Can Prayers or Meditation actually heal?

First off. Sorry to anyone expecting a highly religious thread this is probably going to be a bit of a disappointment.

So, I got into a discussion about this a short bit ago with someone. Personally I think it's a little bit of a load of hooey(to an extent). I mean I am not really religious, but can prayer actually help people? Personally I think of prayer as a form of meditation and I know meditation is good for the body because it's like taking a moment to focus on relaxing yourself and getting rid of stress and anxiety. When stress can do damage I think the reason we see these things like healing by prayer or meditation what it is in my opinion is the person ridding their body of the stress and anxiety that is impeding the healing process. I am just curious to see what everyone else thinks. If you have proof that healing by prayer or meditation works feel free to drop a link or a story.

If I were to give my opinion I don't really think it's the prayers or the meditation that does the healing exactly, but it's the fact people are lifting their spirits so to speak and getting rid of stress and anxiety. Giving them more of a positive attitude and I think that is what's really doing the work. It's sort of like the placebo effect(correlation does not mean causation).

Also I'm not saying anyone doesn't have the right to believe what they want to believe but I just personally don't want to believe a "fairly tale" and I would rather want to do something because it's the nice thing to do than to want to do something nice for the off chance you die and go to heaven. Personally I think if more people thought like this we would have a lot less problems in the world.

TL;DR
Can prayers/meditation heal?
MY opinion: kind of, but it's not the prayer so to speak as it's just the positive vibes relieving the stress and anxiety.

Feel free to take part in the poll and/or tell me what you think.



(Please don't let this turn into a religious shit storm. Thank You)