it assumes that prayer is a technique for producing outcomes, when most traditions understand it as a practice that changes the one who prays rather than the world being prayed over.