Understanding the so-called Placebo Effect --- rename as Natural Intensive Healing Response

Hi ATS,

Now you will of course have heard of the Placebo Effect. It is viewed in a strangely negative light, even though it is actually thought to be accountable for up to a third of all experiences of healing from disease or illnesses of various sorts & at all levels of severity. We consider that people who are in any way likely to have benefitted from the placebo effect are in some way devious, subject to suspicion, charlatans. These affects are real, and we really do have a negative view of the Placebo Effect, thinking it in some way shambolic or deceitful. Of course these feelings are largely subconscious, but it cannot be denied that they are real. Why do we feel this way? Perhaps it is because we have fully misunderstood what is actually taking place when the placebo effect is in some way responsible for the healing that a person experiences. You may even dislike the use of the word 'healing' in this context!

So what's really going on here? Well, the so-called Placebo Effect should actually be called the 'Natural Intensive Healing Effect'. The NIHE is in fact a legitimate, observable effect, which basically means that our bodies have a reserve of disease-fighting capability which is way beyond our ordinary healing processes in its capacity to restore health, even from very dire states of illness, when we feel that we are cared-for, restful, in good general circumstances & with prospects for a good future. These conditions set up a sort of resonance effect in our brain-body complex, such that a naturally available healing potential is activated, causing our cells & systems to fight back powerfully against illness, principally secure in the knowledge that we are cared for, in good circumstances. And that, is the so-called 'Placebo Effect' in a nutshell. It is a secret reserve of healing potential which is unleashed when everything in our circumstances is reasonably well-set, and we feel able to rest & direct our full conscious & subconscious energies towards healing of body & soul.

Research this in more detail & you will be amazed at what you can discover..!! Biology is amazing - check out the link, it really is incredible.

Placebo Effect Digested - 10 amazing findings

a reply to: FlyInTheOintment

Amazing. And I've always wondered why placebos worked for some people and not others.

Certain personality traits are associated with it being more likely that a person will experience the placebo effect. This is logical since the placebo effect depends on our beliefs and expectations, which some of us may subscribe to more readily and enthusiastically than others. Among the results in this area, optimists are more responsive to analgesic placebos, as are people who score higher for emotional resilience and friendliness (this last finding may relate to the social dynamic involved in the elicitation of the placebo effect by physicians). Curiously, the traits related to placebo response vary according to the condition being treated – in the context of stress, for instance, one study found it was the more pessimistic and less empathic participants who showed a greater placebo response. Whereas personality traits appear to play an important role in the placebo effect, the evidence to date suggests that age and gender are largely irrelevant.

(from your source)

Kind of like calling UFOs UAPs. Just a change in the name and add some big words.

a reply to: FlyInTheOintment

I prefer calling it "mind over matter", and it works both ways, not just for healing. A placebo can be positive as well as negative.

A person can make themselves sick, thinking they are sick, the same way they can overcome an illness by thinking they got medicine.

All it shows is just how powerful our psyche is. We can change our reality just by influencing it with our thoughts.

a reply to: Oraculi

Yes, I drank way to much coffee during a conference once, I sat down and felt like my body weighed 100x heavier.

I actually thought I was having a stroke or something, I freaked out for the whole weekend thinking my hands and arms felt funny, went to doc, said I was perfect, and probably just a bit of the jitters from coffee. Almost instantly felt better. The brain can play some funny tricks on people.