The Placebo Effect

Mind healing is such a natural, powerful part of who we are and how the mind body connection works.

Placebo means "I will please". When you accept a suggestion and completely believe it to be true, your subconscious mind acts to make it a reality. Because we are programmed to believe what authority figures tell us, healing may occur even if our treatment was bogus.

To account for the ability of the mind to heal the body during drug studies, control groups receive placebos instead of a real drug, treatment or surgery. Common placebos are sugar pills and saline solution.

A huge bonus of these spontaneous healings is that there are no negative drug side effects. The body is encouraged to heal naturally instead of altering how it's supposed to work to suppress symptoms.

Subconscious mind healing accounts for approximately one-third of all improvements noted in these studies.

As the following video demonstrates, a few fascinating studies have even shown the positive effects of realistic, but fake surgeries.

This well-known placebo surgery study was conducted in Houston in 2002. Researchers at the Houston VA Medical Center and Baylor College of Medicine found that a common type of knee surgery was no more beneficial than the placebo effect. Dr. Bruce Moseley of Methodist Hospital in Houston was astonished by the result of these placebo surgeries.

At the end of prescription drug commercials you often hear a list of side effects and how many study subjects improved due to the placebo effect. That number is often approximately one-third, or 33%.

One recent urinary incontinence drug commercial stated that 50% of subjects on placebos showed improvement.

That means half of the people experienced the same good results that people on the actual drug had, without the negative side effects.

Some studies suggest that even when people know they are receiving a placebo, a percentage of them improve. There is also evidence that the color and size of the pill influences how many people improve.

Modern medicine is not alone when it comes to the placebo effect.

A recent study showed that people treated correctly with acupuncture had just as much back pain relief as those who were treated with needles placed randomly.

A similar effect happens when people under deep hypnosis accept the suggestion that they have a rash, so a rash develops right before their eyes. Then it instantly vanishes with another suggestion.

Shamans use elaborate rituals to build up belief and the emotional state of patients before a healing. The same holds true of faith healing.

This is not always the case, of course. Some people experience spontaneous natural healing without evident emotion or belief involved by either the healer or healee.

The placebo effect is real, although it is not fully understood. Hopefully in the future we will understand how to harness the power of this mind healing and use it on command. In the meantime, we can only marvel and be thankful when it happens for us.

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