The Placebo Effect is reported contributing 30-40% in anti-depressant studies. This is not remarkable given the mind may have created the depressive patterns initially.
Pushing this further, placebo in chronic pain management decreased by about 20–30% pain intensity. Again, this can be explained well as Equanimity in Buddhism (“upekkha”). The Buddha described a mind filled with equanimity as “abundant, exalted, immeasurable, without hostility, and without ill-will.”
Harvard Medical School supports this constraint.
Placebos won’t lower your cholesterol or shrink a tumor. Instead, placebos work on symptoms modulated by the brain, like the perception of pain. “Placebos may make you feel better, but they will not cure you,” says Kaptchuk. “They have been shown to be most effective for conditions like pain management, stress-related insomnia, and cancer treatment side effects like fatigue and nausea.”
You can always expect the new-agers to jump-the-shark – with stories containing words like “quantum”. The problem with people who use faith, “the secret” or prayer against nature and biology is that the odds are stacked in favour of the entity that doesn’t have an ideology. Belief works in a domain where belief has some leverage (thought processes, memes, culture, psychosis, creativity, hypnosis, imagination, meaning etc).
One such “quantum” case study is Dr Joe Dispenza.
Joe Dispenza is an MD who claims the reconstruction of his spine after being hit truck during a triathlon. He replaced his fear by visualising the reconstruction. I’ve struggled to find evidence of this actually happening.
There is some difficulty surfacing x-rays of Joe’s spine but there is no problem buying Joe’s books, guided meditations etc at a quantum multiple of market prices. Compare with Tara Brach’s freely given meditations .
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2016/11/placebo-health-science-brain-suggestible-you-erik-vance/
Indonesia // new-agers pray to avoid covid-19.
compare to US, trump gone by easter “miracle”
Skillful means
Tantric
Western magical tradition
set and setting
ultimately a (or the) creative process. possibly the whole point of the human project.