it’s all in the mind—the placebo effect

August 27, 2014 | 9 comments

Have you ever wondered how a pill with no medicine in it can relieve people’s pain and suffering? Many scientists are still wondering the same question, and composing numerous articles and pieces speculating on the subject.

Mary Baker Eddy had the placebo effect figured out over 100 years ago. It’s all in the mind! But the queries go on.

Here’s a short animated video clip highlighting some of the consistencies and inconsistencies of experimenting with the placebo effect. The points are made fast, so listen carefully!

“The strange powers of the placebo effect”

9 thoughts on “it’s all in the mind—the placebo effect”

  1. In the book “The First Church of Christ, Scientist and Miscellany” by Mary Baker Eddy is the statement (pg 357, line 22):

    “There is no matter” is not only the axiom of true Christian Science, but it is the only basis upon which this Science can be demonstrated.

    I don’t like to just assume what I read is true, so in deciding for myself whether matter is “real” or not this topic of placebos came to mind a few years ago. It occurred to me that researchers go to a tremendous effort to invent drugs for treating various ailments. They have to find just the right combination of chemicals such that when those chemicals are introduced in the body a chemical reaction occurs that changes the body. They then test the effectiveness of the drug on a group of people, some of whom are given the drug and some of whom are given placebos. Many of the people in these studies that take the placebos receive the same “benefit” from the placebo as the people taking the new drug. So I asked myself, “Why does the same chemical reaction occur with the placebos when there are no chemicals introduced to cause the chemical reaction to occur?” The only conclusion I could reach is that Mrs. Eddy was correct in her discovery that there really is no matter and therefore these reactions occur because of a change in thought. And what we think of as a body is really nothing but our thought manifested in what “appears” to be a material body. The same is true for other aspects of what appears to be our human experience (supply, relationships, church, etc.).

    There is a lecture by Tom McElroy in which he mentions an article published in the New York Times about multiple personality disorder where researchers have found that people who suffer from that ailment can exhibit various bodily changes as they switch from one personality to another. Bodily changes such as an immediate change of eye color, abrupt disappearance of rashes, welts, scars and other tissue wounds, etc. Just another piece of evidence that proves matter can’t really exist or else these things could not occur because they are contrary to the laws (so-called) of matter.

    Here is a link to Tom’s lecture:

    http://christianscience.com/prayer-and-health/inspirational-media/lectures-online-and-near-you/the-real-you-no-limitations-35-mins-eng

    and here is a link to the NY Times article:

    http://www.nytimes.com/1988/06/28/science/probing-the-enigma-of-multiple-personality.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

    What freedom we have from all material laws (so-called) by knowing that there really is no matter. Now let’s all go demonstrate the harmony of God’s (Spirit’s, Love’s) law! 🙂

  2. Very interesting….could it be that all medicines, placebo or not, work or don’t work because of the human belief or disbelief in them?

  3. Wow! That says it all about the illusion and nothingness of matter! So grateful to know the Truth about the omnipotence of Divine Mind.

  4. Christ Jesus “healed” people via Mind, divine Mind, God….through seeing the truth about God’s man, thus dispelling the illusion of illness. He sure didn’t prescribe medicines. (None available, anyway.)

    Now we have a hundred jillion medications and ads that promote them aggressively. Sad. Christly compassion is so needed, not just in spiritual
    healing work (“Greater things than these shall ye do…” taught Christ Jesus)
    but in refusing to judge others for their weaknesses, for their foolishly believing in the power of matter to heal them… for being a tough spot…for being mesmerized without knowing it… for don’t we all fall for the various illusions of the senses, each hour and day?

    Thank Goodness: “step by step since time began, we see the steady gain of man…” (Hymn 238, from The Christian Science Hymnal)

  5. This just reinforces how we urgently need to stand porter at the door of thought. What we think about we bring about. We need to start each day denouncing matter and realizing
    God, good is All, Omnipotent , Supreme.

  6. Thanks Evan for sharing this great video! I’m sure to Christian Scientists, it’s not exactly eye-opening, but it certainly gives food for thought about typical attitudes toward medicine. I found it very interesting and will “share” on Facebook!

  7. My 11 year old granddaughter was playing fairies with her friends. She made an “elf potion”
    out of plants and spices and called it a healing potion. She placed it on her cousin’s scratch and on a different day put some on her friend’s scratch. She knew it was a game, but was amazed when their scratches healed faster than normal. I found a perfect opportunity to explain the placebo effect to her.

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