Could Optimum Health & Healing Be Simpler Than We Think?
A couple of days ago, I stumbled upon this interesting article [1]. It questions whether the philosophy of modern medicine prioritises profit over human health. Now is an excellent time to ask whether we can develop a happy and healthy global population by applying simpler and cheaper means. The power of the placebo has a long and rich history. The first hospitals in the world were Egyptian healing (sleeping) temples built around 2600 BC.
Quite simply, the power of the placebo lies in our consciousness. Right now, as a result of our current level of tangible experience, it’s easier to achieve when we use a physical proxy, such as a sugar pill. However, in the coming years, as we expand our consciousness, we will have sufficient control to use and direct it at will.
The History Of Hypnotic Healing Suggestions
From far and wide people came to the Egyptian healing temples. Patients went through ritual ablutions and were put to sleep through hypnotic suggestions by the priests. Egyptians believed that, while people were sleeping, the gods gave solutions for healing illness and spoke through the patients’ dreams. The Priests interpreted the dreams and delivered the cure or the instructions for healing.
Influenced by the Egyptians, this practice of healing in Sleep Temples became popular in Greece. One famous temple, is located on the island of Kos, where Hippocrates, the father of medicine, began his career around 400 BC. The basic premise remained identical: the seeker will come, perform rituals and sacrifices, receive hypnotic suggestions, and go into a trance like sleep. Awakening after many hours or days, the patient would share the content of their dreams with Priests for interpretation. The Romans, who succeeded the Greeks, adopted the sleep temples and dedicated them to their Sun God, Apollo.
Similar practices were also adopted by the Hebrews. In India, conceptually similar and yet practically different approaches evolved. For example, Yoga-Nidra is a trusted healing practice involving altered states of consciousness.
Unexpected Developments In The Power Of The Placebo
The first scientific demonstration of the placebo effect came in 1799 when a British physician, John Haygarth. His objective was to test the ‘Perkins tractors’ expensive metal rods designed to draw disease from the body. He compared tests between Perkins tractors and a cheaper substitute, applied to improve rheumatism. To his surprise, he discovered that 4 of 5 patients with rheumatism reported a reduction in pain levels.
Much later, Henry Beecher (a field medic during World War II) discovered the placebo effect by accident. He ran out of morphine and proceeded to treat wounded soldiers with saline. However, to keep them calm, he told them the solution was the pain-relieving morphine. Almost half of the soldiers reported a reduction or complete eradication of their pain.
These insights demonstrate the power of expectation in the human mind. This article from Brainfacts.org [2] goes on to explain this further.
No matter how developed our medical capability becomes, we can’t deny the power of the placebo effect after over 4,000 years of documented success.
Could The Power Of The Placebo Be A Healthier Choice?
There’s simply no doubt that modern medicine has delivered significant benefits to humanity.
This research article published in Health Affairs in September 2020 [3] suggests that modern medicine plays a leading role in extending life expectancy in the United States. “Forty-four percent of improved life expectancy was attributable to public health, 35 percent was attributable to pharmaceuticals, 13 percent was attributable to other medical care, and −7 percent was attributable to other/unknown factors.”
However, exploring this topic is similar to rummaging around for a lost item in a dirty pond; the deeper you dig, the murkier it gets. This article, published in JPSM in February 2006 [4] suggests that drugs given to alleviate pain work beautifully, aside of a slightly unfortunate side-effect, where we meet our maker sooner than expected. “In studies from several countries, the use of drugs to alleviate pain and symptoms with a possible life-shortening side effect was the most frequently reported medical end-of-life decision (ELD) (decisions where the physicians believe they may hasten the patient’s death).”
As The Health Industry Grows Could Our Health Worsen?
Digging down further, I discovered an illuminating study published by Ohio State university in 2018 [5] suggesting that pharmaceutical industry expansion was linked to negative health effects. The author states “This study isn’t the first to suggest prescription drugs can pose a health risk. But it is the first to find that the growth of the pharmaceutical industry itself may be associated with worse rather than better health,” said Hui Zheng, lead author of the study and associate professor of sociology at The Ohio State University.” I couldn’t help but wonder, since most research studies are funded by the pharmaceutical industry, just how uncomfortable the meeting where the researchers presented their findings, was!
Setting The Scene For 20th Century - The Impact Of Flexner
The first couple of decades of the 20th century saw a dramatic shift in medical research and medical education. This shift was triggered by the influential report of Johns Hopkins-trained science administrator and politician Abraham Flexner. The Flexner Report, written in commission for the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in Washington, had widespread implications on the entire field of medicine.
A huge number of medical schools were closed, particularly those teaching indigenous medical practices and herbal medicine, those educating ethnic minorities, and those that were thought to deliver sub-standard education. This left just a handful of schools to deliver a highly standardised curriculum, labelled as the ‘gold standard’ of medical education by the American Medical Association. One function of the Flexner Report was to move away from the more intangible, medical intuition and vibrational medicine taught by indigenous medical schools and into the tangible. To some degree, we took a step backwards in the evolution of our consciousness.
The Upside Of Flexner's Ponderings
Flexner was an aficionado of rigorous laboratory testing and the active pursuit of scientific experimentation. Consequently, he suggested “nonscientific” approaches in the medical marketplace (such as naturopaths, homeopaths, chiropractors, osteopaths, and “folk psychologists”) were unhelpful. He went further to suggest they were actively competing with the scientific paradigm of research and education represented at major American and Canadian universities at the time. The outcome was the closure of many schools teaching alternative medicine, deemed unfit for service.
There were some major advances made as a result of Flexner’s Report. During the next two decades, the US saw exponential growth in funding for biomedical research, new hospitals, and a greater level of healthcare support via company-based and state welfare insurance policies. Additionally, large sums of money were made available for research and education by the Rockefeller & Carnegie Foundations, respectively.
When Did We Start Pharming Humans For Profit?
That’s a challenging question to answer accurately. One might imagine it surfed the profit wave of the patent trend, increasingly registered by scientists and research universities alike, and gaining momentum since the 19th century. Perhaps one might assign responsibility to a market-driven economy where the care delivery system changed into an industry that sells a service. Or perhaps it’s merely a result of the ever-increasing ROI opportunities identified by investors, and greed got the better of all of us.
Whatever the cause, this research study published in 2012 [6] makes some powerful statements and some valid arguments for major reforms in this industry. “Based on the profit motive, the pharmaceutical and technological enterprises that hugely control the healthcare system today have so transformed the system that it has now emerged as one of the most profiteering domains. The historical tragedy is that the profit is earned over sickness. There has indeed been an attempt to generate sickness as demanded both by health care devices as well as by the pharmaceutical industries having detrimental impact on people’s right to health.”
What If The Solution Is Closer To Hand?
In 2012, Irving Kirsch, Associate Director of the Program in Placebo Studies at Harvard Medical School gave this fascinating interview. He discusses the result of his studies comparing the results of anti-depressants and sugar pills applied to treat depression.
The results are fascinating. It’s a 14-minute watch and it will open in You Tube in a new window.
What if we can, in fact, use the power of the mind to treat illness? Perhaps we can avoid any risk of toxicity resulting from pharmaceutical usage as discussed earlier in this article? The idea is certainly worthy of further consideration, isn’t it? Taking the issue of the potential toxicity of long-term pharmaceutical usage, there’s an argument for investing in clinical research to assess more traditional medical treatments such as homeopathy, Ayurveda, and other plant-based treatment options. I’m excited at the prospect of a time when we can harness the power of our consciousness to healing without the need of physical proxy and use plant-based medicine as a second-level support tool.
How Can We Tap Into Conciousness To Realise The Power Of The Placebo?
It’s no surprise that I’m a great believer in, and massive advocate of healing through the mind and the power of the placebo. A large element of the NLP Master Practitioner curriculum I train is dedicated to mind-body connection and self-healing. If you want to explore this field further I would highly recommend reading the following:
- “The Biology of Belief” by Dr. Bruce Liption,
- “Quantum Healing” by Deepak Chopra,
- “You Can Heal Your Life” by Louise L. Hay, and
- Almost anything written by Dr. Joe Dispenza.
Nearly 150 years ago, a psychologist called William James, profoundly impacted the way we think about the mind and consciousness at an individual and collective level. He discussed the potential for Universal Mind, Consciousness, and Thought that could be accessed and steered by an individual, and of course, by the masses.
Bringing The Intangible Into The Tangible
This intriguing study [7], published in 2017, aims to demonstrate how the formless comes into form and deliver some scientific justification of the principles of Universal Mind, Consciousness, and Thought.
In this quote, the authors refer to the work of Sydney Banks in 1973. “Banks referred to Universal Mind (or Mind) as the formless energy—and intelligence behind All life, the life force that is the source of All things; to Consciousness as the gift of awareness that allows for the recognition of form; and to Thought as the ability to create form from that formless energy. Banks realized how Mind, Consciousness and Thought were forces in the universe acting upon all people; underlying and forming the basis of anything that people can create and experience.”
Even more useful, this study offers suggestions as to how we, as individuals, can impact the physical world we see around us by using our consciousness. Exciting times!
The Power Of The Placebo In Simple Terms
In basic terms, when we access our consciousness, which operates beyond the river of thoughts that pass through our mind every moment, we can impact creation.
Specifically, what occurs in our consciousness, travels into thoughts, beliefs, ideas and values. The stronger our belief in the ideas we think about, the more likely they are to manifest into tangible reality. Consciousness is the vehicle that transforms the formless into physical form. What we believe, wholeheartedly, manifests in the reality of our psyche and then in our physical reality. We literally become what we see every day. One might equate it to OSMOSIS.
Ability Is Universal
Every single human being has this capacity to create from the intangible. On some level we ALL know we have this ability. The first step to learning is to STOP labelling results of creational consciousness as “miracles.”
Here’s an example. Have you ever decided that you want to buy something, perhaps a car or a specific smartphone? The moment you make that decision, you will begin to see more of that thing in your daily reality. You will see more and more people driving that car or holding that smartphone in their hand, you’ll see more reviews of the car or smartphone, and this fuels our determination to buy one with every single sighting. The phrase “we covet what we see every day” could be better explained as our ability to love and appreciation our innate power to create or transform the formless into form.
In a different context, when we believe our work is problematic or chaotic, all we see at work is problems and chaos.
Self-Healing And The Converse
In the same way, if we believe we can heal ourselves, or if we believe we are completely healthy AT THE LEVEL OF CONSCIOUSNESS, rather than at the daily thought level, we operate health-giving behaviours and beliefs. It’s that simple.
In the same vein, if we can convince ourselves that we are completely healthy, we an also convince ourselves that we are extremely unhealthy or sick. In fact, the idea of an invisible enemy has a far greater impact on our psyche than one which we can see with our own eyes. We have the power to manifest anything if we are unconsciously programmed to do so. Even a mass global sickness.
Whether You Believe It Now Or Not, Awakening Is Inevitable
You can appreciate how powerful 7 billion humans with awakened consciousness and fully operational creation powers could be. So, it’s unsurprising that there are those who have attempted to slow this process down or stop it altogether. For example, you might be interested to know there has been significant financial investment into psychological research of social conformity in the last 100 years. That limitation is falling away.
You can appreciate how powerful 7 billion humans with awakened consciousness and fully operational creation powers could be. So, it’s unsurprising that some have attempted to slow this process down or stop it altogether. For example, you might be interested to know there has been significant financial investment into psychological research of social conformity in the last 100 years. That limitation is falling away.
One To Many Media
Since the creation of the first newspaper in print in the 1600s, those writing the narrative have enjoyed the ability to impact our perception, belief system, and consciousness. Ask yourself how many times you’ve believed a news report about a foreign country you’ve never been to, and have no experience of. Are you sure it’s real? Well, if you believe it’s true, it becomes true for you. If enough people believe it’s true it can manifest into physical reality. Twenty-four-hour access to media delivered directly into our hands can have a profound impact on our consciousness.
Imagine how wonderful it will be, very soon, when main stream media is filled with stories of joy, hope and promise, rather than sickness, destruction and crisis. What impact will that have on YOU?
The question is, are you ready to wake up? From personal experience, I tell you that stripping back hundreds of years of unconscious programming (passed down via family and society) can deliver a wide pendulum swing at the emotional level. I can also tell you that it’s worth it.
True Clarity And Creational Consciousness Is YOUR Birthright.
If you’re ready to get started NOW, come and join my NLP 21-Day Mind Reset programme running in February next year. You can attend as a student of NLP or someone who’s ready to wake up and step into their mind power. We’ll start by peeling back the veil of unconsciously programmed belief systems, giving you the space to see your mind with clarity, and this magnificent world from an entirely new perspective.
Don’t you deserve to learn how to create the reality you want? This life is, RIGHT NOW, filled with wonderful experience waiting for you to ALLOW them into your personal reality.
A bright NOW and future awaits. I’ll see you there.
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References: Power Of The Placebo
[1] https://healthimpactnews.com/2021/healing-without-drugs-western-culture-has-lost-its-way/
[2] https://www.brainfacts.org/archives/2012/the-power-of-the-placebo
[3] https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.2020.00284
[4] https://www.jpsmjournal.com/article/S0885-3924(06)00005-4/fulltext
[5] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/03/180321121539.htm
[6] Profit from Sickness: https://www.scirp.org/html/25386.html
[7] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23311908.2017.1307633
