Although a prayer given on behalf of someone who is sick may actually have negative health effects if they're aware of it (neutral otherwise, naturally), I had never thought about it in this way, and it made me laugh:
I am surprised that a scientist would design such a faulty experiment and then try to draw conclusions from it. Someone explain to me how you can guarantee that the group that receives no intercessory prayer is in fact not receiving any intercessory prayer? How can you guarantee that your control group is not polluted?