Scanning the Horizon-- Seeing Inside

This will be primarily regarding a concept and my relation to it. It's only mildly presumptuous and lightly battered with pretense.

The buck stops at a penny for your thoughts. Your thoughts are worth much, much more.

The placebo effect is something we know as a buzzword, yet it effects drug trials so profoundly that some 50% of those tested feel the "effects" of a drug that wasn't even given to them. This makes it impossible for anyone to know if the medication even does anything...because people are so incredibly prone to utilizing the pharmacy that already exists in their minds to treat their symptoms without even realizing. The prompting of these placebos is always the hard part but can be induced by things like peer pressure, visual cues, or even a good story. It sounds too silly to be true, but recall the last time you read a horror story, watched a scary movie, or were just alone in the dark for a while and then tried to do something normal like going shopping. You got into your car and you swore you could feel eyes watching you from your back seat, so you turned around...and yelled at your poor back seat cushions and that ice scraper from last winter that was never put back in the garage. I know you did-- it's okay. We all did.
This is simply your brain dumping cortisol and adrenaline into your body, and over-stimulating your physiology. These are extreme examples of a primed placebo effect-- the anticipation of a feeling based on something that was presented to you in some regard. More likely, you had a headache, took a Tylenol, and by the time you swallowed it, the headache had already started to feel just a little better. This is the most common example of a placebo. Your brain has been found to have its own biochemical opioids to bypass pain. Soldiers with grave wounds felt no pain in WW1 when taken to the field hospital. They seemed, in fact, to be relieved. Why? Because their brains told them it was okay, now. In one such case, while laying on a gurney after a bomb had exploded nearby, an American soldier said he felt no pain and was simply calm, relaxed, and relieved to be off the front and out of harm's way...with a piece of shrapnel protruding from his back.

So, why am I talking about placebos? They're definitely weird and interesting, but how far can weird and interesting even get you? As it turns out; blasted off your damn noggin and out into another galaxy.

It's the mid-1800s and a doctor has a patient who claims to have some horrible allergy to flowers and is terrified, anxious, and nervous to be in a room with them or in their general vicinity at all. So, he gets a bit annoyed with some of the more extreme antics and his disdain turns to something wonderful. He places a false rose on his desk and has a meeting with the woman. She very clearly notices the rose but doesn't mention it. The meeting adjourns and she walks out of the room. Five seconds later, nurses rush into the doctor's office to alert him that the patient was writhing on the floor in a fit of coughing that had escalated to choking, and had just passed out. 

The rose was fake. 

Your brain has more control over your entire physical being than you could have possibly realized. Until right now.

Erik Vance knocks these concepts out of the park with his book, 'Suggestible You'. This man was born into a Christian Scientist community with a deadly disease that nearly killed him. He was magically cured without medication and decided he wanted to look into how that could be possible. Eventually, he began to see trends that are truly fascinating and discovered that people have the innate ability to hurt or heal themselves in a way that most would feel could only exist as myth or magic. The reality is much more grounded and is becoming more and more clear as scientists, neurosurgeons, hypnotists, and psychologists delve into the depths of the mind and discover its true nature. The mysteries of yesteryear are dissolving into concrete and reliable treatments for patients with debilitating diseases.

My favorite story is that of a man with Parkinson's Disease. This case is well documented, and this man has gone on to do some amazing things. It started with a surgery that involved having a drill bore through his skull and into his brain. While there in his grey matter, the doctors would implement a new type of treatment. This man was a part of an experimental surgery group, and knew it. He came out of the surgery with some extraordinary results. Within a few weeks, he began to ride his bike again, when before, he was hardly able to stand up. He was a firm believer in his astounding treatment and went on to run marathons and even participate in triathlons. He was the poster child for this breakthrough new treatment and had never been happier in his life, which he assumed was over just months prior. Then, they brought him in for a final appointment to give him a breakdown of the procedure.

They didn't do anything to him. They used a very tiny drill to create a small indent in his scalp, but never even pierced his cranium. They had gone through an elaborate ruse, simply to use him as one of several in a control group to test a real treatment...just not on him. It turns out, the treatment had a low success rate and was scrapped. The true prize was the effect this deeply layered placebo had caused in Mike Pauletich; to have an incredible regression in the deterioration of his mind and body. The doctors were worried to tell him that it hadn't actually happened, for fear of reversing the effects. They waited almost two years, and when they finally told him, his mind had done something so immense that their words and his disappointment could not possibly reverse it. He even gleaned a new perspective from the experience and realized his mind was more powerful than he ever thought possible.

"The mind is a powerful thing," is one of the most massive understatements to have ever been uttered in the English language. We're discovering this more and more every year, and after much consideration, I have decided to be a part of those discoveries in the future.