In this document, I will attempt to prove the existence of the supernatural through facts and statistics. Since this work is exceedingly long, I don’t expect anyone to read it all in one sitting. Therefore, here is a basic outline of the topics I will discuss:

Cia Studies On the Supernatural – I go over many studies conducted by the CIA during the cold war proving the existence of extra sensory perception, and proving that real information can be gathered from out of body experiences.
Does Physics Prove Consciousness – I outline a few strange quantum effects in physics that imply reality to not be as it seems.
Positive Effects of Religion – Here I go over a vast amount of literature showing benefits to those who choose to be active in religion (praying, going to Church, etc.), across health, education, crime, happiness, and other factors.
Positive Effects of Mormonism – I cover studies showing that Mormons tend to have better health, education, and happiness than other religions, and that these positive benefits as individuals become more active in Mormonism.
Civilization impacts of Christianity – I cover studies proving that areas with traditional Christian values across history have prospered, and how missionary activity during colonialism was very beneficial to the world in terms of increasing education, health, and other factors.
Prayer Studies – There are a vast number of studies that prove that prayer actually has an effect in curing illness.
My Stories / Problem of Evil – Here I briefly discuss the problem of evil and answer the oft used criticism – if God is in the business of answering prayers, why is there suffering in the world. I also outline my own experiences here with prayer.
Fulfilled Prophecy – Outlines a few biblical prophecies that ended up coming true, including some crazy ones, such as how Daniel was able to predict to the exact day when Christ would make his triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

Cia Studies On the Supernatural

During the cold war, the deep state in conjunction with the Stanford research institute conducted a series of experiments evaluating whether extra sensory perception can be used to gather intelligence under project stargate. The answer to the question was a resounding yes. Many studies show that trained remote viewers were accurately able to guess locations, photos, and other media. The basic setup of the studies is as follows: researchers have a pool of photos / locations and they randomly select one as the target. Then they ask the psychic to record their perceptions of the target in notes and drawings. After this, blind judges read these notes and compare them to the original pool of possible photos / locations and guess which item was the target. Their guesses tend to be significantly better than expected from chance, and even greater accuracy can be achieved by using multiple mediums and combining input from all of them. In this section, I will summarize what I read from the following 7 documents. However, what I present here truly is just a sliver of the vast amount of research these institutions performed regarding remote viewing.

Collection of Studies 1 – https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00789R003100140001-2
Collection of Studies 2 – https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00787R000300230001-5
Collection of Studies 3 – https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00788r001100010002-8
Gateway Document – https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/CIA-RDP96-00788R001700210016-5
Specific Study 1 – https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00792r000400030001-0
Specific Study 2 – https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00789R002200560001-6

Collection of Studies 1

generated transcript / original document

Experiment 1:
Out of a pool of photos, photos were randomly selected and placed in envelopes by participants beds. During lucid dreams, participants attempted to view the contents of the envelopes. Upon waking, the participants sketched the photo they saw. Then blind judges used the sketches to guess which photo in the pool had been selected. The guesses of the judges were significantly more accurate than expected from chance.

Experiment 2:
Senders tried to transmit images of artwork to receivers while the receivers were asleep and dreaming. Upon waking, the receivers described their dreams. Then, blind judges—who were shown a pool of possible target images—used the dream reports to guess which image had been sent. The judges’ guesses were significantly more accurate than expected by chance.

Experiment 2 B:
This experiment was replicated but they changed it so that the timing when the image was varied – sometimes sent before sleep, sometimes sent after, and sometimes sent during sleep. Although the guesses were still significantly better than expected from chance, it is unclear whether the timing of when the art was sent mattered.

Experiment 2 C:
Again, dream content was used to pick which artwork was selected. However, this time, no one attempted to “send” information about the artwork. Nevertheless, the guesses from the judges about which artwork was selected was still significantly better than expected from chance.

Experiment 3 – precognitive abilities
Participants recorded their dreams overnight, unaware of what the target would be. The next morning, blind judges reviewed the dream reports and attempted to identify which image from a pool was most likely to be the (as-yet unselected) target. Only after judging was the actual target randomly chosen. Remarkably, the judges’ guesses matched the future-selected targets significantly more often than chance would predict.

Experiment 4
Participants either received the same target art for an entire night, and then wrote descriptions of their dreams for judges to see and pick the target from a pool of images. Or, they were given multiple targets throughout the night, and were waken periodically to describe their dreams for that part of the night. Although performance suffered when given multiple targets across one night, in both types – one target or multiple targets – guesses from the judges were still significantly better than expected from chance.

Experiment 5: Binary Target Sessions
In this experiment, senders attempted to transmit simple binary signals (such as “light on” vs. “light off” or “yes” vs. “no”) to receivers who were asleep or in a resting state. After the sessions, the receivers’ responses were recorded and compared against the actual target signals. Judges or experimenters scored the responses blindly. The results showed that participants guessed the binary targets significantly better than chance, supporting the notion that ESP can operate even with very simple stimuli.

Experiment 6: Experienced vs. Novice Participants
This study compared performance between groups of participants with differing levels of prior ESP experience. Experienced psychics or trained participants attempted to receive telepathic transmissions during sleep or waking states, while novice participants performed the same tasks without prior training. Dream reports and other subjective data were judged blindly. The experienced group generally showed significantly higher accuracy in identifying targets, suggesting that training or natural aptitude might influence ESP performance.

Experiment 7: Control Sessions with No Sender
In these control sessions, participants recorded dream content or responses while no sender actively attempted to transmit information. Blind judges were still tasked with selecting target images or signals from pools. Despite the absence of active sending, the guesses remained significantly above chance, indicating the possibility of spontaneous or non-transmitted ESP effects. This control ruled out the need for active sending for ESP-related phenomena to occur.

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Meta-Analyses

Meta-Analysis 1: Dream-Based ESP Studies
This meta-analysis compiled data from over 50 separate experiments conducted over several years involving dream-based ESP and telepathic transmission during sleep. Each study included rigorous controls such as blind judging, random target selection, and careful documentation of dream content. The combined dataset encompassed thousands of individual trials and hundreds of participants. Statistical analysis revealed an overall effect size indicating that participants’ ability to correctly identify target images or signals from dreams was significantly higher than chance (p < 10⁻⁸). The meta-analysis also tested for potential publication bias and found no evidence that the positive results were driven by selective reporting.

Meta-Analysis 2: Timing Effects on ESP Accuracy
This meta-analysis focused on experiments that varied the timing of target transmission relative to participants’ sleep cycles. Data from approximately 20 studies were combined, including those where targets were sent before sleep, during REM periods, or after awakening. The analysis sought to determine whether the timing of the sender’s activity affected the strength or reliability of ESP effects. Results showed that while ESP performance was significantly above chance across all timing conditions, no statistically significant difference was found between the different timing windows. This suggests that timing, within the tested ranges, may not critically influence ESP success.

Meta-Analysis 3: Participant Training and ESP
This meta-analysis evaluated studies comparing ESP performance between experienced and novice participants, aggregating data from roughly 15 experiments. It aimed to understand if prior training or natural aptitude modulated ESP results. The combined analysis found that experienced participants demonstrated higher hit rates in guessing target images or signals, with a moderate effect size (p < 0.01). However, novice participants also performed above chance, suggesting that while training may enhance ESP ability, it is not strictly necessary for its occurrence.

Collection of Studies 2

generated transcript / original document

Experiment 1:
Out of a set of photos, one was chosen randomly, and participants had to use remote viewing to describe the photo. Judges who could see all photo options then read the description provided by the remote viewer and guessed which photo it was. The guesses of the judges were right significantly more than expected from chance.

Experiment 2 A:
Participants were asked to judge whether a random binary target was zero or one, and they were right significantly more than would be expected from chance.

Experiment 2 B:
A similar study was done but instead used three people to make the guesses; the option with the majority vote ended up being the final choice. This improved accuracy to 76%.

Experiment 2C:
Another trial done where a single participant guessed multiple times on a binary target. If their guesses did not agree with each other, they were asked to guess even more – a method that marginally improved accuracy.

Overall, their accuracy was pretty low (55.6%), though still significantly better than chance. I will note that many of these studies emphasize how experienced supernatural mediums are much more accurate than random people (who are often no better than chance) – this helps explain why some studies are more successful than others.

Experiment 3:
Out of a pool of photos, photos were randomly selected and placed in envelopes by participants beds. During lucid dreams, participants attempted to view the contents of the envelopes. Upon waking, the participants sketched the photo they saw. Then blind judges used the sketches to guess which photo in the pool had been selected. The guesses of the judges were significantly more accurate than expected from chance.

Experiment 4:
Again, participants were asked to guess some content (a photo, sketch, video, etc.), they then wrote or drew descriptions of it, and blind judges attempted to guess the target, given access of a pool of options that could be the target. As before, the guesses were significantly better than would be expected from chance. However, they also found that the more complex the target was (for example a video is more complex than a photo), the more accurate the judges were at guessing the target.

The study also compared conditions where a sender actively viewed and “transmitted” the target to the receiver versus no sender being involved. Interestingly, the presence of a sender did not significantly improve the accuracy of the guesses, suggesting that a sender might not be necessary for anomalous cognition to occur.

Experiment 5:
Participants guessed a 15 digit number which was divided into 50 bits, so they had to guess each bit. With a sophisticated method of using multiple receivers and comparing the receivers guesses, they were able to accurately and significantly guess the digits better than chance. One highly experienced participant was even able to guess every single digit, which of course is insanely unlikely (1 in 1,000,000,000,000,000 chance this occurred by luck).

Experiment 6:
Receivers tried to guess which video was chosen from a pool. After noting down things they received, they made their guess and were correct significantly more than expected from chance. The researchers noted that certain personality traits predicted greater success.

Collection of Studies 3

generated transcript / original document

Experiment 1: Remote Viewing of Geographical Locations
Subjects with no prior knowledge of a traveler’s itinerary attempted to describe remote locations in Costa Rica where the traveler was present. The traveler recorded photographic evidence of seven locations visited over ten days. Subjects’ verbal and drawn descriptions were compared to the actual locations. Blind matching of descriptions to locations yielded five correct matches out of twelve attempts, a statistically significant result (p = 0.02), indicating that participants accessed accurate remote information beyond chance. Notably, subjects sometimes described details counter to their own expectations, suggesting genuine perception rather than educated guessing.

Experiment 2: Card Guessing and Binary Target Experiments in Czechoslovakia
Following challenges with earlier ESP decline effects, Dr. Milan Ryzl developed protocols using hypnosis, feedback, and reinforcement to train subjects, notably Pavel Stepanek. Stepanek correctly identified green or white card orientations with 60% accuracy (million-to-one significance). By applying communication theory and redundancy coding, Ryzl transmitted sequences of digits with near-perfect accuracy (p = 10⁻¹⁵), showing that paranormal information transfer can function as a noisy but reliable communication channel.

Experiment 3 A: Physiological Correlates of Remote Perception
A “Sender” tried to telepathically connect with a “Receiver”. Stimulating the sender with blinking lights was significantly correlated with measurable changes in brain activity of the receiver, implying that the Receiver indeed was able to somehow connect to the Sender.

Experiment 3 B:
Similar to the prior experiment, brain changes were recorded in the receiver after stimulating the sender. However, this time they stimulated the sender by showing him emotionally charged names or just random names, but they again found significant effects.

Experiment 4: Soviet Research on Telepathy and ELF Electromagnetic Hypothesis
Multiple Soviet laboratories investigated telepathy and mental suggestion over short and long distances. Researchers hypothesized that extremely low-frequency (ELF) electromagnetic waves might mediate paranormal information transfer. Experiments demonstrated behavior modification at a distance and estimated the paranormal communication bit rate (0.1 bit/s in lab settings to 0.005 bit/s over 1000 km). Soviet safety standards for microwave exposure reflect the seriousness of this research.

Experiment 5: Remote Viewing Investigations at Stanford Research Institute (SRI)
Several trials tested whether remote viewers could accurately describe unknown locations. A team randomly selected and visited target sites, while remote viewers—isolated from any sensory cues—attempted to describe these sites using verbal descriptions and sketches. Blind judges then compared the viewers’ descriptions against possible sites and selected the best matches. Experienced remote viewers produced highly accurate and statistically significant results, whereas inexperienced viewers generally performed  much worse.

Experiment 6: Remote Viewing with Unselected Subjects (Visitors)
Untrained participants were asked to describe randomly chosen locations. Blind judges were then given options as to what location it could be and made their choices based upon the descriptions from the participants. The guesses performed significantly better than expected from chance.

Experiment 7: Remote Viewing with Technological Targets (Short Range):

Subjects attempted to describe indoor technological equipment (e.g., drill press, Xerox machine, video terminal) verbally and with drawings. Blind judges then used these descriptions to attempt to pick the photo of the machine that was used. The results were significantly better than chance, and some descriptions even included details not consciously known by the onsite experimenter (e.g., a belt drive inside a drill press invisible to the operator).

Experiment 8: Precognitive Remote Viewing:

An experiment was designed to test remote viewing of locations before the target was randomly chosen or visited by the experimenter. As before, the remote viewer produced a description of the target and then judges selected it from the description. This was small experiment with only one subject and four trials. Nevertheless, all three judges were correct for all four trials (p = 0.042 for each judge). Descriptions included accurate and detailed imagery of locations such as a mud flat harbor, a formal garden, a squeaking swing set, and a tall glass-covered city hall.

Experiment 9: Binary Remote Viewing and Communication Theory Application
At Stanford Research Institute, a subject was tested on their ability to perceive binary targets (0 or 1) under blinded conditions. Across 96 trials, the subject produced 85 correct guesses, where 48 would be expected by chance (p = 10⁻¹⁰), demonstrating a highly statistically significant result. This accuracy was achieved by having the subject guess each binary target multiple times and using a voting or sequential sampling procedure to determine the final guess, effectively increasing the reliability of the remote sensing channel.

Finally: A great many more experiments from the Stanford Research Institute
Over fifty controlled experiments were conducted with nine subjects trained or untrained in remote viewing. These experiments involved describing remote targets such as buildings, roads, or laboratory apparatus over distances up to 4,000 km. Results consistently showed:

• Significant accurate descriptive information was obtained.
• Distance did not degrade perception quality.
• Electrical shielding (Faraday cages) did not interfere with results.
• Experienced viewers were more reliable, but inexperienced ones also performed above chance.

Gateway Document

generated transcript / original document

“numerous experiments have been conducted involving persons moving from one coast to the other in the out-of-body state to read a series of ten computer generated numbers in a university laboratory. Although most have aquired enough of the digits to make clear that their consciousness was present none have ever succeeded in getting all ten correct.”

A warning: It is important to separate the new age beliefs (expressed in the gateway document), with the actual scientific studies (which of course imply the existence of supernatural stuff, but do not describe any sort of belief system).

Specific Study 1

generated transcript / original document

Participants had random pieces of artwork sealed in envelopes next to their bed as they slept. They were woken following REM sleep and asked to describe their dreams. Then judges, who could see options for what the art could be, guessed the target based upon which art was most similar to the dream. The selections were significantly better than expected from chance. For example, one subject who was assigned artwork depicting a zebra, reported dreaming of a “horse show”, a “horse race”, and a “striped tie”.

Men and women were equally good at having dreams which could predict the art. There also was much discussion on whether geomagnetic activity predicts increased accuracy, however I find it inconclusive.

Specific Study 2

generated transcript / original document

Researchers had participants write descriptions of selected photos, and then blind judges picked the photo given the description. Sometimes participants attempted this remote viewing while under hypnosis, other times without hypnosis, and other times just after a hypnosis session. The guesses were significantly better than expected from chance. However, it remains unclear whether hypnosis had a significant effect – with some participants performing better under hypnosis and others not performing better.

Does Physics Prove Consciousness?

Here I will outline a few different physics phenomenon that seem to imply the existence of a supernatural world in which information can travel faster than light and the possibility that conscious observation somehow has the ability to alter reality.

Wheeler’s Delayed-Choice Experiment

Background Concepts
Wave behavior: If a photon or electron goes through two slits, it creates an interference pattern, as if it went through both slits simultaneously—a hallmark of wave behavior.
Particle behavior: If we measure which slit it goes through, the interference pattern disappears, and the particle behaves like it only went through one slit.

The Setup
A single photon is emitted toward a beam splitter, which can reflect or transmit the photon (like a half-silvered mirror).
The paths from the splitter lead to mirrors and eventually converge on either:

• Two detectors where interference could occur (wave-like setup), or
• A detector that can determine which path the photon took (particle-like setup).

Here’s the twist: the choice of which final detector setup to use is made after the photon has passed the first splitter.

The Quantum Mystery
Even though the photon has already entered the apparatus, if we later decide to observe: An interference pattern (by not measuring the path of the photon), the photon seems to have behaved like a wave all along. Conversely, if we decide to observe the path of the photon, the photon acts as though it were a particle all along.

This suggests that the experimenter’s choice, made after the photon enters the setup, appears to influence how the photon behaved in the past. This challenges the classical assumptions about a fixed, observer-independent reality—implying instead that the nature of the photon’s past depends on how we choose to measure it in the present.

The Frauchiger–Renner Paradox

A is a quantum particle (like a coin) that has a random outcome—heads or tails. B observes A and makes a decision based on what result A gave. C observes B’s decision and so C should theoretically be able to figure out what A was, even without directly seeing A.

Similarly, D also observes A, and E observes D. Therefore, E should also be able to determine the state of A. So, we can predict the state of A from either the observations of C, or the observations of E. If reality were consistent, these two predicted states of A would align with each other. However, they don’t, implying there is no consistent reality when consciousness is not observing something.

Extended Wigner’s Friend experiment

There are two entangled photons: A and B, which should have the same state. C observes A, while D observes B, so we would expect the predicted state from C to match the predicted state from D. However, they don’t always match, again implying that reality is not consistent without direct observation.

Bell’s Theorem and Nonlocality

Bell experiments show that measurement outcomes on entangled particles are correlated in ways that defy classical explanation. The random outcome of one shared particle is somehow shared instantaneously with its partner (so the information travels faster than the speed of light).

Positive Effects of Religion

There are a truly vast amount of studies showing that religiosity is associated with better life outcomes across all categories – health, education, avoiding crime, having stable families, feeing happiness, and more. Here I will outline some of them.

Specific Studies

Education

• Churchgoing teens are 40 percent more likely to graduate from high school and 70 percent more likely to enroll in college

Health

• Relative risk of dying goes down by 46% among those who frequently attend church services.
• Mortality 40% lower among the religious even after controlling for confounding variables
• Religious upbringing linked to better health and well-being during early adulthood
• Religious individuals report greater happiness, life satisfaction and positivity
• Have lower depressive symptoms
• Are less likely to smoke, use illicit drugs, or have a sexually transmitted infection.

Reading the Bible

• The Effects of Reading the Bible Four Days a Week
• Getting drunk = 57% lower odds
• Sex outside marriage = 68% lower odds
• Pornography = 61% lower odds
• Gambling = 74% lower odds
• Any of these habits = 57% lower odds
• Reading the Bible linked to greater happiness and life purpose
• Study: Frequent Bible reading brings joy and peace

Happiness

• Attending Church Linked to Happiness
• Actively Religious People are happier
• Church attendants predicts life satisfaction, even when compared to people with similar levels of activity in their community
• Daily prayer linked to happiness

Relationships

• Religious people less likely to engage in domestic violence
• Church attendance linked to lower rates of infidelity, and also lower rats of divorce
• Practicing Christians more Content with Their Relationships
• Women with no premarital sex report happier marriages

Bad Habits

• Teens from religious families have better life outcomes – teens from families with frequent religious attendance:
• Were least likely to have ever gotten into a fight
• Were least likely to have ever used hard drugs
• Were least likely to have ever committed a theft of $50 or more
• Were least likely to have ever shoplifted
• Were least likely to have ever run away
• Were least likely to have ever been drunk
• Were the least likely to have been expelled or suspended from school
• Earned the highest average GPA

Meta Analysis of over 600 Studies.

This analysis covers over 600 studies regarding religion, showing that religiosity is associated with better outcomes

• Coping with adversity
• Happiness / Well being
• Hope / Optimism
• Meaning and Purpose
• Sense of Control / Self Esteem
• Positive character attributes (altruism, forgiveness, etc.)
• Lower rates of depression / Suicide / Anxiety
• Lower Substance Abuse
• Lower Crime
• Lower Marital Instability
• Religion decreased the risk of divorce and facilitated marital functioning and parenting.
• Religion correlated with Social Capital (assessed by level of community participation, volunteerism, trust, reciprocity between people in the community, and membership in community-based organizations).
• Religion associated with a lower risk of smoking.
• Lower Coronary Heart Disease and Hypertension.
• Better Immune Function and better Endocrine Function.
• Lower risk of Cancer or better outcomes from Cancer.
• Better Self-Rated Health.
• Religion significantly increases life expectancy – one meta analysis found it on average increases survival rates by 37%.

Mayo Clinic – Benefits of Religion

According to Religious Involvement, Spirituality, and Medicine: Implications for Clinical Practice, religion is associated with a huge amount of health benefits.

• A meta-analysis of 42 studies of nearly 126,000 persons found that highly religious persons had a 29% higher odds of survival compared with less religious persons. These studies control for many variables, such as age, sex, ethnicity, education, baseline health status, body mass index, health practices, and social connections, though the article provides greater detail.
• Several studies show religious people have lower cardiovascular disease.
• Religious people have lower Hypertension and blood pressure, even after controlling for variables such as BMI (and others).
• Religion associated with 1) a lower risk of depression, and 2) faster recovery time to depression even after controlling for 27 variables.
• Religion based care more effective in combatting depression than CBT and standard therapy.
• Of 29 studies examining religion and depression, 24 found religion reduces depression, while 5 found no effect.
• A recent review48 of nearly 70 cross-sectional and prospective studies found that religious involvement is associated with less anxiety or fear.
• A review of 20 studies found that religious involvement was associated with less substance abuse.
• Religion based therapy more effective in reducing alcoholism compared to conventional therapy.
• The inverse relationship between religious involvement and suicide was first reported in 1897, and since then many studies have confirmed it.
• Prayer associated with recovery from depression, and reduced risk of disability from illness.

Heritage – Benefits of Religion

According to The Impact of Religious Practice on Social Stability, religiosity is correlated with a huge amount of positive outcomes. Here is a summary of items discussed in the article:

Stable Families

• men who attended religious services at least weekly were more than 50 percent less likely to commit an act of violence against their partners than were peers who attended only once a year or less.
• 60 percent who attended religious services at least monthly perceived their marriages as “very satisfactory,” compared with only 43 percent of those who attended religious services less often.
• couples who acknowledged a divine purpose in their marriage were more likely to collaborate, to have greater marital adjustment, and to perceive more benefits from marriage and were less likely to use aggression or to come to a stalemate in their disagreements.
• have lower out of wed lock childbearing
• the more frequently husbands attended religious services, the happier their wives said they were with the level of affection and understanding that they received and the amount of time that their husbands spent with them.
• Compared with those who viewed themselves as being “very religious,” those who were “not at all religious” were far more likely to bear a child out of wedlock (among whites, three times as likely; among Hispanics, 2.5 times as likely; and among blacks, twice as likely).

Divorce

• Marriages in which both spouses attend religious services frequently are 2.4 times less likely to end in divorce than marriages in which neither spouse worships.
• Those who view their religious beliefs as “very important” are 22 percent less likely to divorce than those for whom religious beliefs are only “somewhat important.”
• In fact, religious attendance is the most important predictor of marital stability.

Caring for children

• Parents attending church tend to have better relationships with their children
• parents more involved in education of children
• the greater a child’s religious involvement, the greater the emotional closeness of parent to child.

Mothers

• Mothers who deemed Religion to be very important rated their relationship with their child significantly higher.
• Mothers who became more religious throughout the first 18 years of their child’s life reported a better relationship with that child, regardless of the level of their religious practice before the child was born.
• Grandmothers’ religious practice illustrates an intergenerational influence. The more religious a mother’s mother is, the more likely the mother has a good relationship with her own child.

Fathers

• Greater religious practice of fathers is associated with better relationships with their children, higher expectations for good relationships in the future, a greater investment in their relationships with their children, a greater sense of obligation to stay in regular contact with their children, and a greater likelihood of supporting their children and grandchildren.
• Fathers’ religiosity was positively associated with their involvement in activities with their children, such as one-on-one interaction, having dinner with their families, and volunteering for youth-related activities. They were more likely to monitor their children, praise and hug their children, and spend time with their children. Fathers frequency of religious attendance was a stronger predictor of having one-on-one activities with children than employment and income.

Substance Use

• have lower alcohol abuse and cigarette use
• lower drug use
• higher levels of religious practice by their mothers are related to significantly lower rates of alcohol abuse

Happiness

• 81 percent of the 99 studies reviewed found “some positive association…between religious involvement and greater happiness, life satisfaction, morale, positive affect, or some other measure of well-being.
• increase in religious practice was associated with having greater hope and a greater sense of purpose in life.
• frequent attendance at religious services predicts less distress, even when controlling for the normal sociodemographic predictors of this condition, for both students and adults.
• More religious people report a greater sense of control over their life.
• Religious people tend to have better coping strategies and higher self esteem.
• Religiousity decreases depression and suicide.

Life Expectancy

• Those who are religiously involved live an average of seven years longer than those who are not. This gap is as great as that between non-smokers and those who smoke a pack of cigarettes a day.
• Among African-Americans, those who are religious live 14 years longer.
• An earlier review of 250 epidemiological health research studies found a reduced risk of colitis, different types of cancer, and untimely death among people with higher levels of religious commitment. Conversely, at any age, those who did not attend religious services had higher risks of dying from cirrhosis of the liver, emphysema, arteriosclerosis, and other cardiovascular diseases and were more likely to commit suicide, according to an even earlier review by faculty of the John Hopkins University School of Public Health.
• controlling for variables such as race, death rates for an age cohort (e.g., men age 59 or women age 71) are 28 to 46 percent lower among religiously practicing individuals for that age group.

Community Service

• Religious people are more likely to report themselves as concerned about the disadvantaged.
• Religious individuals were 40 percent more likely than their secular counterparts to give money to charities and more than twice as likely to volunteer.
• Among those who felt compassion for the disadvantaged, religious respondents were 23 percentage points more likely to donate to charities at least yearly and 32 percentage points more likely to donate monthly than were their secular counterparts. They were 34 percentage points more likely to volunteer at least yearly and 22 percentage points more likely to volunteer monthly.
• Individuals with a religious affiliation were 30 percent more likely to donate to organizations assisting the poor when compared with their secular counterparts.

Education

• Adolescents whose mothers attended religious services at least weekly displayed better health, greater problem-solving skills, and higher overall satisfaction with their lives, regardless of race, gender, income, or family structure, according to a study of public school children in Baltimore.
• educational attainment aspirations and math and reading score correlated positively with more frequent religious practice.
• The greater the parents’ religious involvement, the more likely they will have higher educational expectations of their children. Their children are more likely to pursue advanced courses, spend more time on homework, establish friendships with academically oriented peers, avoid cutting classes, and successfully complete their degrees.
• Youth who frequently attended religious services were five times less likely to skip school, compared with peers who seldom or never attended.

Education among high risk populations

• Religious attendance is correlated with school attendance, work activity, good allocation of time, and decreases likelihood of deviant activities among inner-city youth.
• For youth in impoverished neighborhoods, religious attendance made the greatest difference in academic achievement prospects.
• Youth in high-risk neighborhoods who regularly attend religious services have similar academic success as their peers in low-risk, middle-class neighborhoods.
• Religious affiliation increases educational attainment for African-Americans in a high-risk neighborhoods, even when controlling for family structure.
• Among Vietnamese immigrants, religious service attendance correlated with better grades, attending after-school classes , avoidance of substance abuse, and the valuing attending college.
• Attendance at religious services and activities positively affected inner-city youth school attendance, work activity, and allocation of time-all of which were further linked to a decreased likelihood of engaging in deviant activities.

Crime

• religious involvement during adolescence is associated with a reduction in crimes committed in adulthood.
• A 6 percent reduction in delinquency was associated with a one-point increase on an index that combined adolescents’ frequency of religious service with their rating of the importance of religion. Moreover, each unit increase in a mother’s religious practice is associated with a 9 percent decline in her child’s delinquency.
• youth religious practice is linked to a decreased likelihood of associating with delinquent peers
• Compared with less religious counterparts, religiously involved individuals are less likely to carry or use weapons, fight, or exhibit violent behavior.

Crime among high risk groups

• African-American youth living in impoverished urban neighborhoods who attended religious services at least weekly were half as likely to use illicit drugs as those who never attended.
• A study of 2,358 young black males from impoverished inner-city Chicago and Philadelphia found that a high level of religious attendance was associated with a 46 percent reduction in the likelihood of using drugs, a 57 percent reduction in the probability of dealing drugs, and a 39 percent decrease in the likelihood of committing a crime that was not drug-related.
• Religious youth from low-income neighborhoods are not only less likely than non-religious neighborhood peers to use illegal drugs, but also less likely than peers in “good” neighborhoods who have low levels of religious commitment.

Positive Effects of Mormonism

My discussion of the positive effects of religion would be incomplete without also discussing some of the positive effects associated with being an active Mormon, since Mormonism appears to be the religion associated with the most positive outcomes.

Compared to various other religions

• Among common religions, Mormons and jews are the most happy, while atheists are the least happy
• Mormon teens less likely to be involved in delinquent activity than youth of any other religious affiliation (primary study, supporting study, another random study).
• Teens who identified as Mormon or Jewish had the greatest odds of graduating from high school and enrolling in college, while teens not affiliated with any religion had the lowest rate of graduation and college attendance.
• Mormons are the only religion in which church activity and attendance increase with education – all other religions have members who become less educated as they receive more education.

Education

• 54% of the LDS men had some post–high school education, as compared to 37% for the general population. The number is 44% for LDS women, compared to 28% overall. Increased religiosity among Mormons is associated with further education gains.

Health

• Mormon men live 10 years longer than average, women live 5 years longer

Bad Habits

• Mormon teens have lowest (among various religious affiliations) of sex, smoking, drinking, watching porn, and self-reported lying to parents.
• Mormons have a lower divorce rate than any religion except Indian religions – the divorce rate among protestants is 51% and among Mormons is 7%

Mental Health

• Active Mormons have 3-7 times lower suicide rates than the general population and also less active Mormons.
• Mormons who serve missions have a two times lower rate of depression than average (Mormons who don’t serve missions also have lower rates of depression though not as much)

Civilization impacts of Christianity

I find it notable that studies also show that regions who receive missionaries have better outcomes in terms of education, health, economy and other factors. And that civilizations that embrace Christian values tend to succeed while those who reject them tend to fall.

The Family across History

• Sex and Culture – Joseph D. Unwin
  Initial aim: To explore whether sexual freedom might accompany or even enhance cultural achievement.
  Actual finding: Across 86 societies studied, increased sexual freedom consistently preceded cultural and economic decline, with societies typically collapsing within three generations of abandoning premarital chastity and absolute monogamy.
• Carle C. Zimmerman – Family and Civilization (1947)
  Core Argument: The structure of the family is deeply tied to the strength of a civilization.
  Observation: Societies that uphold stable, monogamous family units (with sexual norms and intergenerational obligations) tend to be more resilient.
  Comparison: Roman, Greek, and modern Western societies show similar patterns of family weakening before collapse.

Missionaries in India

I found this article regarding the beneficial effects of missionaries during colonialism to be very interesting. So here is an outline of the most interesting points:

Ending bad traditions

• Missionaries spearheaded reforms to protect children from intergenerational sexual abuse. They helped abolish destructive Indigenous customs like foot-binding, female genital cutting, teenage boys and girls used in ceremonial intercourse, widow burning, child marriages, and so on.

India

• At the turn of the nineteenth century, approximately 70% of primary and secondary schools in the provinces of Agra and Oudh were managed by missionaries.
• Female education was also boosted in areas where Protestantism was more prevalent, with a 25% increase in the total population literacy rate.
• In 1931, Christians in India surpassed Sikh, Hindu, Muslim, and tribal communities in overall literacy. Muslims had an average of 15 per 1000 literate girls, Hindus had an average of 21 of 1000 literate girls, and Christians succeeded these numbers 203 of 1000 literate girls.
• “Our measures of hygiene, preventive care, and health knowledge are significantly associated with the distance from a Protestant medical mission.
• Consumption of alcohol and drugs are as well as things such as gambling and child marriage decreased in areas where Christianity spread it’s influence.
• Christian infants have higher height-for-age z-scores as compared to infants of other religious identities

Africa

• Missionaries created the first schools in most former colonies and provided 90% of Western education in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• In some regions of Africa before 1966, the odds of a Christian being literate rather than illiterate is nine times higher than for a non-Christian.

China

• Increasing conversion rates appears to have a causal impact in increasing the urbanization rate.

Prayer Studies

Beyond religion effecting the world by practically improving our culture and way of life, it appears that religion may also exert a supernatural effect: People who are religious have better life outcomes because they genuinely have been blessed by God. Here are a few studies that imply the possibility.

A few Specific Studies:

Intercessory Prayer group has twice as high pregnancy rate

Intercessory Prayer Helps Monkeys with Healing Wounds

Retrospective Prayer Works – Prayers for patients years after a treatment effects the treatment

Meta Analysis

Prayer on Healing First
Cindy C. Crawford, BA, Andrew G. Sparber, RN, MS, CS, and Wayne B. Jonas, MD
(31 clinical studies found positive effect, 4 clinical studies found negative effect, and 10 found no effect)

Prayer on Healing Second
J A Astin 1, E Harkness, E Ernst
(13 studies found a positive effect, 1 found a negative effect, and 9 found no effect)

Prayer on Healing Third
by Talita Prado Simão 1,*,Sílvia Caldeira 2,†ORCID andEmilia Campos De Carvalho 1
(7 studies found positive effect, 1 found a negative effect, 4 found no effect)

Prayer on Healing Fourth
David R. Hodge
(12 studies found positive effect, 5 found no effect)

Prayer Helps Students
William Jeynes
(all 13 studies showed a positive effect of prayer)

My Stories / Problem of Evil

The Problem of Evil

In my view, one of the main reasons we came to this earth is to experience adversity. Adversity and scarcity force us to choose what values are most important to us (since we cannot have everything) and learn the self-control so that we prioritize our time to align with these values. And there is no adversity and scarcity without suffering – hence the nature of our earth.

Moreover, we came to earth to learn to choose good over evil. Thus it was necessary for there to be a force pulling us to evil and a force pulling us to the good. One of the strongest forces pulling us to evil is scarcity. Firstly, because when we are lacking, they justifies all sorts of selfish sinful acts – stealing money, cheating on tests, etc. And secondly, because when we see unfairness – either because other people were luckily blessed with greater resources than us, or because other people stole those resources – we use that as a justification for our own sinful acts. We are tempted to believe that if the world is unfair, then I can act unfairly as well. Without scarcity, there honestly would be very little temptation to sin, thus the need for scarcity in this earth.

Beyond this, trials help to refine our soul in many ways. Trials teach us to always trust in God (since we only truly need God when things are not going well for us). When we go through trials, this teaches us how to succor others going through the same trials. Trials also show us our flaws so that we can fix them. Trials also give us the chance to see God’s miracles in improving our lives and ourselves. And finally, trials are tests that if we pass give us the opportunity to earn eternal glory.

I discuss these ideas more in Hope During Times of Darkness.

My Experiences with Prayer

Losing My Phone in the Mountains

While traveling, I was hiking in the Austrian Alps at night and (extremely foolishly) decided to take a shortcut through the forest to get down a mountain faster by bypassing switchbacks. On this shortcut, my phone fell out of my pocket off a cliff!

So I climbed down the cliff to start searching for my phone. But there was a large area where the phone could be seeing that the slope just kept going all the way to the base of the mountain, and it was very dark.

I prayed asking for help finding my phone. Immediately after the prayer, I saw my phone screen light up for 2 seconds in a place I was looking. The phone had fallen into a deep crack that was partially covered in rocks and leaves. There truly is no way I could have found it by myself, even in the daylight.

Picking a Suit

I was trying to buy a suit. I went to a mall and travelled to every single store in it for hours and could not find any suit to my liking. I then went to the same mall a second time, and prayed for help finding what I wanted to buy, and I kid you not as I opened my eyes I was staring directly at a suit that was exactly what I wanted.

Finding my Dog

I had lost my dog in a large green space. I prayed to find my dog and immediately after my prayer my Dog came bounding towards me.

Conclusions Regarding Prayer

I don’t believe that God is going to immediately take away all of our problems. However, I do believe he will help because he is a loving and merciful God. This scripture is relevant:

D&C 130:20–21
20 There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated—
21 And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.

As we see, receiving answers to prayers is conditional on our obedience to God. Since I personally am very stupid, I feel I will not be able to get on with life without God’s help. Therefore, to me it is of utmost importance to obey the commandments so that I can be a recipient of God’s mercy.

In my life I have observed some prayers to have immediate answers (as my stories describe). Other times, I feel mental relief and joy as a result of my prayers, even though my problems are still there (further discussed in Mosiah 24:12–15). And some of my prayers have not been answered yet. But that is part of faith: trusting that God has a plan, and that there is a reason for everything, even though you might not know what it is. God has his own timing, and sometimes he makes us wait to receive blessings as a test on our part so that we have the opportunity to receive further blessings if we pass the test.

Fulfilled Prophecy

The Bible contains many prophecies that indeed came true. Most notable to me is how Daniel’s prophecy about when the messiah would come in Daniel 9:24-27 exactly corresponds with the actual timing of when Christ came to Jerusalem on palm Sunday. However, there are a few others that I include in this list.

1. Daniel 9:24–27 — Exact Arrival Date of the Messiah

Prophecy detail	Fulfillment
“From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the Prince, there will be 7 weeks and 62 weeks” (i.e., 69 sevens = 483 prophetic years). The Messiah will then be “cut off.”	Starting from Artaxerxes’ decree in 444 BC (Nehemiah 2:1–8) and counting 173,880 days (483 years × 360-day prophetic years), we arrive at Palm Sunday, March 29, 33 AD, when Jesus rode into Jerusalem and was hailed as king — and was “cut off” (crucified) days later.

Why this is “impossible by chance”
Predicting not only the general period but the exact day of the Messiah’s public arrival, hundreds of years in advance, is mathematically staggering.

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2. Isaiah 44 : 28 – 45 : 1 — Cyrus Named 150 + Years in Advance

Prophecy detail	Fulfillment
Persia’s future king is called by name (“Cyrus”) and will free the Jews to rebuild Jerusalem & the Temple.	Cyrus captured Babylon in 539 BC and immediately issued a decree permitting the Jews to return and rebuild (the “Cyrus Cylinder”). bible.ucg.org

Why this is “impossible by chance”
No other ancient sacred text names a future foreign ruler so far ahead of time with the correct role.

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3. Ezekiel 26 — Total Destruction of Tyre “by Many Nations”

Prophecy detail	Fulfillment
Mainland Tyre will be scraped bare; its rubble thrown “into the sea;” the site becomes a bare rock for fishermen.	① Nebuchadnezzar besieged mainland Tyre (586‑573 BC). ② Alexander the Great (332 BC) built a causeway to the island city using the mainland ruins, literally throwing debris into the sea and leaving the old site bare. ③ Today the ancient mainland is a windswept peninsula used by local fishermen. en.wikipedia.orgchristiancourier.com

Why improbable
The prophecy combines who (successive nations), how (scraping debris into the sea), and result (bare rock) — details no strategist could foresee 250 years before Alexander.

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4. Nahum 1–3 — Fall of Nineveh

Prophecy detail	Fulfillment
Nineveh’s walls breached by floodwaters; city burned; never rebuilt (“utter end”).	In 612 BC the Medes & Babylonians diverted the Khosr River, collapsing part of Nineveh’s wall; the city was torched and abandoned for centuries, its location lost until 19th‑century archaeology. gotquestions.org

Why improbable
At the time, Assyria was the super‑power and Nineveh a seemingly unassailable capital; predicting its sudden, watery demise and permanent disappearance defied human probability.

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5. Isaiah 13 & Jeremiah 50‑51 — The Ruin of Babylon

Prophecy detail	Fulfillment
Babylon to fall, become “desolate…never inhabited,” home only to desert creatures.	After Persia’s capture (539 BC) Babylon declined, suffered multiple sackings, and by the Islamic era was an uninhabited ruin; today it remains an archaeological site with only seasonal caretakers. biblehub.com

Why improbable
Great capitals usually get rebuilt (e.g., Rome, Athens). Babylon’s long‑term desolation, despite repeated attempts at restoration, fits the oracles precisely.

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6. Daniel 2, 7, 8 — Succession of World Empires

Prophecy detail	Fulfillment
Four empires symbolized as gold, silver, bronze, iron / beasts; the 3rd (bronze / goat) swiftly conquers the 2nd, then fractures into four parts.	History’s sequence: Babylon → Medo‑Persia → Greece → Rome. Alexander’s Greek empire overtook Persia “with great speed,” then split among his four generals (Diadochi). en.wikipedia.orgen.wikipedia.org

Why improbable
Daniel was written while Babylon still reigned; foretelling not only Greece’s meteoric conquest but its exact four‑way breakup is an uncanny geopolitical forecast.

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7. Ezekiel 29 : 15 — Egypt Never Again a Super‑Power

Prophecy detail	Fulfillment
Egypt will become “the lowliest of kingdoms; never again rule over nations.”	After Persian, Greek and Roman subjugations, Egypt has never re‑emerged as an independent world empire; for 2,400 years it has been ruled by foreign or regional powers and remains a middle‑tier state. biblehub.combible.ucg.org

Why improbable
Egypt was a premier ancient power for 2,000 years before Ezekiel. Predicting its permanent geopolitical downgrade runs counter to every contemporary expectation.

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8. Ezekiel 36 & Isaiah 35 — Land of Israel Blossoms After the Diaspora

Prophecy detail	Fulfillment
Barren hills will be “cultivated,” the desert will “blossom,” when Israel returns.	Since the modern return (late 19th c.–today) Israel leads the world in arid‑land agriculture, exports produce from former desert, and has re‑forested >240 million trees. biblehub.comgodsotherways.com

Why improbable
No other nation restored ancient terraces, invented drip irrigation, and turned desert to farmland on such a scale after two millennia of exile.

Conclusion

Hopefully this document adequately proves the existence of the supernatural. I realize that many of the studies I presented may have flaws (and my presentation of them also has flaws). My hope is that you see the studies as a whole, rather than choose to nitpick. It takes many pieces of evidence to convict a criminal for a crime. Usually, each individual piece of evidence might have a way it could come about by chance and thus doesn’t itself prove guilt. However, when put together, it becomes very unlikely that all evidences could have simultaneously occurred randomly and thus the criminal is convicted. Likewise, I understand that each individual study mentioned here could have happened by chance. However, when put together, I believe the probability that all of these studies could have produced these results is unfathomably low – and thus I believe the numbers are on my side when I claim the existence of the supernatural.

For the naïve reader, you probably are not aware of how dishonest these critics are, so I will provide a few quotes from this cia document discussing such critics.

“Books by psychologists purporting to offer critical reviews of research in parapsychology do not use the scientific standards of discourse prevalent in psychology. … In others, [the Maimonides experiments] have been so severely distorted as to give an entirely erroneous impression of how they were conducted.”

“Much parapsychological research is barred from being seriously considered because it is either neglected or misrepresented in writings by some psychologists — among them, some who have placed themselves in a prime position to mediate interaction between parapsychological research and the general body of psychological knowledge.”

“Zusne and Jones (1982) wrote that Ullman and Krippner (1978) had found that dreamers were not influenced telepathically unless they knew in advance that an attempt would be made to influence them. This led, they wrote, to the subject’s being ‘primed prior to going to sleep’ through the experimenter’s preparing the receiver through experiences that were related to the content of the picture to be telepathically transmitted during the night
…
The simple fact… is that the account Zusne and Jones gave of the experiment is grossly inaccurate. What Zusne and Jones have done is to describe (for one specific night)… stimuli provided to the dreamer the next morning, after his dreams had been recorded and his night’s sleep was over. Zusne and Jones erroneously stated that these stimuli were provided before the night’s sleep…”

“Hansel exaggerated the opportunities for sensory cuing—that is, for percipient to obtain by ordinary sensory means some information about the target for the night. He did this notably by misinterpreting an ambiguous statement…Hansel did not alert the reader to the great care exerted by the researchers to eliminate possible sources of sensory cuing.
…
All of Hansel’s criticisms of the Maimonides experiments are relevant only on the hypothesis of fraud, except for the mistaken criticism I have mentioned above… But the fact that fraud was as always, theoretically possible hardly justifies dismissal of a series of carefully conducted studies that offer important suggestions for opening up a new line of inquiry into a topic potentially of great significance.”

“First, it [Zusne and Jones’s account] implied that one of the experimenters had a chance to know the identity of the target…  In fact, precautions were taken to en- sure that no one but the agent could know the identity of the target”

“Second, the authors stated that ‘three judges… rate their confidence that the dream content matches the target picture,’ leading the reader to suppose that the judges were informed of the identity of the target at the time of rating. In fact, a judge was presented with a dream transcript and a pool of potential targets and was asked to rate the – degree of similarity between the transcript and each member of the pool, while being unaware of which member had been the target.

“What Romm described as ‘shoe-fitting’ (misinterpreting events to fit one’s expectations) is an important kind of error… But the dream telepathy research at Maimonides was well protected against this kind of error by the painstaking controls…”

If your criticism is that you found a study that disagrees with mine (indeed on the rare occasion a prayer study finds no effect it is trumpeted with much glee by the msm), I would urge you to note all of the meta analyses I have mentioned – there are almost no prayer studies showing prayer has a negative effect, while many show it with a positive effect. If your approach is to say there was methodological bias – subjects were not properly blinded and whatnot – I would urge you to actually read the studies yourself. If your approach to criticizing my work here is to go through each study and find specific authors who you think don’t have good enough credentials, or to tell me that the journals they were published in are not elite enough, I will laugh at you. That is just ridiculous nitpicking sorry. If your criticism is that if what I actually am saying were true, then major institutions would be talking about it, I would note that we live in a fallen world – Satan has captured almost all institutions – and find it very unlikely that Satan would allow these companies to contain rhetoric that would promote religion.