Remember the intercessory prayer study of pregnancy rates in women being
treated with in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer?
http://www.jreprodmed.com/abs/jrm1137.htm
http://www.spiritualityhealth.com/newsh/items/article/item_4020.html
E-Skeptic has an article about it.
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E-Skeptic #21 For May 25, 2004
Copyright 2004 Michael Shermer, Skeptics Society, Skeptic magazine,
e-Skeptic
magazine (www.skeptic.com and <[email hidden]>😉. Permission to print,
distribute, and post with proper citation and acknowledgment. We encourage
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www.skeptic.com: Where Nothing is Certain...But We're Not Sure About That...
[snip]
Prayer Study Flawed and Fraud
Columbia University prayer study author pleads guilty to felony charges
This important report from Skeptic Bruce L. Flamm, MD, Clinical Professor of
Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of California, Irvine,
[email hidden]
In the horrible days following the destruction of the World Trade Center by
Islamic zealots many Americans prayed for a miracle or a sign from God. Such
a
miracle apparently occurred and was widely documented in newspaper and
magazine
articles. On October 2, 2001 the New York Times reported that researchers at
prestigious Columbia University in New York found that infertile women who
were
prayed for became pregnant twice as often as those who did not have people
praying for them. The study's results were absolutely miraculous. In Vitro
Fertilization (IVF) is the most advanced form of infertility treatment
currently
available and represents the last hope for women with severe
infertility. Therefore, any technique that could increase the efficacy of
IVF by
even a few percent would be a medical breakthrough. Yet the Columbia
University
study claimed to have demonstrated, in a carefully designed randomized
controlled trial, that distant prayer by anonymous prayer groups increased
the
suc
The following facts related to the Columbia University prayer study confirm
that
those physicians who doubted the study's astounding results had extremely
good
reasons to be skeptical. It will be interesting to see if ABC's Dr. Johnson,
a
medical doctor who also serves as an evangelical minister at the
fundamentalist
Community Covenant Church in West Peabody, Massachusetts, will report or
ignore
the following shocking information.
The study's three authors were Kwang Cha, Rogerio Lobo, and Daniel Wirth.
Dr.
Cha, has left Columbia University and refuses to return phone calls or
letters
about the report. Dr. Rogerio Lobo, identified by the New York Times and ABC
News as the report's lead author, now claims to have not been involved with
the
study until after its completion and to have provided only, "editorial
assistance". Dr. Lobo also refuses to return phone calls or letters about
the
study. If the report's lead author did not conduct the international prayer
study, who did'
The remaining author is a mysterious individual known as Daniel Wirth. Mr.
Wirth
has no medical degree but does have a long history of publishing studies on
mysterious supernatural or paranormal phenomena. Many of these studies
originated from an entity called, "Healing Sciences Research International"
an
organization that Mr. Wirth supposedly headed. This entity's only known
address
was apparently a Post Office Box in Orinda California. Wirth holds an MS
degree
is in the dubious field of "parapsychology" and also has a law degree.
In October 2002, Mr. Wirth, along with his former research associate Joseph
Horvath also known as Joseph Hessler, was indicted by a federal grand jury.
Both
men were charged with bilking the troubled cable television provider
Adelphia
Communications Corporation out of $2.1 million by infiltrating the company,
then
having it pay for unauthorized consulting work. Police investigators
discovered
that Wirth is also known as John Wayne Truelove. FBI investigators revealed
that
Wirth first used the name of Truelove, a New York child who died at age 5 in
1959, to obtain a passport in the mid-1980's. Wirth and his accomplice were
charged with 13 counts of mail fraud, 12 counts of interstate transportation
of
stolen money, making false statements on loan applications and five other
counts
of fraud. The federal grand jury concluded that the relationship between
Wirth
and Horvath extended back more than 20 years and involved more than $3.4
million
in income and property obtained by using the na
Incredibly, at the time of the indictment, Horvath was already in jail
charged
with arson for burning down his Pennsylvania house to collect insurance
money. The FBI investigation revealed that Horvath had previously gone to
prison
after being convicted in a 1990 embezzlement and false identity case in
California. Interestingly, the investigation also revealed that he had also
once
been arrested for posing as a doctor in California. It appears that the
"doctor"
who performed biopsies on human research subjects in Wirth's paranormal
healing
studies may have actually been Mr. Horvath impersonating a doctor. Horvath
was a
co-author on another of Wirth's bizarre studies in which salamander limbs
were
amputated and found to grow back more quickly when "healers" waived their
hands
over the wounds.
Both Wirth and Horvath initially plead innocent to the felony charges and
over
the next 18 months their trial was delayed six times. However, on May 18,
2004,
just as the criminal trial of the United States v. Wirth & Horvath was
finally
about to begin, both men pled guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and
conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Apparently a plea bargain had been made and
many of the charges had been dropped. Wirth and Horvath will be sentenced in
September and they each face a maximum of five years in federal prison.
In summary, one of the authors of the Columbia University prayer study has
left
the University and refuses to comment, another now claims to have not
actually
participated in the study and also refuses to comment, and another is on his
way
to federal prison for fraud. Fraud is the operative word here. Perhaps the
most
fascinating aspect of this entire sordid saga can be summed up in one
question:
How did a bizarre study claiming supernatural results end up in a
peer-reviewed
medical journal? We may never know because the editors of the Journal of
Reproductive Medicine also refuse to answer calls or respond to letters
about
this study. Worse yet, the entire study remains posted on their internet
site
and the public has been given no reason to doubt its validity. It must be
emphasized that, in the entire history of modern science, no claim of any
type
of supernatural phenomena has ever been replicated under controlled
conditions. The importance of this fact can not be over emphasized.
In reality, the Columbia University prayer study was based on a bewildering
study design and included many sources of error. I have already summarized
many
of the study's potential flaws in two critiques published in the Scientific
Review of Alternative Medicine. But worse than flaws, in light of all of the
shocking information presented above, one must consider the sad possibility
that
the Columbia prayer study may never have been conducted at all. It remains
to be
seen if the news media will find the above information to be newsworthy.
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