Speaking as someone who has been in hospital on more than one occasion I can say clearly and with some conviction when you're ill you know you're ill, when you're very ill. you KNOW you're very ill and there's nothing anyone can say or do to make you feel worse.
You, possibly. It's not universally true. It's well documented that how others react to a patient can greatly influence prognosis.
Whenever I have been in that situation (even as a small boy) my main concern was to stop other people worrying about me.
Prayer works
As a supernatural intervention of God, or in the same way a placebo does?
when his holiness the Pope lay dying and people gathered to pray outside, that must have moved him, that must have given him strength and confirmation of a life well lived (if people did the same for me I'd die smiling),
Fair enough, but you're offering nothing to support your belief that prayer works in any supernatural way.
similarly during the Russo/Polish war the novena galvanised the nation, inspired it's leader and defined the nature of the second republic.
Equally similarly, the people who crashed planes into the WTC all prayed most devoutly before carrying out their little faith-inspired acts. That prayer/faith motivates people is beyond question. Interestingly, prayer motives people of *all* religions and faiths, rather than just some. Either the Bah'ai have it right, or what we're seeing is a very real but entirely non-supernatural psychological experience.
cont.