Health Series: Part 2.5 – Placebo: My Favorite Effect

Sometimes, the scientific method is dumb. You’re researching a cure for x disease, and are testing different chemical compounds that took teams of biochemical researchers years of trial & error to extract, develop, and test. To verify whether or not it works on humans, it’s tested on one group of people, while another group of people is given sugar pills. If it works better than the sugar pill, it may be a viable treatment.

The strange thing is, the sugar pill actually works on certain individuals. What’s more, this magical sugar pill also works on nearly all other diseases in various other semi-blind laboratory tests. How is a simple sugar pill able to treat such a wide variety of diseases, and why isn’t it being sold as a miracle cure for eternal health?

This is known as the placebo effect, and it’s one of the most underutilized phenomena in the world today. The sugar pill, in fact, is completely useless; a placebo (from the Latin root meaning “to please”) is a vehicle for something else to carry effect. What is that something else? Belief.

Despite the amazing results affected by sugar pills in laboratory tests, the scientific method doesn’t recognize them as a viable treatment. Why? Because results are not repeatable. They only work for some people, and are not dependent on something tangible and measurable. Basically, those individuals who believe that a given pill will work are far more likely to obtain positive results, and it’s very difficult to predict any given individual’s mental receptivity to a treatment. Basically: if it’s not measurable, it’s not scientific.

Should doctors commercialize or even utilize the placebo effect in treatments, given its amazing track record and despite the fact that it doesn’t pass the scientific method’s standard? If they did, it would undermine the entire pharmaceutical industry: if it doesn’t matter what chemical compound a pill consists of, then why are researchers spending years and millions of dollars identifying and extracting them? If strong belief is all it takes, then why should we use pills at all?

The better question is: why aren’t more individuals taking advantage of the placebo effect, scientific method be damned?

Who cares why it works, as long as it works

As a child, I was fascinated by this phenomena. Of course, I had the same reaction others did at first. “If it doesn’t work on everyone, then it’s BS. It has nothing to do with anything real; it’s a fake solution!” The more I thought about it, the more insistently other questions arose: what about when it does work? What does it matter how it works, as long as it works? Why do sugar pills work for some people, and more importantly, how can I become one of those people?

What I love about the placebo effect is that it takes the power out of the pills, and gives it to me. No matter what’s ailing me, I have the power to cure it. I don’t need to wait for the pharma industry to discover a magical compound from an endangered amazonian frog with a genetic irregularity that makes it immune to a specific bacteria. I can be cured right now, without any fancy bells & whistles.

If I believe a pill will cure me, then it will

What’s more, it doesn’t matter what you’re using as a placebo. It can be a sugar pill, an exercise, an affirmation, or even… your own breath. It would seem that when we reach a deep-enough understanding of ourselves and the power we hold, we’ll be able to cure anything—or enjoy perfect health—simply by maintaining the mental attitude of perfect health.

I encourage you to make the most of this magical power today. Use the placebo effect to improve one aspect of your life right now. Some examples to get you started:

1. I am the embodiment of perfect, radiant health.
2. I am enjoying the limitless opulence of the world’s riches every day.
3. I have fun with life and enjoy every moment of this great gift.

Remember, it doesn’t matter how crazy or far-fetched something seems. The placebo effect proves that for no good scientific reason, if I believe something, it’s true right now and will get truer the longer and stronger I believe it.

Go ahead, placebo the hell out of your life, and share your insights and affirmations below.

“Those who think they can and those who think they can’t are both usually right.” -Confucius