The Placebo Effect: Shaun Hautly

I majored in biology in college, and was premed until organic chemistry came along. I've been asked my views on medicine before, and I've been asked if I believe in homeopathic healing. However, it's not really about belief. There are facts and research supporting the placebo effect, there are also reports of medicines not being effective if the patient is told they are a placebo (when they are not, in fact). So the belief part comes down to this: Do I believe that doctors should deceive their patients when they know a placebo will be effective? (Because telling the patient they're being prescribed a placebo kind of ruins the whole thing.)

The human body is a pretty amazing thing, for the most part, it's able to fix itself. Even a broken arm is just treated with a cast to keep it straight while the body does magic on the inside. Many medicines work to release chemicals or catalyze the body's release of it's own chemicals. If the body can be tricked into releasing these without adding a chemical, then great! I always doubted Christian Scientists and their healing practices, but I did witness a family friend achieve results from prayer alone. I can't say that I've ever healed myself though, because I'm still a skeptic.

The placebo effect relies on one thing: faith. That's why knowing it's a placebo renders it useless. That's why non-christian scientists or skeptics (like me and the general public) can't just close our eyes and heal ourselves. We don't fully believe. Not to go nerd on you, but in the Matrix, where there were no rules, Neo couldn't jump the building because even though he saw it, he didn't truly believe it. While we're not living in the Matrix (hopefully), that same doubt can undermine any treatment (even real treatments, in some cases). So while I do believe that the mind can heal the body, I don't think most minds are ready. Maybe the blue pill was just a placebo.

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