You Are the Placebo: Making Your Mind Matter
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| Expectation, the second element, comes into play when we have reason to anticipate a different outcome. So, for example, if we have chronic pain from arthritis and get anew medication from the doctor, who enthusiastically explains to us that it’s supposed to alleviate our pain, we accept his suggestion and expect that when we take this new medication, something different will happen (we won’t be in pain anymore. Then, in effect, our doctor has influenced our level of suggestibility. Once we become more suggestible, we’re naturally associating something outside of ourselves (the new medication) with the selection of a different possibility (being pain-free). In our minds, we are picking a different future potential and hoping, anticipating, and expecting that we’ll get that different result. If we emotionally accept and then embrace that new outcome we’ve selected, and the intensity of our emotion is great enough, our brains and our bodies won’t know the difference between imagining that we’ve changed our state of being to being pain- free and the actual event that caused the change to anew state of being. To the brain and the body, they are the same. 70 In Figure A, a stimulus produces a physiological change called a response or a reward. 71 Figure B demonstrates that if you pair a stimulus with a conditioned stimulus enough times, it will still produce a response. Figure C shows if you remove the stimulus and substitute a conditioned stimulus—like a placebo—it can produce the same physiological response. Consequently, the brain fires the same neural circuits as it would if our state had changed (if the drug worked to relieve the pain) while it releases similar chemicals into the body. What we’re expecting (to be pain-free) then actually happens, because the brain and the body create the perfect pharmacy to alter our internal condition. We are now in anew state of being—that is, the mind and body are working as one. We’re that powerful. Assigning meaning, the third element, to a placebo helps it work, because when we give an action anew meaning, then we have added intention behind it. In other words, when we learn and understand something new, we put more of our conscious, purposeful energy into it. So, for example, in the study about the hotel maids from the previous chapter, once the maids understood how much physical exercise they were doing everyday just by performing their jobs, as well as the benefits of that exercise, they assigned more meaning to those actions. They weren’t just vacuuming, scrubbing, and mopping they realized they were working their muscles, increasing their strength, and burning calories. Because the vacuuming, scrubbing, and mopping had more meaning after the researchers educated them about the physical advantages of exercise, the maids intention or aim as they worked wasn’t just to complete their tasks—it was also to get physical exercise and become healthier. And that’s exactly what happened. The members of the control group didn’t assign the same meaning to their tasks, because they didn’t know that what they were doing was beneficial to their health, so they also didn’t receive the same benefits—even though they were performing exactly the same actions. The placebo works the same way. The more you believe that a particular substance, procedure, or surgery will work because you’ve been educated about its benefits, the better your chances of responding to the thought of improving your health and getting better. In other words, if you place more meaning behind a possible experience with a person, place, or thing in your external environment in order to change your internal environment, then you’re more likely to be successful at intentionally changing your inner state by thought alone. In addition, the more you can accept anew outcome related to your health—because you’ve been educated about the possible rewards of what you’re doing— the clearer the model you’re creating in your own mind, and so the better 72 you’ll beat priming your brain and your body to replicate exactly that. Simply said, the more you believe in the cause, the better the effect. Download 5.46 Mb. Share with your friends:
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