The author of Be Careful What You Pray For ... You Just Might Get it (1997), among other books, is executive editor of the peer-reviewed journal Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine. His Web site is www.dosseydossey.com. In light of his book on negative prayer, the Journal asked him for his thoughts since the September 11 tragedy.
I became interested in negative prayer after discovering from a 1994 Gallup poll that five percent of Americans actually prayed to harm other people. This was a cross section of Americans. That's more than ten million people, and is only the one in 20 who would admit it.
The sensible follow-up question should be, Does this sort of prayer actually cause harm? I believe it does. I reexamined about 130 studies of distant healing and intercessory prayer, and it's clear from some of these studies that people can achieve both positive and negative results through prayer.
