Using Placebos to Psychically Heal

I've noticed that when I have some sort of physical pain, smoking weed helps distract me from it and I tend to heal more quickly. I totally believe that the mind has some pretty crazy healing abilities that we don't fully understand. This article talks about it a bit but it was interesting how the placebo was used as a distraction to allow the mind to heal the body. I love Deepak Chopra too:

http://iloveglasspipes.com/how-to-use-psychic-abilities-to-heal-your-body-using-the-placebo-effect/
 
I got a migraine this weekend actually and tried to imagine myself in a state where I felt free of pain. It wasn't the most severe migraine I've ever had but it did go away pretty quickly. Not sure that the two are related yet but thought it might be worth mentioning. I didn't use weed to help with the distraction this time either. I started thinking it might be worth developing in case I'm ever on a plane or something and don't have access to my stash.
 

schuylaar

Well-Known Member
I got a migraine this weekend actually and tried to imagine myself in a state where I felt free of pain. It wasn't the most severe migraine I've ever had but it did go away pretty quickly. Not sure that the two are related yet but thought it might be worth mentioning. I didn't use weed to help with the distraction this time either. I started thinking it might be worth developing in case I'm ever on a plane or something and don't have access to my stash.
if you're going somewhere, you can always make hard candy or lollipops to carry with you.
 
Sounds like magic, not the average bunny in a hat magic but, ritualistic magic or magical thinking, it's based on a few different belifes practiced among varied cultures and cults, secret societys, in different ways and understandings. Study the occult and i'm sure you'll run across magic and perhaps enlightenment in your research, the idea of it is to create the desired relaity and act out the motions to then achive the wanted goal, that's why when performing a ritual it usually involves a special setting of some sort, using loud different voices or shouting, different clothing and theres obviously some sort of practicum to it all, but magic is based on a few different philosophical ideas and beliefs most of which aren't popular to western culture, and oh lordy once/if you start doing researsh in to culture and history and understanding different idea systems of reality things really open up, I highly suggest listenting to some terrence mckenna on youtube spark a fatty relax and soak in the knowledge/philosophical thoughts (I don't know if your into or have looked into hallucinogenic/psychoactive plants or anything but obviously Cannabis which is psychoactive) culture to the human is the same as water is to a fish, your born into a culture and that culture has it's set of boundries it sheds light on things and it demoralizes other things and creates kind of a universal thought process for a society, culture also tends to put boundries on thought and spreading ideas. Language travles through something called a "medium" like television, social media, clothing, posters, even drugs, a medium can be alot of things and it's a major factor on how the laguage is pervieved and understood, so you begin to see how societies operate and why they do in the way they do, you decide for yourself if your culture is doing the right thing for all, including earth, I live in the usa and my opinion is... Well I could write for hours on how f***** up it is.. Though there is some good. So apart from all of this what you just seemed to have was a magical and ontological thought without knowing it, ontology is a branch of philosophy that is the study of understanding what it is to "be" thinking about if a physical object is truly "real" or what is "real" and you stumbled upon that kind of thought while smoking cannabis.(makes me giggle) So in your theory after intake of cannabis which takes action very fast, it shifted your plane of perception creating, in a sense, a different point of view, a different reality, things will have a different vibe or understanding leading to other thoughts, example in your case it made you forgetfull or atleast took your thoughts somewhere else for a bit instantly changing your current reality of "ugh I have a headache" to wherever it took you afterwards, it is indeed a healing ability and cannabis has been in a prolonged spirtual alliance with himanity for almost as far as we see back, different cultures have different ways of healing, western pharmaceutical, putting something inside of you a pill which yes still has its needs for life threatning situatious I think but is unessecary and unatural for regualr use for temporary relief, and in western cultue we normaly think that reality is a fixed thing, espically our reality like our feelings and thoughts and such, but you go to indigenous culturs like amazonian cultures and they have healing ceramonies with ayahuasca and other natrual plants, the ceramonies for healing are for healing the self within, the source of it all, and once you reconnect back to your self and begin to really feel and achive your/an understanding of being, that first the inside has to change in order for the outside to. What it is is basicly a magical ritual in conjunction with a sacraed plant.
The thing is these plants have always been around are much more sophisticated than us AND have actually gone through the process of "becoming"... humans have used them to shift the plane of perception and understanding for millennia, at the base of many beliefs there is usually a plant or a metaphorical story of "knowledge coming from the divine"


This went alot deeper than i expected it to xD and I hope anyone who reads it gains some sort of intrest or resonance of the info and I encourage you to do research yourself on the statements and ideas above and always ask questions.
 
Last edited:
Yeah, I've wanted to try ayahuasca tea in a ritual setting for a while now. I've also heard of some expanding experiences with DMT but I'm a bit more wary of trying that at this point in my life. I'll definitely check out Terrence McKenna. Thanks, man!
 

green_machine_two9er

Well-Known Member
I've noticed that when I have some sort of physical pain, smoking weed helps distract me from it and I tend to heal more quickly. I totally believe that the mind has some pretty crazy healing abilities that we don't fully understand. This article talks about it a bit but it was interesting how the placebo was used as a distraction to allow the mind to heal the body. I love Deepak Chopra too:

http://iloveglasspipes.com/how-to-use-psychic-abilities-to-heal-your-body-using-the-placebo-effect/
The way I wrap my head around it. Mind, or consciences creates matter. Literally. The ever forward progression of time however tricks us into thinking we have no control over it. It takes true blind faith and changing thought patterns to truly bring about change. Coming from an ex pain patient. Was on track for surgery. 3 Herniated discs. Compromised vertebrae. Constant narcotic use.
What saved me. Yoga and meditation. Mindfulness and letting go of the desire to be pain free. In fact the only reason we humans can even comprehend suffering( physical, or emotional) is by wanting to be free of it. If our subconscious can calm and be here and now, without expectations or desires of how our life's should be; only than can we be free. And yes. Although we are all spiritual beings being taught lessons on our vacations in te physical realm, this is this the illusion so if we know is not the true ultimate reality than of course healing can happen. Miracles happen. Crazy feats of human spirit can be found throughout all time. Jesus said if our faith was enough to fill a mustard seed than we could move mountains. So how much faith would it really take to rearrange a few muscles and bone. Or better yet. How does the mind filter out those pain circuits so we don't notice it on a conscience leve
 
Nicely put! I've read a lot of Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer and Eckhart Tolle. At first the concepts were challenging. These days, I still need reminders to break my patterns but the teachings are pretty well ingrained!
 

Heisenberg

Well-Known Member
The placebo effect is interesting, but I think calling it mysterious is going a bit too far. Charlatans like Deepak take advantage of the public's ignorance.

"The placebo effect is really many effects. It is everything other than a physiological response to the treatment. It is not all a real effect of mind-over-matter – it includes every bias and artifact of observation as well." http://bit.ly/17b46a7

"The placebo effect is fairly complex and is largely an artifact of observation and confounding factors. Any real benefits that contribute to the placebo effect can be gained by more straightforward methods – like healthy habits, compliance with treatment, and good health care." http://bit.ly/1cPiUQv

The Poor, Misunderstood Placebo :http://bit.ly/1kfvXBU
 
The placebo effect is interesting, but I think calling it mysterious is going a bit too far. Charlatans like Deepak take advantage of the public's ignorance.

"The placebo effect is really many effects. It is everything other than a physiological response to the treatment. It is not all a real effect of mind-over-matter – it includes every bias and artifact of observation as well." http://bit.ly/17b46a7

"The placebo effect is fairly complex and is largely an artifact of observation and confounding factors. Any real benefits that contribute to the placebo effect can be gained by more straightforward methods – like healthy habits, compliance with treatment, and good health care." http://bit.ly/1cPiUQv

The Poor, Misunderstood Placebo :http://bit.ly/1kfvXBU
Thanks for the reading! I'll check it out this weekend!
 

thepenofareadywriter

Well-Known Member
The placebo effect is interesting, but I think calling it mysterious is going a bit too far. Charlatans like Deepak take advantage of the public's ignorance.

"The placebo effect is really many effects. It is everything other than a physiological response to the treatment. It is not all a real effect of mind-over-matter – it includes every bias and artifact of observation as well." http://bit.ly/17b46a7

"The placebo effect is fairly complex and is largely an artifact of observation and confounding factors. Any real benefits that contribute to the placebo effect can be gained by more straightforward methods – like healthy habits, compliance with treatment, and good health care." http://bit.ly/1cPiUQv

The Poor, Misunderstood Placebo :http://bit.ly/1kfvXBU
I have been in a couple researches through out the years and I noticed that they would tell you, that not everybody would receive the drug, but some would get the placebo...what would be the reason for that?...If not for mind over matter?
 

Heisenberg

Well-Known Member
I have been in a couple researches through out the years and I noticed that they would tell you, that not everybody would receive the drug, but some would get the placebo...what would be the reason for that?...If not for mind over matter?

I'm confused. You're asking why some trials include a placebo group?
 

thepenofareadywriter

Well-Known Member
I'm confused. You're asking why some trials include a placebo group?
no ...why do they say that not all of you will receive the trial drug...but some of you will receive placebo...in other words the one man receives the trial drug the other the placebo, neither is told what they received...what is the purpose of the placebo?
 

Heisenberg

Well-Known Member
no ...why do they say that not all of you will receive the trial drug...but some of you will receive placebo...in other words the one man receives the trial drug the other the placebo, neither is told what they received...what is the purpose of the placebo?

Well, we know that any treatment at all can produce a placebo effect. We could come up with a new treatment tomorrow over a cup of coffee and that treatment will be capable of producing a placebo effect. To be sure patients are improving because of some specific aspect of the treatment we need to control for placebo.

All treatments are also capable of producing statistical phenomena such as regression to the mean. For example, a headache is generally a self-limiting condition that gets better on its own. If we test a homeopathic remedy for headaches without proper controls we are very likely to see that indeed many people do feel better after taking the remedy, but we have no way of knowing how many would have felt better in the same amount of time having taken nothing. We can control for some of these factors with blinding and using a control group, but there will always be some noise. That noise gets factored into the placebo effect.

There are also factors that would be unethical to control for. People involved in clinical trials can act differently than people in the real world. They may also chose to undergo lifestyle changes like getting more exercise and eating a better diet, and they tend to more closely follow doctors orders. Obviously we can't ask people to not do these things, so, in a clinical setting, these factors also become part of the placebo effect.

So the placebo effect is largely a quantification of noise. There is a real mind-over-matter aspect to placebos, but they tend to be small, short-term, subjective and do nothing to affect the actual pathology of the condition. That is not to say they aren't useful to the patient, but there are not very useful to someone whose goal is to cure, and obviously it's not okay to put an arbitrary package around these effects with the goal of profit (homeopathy, acupuncture, ect).

As for why they tell participants that some will receive placebo and some will not, that is due to informed consent.
 
Top