EFT, your thoughts?

[ButterflyWoman]

I personally think that placebo effect is fascinating, and it demonstrates quite admirably the power of mind over matter. If you BELIEVE it's going to help, then it DOES. Excellent stuff, that. It's such an arrogant thing to just discard that as "only" placebo as so many researchers do... What do you mean "only"? Something that should have had no effect HAS ONE? Wow!

By the way, I'm not speaking specifically of EFT. I'm familiar with the concept of it, but haven't studied it in any great depth, nor have I tried it. I may one day, and if it works, that'll be cool with me, placebo or not.

[Korpo]

It is almost funny when somebody says "Just a placebo..." because the placebo effect is among the strongest healing effects there is.

Example: A surgical procedure for angina pectoris was found to be totally ineffective in removing the causes, but the placebo effect was tremendous - until studies were published widely that explained the ineffectiveness. Different "miracle drugs" have later been found to be ineffective, but highly effective during early tests applied by enthusiastic researchers.

If researchers actually could reliably reproduce the placebo effect, healing would be a much more effective business in Western Medicine.

So - "just" a placebo...

Oliver

[ButterflyWoman]

Actually, there's a lot of research into placebo effect. They still don't know how it works, but one thing that seems clear is that the belief that someone cares for you or is concerned about your well-being is a big factor. Being prayed for has a very clear positive effect, for example, and many "home remedies" that really shouldn't have any effect will work if the person receiving feels loved and nurtured, etc.

A good example of this is the famous "kiss to make it better".

Mind you, that's not ALL there is to placebo effect. I sincerely believe it's an example of mind over matter, BUT there is a strong element of knowing someone cares or God is being petitioned to help, or similar feelings of being supported.

[Korpo]

Oh, I believe in both.

Loving someone and especially feeling loved can have strong effects throughout your whole being - if we don't believe in this, we can also forget about doing energy work.

I have the notion that the "why" of the placebo effect will remain a mystery to science at least for a long time, but they will get better at the "how" of inducing it.

Oliver