It seems entirely credible.
The study has cost $millions and has taken 10 years to complete.
1,802 patients at six hospitals.
‘The researchers asked the members of three congregations — St. Paul’s Monastery in St. Paul; the Community of Teresian Carmelites in Worcester, Mass.; and Silent Unity, a Missouri prayer ministry near Kansas City — to deliver the prayers, using the patients’ first names and the first initials of their last names.
The congregations were told that they could pray in their own ways, but they were instructed to include the phrase, "for a successful surgery with a quick, healthy recovery and no complications."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/31/health/31pray.html
Edit:Panda Hunter, read the article please.
(((Olga))): I did google him, but there is tons of stuff about him and I can’t find the show you mention, do you have any other details?
Joshua bear, as I already said to Panda hunter, read the article before you jump to conclusions please.
Edit: Thanks Olga, the only response I have, is to give you an insight into this sceptics mind and the first thing I thought was that the mass prayer/silence had been set to coincide with weather forecasts that indicated these storms, sorry. We’re just think differently you and I
Edit: Why are people so prepared to jump to conclusions, the ones who whine about prayer not working haven’t read the article.
Bonus question: Why would anyone respond to a question asking for their opinions on an article that they hadn’t read?
Edit: Thanks Olga, but promise never to show it with a ‘Whiskery’ kiss 
Quite obvious, take 2 people who are identical with an identical illness, 1 wants to get better and believes he/she will and the other doesnt, the one that wants to get better will most likely recover quicker because of the power of the human mind and how easily influenced it is. God did not cure these people, the doctors did and the influence of prayer had a positive impact.
July 10th, 2010 at 4:07 pm
The stricken and ill people should do the praying….the test is tainted.
References :
July 10th, 2010 at 4:27 pm
There weren’t enough people praying.
Did you know Art Bell did experiments on the radio with mass consciousness trying to affect the weather with unexpected consequences that were so bad he refused to ever do it again. Google it.
(((Nikon f5))) hold on – checking…
References :
http://goldring.wetpaint.com/account/stihlman37/thread/1899283/%22Art+Bell%22+Very+interesting+article%3A+%22Mass+Consciousness+Experiment%22
edit: I still love you! and so does God!
July 10th, 2010 at 5:12 pm
Sounds like our gov’t spent over $2 million in tax dollars to tell us something that we ALL know, even if most of us won’t admit it to ourselves.
Hey religion, thanks for wasting more of our time and money
References :
July 10th, 2010 at 5:54 pm
Quite obvious, take 2 people who are identical with an identical illness, 1 wants to get better and believes he/she will and the other doesnt, the one that wants to get better will most likely recover quicker because of the power of the human mind and how easily influenced it is. God did not cure these people, the doctors did and the influence of prayer had a positive impact.
References :
July 10th, 2010 at 6:34 pm
New York Times is biased to religious morons. So I wouldn’t be surprised if it said "Prayer has some .02% effectiveness.
I’ll read it when it says higher than 99.9%, the amount of DNA shared with humans and apes.
Edit: I’m not going to waste my time reading these stupid articles about how the US is wasting money on stupid religious crap.
References :
I don’t care!!!
July 10th, 2010 at 6:54 pm
Our govt. needs a prayer and the people need a good divine intervention.
References :
July 10th, 2010 at 7:07 pm
Geez….. Then why isn’t the whole world cured of all the illnesses in it by prayer? Is there selective prayer, just like selective amnesia – or some other horse pucky story? Should I just ‘pray’ and wait instead of taking action then?
Wishful thinking. Tried it for many years, to no avail. I finally got up off my knees, stopped praying and started "doing." Then and only then is when I had results.
References :
No one has to read the article to already know that prayer does NOT work, in any situation. I grew up with ‘christians’ and their ‘prayers.’ I do believe that we are ‘assisted’ at times by a higher intelligence of ’some kind’ but certainly NOT the biblical kind and NOT at every whim that we have.