Mind Over Matter - Placebo Effect

Placebo Effect “is anything that seems to be a "real" medical treatment -- but isn't. It could be a pill, a shot, or some other type of "fake" treatment. What all placebos have in common is that they do not contain an active substance meant to affect health” (The Placebo Effect: What Is It?). Many times the placebo effect is used in research to originally provide a base to start with, but they realized that this base actually proves to hold results. People understanding that they are receiving a treatment, at times, get better, even when they don’t actually intake the placebo. This leads to the point of mind over matter. If we can do this with our mind, what else are we capable of using the power we have within us? And what can we do to get in tune with these powers?

“Patients' expectations for improvement, also referred to as “response expectancies,” are thought to be one of the central mechanisms responsible for placebo effects (Deception in Research),” meaning that their expectations affect their reality. It is suggested that we can do a few separate techniques to achieve a mind over matter state. It is said that as children, “the precise age at which (we) reach a new stage is at least partially predictable from independent measures of their waking mental development (Lucid Dreaming).” We can alter our lucid dreaming scenarios by how we feel outside of our dreams, even altering psychological states (anxiety, depression, etc.) in some cases. Thinking positive thoughts, ruling out the negative, can actually improve your mood and state of mind. This was studied by Princeton. “If we focus on positive or negative thoughts, we will bring positive or negative experiences into our lives (Mind Over Matter).” It’s miraculous to find what your brain can do, and we are researching all that this entails. I’ve found myself thinking many times positive thoughts when there seemed to be only negative situations to think about, and I ended up being more productive and cognitively alert.

Reference List

Deception in Research on the Placebo Effect. (n.d.). Retrieved January 31, 2017, from http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.0020262

Lucid Dreaming. (2007, April 10). Retrieved January 31, 2017, from http://www.lucidipedia.com/downloads/lucidityinstitute_researchpapers.pdf#page=163

Mind Over Matter. (2016, June 26). Retrieved January 31, 2017, from http://figur8.net/dream/2016/06/26/mind-over-matter/

Mind Over Matter: Princeton & Russian Scientist Reveal The Secrets of Human Aura & Intentions. (2014, December 09). Retrieved January 30, 2017, from http://www.collective-evolution.com/2013/09/05/mind-over-matter-princeton-russian-scientist-reveal-the-secrets-of-human-aura-intentions/

The Placebo Effect: What Is It? (n.d.). Retrieved January 30, 2017, from http://www.webmd.com/pain-management/what-is-the-placebo-effect#1

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