Prayer really works! In this book doctors and patients quote scientific surveys and relate personal experiences of healing through prayer. They are convinced that prayer has had a profound effect in their lives. Although they do not try to explain how prayer works, many refer to a greater power – some say God – who enables the healing work of prayer.
These interviews and stories will provide new conviction to people of all religious faiths, and will give new hope to those who seek healing for themselves, for others, and for the world.
Larry Dossey is a physician and author who propounds the importance for healing of prayer and spirituality. He combines science and prayer to advance the cause of healing the sick.
Larry Dossey studied medicine, graduating from University of Texas at Austin & the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas in 1967. While attending medical school, he became interested in Eastern religions such as Buddhism and Taoism. Severe, recurring migraines prompted him to study biofeedback and meditation in hopes of finding a means of controlling the headaches. He began to practice meditation regularly, while remaining skeptical about the type of praying he had learned in his youth. After graduation, Dossey went on to a distinguished medical career, which included service in Vietnam as a battalion surgeon and residencies at the Veterans Administration Hospital and Parkland Hospital in Dallas. Dossey's curiosity about the connections between science and religion prompted him to begin researching medical studies focused on the power of prayer to aid healing. In the 1980s, Dossey began writing books to document and explain his findings.
Dossey's 1993 book, Healing Words: The Power of Prayer and the Practice of Medicine, made it to the New York Times bestseller list and sold close to 150,000 copies in the first three years after its publication.