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Healing Words
In this groundbreaking classic linking prayer and health, physician Larry Dossey shares the latest evidence connecting prayer, healing, and medicine. Using real-life examples and personal anecdotes, Dossey proves how prayer can be as valid a healing tool as drugs or surgery. Dossey explores which methods of prayer show the greatest potential for healing; presents compelling evidence that patients' and doctors' belief in a treatment increases its efficacy; explains that discoveries in modern physics allow us to integrate the spiritual and the scientific and make the power of prayer provable in the lab; and much more. Provocative, engaging, and powerfully instructive, Healing Words restores the spiritual art of healing to the science of medicine.
432 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
132 people are currently reading
1159 people want to read
About the author
Larry Dossey
63 books86 followersLarry 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
November 21, 2022
If the author did not have an M.D. after his name it would be difficult for me to take him seriously.
In some parts of the book he is highly rational, in other parts he gives me the impression of being too superstious for a scientist. Maybe it's because I'm not familiar with his world, and the myriad of scientific studies he has encountered (he does provide appendices to support this). In fact, sometimes he manages to convince me that what our modern society has established as "scientific" is nothing but another level in relative superstition.
I cannot deny the fact that he is being fully scientific in his approach, but his conclusions seem a little too optimistic at times. Almost like he is lacking skepticism for the sake of proving the point he wants to convey.
All in all, I would say he is strictly rational and appropriately critical in his conclusions and the way he says them (he doesn't deem anything as truth if it cannot be confirmed), he is very thorough and exhaustive in considering all the possible interpretations of an event. He even provides a chapter in which he criticizes experiments that are both for and against prayer healing (which displays objectivity) and provides appendices to describe the studies so the reader can make his own judgment. He has all the rational qualities of a skeptic, and although he does not seem biased in his judgment his excitement toward his premise may give the non-skeptic the wrong idea.
To that, he does not quite lend himself to superstitious interpretations as much as Deepak Chopra. But my advice would be to be careful to read this book as a mind-openner to possibilities, and not as a strictly limiting description of reality.
In some parts of the book he is highly rational, in other parts he gives me the impression of being too superstious for a scientist. Maybe it's because I'm not familiar with his world, and the myriad of scientific studies he has encountered (he does provide appendices to support this). In fact, sometimes he manages to convince me that what our modern society has established as "scientific" is nothing but another level in relative superstition.
I cannot deny the fact that he is being fully scientific in his approach, but his conclusions seem a little too optimistic at times. Almost like he is lacking skepticism for the sake of proving the point he wants to convey.
All in all, I would say he is strictly rational and appropriately critical in his conclusions and the way he says them (he doesn't deem anything as truth if it cannot be confirmed), he is very thorough and exhaustive in considering all the possible interpretations of an event. He even provides a chapter in which he criticizes experiments that are both for and against prayer healing (which displays objectivity) and provides appendices to describe the studies so the reader can make his own judgment. He has all the rational qualities of a skeptic, and although he does not seem biased in his judgment his excitement toward his premise may give the non-skeptic the wrong idea.
To that, he does not quite lend himself to superstitious interpretations as much as Deepak Chopra. But my advice would be to be careful to read this book as a mind-openner to possibilities, and not as a strictly limiting description of reality.
August 27, 2015
Larry Dossey is one of the better authors out there. He is an M.D., and in this book discusses the healing effects of prayer. Not many medical doctors are aware of the power of prayer, far less use it to heal their patients.
Experiments have shown that prayer in fact positively affects high blood pressure, wounds, heart attacks, headaches, and anxiety. It was also shown that the “Thy will be done” approach was “quantitatively more powerful than when specific results were held in the mind”. A simple attitude of prayerfulness seemed to set the stage for healing.
The author shares his personal experiences of praying for his patients and of tackling his own health problems. We learn that many saints and spiritual teachers died of cancer, including the Buddha (or one of them), Saint Bernadette, Krishnamurti, Suzuki Roshi and Sri Ramana Maharshi. He discusses this paradox: surely they, of all people, should have been able to heal themselves? Jesus himself in John 9:1-3 implies that there may be a higher purpose to illness that we simply cannot grasp “because we do not know the ways of the Absolute”. There are also people who “break all the rules of good health, smoke and drink with abandon, and live to be a hundred without ever falling ill.”
Disease is part of the natural order, not a sign of ethical, moral or spiritual weakness.
This book is not so much a book of answers, but one in which the author discusses the various aspects of illness, healing and prayer, so we can reach our own conclusions.
Many were perplexed by the terminal cancer of Ramana Maharshi. His pain was immense, and he would scream out at night. Maharshi told people “There is pain, but there is no suffering”.
The author provides us with fascinating stories of miraculous recovery, and refers us to the works of Stanley Krippner, Lawrence LeShan, Joseph Campbell, Rainer Maria Rilke, and so on.
He refers to the “realization that physical illness, no matter how painful or grotesque, is at some level of secondary importance in the total scheme of our existence”. This is because our higher self is impervious to the ravages of any physical ailment whatsoever.
He tells us of the cooperation between Norman Shealy, M.D. ad Caroline Myss. The latter is incredibly skilled at diagnosing people´s illnesses at a distance. She is 93% accurate. We learn about noncontact therapeutic touch, transpersonal imagery, remote sensing and “telesomatic events”.
There is a chapter about prayer and the unconscious mind. People who deny their health problems “survive in greater numbers than those who confront the facts squarely and honestly”. No other psychological coping style is correlated with such a high survival rate in the acute phase of a myocardial infarction.
Learning “how to be” can set in motion not only healing but the power to heal. The author cites the case of de Vaca, the Spanish explorer, and that of Funatsu, a Japanese lost in the snow in Antarctica. The latter was buried alive and had to learn a “being strategy” – a not-doing strategy.
We learn about lucid dreams, healing dreams and shamanic journeying (Sandra Ingerman),
There are chapters about how to pray and what to pray for, time-displaced prayer, your doctor´s beliefs and why they matter, and even one on “black prayer”, which includes shamanic hexing (voodoo) and the Hawaiian death prayer.
This is an immaculately written book by a learned author. I strongly recommend that you read it. It is an encouraging and inspiring book and I will now be adding other books by this author to my long reading list.
Experiments have shown that prayer in fact positively affects high blood pressure, wounds, heart attacks, headaches, and anxiety. It was also shown that the “Thy will be done” approach was “quantitatively more powerful than when specific results were held in the mind”. A simple attitude of prayerfulness seemed to set the stage for healing.
The author shares his personal experiences of praying for his patients and of tackling his own health problems. We learn that many saints and spiritual teachers died of cancer, including the Buddha (or one of them), Saint Bernadette, Krishnamurti, Suzuki Roshi and Sri Ramana Maharshi. He discusses this paradox: surely they, of all people, should have been able to heal themselves? Jesus himself in John 9:1-3 implies that there may be a higher purpose to illness that we simply cannot grasp “because we do not know the ways of the Absolute”. There are also people who “break all the rules of good health, smoke and drink with abandon, and live to be a hundred without ever falling ill.”
Disease is part of the natural order, not a sign of ethical, moral or spiritual weakness.
This book is not so much a book of answers, but one in which the author discusses the various aspects of illness, healing and prayer, so we can reach our own conclusions.
Many were perplexed by the terminal cancer of Ramana Maharshi. His pain was immense, and he would scream out at night. Maharshi told people “There is pain, but there is no suffering”.
The author provides us with fascinating stories of miraculous recovery, and refers us to the works of Stanley Krippner, Lawrence LeShan, Joseph Campbell, Rainer Maria Rilke, and so on.
He refers to the “realization that physical illness, no matter how painful or grotesque, is at some level of secondary importance in the total scheme of our existence”. This is because our higher self is impervious to the ravages of any physical ailment whatsoever.
He tells us of the cooperation between Norman Shealy, M.D. ad Caroline Myss. The latter is incredibly skilled at diagnosing people´s illnesses at a distance. She is 93% accurate. We learn about noncontact therapeutic touch, transpersonal imagery, remote sensing and “telesomatic events”.
There is a chapter about prayer and the unconscious mind. People who deny their health problems “survive in greater numbers than those who confront the facts squarely and honestly”. No other psychological coping style is correlated with such a high survival rate in the acute phase of a myocardial infarction.
Learning “how to be” can set in motion not only healing but the power to heal. The author cites the case of de Vaca, the Spanish explorer, and that of Funatsu, a Japanese lost in the snow in Antarctica. The latter was buried alive and had to learn a “being strategy” – a not-doing strategy.
We learn about lucid dreams, healing dreams and shamanic journeying (Sandra Ingerman),
There are chapters about how to pray and what to pray for, time-displaced prayer, your doctor´s beliefs and why they matter, and even one on “black prayer”, which includes shamanic hexing (voodoo) and the Hawaiian death prayer.
This is an immaculately written book by a learned author. I strongly recommend that you read it. It is an encouraging and inspiring book and I will now be adding other books by this author to my long reading list.
January 31, 2016
I really enjoyed reading this book, especially the author's holistic and universal attitude throughout the book of having an open heart and an open mind when evaluating this mysterious subject of prayer. I found myself highlighting passage after passage and coming to the realization that as the author says "if prayer is not asking, what is it for?... It isn't 'for' anything... it mainly reminds me I am not alone."
August 27, 2012
Great book, filled with miraculous stories of healing in cultures that differ from ours, I believe it is definite proof, and if not, it's superb evidence, that belief has a lot to do with everything, especially healing your own body. Wonderful documentation, references and presentation.
September 29, 2007
The power of prayer and a true Physician can do miracles.
June 27, 2017
This was a book I read and contemplated at a low point in my life. Although it didn't change my (mostly nonexistent) prayer life, it gave me understanding about the power of words and intentions.
Read
March 27, 2008291.4'3
July 16, 2019
I struggled mightily to finish this book. While I knew it would present the results of scientific tests, I grew weary by what felt like endless detail, dissecting the premise.
I was intrigued by the concept of the book given my appreciation for both the scientific and spiritual worlds: the discipline of the first and the faith of the second. For some time I've thought that the realm of quantum physics intersects the best with the spiritual world and I smile when I see how those two worlds align, as it does some in this book now and then.
However as a Christian whose faith often waivers, I read this book precisely because I have come to wonder if prayer works at all. I found it incredibly helpful to hear the various tests conducted that draw conclusions on the efficacy of local and non-local interactions, and of praying for specific outcomes versus the best possible outcome. It gave me a certain level of comfort to know there is legitimate benefit to prayerful ways of being, for both the one praying and those being prayed for. I was left feeling convinced that our thoughts (including prayers) carry more weight than we realize and that there is most certainly scientific support for the parts of us that are eternal.
I was intrigued by the concept of the book given my appreciation for both the scientific and spiritual worlds: the discipline of the first and the faith of the second. For some time I've thought that the realm of quantum physics intersects the best with the spiritual world and I smile when I see how those two worlds align, as it does some in this book now and then.
However as a Christian whose faith often waivers, I read this book precisely because I have come to wonder if prayer works at all. I found it incredibly helpful to hear the various tests conducted that draw conclusions on the efficacy of local and non-local interactions, and of praying for specific outcomes versus the best possible outcome. It gave me a certain level of comfort to know there is legitimate benefit to prayerful ways of being, for both the one praying and those being prayed for. I was left feeling convinced that our thoughts (including prayers) carry more weight than we realize and that there is most certainly scientific support for the parts of us that are eternal.
May 2, 2025
This was a book recommended to me when I was doing a course on the mind-body relationship and fertility. It was the last read of a few books recommended and probably the least engaging. It explores prayer, how to pray and the science behind the effectiveness of prayer, and whilst interesting, it felt quite repetitive despite its relatively short length. There is a bit of a crossover with another book I read, Love, Medicine and Miracles, a few years ago, and I do wonder how much each of these concepts are contributing to the results seen in patients. I think there is value to the literature here, just that if Dossey wants to persuade people who aren't already interested in prayer, it needs to be a little tighter in how its laid out
June 17, 2017
I spotted this book on a friend's desk a year or so ago and finally decided to read it. I appreciated the author's affinity for analytical psychology and his non-sectarian and non-dogmatic view of God. One could have interpreted some of the studies he provides as examples for the effectiveness of prayer either way and sometimes I wondered why his examples seemed to disprove his thesis. Overall (and without necessarily tracing footnotes back to the sources), I ended the book more hopeful that prayer works.
October 4, 2019
Really interesting topic, but I felt the book was poorly written. I'd heard good things, so I was disappointed. I felt like an opportunity was missed to write a strong and persuasive book that was thoughtfully and intentionally organized - instead, I felt like I was reading a brain dump of all kinds of interesting thinking, but not a fully realized book / final product. I really wanted it to be better!
Read
May 18, 2017This book is in the recommendation reading list of the book "Creative Visualization" by Shakti Gawain. For me personally, this book is too theoretical and difficult to understand, the logic of the author is hard for me to follow. I struggled to about 25% and decided to quit.
September 10, 2022
Glorious! Not surprising, given it is Dr. Dossey. A most thoughtful and thought-provoking read. You can't ask more from a book than that! Don't miss the Afterword; it's the perfect conclusion that neatly addresses all those silent thoughts you had during previous chapters.
January 4, 2017
This is a good book. It shows you the power healing prayer has on people and its profound effects. It uses documented science and cases to show the validity.
July 24, 2017
Wonderful book. Highly recommended. Shows that prayer is an effective modality in healing.
February 6, 2021
It's alright. I've watched videos of Dr. Dossey speaking and they're phenomenal.
It hasn't changed my view of the power of consciousness and has added to it.
It hasn't changed my view of the power of consciousness and has added to it.
December 23, 2021
Larry shows us data from experiments on how prayer affects the body and is healing. I love his work combining both science and spirituality.
November 5, 2018
I found out about this study from Oprah Winfrey’s interview with author Larry Dossey, M.D., whose controlled studies with actual patients and their loved ones have verified that people who are prayed for do indeed do better with illness and healing that those who are not the object of prayers. Interestingly, even people whodo not know they are being prayed for tend to do better as well. Dr. Dossey’s discussion rests largely on the idea that healing is not strictly a physiological process. “Healing has laws that appear to differ from those of other sciences,” he states. The tendency is always to accord wisdom to something or someone outside ourselves. The idea that we could bypass all the self-declared experts and consultants and focus on our internal healing strengths simply does not occur to most people” (34). In addition, Dossey’s book emphasizes self-responsibility and reliance on alternative methods of healing of which prayer is a powerful part. Dossey includes many studies and statistic about illness and prayer that have been conducted over several years among sick people. “We do not know why prayer reveals itself in scientific experiments, but we have seen that it does,” he states. I confess that I did not examine the statistics and other details of the studies very closely, but I was impressed with the interesting outcomes. Here are some of Dossey’s particularly intriguing predictions about the future of prayer in the medical world:
• As nonlocal concepts find a home in medical science, prayer will become recognized as a potent force in medicine and will become incorporated into the mainstream.
• The use of prayer will become the standard in scientific medical practice in most medical communities
• So pervasive will its use become that not to recommend the use of prayer as a integral part of medical care will one day constitute medical malpractice.
• The nonlocal nature of consciousness will be acknowledged in mainstream science because of conclusive evidence affirming it. It will become increasingly recognized that consciousness can do things the brain cannot (205-207).
• As nonlocal concepts find a home in medical science, prayer will become recognized as a potent force in medicine and will become incorporated into the mainstream.
• The use of prayer will become the standard in scientific medical practice in most medical communities
• So pervasive will its use become that not to recommend the use of prayer as a integral part of medical care will one day constitute medical malpractice.
• The nonlocal nature of consciousness will be acknowledged in mainstream science because of conclusive evidence affirming it. It will become increasingly recognized that consciousness can do things the brain cannot (205-207).
April 28, 2008
This fascinating book, written by Larry Dossey, MD, examines the existing research on the effect of healing prayer on health. The conclusion -- prayer heals.
Dr. Dossey is the former Chief of Staff of Humana Medical City in Dallas TX and spent years firmly believing in strict science and traditional Western medicine as the tools for healing. While coming to grips with his own spiritual life, Dossey discovered that prayer does indeed compliment tradition medicine and sometimes heals.
Hundreds of scientific studies have been conducted on the effect of prayer, the results of which have been nearly ignored by the medical and research communities. Despite conducting experiements according to rigorous scientific method, both their methods and results are mostly proclaimed as flawed, disputed, or generally looked down upon by mainstream medicine.
However, the evidence that prayer, or the power of the human mind can effect health, is significant.
~~ a cardiologist at San Francisco General conducted a study on the effect of prayer on patients in the intensive care unit. When compared to the control group, the "prayed-for" patients were three times less likely to develop pulmonary edema. None of the group required endotracheal intubation and mechanical ventilation, while 12 in the "non prayed-for" group did. And, compared to the control group, the prayed-for patients were five times less likely to need antibiotics.
~~ studies of yeast, bacterial and cancer tissue cultures show that growth and inhibition can be influenced by directed human thought.
~~ a study based in San Antonio TX had a group of people use mental imagery to exert a calming influence on a subject group. The results were positive and some members of the subject group "saw" the visualizations they were sent.
Dr. Dossey is clear that healing through prayer can't always be measured, doesn't always work and can't be reproduced on command. But, Healing Words dramatically shows what people of faith have long believed -- prayer heals.
Dr. Dossey is the former Chief of Staff of Humana Medical City in Dallas TX and spent years firmly believing in strict science and traditional Western medicine as the tools for healing. While coming to grips with his own spiritual life, Dossey discovered that prayer does indeed compliment tradition medicine and sometimes heals.
Hundreds of scientific studies have been conducted on the effect of prayer, the results of which have been nearly ignored by the medical and research communities. Despite conducting experiements according to rigorous scientific method, both their methods and results are mostly proclaimed as flawed, disputed, or generally looked down upon by mainstream medicine.
However, the evidence that prayer, or the power of the human mind can effect health, is significant.
~~ a cardiologist at San Francisco General conducted a study on the effect of prayer on patients in the intensive care unit. When compared to the control group, the "prayed-for" patients were three times less likely to develop pulmonary edema. None of the group required endotracheal intubation and mechanical ventilation, while 12 in the "non prayed-for" group did. And, compared to the control group, the prayed-for patients were five times less likely to need antibiotics.
~~ studies of yeast, bacterial and cancer tissue cultures show that growth and inhibition can be influenced by directed human thought.
~~ a study based in San Antonio TX had a group of people use mental imagery to exert a calming influence on a subject group. The results were positive and some members of the subject group "saw" the visualizations they were sent.
Dr. Dossey is clear that healing through prayer can't always be measured, doesn't always work and can't be reproduced on command. But, Healing Words dramatically shows what people of faith have long believed -- prayer heals.
June 28, 2018
This book helped in my transition from simply praying to God as object outside - like the Post Office we drop a note off to for it to deliver - to do what I was wanting that object to do, which was the teaching I had previously received, to seeing prayer entails the engaging of an energy-power-within that itself connects with the other one is praying for: really, with, alongside. I find, also, the sense that studies showed those we are already linked to empathically, prayers for them show to be more efficacious. Prayer being a creative act we are endowed with appeared more sensible than what I had been taught, prayer now seen as communion with the other, a direct act of our loving another.
November 29, 2010
Jaw-dropping and extremely important. This is NOT a self-help book, it's a wise, rigorous, empirical look at prayer and healing. It profoundly altered my understanding of spirituality, the mind, and the laws of nature. Very highly recommended!
November 12, 2015
contains good information, but wasn't so impressed with the author's own (sceptical...) conclusions about what the scientific information about prayer working is actually telling us, healthwise and spiritually.
December 27, 2008
That the mind is non local and much of what we believe about healing is baloney. This book changed my life. And few have!
July 25, 2008
This book helped me understand the truth of prayer's power.
December 20, 2008
A physician notes the power of prayer in healing ourselves and others.
August 19, 2011
Dossey is a leader in the area of healing and spiritual thought.
Want to read
August 6, 2012paperback different cover
March 16, 2013
Interesting. Looks at possible links between health and prayer (sometimes not taking all variables into consideration, bit still interesting.)
November 4, 2013
so so book
August 22, 2023
top spiritual book 1995
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews