The Science of Mind Over Matter
Imagine that scientists discovered a new drug that could cure or improve the symptoms of most known diseases. Just one pill! Wouldn’t it make headline news all around the world, and become the greatest selling drug of all
The Science of Mind Over Matter
Imagine that scientists discovered a new drug that could cure or improve the symptoms of most known diseases. Just one pill! Wouldn’t it make headline news all around the world, and become the greatest selling drug of all time?
Such a thing already exists. Let me introduce to you – The Placebo!
“The placebo effect has evolved from being thought of as a nuisance in clinical pharmacological research to a biological phenomenon worthy of scientific investigation in its own right.”
These are the words of Professor Fabrizio Benedetti, a neuroscience professor at the University of Turin School of Medicine, a world authority on the placebo effect, and member of the ‘Placebo Study Group’ of the Mind/Brain/Behaviour initiative at Harvard University.
A placebo is a dummy drug that is made to look just like a real drug. It is used in medical trials so that the drug can be tested against a control. Being a control, it is not supposed to heal but it does, because patients believe that it’s a real drug. Their mind heals them.
For years the cures were dismissed as ‘just placebo’ but new e