Placebos[/caption]Carol Forsloff — If you are like most people, you get a variety of suggestions on health remedies once you announce you have any negative medical condition. People will often swear their remedies work and will occasionally even become angry if you resist their advice. But often what they are actually unknowingly "selling" is the placebo effect, as the standalone remedy does not work. Yet there are elements of this effect that do, and it's the harnessing of this information that can be helpful in creating positive change.
The placebo effect comes from the finding that one's belief in something may actually impact the result one has in relationship to its use. In experiments on the effect of medications, some subjects may be given the experimental medication, others a pill or substance that is a placebo, that is not the experimental drug but instead some variant of a "sugar pill", while still others will be given nothing at all. Comparisons are made with reference to which people report better health in relationship to the experiment. Often researchers see an elevation of positive response among those getting the real medication and those getting a placebo, so the results will be interpreted in light of that. In other words, many people will feel a good effect from something resembling medication that isn't medication at all. It is that adage, "I think therefore I am."
Ian Pearson, a futurist and writer about those things that work and those that don't, tells us your placebos can effect internal attitude and how that can help people move forward in relationships with others and with their own bodies. Those who believe they are improving, getting well, feeling better, reflect this in their smiles, conversation and body language. This consequently impacts how they are treated by other people. And the positive atmosphere that results can be reinforcing, so the positive feelings continue.
Pearson reminds us that the fortune teller, the soothsayer, the homeopathic physician does not have the remedy nor can see into the future; but they learn the nature of human behavior and reinforce the positive impact of the emotional placebo by using what they can actually see or know about a person from listening and looking to offer a solution that can be believed. That proverbial man in the grey flannel suit is told a future of success is in the cards, and the man's recollections of that message continue to reinforce the belief. People like that man in the grey flannel suit are more apt to have success because they create their own environment with the positive attitude developed from their own beliefs, passed along to others, who become part of the environment that continues to reinforce the message.
The placebo is that thing that does not inherently work. But how it is used can point the direction to those things that do and is therefore useful in providing the avenue for success in relationships and in personal health.
