CHAPTER 1
The Mind/Body Mystery
Mind over Matter
The united force of your body, mind and spirit continually seeks to provide you with nourishment, vitality and happiness. The body uses food, water and air to renew and sustain itself,
the mind chooses a task that keeps it creative and active, and
the spirit looks for ways to expand by generating waves of love, peace and freedom and to share happiness with the world as a means of gaining fulfillment.
A delicious meal prepared by a loving parent or spouse can serve all three parts of you alike.
Enjoying one's food can be a spiritual experience just as much as it can be a physical and a mental one.
Being totally “present” while eating does not only trigger powerful pleasure hormones but also a sense of union
between you, the food you eat and the process of eating. A beautiful piece of music soothes not only the
spirit but also relaxes the mind and satisfies the body.
Everything that you experience, physically, mentally or emotionally, has a profound bearing on your
entire being. Each one of your thoughts, feelings and emotions causes profound changes in your body,
mind and spirit. Think of the consoling and loving words you once received from a dear friend while you
felt desolate and low in yourself. Did you feel encouraged and uplifted by your friend's presence and his
words? Did you notice how our body, first bent over, tired and tight, suddenly began to elongate and feel
more relaxed and energized? The depressed look on your face turned into a grateful smile and you said:
“Thank you, I feel so much better now.” on the other hand, can you think of an instance in your life when
you anticipated bad news of some kind, such as a loved one being involved in an accident? The fear that
gripped you may have had a paralyzing effect on you. But then, seconds later, a friend brings you the
blessed information that your loved one escaped unscathed and is well and healthy. All of a sudden, your
paralyzed tense condition ceases and is replaced by a deep sense of relaxation, joy and increased physical
strength. The sudden good news elevated your feelings and brought the smile back to your face. one split
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second was enough to trigger a profound internal transformation that changed everything from within you.
For a brief moment you experienced a state of perfect health.
The calm and reassuring words and loving care by a friend can trigger such powerful biochemical
res
ther neuron.
Th
sts have discovered that these chemical messengers are not only made by brain cells, but also by all
the
run
lin, but this is not so. Each cell in the
body produces this stress hormone, although in proportionally lesser quantities. After the initial burst of
energy and physical strength resulting from an adrenalin shot, the cells may suddenly turn “jittery” and
your body starts shaking. You may feel as if you have lost all your energy in the process. Without your
conscious control you have actually practiced “mind over matter.”
ponses in your body that your posture changes, your physical ｅxpression relaxes and your mood
improves. Research informs us that all of our thoughts, feelings, emotions, desires, intentions, beliefs,
realizations and recognitions are instantly translated into neuropeptides or neurotransmitters in the brain.
These hormones serve as chemical messengers of information.
Scientists have already located over a hundred different neuropeptides and many more are believed to
exist. A nerve cell or neuron produces and uses these peptides to transmit information to ano
is form of transmission, which often is referred to as “firing,” magically occurs in each of the millions
of neurons in our brain, and at the exact same moment. Immediately after the transmission ends, the
peptides are neutralized by enzymes, erasing all physical evidence of that thought or feeling. Yet we have
stored the information in our memory bank. If need be, we are able to recall or remember it.
This simple example shows that our brain is not the ultimate authority of our body. How do the
millions of neurons know which type of neurotransmitter they need to make for each specific thought,
right at the moment of its occurrence? What causes their simultaneous “firing” throughout the brain? And
more stunning, how does one neuron know what the other neuron thinks when there is no direct physical
connection between the two? The mystery is now becoming even more perplexing. In recent years,
scienti
other cells in the body. This raises the question whether we think only with our brain cells or also with
other cells in the body. There is indeed enough scientific evidence to show that skin cells, liver cells, heart
cells, immune cells, etc. all have the same remarkable ability to think, emote and make decisions as brain
cells.
The cells of our body are equipped with receptor sites for these peptides, which explains why every
cell knows what every other cell does or thinks. There cannot be any secrets between cells. Every impulse
somewhere is an impulse everywhere. By utilizing these biochemical pathways, the body can translate a
strong emotion of fear into chemical messages that order your adrenal glands to trigger the secretion of
the stress hormones adrenalin and cortisol. once these hormones are released into your blood stream in
sufficient amounts, your heart starts pounding and the blood vessels that supply your muscles with blood
begin to dilate. This preprogrammed defense strategy of the body makes it physically possible for you to
away from a perilous situation or to avoid, for example, being run over by a car. However, this effect,
known as the fight or flight response, constricts other important blood vessels in the body such as the
major arteries in the internal organs and elevates the blood pressure. If such stress responses occur on a
regular basis, they can cause considerable damage to the entire body.
Most people assume that only the adrenal glands secrete adrena
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Testing Your Mind/Body Response.
At this point, I would like to suggest that you learn to apply a simple muscle test derived from the
healing method of Behavioral Kinesiology. This test will demonstrate to you that at each moment your
thoughts, intentions, desires, etc. exert total control over your body. I will refer to this test throughout the
book whenever it may be necessary to find out whether a particular food, medicine, beauty product,
situation, environment, or even a particular desire is conducive to your health or not.
Everyone practices “mind over body” at all times. However, most of us do it unconsciously. The main
purpose of this test is to bring this intimate relationship of the mind and body to the surface of your
awareness and truly experience it in a very concrete and conscious way. Whenever you apply the muscle
test, you will instantaneously reawaken the inner wisdom of your body and strengthen your natural
instincts, trust and intuition. To conduct the test, find yourself a partner. Follow these simple steps for
muscle testing:
1. Both of you need to stand. Your left arm should hang down relaxed by your side, while your right
arm is extended in a horizontal position, with your elbow stretched. (If you are left-handed, use your left
arm for testing.)
2. Next, ask your partner to stand in front of you. Look at a neutral place, such as a door or a wall,
and try not to think of anything or anyone. Ask your partner to place his/her right hand on your left
shoulder to keep your body posture in a stable position, and his/her left hand on top of your right arm, just
over your wrist.
3. Now, ask your partner to press down on your arm, while you try to resist the pressure. Ask your
partner to press down on your arm quickly and firmly, but not in a jerky manner, and not longer than
about three seconds. The idea is to maintain the pressure only as long as it takes him/her to notice your
arm’s strength of resistance. Pressing longer will make the muscle weak and produce a faulty test result.
4. Your arm muscle should be testing strong in this neutral state. (Please note that a particularly
negative thought, an expectation, physical illness, or being under the influence of shock, alcohol, or drugs
may substantially influence the outcome of this muscle test.)
5. Next, keep your right arm outstretched, while you try to think of a situation, person, past experience,
etc., that would make you feel angry, nervous, or uncomfortable in any way. At the same time repeat Step
3. You will notice you will not be able to resist the pressure applied to your arm, and your arm muscle
will immediately give in and become weak. Then try to think of someone you love or care about and ask
your partner to test your arm muscle once more. Your arm muscle will be strong again.
You may repeat Step 5 of the test while listening to hard rock music, watching a violent movie, or
looking at fluorescent light. To test whether a particular shampoo, toothpaste, medical drug or food item
is suitable for you, place any of these items into one of your hands while you ask your partner to test the
muscle of your other arm. Note: If you are left-handed, it is better to test your left arm and place the tested
item in your right hand. If these items are not available, merely think of them as he tests you on these
products, one at a time.
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It may be necessary for you to experiment with this technique on each other for a while before it
becomes second nature to you. It is necessary to have an open and innocent mind when you conduct the
test. Don’t try to influence or manipulate the outcome in any way, for this may lead to false results.
Remember that every thought influences the body in a specific way. Ask any questions you may have that
can be answered with a “yes” or with a “no.” This may even concern important decisions you need to
make, journeys to take, or foods to eat, etc. once again: to test food items, it may be enough to just look at
or think of the food while applying the test.
The body's own biofeedback system always works – it never lies. The muscles will respond to a
particular stimulation either with weakness or with strength, so long as the test is conducted properly.
Even if a so-called “health food” contains something that your body cannot process or digest properly, the
feedback system will immediately inform you about it by sending your body cells the appropriate
messages. A fearful thought, disruptive noise from the street, or the picture on the television news of a
killed person is transmitted to your body cells, too. Your body's response is completely accurate and
reflects the exact quality of the information passed on to you. Be aware that subconscious desires or
aversions can change testing results.
The cells in your body can detect the frequencies of incoming substances and check whether they are
useful or harmful for you. A cola soft drink gives off different frequencies than an apple. The
concentrated phosphoric acid, artificial flavors and sweeteners, large quantities of refined sugar and other
chemicals contained in cola soft drinks are very destructive for biological life forms. So the body’s cells
will consider them to be poisonous and go into a stress response. Their energy production, measured by
the amount of ATP molecules, begins to drop abruptly as a result of this response. This practically means
that the tissues in the body are increasingly cut off from the routes of energy supply and, hence, become
weakened. In practical terms, this situation forces all the organs, glands, blood vessels, nerves and
muscles to subsist on minimal energy, which jeopardizes the normal functioning of the body.
Note: you can obtain more detailed information on the procedure from a good book on “Applied
Kinesiology.” There is the opinion among some circles of Kinesiology practitioners that the arm-muscletest
is not accurate and cannot be used as a tool of measuring the mind-body response. This would,
however, imply that the arm muscles are not directly influenced by the frequencies of information we
generate or are exposed to. In other words, the arms muscles would not be included in the internal
network of communication. This defies the very principles of mind/body medicine. Inaccuracies occur
only when the rules of the test are not followed exactly and when hidden desires manipulate the results.
Eventually, you would want to rely only on what your heart tells you. By putting your attention on your
heart while asking it a question will usually give you a feeling, knowingness, or even a verbal answer.
The first response or impulse is the one to go by.
Stress – And a Shrinking Thymus
The thymus gland, which regulates activation of T-cells (the white blood or immune cells), is the first
organ that is affected by stress. T-cells help the body to identify and fight cancer cells and other invading
agents. The weakening influence on the thymus gland caused by such factors as news of negative events,
dehydration or consumption of nutritionally poor and processed foods or beverages, reduces T-cell
activation by thymus hormones and leaves the body without sufficient defense against the spreading of
cancer cells and other causes of disease.
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The thymus gland shrinks when it is exposed to stress. It is well known that following a serious injury,
surgery or sudden illness, millions of white blood cells are destroyed and the thymus gland shrinks to as
little as half of its size. It may become very stressful for your thymus gland when you look at a photo of
Adolf Hitler, a child abuser or a wanted terrorist. The next time you look through a magazine, ask a friend
to test your muscle while you look at the different pictures. You will find that some of these pictures
make your muscles strong, whereas others make them weak. (Of course, if your way of life were
completely infused with love and compassion versus fear and judgment, you would not suffer such a
stress response at all.1)
Your thymus gland has to deal with massive amounts of negative influences, considering the almost
daily exposure to radio, television, newspapers, junk foods, chemicals in foods and beverages, indoor and
outdoor pollution, and people with negative attitudes, etc. Even advertisements that show people smoking
cigarettes or drinking alcoholic beverages have a weakening effect on your thymus.
Most people are not aware how much of their life energy is drained by exposing themselves to stressful
situations. Regularly spending time in unhealthy environments like smoke filled rooms, or experiencing
energy-depleting influences such as driving at night or eating while tired can simply overwhelm the body.
When there is no more energy left to function normally then one becomes nervous or begins to panic. The
most common ｅxpression you can hear people say when this happens, is, “I feel so tense today.” But
stress is nothing but an experience of constant exhaustion of the thymus gland caused by negative or
weakening influences in life. Stress ceases to affect us when we stop exposing ourselves to such
influences and correct the damage that has been caused by them in the past. You can positively strengthen
and recharge your thymus and entire body through uplifting and encouraging activities, eating nutritious
foods, and spending more time in nature than indoors or in front of the television. Whether you weaken or
strengthen your body, in both cases you are practicing “mind over matter.”
Placebo – The True Healer?
The placebo effect works in a similar way. Placebo is a Latin word, which translates as “I shall
please.” If something pleases you, it automatically triggers the release of pleasure hormones in your body,
which means that in the event of an illness, you are likely to experience a healing response. In the field of
medicine, the placebo effect is a phenomenon described as a measure for testing the efficacy of new drugs
or therapies. There are three possible explanations why and how healing takes place (I want to mention at
this point that shutting down or suppressing a symptom of disease has nothing to do with healing it).
1. A particular non-suppressive treatment has a curative value.
2. The healing power of nature is at work. This includes especially the immune system's natural
response to stop and eliminate disease-causing factors. While this principle (of the body healing
itself) applies to the majority of all medical cures, this “secret ally” of all doctors is hardly ever
introduced to the patients. The human organism rarely receives praise for the extraordinary
1 To learn how to develop such a life, please refer to the book Freedom From Judgment and the method of Sacred Santémony
by the author.
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abilities it displays when dealing with infections and physical injury. The body's own remarkable
healing ability is behind every success in the healing profession. In many instances, healing may
even occur despite the side effects that so often arise from the use of medical drugs or invasive
procedures. If the body’s healing response remains absent, no medical technology or expertise will
have any value.
3. The placebo effect triggers the healing response.
Orthodox medicine originally defined the placebo as an inert substance that, for psychological reasons
only, is administered to satisfy or please a patient. However, this definition is no longer considered quite
accurate or sufficient. The placebo effect can occur as a result of administering substances that are not
inert, just as much as it can be triggered by procedures or pills that do not include medication. The
placebo effect implies that the patient's belief in a "drug," which may just be a sugar pill or snake oil, has
the power to stop pain and even cure a disease. A basic feeling of trust in a particular treatment or even
the doctor can also act like a placebo. A research study is not considered valid or scientific unless it
includes a placebo that is applied to a control group.
When the success rate of the drug or treatment is higher than the success rate of the placebo, then the
drug has passed the test for effectiveness. In the past, the placebo has even been used to study coronary
bypass techniques and cancer radiation treatments. In the case of bypass studies, the surgeons open the
chests of the heart patients in the placebo group and immediately stitch them back together again, without
actually performing a bypass operation. After surgery, all the patients are informed that their operation
was a success. Some of the placebo group patients confirm that they have relief of chest pain. A number
of the heart patients who received the actual bypass surgery also report relief of pain. If the number of
“successes” in the group actually having had the bypass procedure is higher than that of the placebo group,
then the bypass operation is considered to be an effective method to relieve chest pain.
An early carefully controlled study with patients suffering from Angina pectoris showed that 5 out of 8
patients, who had genuine surgery, and 5 out of 9 patients, who only received a sham operation, felt much
better afterwards. Two of the patients with sham operations even experienced a remarkable increase in
physical stamina and endurance. A group of highly skeptical researchers repeated the same experiment
with another group of 18 patients. Neither the patients nor the examining cardiologist knew who actually
received the surgery. The results were that 10 out 13 patients with real surgery and 5 out of 5 patients with
the sham operation had improved significantly. This experiment demonstrated that the placebo together
with the body's healing system might actually be the real power behind successful surgery. Surgery, just
like every other treatment, can work as a placebo for the patient; and it seems to have no significant
advantage over the placebo. It would, however, be very unwise to have a sham operation and continue
with a detrimental lifestyle. The survival rate with sham operations is not more than two years, and with a
normal operation not much longer either, unless the patient makes major changes in his diet, lifestyle, etc.
When the Placebo Becomes Medicine
The mechanics of placebo healing is centered in the belief of the patient that a drug, an operation, or a
treatment program is going to relieve his pain or cure his illness. Deep trust or a sure feeling of recovery
is all that the patient has at his disposal to initiate a healing response. Utilizing the previously described
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powerful mind/body connection, the patient may release natural opioids (morphine-type painkillers) from
areas of the brain that are activated by certain thought processes. The corresponding neurotransmitters for
pain relief are known as endorphins. Endorphins are about forty thousand times more powerful than the
strongest heroin.
A patient who suffers from a cancerous growth may produce extra amounts of Interleukin II and
Interferon to destroy malignant tumor cells. Being products of the DNA, the body can make anti-cancer
drugs in every cell and eradicate cancer in a moment (spontaneous remission), provided the patient knows
how to trigger their release. The triggers are trust, confidence and happiness, and are the same triggers
that can cause a placebo response. To buy these drugs on the pharmaceutical market, you may have to
spend up to $40,000 per course of treatment. The “success” rate with these drugs is less than 15 percent
and their side effects are so severe that they can destroy the immune system and sow the seeds for future
diseases (see section on “Cancer -- Who Makes It?” in Chapter 10).
Your body is capable of manufacturing every drug that could possibly be produced by the
pharmaceutical industry. Synthetically derived drugs only “work” because the cells of the body have
receptors for some of the chemicals contained in the drugs. This also means that the body is capable of
making these chemicals, too, otherwise these receptors wouldn’t exist. However, the body makes them
with the utmost precision, in the correct dosage, and perfectly timed. The body’s own drugs cost us
nothing and they have no harmful side effects. Pharmaceutical drugs, on the other hand, are very
expensive and much less specific and accurate. It is estimated that 35-45% of all prescriptions have no
specific effect on the disease for which they are prescribed. The majority of positive results are directly
caused by the body's own healing response or triggered by the placebo effect and have nothing to do with
the treatment itself.
The Placebo in Action
Medical doctors have the status and power to infuse in their patients the confidence to believe that, for
their condition, they are receiving the most suitable and best treatment available. The hope to find relief
and to get better may be the main motivation behind a patient’s visit to the doctor. Also, the doctor is
likely to believe that his prescription will produce the desired effect, that is, relieve his patient’s
symptoms. The belief of the doctor in his treatment and the trust of the patient in his doctor combined can
produce a “medicine” that is capable of transforming even a useless treatment or a non-specific drug into
a dynamo of healing. This can very well lead to a definite improvement of the treated condition, and in
some cases, to a complete cure. This medicine is nothing more than the placebo effect.
If the doctor himself is completely convinced that the treatment he recommends to his patient will be
successful, the patient’s perception of the doctor’s confidence is much more likely to produce a placebo
response than if the doctor were doubtful about his approach. Dr. K. B. Thomas from Southampton,
England has shown that a doctor doesn’t even need a prescription to help his patients. Dr. Thomas
selected 200 patients who were suffering from such various symptoms as headaches, stomach pains, back
pains, sore throats, cough and fatigue. First he divided the patients into two groups. The patients of group
one received a clear diagnosis and a “positive” consultation during which he assured them that they would
soon recover. He told the second group that he wasn’t completely sure what was wrong with them and
asked them to come back again in case there was no improvement. Then he divided each group into two
subgroups of which one received a prescription, which was a placebo. After two weeks, 64% of the
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patients with the “positive consultation” had improved considerably compared to 39% of the patients who
received uncertain advice. Of those patients who received a prescription (placebo), 53 percent had
improved, whereas among those without a prescription, 50 percent had improved. This experiment
demonstrates that a medical doctor can have a more powerful healing effect on his patient than a
prescription drug.
This may also explain the phenomenon of why doctors who really believe what they do is best for their
patients -- even though it may defy the logic of scientific understanding -- achieve much better results and
their patients do well. If a doctor can inspire a patient to believe that he is going to improve, he has done a
much better job than any sophisticated treatment may be able to accomplish. A leading article in the
medical journal Lancet asked why it should be wrong to give a placebo when the essential modern
therapeutic means have no better effects than placebos. It should be the primary aim of medical training to
produce a warm-hearted, honest and optimistic doctor who listens to his intuition and who feels both
compassion and love for his fellow human beings. The medical students should be tested for these basic
human characteristics. Those students who are unable to pass this test should be prohibited from
practicing medicine. The doctor’s very presence can work as medicine. What kind of therapy he uses
may, indeed, be of secondary or complementary value. Thus, the doctor as a living placebo can be more
powerful than his treatment, and there won’t even be any harmful side effects.
The current trend by large proportions of the population to seek alternative practitioners is not so much
based on what they offer to a patient but how they make the patient feel. The very fact that alternative
therapists use natural methods and compounds for their treatment modalities makes natural therapies more
acceptable to the patient than medical treatments. It also makes them more humane and potentially more
powerful as placebos.
We all have a pre-programmed natural instinct, although subdued in many people. This gut feeling
senses a healing effect from pure, fresh foods, healing herbs and other natural remedies. A herb from the
Himalayan mountains or a piece of ginger are more likely to trigger a placebo response in us than the
synthetic fat “Olestra” or a chemical drug used to reduce blood pressure. Natural things are naturally
pleasing to the body and mind. A naturopath has become a symbol for natural healing. Even if his
methods may not be very effective, the symbol may still be a powerful enough trigger for a good placebo
response.
The placebo is known to be directly responsible for a considerable amount of success in every medical
treatment. This is being confirmed by the results of every controlled study. If there were any other
treatment in the system of conventional medicine just as effective and consistent as the placebo effect, it
would have most certainly been heralded as one of the biggest medical breakthroughs of all times.
However, the placebo effect is not at all or only rarely mentioned in the medical textbooks. This is
unfortunate because the placebo plays at least as an important a role in the process of healing and
recovery as an expensive drug or sophisticated medical machinery.
A typical example for this is the drug digitalis, which has been used by doctors for over 200 years to
treat heart disease, despite the fact that its long-term benefits and safety have never been proven. A major
three-year double-blind control study (1997, New England Journal of Medicine) conducted by The
Digitalis Investigation Group showed that out of 3,397 heart patients who received digitalis, 1,181
patients had died by the end of the study period compared with 1,194 out of 3,403 patients who had
received a placebo. The study makes digitalis no better than a sugar pill in preventing death through heart
disease, yet it is the preferred treatment (over the placebo).
During medical training, every would-be doctor has to face the unpleasant fact that drugs themselves
cannot induce a healing response. A drug may work in only 35% of the people who receive it. The rest of
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them may either have no results or become worse because of the drug’s side effects. Doctors also know
that a patient has a much greater chance of improving with a certain drug if they guarantee an
improvement. They have learned that a patient can get better by merely looking at a medicine. However,
this effect depends more on the imaginative power and the trusting nature of the patient than it does on the
medicine itself.
The Miracle of Spontaneous Healing
Although modern medicine has virtually stumbled over the healing mechanism of the body, it still has
not recognized it as such. Almost all of the scientific research conducted on the thousands of drugs and
therapies applied by medical doctors throughout the world has included the “placebo effect.” Placebos
have somewhat made it possible for medical research to be considered objective and reliable. It is not the
placebo effect or healing mechanism, though, that has been the subject of research. All the attention has
been on testing drugs or medical procedures as potential candidates for the treatment of disease. Drugs by
themselves cannot inspire true healing without acting as a placebo and can, therefore, only be of
secondary value, if any at all (considering the fact that suppression of symptoms has nothing to do with
cure).
Moreover, it is erroneous to assume that the positive change of symptoms following a particular
treatment must necessarily be the result of that particular therapy. Treatments have no healing powers of
their own and remain ineffective unless they are able to work as triggers for the placebo effect or healing
response. In addition, treatments that are geared toward merely getting rid of the symptoms of disease
with disregard to its causes have nothing to do with real healing. Bringing temporary relief to the
symptoms may be very desirable for the patient, but in the long term, such an approach makes it
increasingly difficult for the body to heal itself. If true healing does take place, it is due to the existing
mind/body connection and the body's own inner healing power.
The body's powerful healing mechanism was clearly revealed by a study on three groups of patients,
all of whom suffered from bleeding ulcers in their stomachs. The patients in each group were informed
that they would be testing a new drug that could stop the bleeding of their ulcers. one group received the
new drug, the second group was given a drug that increases bleeding, and the third group was given inert
placebo pills. Most of the patients were desperate individuals who hoped that the new drug would help
them get rid of their agonizing problem. The results astonished the researchers. The bleeding stopped in
patients from all the groups, even in those who received the drug that was supposed to increase the
bleeding. Could the belief in the new wonder drug have been powerful enough to override the high
toxicity of a bleed-inducing drug?
Obviously, in response to their thoughts and feelings of hope and trust, the patients' bodies did not only
produce special drugs that could effectively stop the bleeding of their ulcers, but also neutralize the
poisonous substances contained in the drug that was meant to trigger bleeding.
There are thousands of different studies that tell of the amazing effects of the placebo response. In one
classic study conducted in 1950, pregnant women who were suffering from severe morning sickness were
given syrup of ipecac, which is an effective compound to induce vomiting. The women were told ipecac
was a powerful new cure for nausea. To the amazement of the researchers, the women ceased vomiting.
Another intriguing experiment was conducted with the help of medical students. Fifty-six students
received either a pink or a blue sugar pill and they were told that the pills were either tranquillizers or
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stimulants. only 3 out of the 56 students reported that the pills had no effects on them. Most of the
students who received the blue pills assumed that they were tranquillizers and 72% of them felt sleepy.
Furthermore, the students who took two blue pills felt sleepier than did those who took only one pill. By
contrast, 32% of the students who ingested the pink placebo pills reported that they were less tired and
one third of the students stated that they had side effects ranging from headaches, numbness, watery eyes
to stomach cramps, intestinal pains, itching in the extremities and staggering walk. All responses by the
students, except for three of them, were caused by their imaginative beliefs.
The implications of these and similar experiments could have revolutionized the entire medical
approach to disease. Unfortunately, the law prohibits the sale of “drugs” that contain nothing but inert
substances. Without such a law, many people could have become their own best healers, using only their
trust in a drug that in reality isn’t one. on the other hand, if placebo sales were made legal, anyone could
make a dummy drug and sell it as a real one. But then who is to decide which one is more effective? A
former president of the Royal College of Physicians in London once estimated that only 10% of all
diseases could be manipulated effectively by modern methods of treatment, including the administration
of drugs. Disease manipulation does not necessarily mean that drugs have a curative effect. Actually, most
of them merely suppress symptoms, and they are costly. By contrast, a placebo is very cheap or even costfree.
And it has no harmful side effects.
Healing Depends on the Patient
Most medical researchers know that depression, anxiety, negative stress, trauma, emotional crisis, etc.,
can make the crucial difference whether an administered drug or treatment program is effective or not.
This fact may explain why drugs have only such small success rates, on average 35%. The majority of
people find no improvement with drugs, and many report strong negative side effects. Any drug
experiment that tests a drug against a placebo, or anyone taking such a drug should, therefore, incorporate
or consider the following four crucial points:
1. Are there fewer subjects who suffer from depression, anxiety or trauma in the experimental
group than there are in the placebo group?
2. Would the experiment have ended differently if the control group had received the drug and
the experimental group the placebo?
3. Would the results of the experiment be the same if the researchers, who were assigned to
administer the drug to the different groups, were asked to switch groups?
4. Would any pharmaceutical company risk repeating the same experiment, but with different
subjects, if this could lead to significantly altered or even contrary results?
It is important to emphasize at this point that a particular drug or treatment may produce different
results in different people and can, therefore, not be considered objectively testable for efficacy. A drug
may not work for a particular patient unless he allows it to work. The patient’s state of mind, his
subconscious acceptance or resistance, and his emotions play the main role in determining how successful
a therapy is for him. The type of therapy he receives may, in fact, be secondary. The renowned researcher
Dr. Herbert Benson from Harvard University stated once, “Most of the history of medicine is the history
of the placebo effect”. The ability to cure a disease remains solely with the patient.
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An existing or past trauma, sadness, depression and anger can all lead to unconscious programming of
the patient's cells to shut down their receptor sites to both internal and external drugs. This may render
any medical intervention useless, if not harmful. It is well known that if a patient is in shock, for example,
he cannot be treated or undergo surgery. The same principle applies, although to a lesser degree, to a
patient’s subjective condition when he receives a particular treatment. With a general drug failure rate of
65% it is obvious that drugs don’t do the trick. Rather, is the recipient of the drugs who determines
whether healing takes place or not. True healing requires hope, trust and a profound belief that one
“deserves” to be healed. once the body receives the go-ahead signal from his host, which I would like to
call “body/mind,” it will trigger a healing response and take care of the necessary details.
The dissimilar levels of trust and belief that different patients place in the potency of a drug can trigger
a wide range of responses. A higher degree of trust can actually increase the placebo effect from 25% to
75%! For example, the healing rate for duodenal ulcers among the placebo groups in controlled clinical
studies range from 20% to 70%. It is very unpredictable who will respond to a placebo positively. Some
patients report relief of pain after they have been injected with sterile water. An average 3 to 4 out of 10
surgery patients with serious wounds (caused by ulcers) experience significant pain reduction after they
have been injected with a salt solution. There are no reliable methods in modern medicine that can
determine or guarantee which ones of the patients will or will not respond to a placebo. It is equally
impossible to predict how well a patient will respond to a real drug treatment or surgery. The subjective
state of the patient plays indeed a major, if not the most determinant, role in curing an illness.
It is well known that wounds may or may not produce pain, depending on whether the wounded
considers it a “good” or “bad” wound. Soldiers who were injured during the war often did not even
require painkillers when they felt that their wound would help them get into the safety of a hospital and
then back home. on the other hand, a serious wound acquired in civil life through an accident can cause
tremendous pain and trauma if it is associated with a loss of health, mobility and financial resources.
Is Today’s Medical Practice Trustworthy?
To conduct double blind control studies in order to establish whether a particular drug or treatment is
useful is a highly dubious and misleading practice. Because of the highly elusive and undetermined,
subjective state of the tested patients, these studies, which are considered the backbone of medical
science, may in fact produce very unrealistic and contrived results. Yet they are presented to the public as
"proof" for the reliability of scientific research and medical applications.
There is more reason to be cautious about taking medical research too seriously. In 1994 and 1995
researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital surveyed more than 3000 academic scientists and
found that 64% of them had financial ties to corporations. According to the report, which was published
in the Journal Of The American Medical Association (JAMA), 20% of the 3,000 researchers actually
admitted that they had delayed publication of research results for more than 6 months, to obtain patents
and to "slow the dissemination of undesired results. "Sometimes if you accept a grant from a company,
you have to include a proviso that you won't distribute anything except with its OK. It has a negative
impact on science," says Nobel-prize- winning biochemist Paul Berg.
Furthermore, a major research report by the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), an arm of the
United States Congress, came to the most startling conclusion of all. The 1978 report stated: “Only 10 to
20 percent of all procedures currently used in medical practices have been shown to be efficacious by
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controlled trial.” In its October 1991 issue, the British Medical Journal confirmed this report by stating
that about 85% of all medical procedures and surgeries are scientifically unproved. In other words, 80 to
90 percent of the common medical treatments available to the general population have no scientific
backing and it is doubtful whether they are justified at all. These findings fall in line with WHO statistics,
which conclude that 90 percent of all diseases prevalent today are not treatable with orthodox medical
procedures.
However, it would be erroneous to generalize these findings. There are very successful methods in
modern medicine which are unmatched by any other form of treatment. They concern mainly acute
problems that are caused by accidents, including burns, fractures, heart attacks, as well as matters of
hygiene. The high success rate of medical treatment in this field is a truly remarkable and exemplary
achievement.
For the other 90 percent of diseases that are considered chronic in nature, modern research techniques
have so far failed to produce any breakthrough results. Chronic disease is a combined effect of one or
several causal factors that are rarely, if ever, considered in the treatment programs of conventional
medicine. With regard to a chronic illness it is simply not enough to attempt to fix its symptoms.
Conducting reliable studies on chronic diseases is therefore virtually impossible, unless of course, these
factors (diet, lifestyle, state of mind, emotions, existence of conflict, etc.) would be incorporated in the
testing procedures.
It seems that none of the researchers even consider the fact that the healing mechanism, which is
triggered by a patient’s strong belief in a drug, does not only take place in the placebo control group but
also in the experimental group. It is not very scientific to declare that a drug produces a higher rate of
improvement than a placebo when the placebo effect -- the patient's trust in the drug -- is at work in both
these groups. The very fact that the placebo effect has to be included as an essential part of every study
shows that the subjective state of the patients in both groups remains the major determining factor in the
outcome of the experiment. If the placebo group has a success rate of 35% and the drug group has a
success rate of 40%, it is obvious that at least 35% of the drug group's success is attributable to the
placebo effect and the drug itself causes only 5%. Its true success rate of perhaps 1-3% (after eliminating
other factors of influence such as mental and emotional states) does not justify giving the drug to millions
of unsuspecting patients, yet it is nevertheless advertised and sold as an effective treatment of disease. All
of this makes it very obvious that medical research cannot be considered objective or scientific.
Why Some Heal and Others Don’t
There is no simple or magical method to make a patient believe in the treatment he receives. The
success of the placebo response depends mainly on the individual's state of heart and mind and whether he
has a good reason to believe in his doctor. The following three paragraphs describe three major categories
of personality, which may determine your success or lack of it in overcoming a serious or life-threatening
illness:
1. You feel depressed about everything in your life. You blame others and circumstances for
your suffering. You are not happy when others are satisfied and joyful because they reflect to you
and even intensify the sense that something is missing in your own life. So seeing other people being
happy makes you feel worse. You lack enthusiasm and self esteem and your outlook on life is rather
dismal. You get angry even without having to have a specific reason. Many times you feel you don't
like yourself or even put yourself down in front of others. You frequently say things like, “Whatever
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I try doesn’t work for me,” or, “I knew it from the beginning that the medicine wouldn’t be able to
help me.” You were unhappy most of your life and you try not to remember your past. You give up
easily and justify your failure by saying, “It’s too difficult,” or, “Nobody cares about me anyway.”
You feel life has not much to offer and you see no real purpose in living. You prefer to hang out
with friends who also feel as depressed as you do.
2. You are a fighter and you are not willing to give up. Your determination gets you through
periods of pain and agony. You desperately want to live and you frequently say something like, “I
am going to beat it” or “I am not allowing this to get me down.” However, deep inside, you are
scared and you are afraid of not being successful. You often feel lonely and create doubts in your
mind.
3. You are easygoing and relaxed. You feel that your disease is not a coincidence or even a
reason to become angry. You interpret illness as an important sign or lesson that may enforce major
changes in your life that you were not willing to make before. You are not in a desperate hurry to get
rid of the disease and prefer to go through the rough periods consciously. Your attitude to the
disease is not a negative one even though it makes you feel uncomfortable and suffer. You listen to
the “messages” your body is sending you and you learn from them. You accept responsibility for
having created this situation yourself but you don’t have feelings of guilt. The idea that you give
meaning to everything in your life -- positive or negative -- is not a theoretical concept but a
practical way of life for you. You are grateful to yourself and others for having arranged your life
the way it is at this present moment. You believe in a higher purpose in life and trust that you are
taken care of in one way or another. Each and every moment is a precious opportunity for growth
and learning about life and self-empowerment. Death is not a frightening issue for you because you
know that there is a special purpose in dying as well. You are involved in spiritual practices such as
meditation, visualization, and bodywork. You feel that the disease will disappear by itself once you
have learned the accompanying lesson(s) and are ready to embrace the necessary changes in your
life.
As you may have guessed, persons who are in category 3 or have similar personality traits are better
candidates for the placebo effect or for healing themselves than those in categories 1 and 2. A person in
category 3 has no reason to believe that a medicine or a treatment would not work, he simply knows
within himself that in one way or another he is going to get better. If one approach of healing does not
work for him he won't feel disappointed but will have enough motivation to look for alternative solutions.
If nothing from the outside seems to heal his illness he is likely to realize that he is has to do it from
inside. He will eventually know that the ultimate healer lies within.
While a person in category 2 has a good chance of recovery due to his positive attitude, he may
nevertheless undermine the placebo effect by reserving a slight doubt in the back of his mind, “just in
case.…” Trying to think positive is basically motivated by fear and is, therefore, not good enough to
trigger a healing response. He may be sending out two contradictory signals to his body/mind: “Yes, I am
going to get better with this new drug!” and “But what am I going to do if it doesn't work for me?” The
positive attitude is cancelled out by the fear-based doubt. Doubt or fear is a form of energy. If fear
motivates or drives your action, this fear is manifesting exactly what you are afraid of.
A person in category 1 has hardly any self-esteem and spends all his energy accusing others or
blaming fate for his deplorable situation. He is not capable of triggering the placebo response. Hence he
may remain chronically ill unless he begins to value himself and re-evaluate his life. Many times disease
manifests as a test to find out how much we value ourselves. You can only have as much faith in a drug, a
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medical treatment or even God as you have in yourself. A low self-esteem lacks in self-trust. And trust in
oneself is the necessary element to trigger the placebo response, which is needed to cure any disease.
This connection works also when the healing response is caused by an outer source such as another
person, such as a therapist or a healer. The success that hands on healing or praying can have for a sick
person is the result of a two-way process but largely depends on the patient’s receptivity, self-esteem, and
deserving ability. If he believes that he deserves to be healed, his body and mind become more receptive
for the healing energies. For an increasing number of people, natural forms of healing are much more
likely to trigger a placebo or healing response than standard medical procedures, which explains the
current tremendous interest in alternative or complimentary forms of medicine.
The Paradigm Shift
There is a definite shift that is taking place among medical doctors in the United States and other
industrialized nations from the specialized areas of practice toward a more holistic approach to health and
healing. Many MD's are becoming disillusioned with their limited field of expertise, which mainly
consists of conducting blood tests, giving EKGs, or using pills or scalpels. A significant number of US
medical schools are now adding courses on holistic and alternative medicine, subjects that were
considered taboo in medical circles not long ago. Modern high-tech medicine cannot be applied to chronic
diseases. It is indispensable during situations of crisis when organs have failed, when injuries caused by
accidents require surgery or when someone is fighting a life-threatening infection. The vast majority of
illnesses, however, are chronic in nature. They include high blood pressure, heart disease, Multiple
Sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, depression and other acute disorders that become chronic such as
cancer and AIDS.
Patients are becoming increasingly disenchanted with the endless high-tech scans and tests of modern
medicine. They offer none of the personal care and encouragement which are so badly needed when you
are ill, when you need a placebo. This feeling of alienation and helplessness drives many into the hands of
alternative practitioners who spend more time with their patients and offer them approaches that include
self-help programs like meditation, yoga, dietary advice, and natural remedies. Americans are already
spending approximately $30 million a year on alternative methods of healing. In Australia, 50 percent of
all patients opt for exclusively alternative treatments. In addition, a daily increasing number of medical
practitioners are turning “alternative.” (Going “alternative” does not necessarily mean you are better off
than using conventional methods of therapy. Up to 30% of people who visit an alternative practitioner
claim to be “very dissatisfied” by the treatment they receive and up to 24% of people using an alternative
treatment have reported some adverse reaction to their treatment.)
Consumer demand and the economic crisis of the medical system are probably the most influential
reasons that motivate increasing numbers of medical practitioners to turn to the low cost treatments and
even to prayer and spirituality. Particularly in the United States, where the insurance fees for malpractice
are very high, physicians are increasingly interested in attending to their patients' spiritual needs. By
building a more personal relationship with the patients, as a bonus to the doctors, they are less likely to be
sued by their patients. This may also restore the doctor's image as an infallible caretaker, a role that used
to be the rule rather than the exception. The doctor’s role as a friend and guide during the difficult times
of sickness can in fact be a very crucial element in leading a patient to his recovery.
The shift from a conventional doctor to an alternative doctor or to one who really cares, however, may
not be sufficient to invoke a healing response. Exercising your will and desire to take your health in your
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hands and to take responsibility for everything that happens in your life is perhaps the most powerful
method of healing there is. It tackles the original cause of almost every illness, that is, feeling inadequate,
unworthy or powerless. So the most profound and continuous guarantee for good health is the taking of
responsibility for one’s health. This implies the search for and application of natural ways to improve the
body as much as avoiding those factors and influences that cause it harm. once we know what causes
disease we will be able to rectify the situation and lay the foundation for optimal health. The following
chapters provide an in-depth understanding in what ways we may be contributing to our own ill health,
aging and disabilities and how we can stop and reverse this process for good.