Lourdes water has healing powers. It works like a placebo

YES: Lourdes water has miraculous powers, like placebo. Researchers from the University of Graz tested its ‘healing powers’ on a group of believers, confirming that religious people can benefit from taking placebo drugs or interventions that claim to provide healing by spiritual or supernatural means.

The team led by the clinical psychology professor Anne Schienle has taken a more open approach to the study of placebos, considering them “a tool capable of invoking a meaningful response in patients”.