It's NOT all in your mind...

by David Servan-Schreiber, author of Healing Without Freud or Prozac
Modern medicine calls it the "placebo effect." This refers to the cultural and relational factors that make someone who's sick feel better when a doctor prescribes treatment, regardless of its biological impact. Nowadays, doctors think they know everything about the placebo effect. They were taught that 30% of sick people treated with placebos show signs of improvement. But they're also taught that this improvement is subjective and temporary - because the illness continues to take its course.

Yet after studying the placebo effect, some scientists wonder whether it may be one of the strongest driving forces in medicine. A study published in Clinical Psychology Review in 1993 concludes that several types of placebos are effective in treating illnesses such as stomach ulcers, angina pectoris and herpes 70% of the time. In addition, rare but famous cases testify to the effectiveness of placebos in reducing cancerous tumors or regenerating the immune cells of AIDS sufferers. The part of our brains known as the hypothalamus directs the distribution of essential hormones and operates the diffuse network of nerves controlling the function of the internal organs. The most intriguing mechanism is that proposed by pharmacologist Candace Pert, author of Molecules of Emotion: The Science Behind Mind-Body Medicine. She demonstrated that neuropeptides - molecules that help transmit messages among the brain's neurons - affect the behavior of nearly all the body's cells. This means that what we refer to as our mind isn't located just in the brain but throughout the body. It also implies that, driven by the comings and goings of these molecular messengers, the mind constitutes an immense communication network encompassing the functions of the organism.

So what is the placebo effect? Everything we don't know about the capacity of the brain to heal the body. Therein, undoubtedly lies the secret of the shamans and other healers. Their rituals, chants and restorative acts address the most archaic parts of the brain, those that regulate our organism and can participate in its healing ... Scientific medicine has replaced this knowledge with mechanical principles that allow the illness to be cured without speaking to the sufferer's spirit.

Ed. note: As a Reiki practitioner I have personally experienced the healing power of the mind/body/spirit connection. Hopefully, Western medicine will come around.