Prayer not only offers spiritual benefits but can also function as a placebo and provide physical advantages, professors said at a panel Tuesday afternoon entitled “Placebo and Prayer: Why Prayer Practice May Help Heal.”

At the event, the third installment of a five-part series of seminars on placebos funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Stanford University Professor of Anthropology Tanya M. Luhrmann spoke first about her research on the effect of prayer on the lives of evangelical Christians in the United States.

Drawing from various studies, Luhrmann said she was hesitant about the implications of the word ‘placebo,’ but noted that there is direct evidence that going to church increases life expectancy, improves immune system functions, and lowers blood pressure.

“Placebo is a terrible word. It suggests a false intervention with a surprise outcome,” she said.

Besides these physical benefits, Luhrmann also said that she often sees an active effort to emphasize the positive instead of the negative when praying.

“[Positive prayer] doesn't always work, but what you see is an effort to redirect your attention and see what is good,” Luhrmann said.

Luhrmann added that while prayer can serve as a real “emotional management system,” the success of the process as a placebo often involves seeing God as personal, believable, and real.