Have you ever heard about the Placebo effect? What about the Nocebo effect?
Most people have heard the term placebo, but do you know what it means?
Placebo is from the Latin for “I shall please”. Nocebo is from the Latin meaning “I shall harm”.
Both words are typically used to refer to effects that a patient experiences when taking an inert substance -like a sugar pill – instead of an actual medication. These effects arise solely from the patient’s expectations of the results. If they believe that the “medication” will be helpful, they often recover. If they believe or fear the potential side effects of a drug, they often experience them – even when the drug is not actually there!
The fact that taking a faux drug can powerfully improve some people’s health—the so-called placebo effect—has long been considered an embarrassment to the serious practice of pharmacology. Wired Magazine
New research shows that even when patients are told that they are taking a placebo, the effect still takes place. This is quite an interesting effect! Said Kaptchuk, “these findings suggest that rather than mere positive thinking, there may be significant benefit to the very performance of medical ritual. I’m excited about studying this further. Placebo may work even if patients know it is a placebo.”
The placebo effect and nocebo effects apply on more than just a medical level. So be conscious and aware of what types of influence you are letting in. Are you only letting beneficial information in? Or are you letting in information that could be harmful to ANY aspect of your life? This goes back to the “knowledge of evil” concept I spoke about a few weeks ago…
I teach and practice “mind-over-matter”, the concept that we all create our own reality. The placebo and nocebo effects are probably the best scientific evidence of our power over our own bodies and the self-healing or self-harming effect of our beliefs. Yet, it is not solely our beliefs which are at play here, as this research shows. So, what is it?
I teach that there are 5 spheres of influence on our reality. Each of these aspects may be conscious or unconscious. These are:
• Beliefs
• Thoughts
• Feelings
• Words
• Actions
In order to create the reality we desire in our lives, it is most helpful to get all 5 areas in alignment, both with each other, and with the end result that you desire. In the case of the placebo effect working even when the patient knows it’s a placebo, they were still putting their actions in alignment with the result they wanted, which was to have healing. So, even if you can’t get all 5 spheres into harmony immediately, working with at least one of them is can be very beneficial!
When I went to Austin, and then New York City, I didn’t have transportation to NY when my ride was leaving to return to Phoenix. But I was determined to go on to NY. So, I let my ride leave and let my actions and words say that I was confident that a way would be made for me to get to NY. I didn’t FEEL confident. My BELIEF was a bit on the shaky side as well. My THOUGHTS were also uncertain. But I let my WORDS and my ACTIONS take a step in faith, and I was rewarded.
On the flip side, when I have experienced “failure” in my plans, I know it was a direct result of letting my fears overwhelm me, rather than my hopes.
So, let your hopes overwhelm you! Spend time each day refreshing and reviewing them with yourself. If the fear rises up, grab hold of it and transform it into your hope. How do you do that? There’s three simple techniques…
Tune in to my weekly webcast to find out!
Question Your Reality Episode 5
Placebo OR Nocebo?
Aired Wednesday, October 23, 2013
10:00 – 11:00 PM MST (GMT-7)
Bonus! Here’s another great little video on the topic: