#301 Healing after prayer 🗓
With Dr Dick Kruijthoff
In his family practice Dick Kruijthoff was confronted with a remarkable healing during prayer, that gained nationwide interest in the Netherlands. He wondered what had happened.
It took him to a 12 year study at the Free University in Amsterdam investigating 83 reports of a healing experience during or after prayer. Eleven of them were labelled as ‘medically remarkable’ by a medical assessment team. The team was surprised by the impressive holistic dimensions of the experiences. The study led to a dissertation in scientific English in 2023 and a book explaining the findings in understandable Dutch in 2025.
Further studies on healing:
- Healing after Prayer, an interdisciplinary case study, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
- Case Report of instantaneous resolution of juvenile macular degeneration blindness after proximal intercessory prayer
- Case Report of gastroparesis healing: 16 years of a chronic syndrome resolved after proximal intercessory prayer
- Case Report of 11 Years of Severe Malabsorption, Muscular Atrophy, Seizures, and Immunodeficiency Resolved After Proximal Intercessory Prayer
- Prayer for Pain and Anxiety in a Primary Care Setting: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Dr Dick Kruijthoff
Dick Kruijthoff graduated in medicine and family medicine at the Erasmus university in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Subsequently he gained a degree in tropical medicine in Antwerp, Belgium, after which he worked in rural hospitals in Botswana, South Africa and Kenya for over five years.
Upon his return to the Netherlands he had his own family practice from 1992 until 2021. Kruijthoff acquired a degree in elderly medicine in 2010. Since 2022 he works as an acting general practitioner in different practices.
The PhD investigations in Amsterdam took place while working as a GP at the same time.