NEW YORK, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- A 2001 Columbia University study concluding prayer dramatically increases fertility rates is being attacked by critics as an academic sham.
Dr. Bruce Flamm, a clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of California-Irvine College of Medicine, has led the effort to scrutinize the work of the Columbia researchers, who he said were "apparently documenting something supernatural in a scientific journal," the San Jose Mercury News reported Monday.
"I almost fell out of my chair (when I first saw the study). They were presenting something that was bizarre, absurd," Flamm said.
Lead author Dr. Kwang Y. Cha quit Columbia University after the scandal broke. The federal government later determined that the study violated federal research guidelines.
"Women who were prayed for became pregnant twice as often as those who did not have people praying for them," the New York Times reported in 2001.
