The Setup
“Can my mind heal the body?” That’s what Dr. Michael Mosley, a British science journalist, TV presenter, and author wanted to know. So he and BBC designed a study to find out.
He invited people with incurable back pain to join the study for a new analgesic. They chose 117 people who had tried everything from morphine to tramadol. Many had been hospitalized, all without relief from their pain. He told them that half would receive a new trial drug and the other half a placebo. In truth, the researchers gave everyone in the study a placebo made of ground rice.
The study completely masked the placebo. Everyone submitted a daily video diary of their results. Even the bottles of inert substance carried a label that read, “keep away from children”. The pills were blue and white striped because that’s what research shows evicts the most pain-killing effect.
Aspects of the Study
This study deliberately used the most highly effective aspects of the placebo effect:
- The BBC study included the amount of time spent with the physician at the beginning of the program. A previous study found that a placebo worked at least 40% of the time when the patient spoke for 9 minutes and 22 seconds with the doctor (the average patient visits). However it was 51% effective when the patient spent 20 minutes with a doctor trained to show very empathetic behavior toward the patient.
- Who is most likely to heal? One might assume it was the “simple-minded” person. However, the study showed it the “most aware” and the person “most interested in new experience” who received the most effect from the placebo. They identified these people by scanning the “responders” and the “non-responders” with an MRI.
- Another research showed that there is a genetic predisposition to someone that experiences the placebo effect.
The mind’s role in healing the body
Science now recognizes that the mind plays a powerful part in healing the body.
Personal beliefs and expectations and even how the doctor speaks to the patient all influence outcomes.
Complexities of rituals impact the effectiveness of the placebo. By ritual, I mean, an injection (and all that goes with it) seems to be more powerful than a pill; a surgery and all that goes with it, is even more powerful than the injection. So the mind believes something powerful is happening, even if it’s a placebo (a saline injection, rather than drugs; a sham surgery rather than a therapeutic surgery).
By the way, 4 popular surgeries showed that placebo surgeries (specifically meaning, FAKE surgeries) equal the results of some therapeutic surgeries!
Jim, a 71-year old, spent his days in a wheel chair because of his pain. At the end of the study, he reported in his video that he had not had any pain since he began the program and even stood up out of the chair, walked a few steps to celebrate his results.
Unsurprisingly, when participants were told they received only the placebo, they were shocked by the truth: “I can’t believe I’ve been taking nothing, yet I feel so wonderful”; “Something’s working. I don’t know what it is, but whatever it is I hope it carries on working.”
The mind is intimately connected to the body! What is the difference between health and disease? Our thoughts, our beliefs the way we use our mind determines the difference between health and disease.
These dramatic results raise a deeper question. If belief alone can trigger this kind of change, what other ways can we harness the mind for healing?
Were these outward dramatic experiments necessary to activate the mind? Or can one induce their own mind toward healing effects?
Imagine if you could still the internal chatter, those subconscious beliefs that run constantly about problems, limitations and lack. What if you could experience life again in the present moment?
A Powerful Tool
Have you ever dropped a single stone into a quiet pond? What happens? Perfectly concentric ripples spread across the water. This is like having one thought only moving through the mind. The mind is coherent, it is orderly, and it is powerful.
The Art of Ascension teaches a series of procedures for the mind. This practice trains the mind to drop old habits and adopt new, upward-spiraling habits of creativity and possibility. It does not require concentration or effort. It opens the mind to the Source, the Master Architect of the Universe. This practice not only alters beliefs, but releases stress, bringing deep rest to heal both mind and body.
It is only necessary to devote the time to learning the practice.
Contact me for more information about how you can learn these simple techniques.