experiment that tests a medical drug against a placebo, or anyone taking such a drug should, therefore,
incorporate or consider the following four crucial points:
- Are there fewer subjects in the experimental group suffering from depression, anxiety or trauma
than in the placebo group? - Would the experiment end differently if the control group received the real drug and the
experimental group the placebo? - Would the results of the experiment be the same if the researchers assigned to administer the drug
to the different groups were asked to switch the placebo and drug groups? - Would any pharmaceutical company risk repeating the same experiment, but with different
subjects, if this could lead to significantly altered or even contrary results?
It is important to realize that a particular drug or treatment may produce different results in different
people and can, therefore, not be considered objectively testable for efficacy. A drug may not work for a
particular patient unless he “allows” it to work. The patient’s state of mind, which includes his emotions
and subconscious acceptance or resistance to healing, plays the main role in determining how successful
the treatment will be for him. The type of therapy he receives may, in fact, play a secondary role. The
renowned researcher, Dr. Herbert Benson from Harvard University, stated once, “Most of the history of
medicine is the history of the placebo effect.” In other words, the ability to cure a disease rests solely with
the patient.
Any existing or past trauma, sadness, depression, anger, or unresolved conflict can lead to
unconscious programming of the patient’s cells to shut down their receptor sites to both internally
produced and externally supplied drugs. This may render any medical intervention useless, if not harmful.
It is well known that if a patient is in shock, for example, he cannot be treated or undergo surgery. The
same principle applies, although to a lesser degree, to a patient’s subjective condition when he receives a
treatment, for example, to heal a cancerous tumor. With a general drug failure rate of 65 percent, it is
obvious that drugs do not do the trick. Rather, it is the recipient of the drugs who determines whether
healing takes place or not. True healing requires trust in yourself, your body, and a profound conviction
that you deserve to be healthy. Once the body receives the go-ahead signal from you—the conscious
being that you are—you will spontaneously invoke a healing response, and your body will take care of the
necessary details.
The various levels of trust and belief that different patients place in the potency of a drug may be
responsible for the wide range of responses witnessed by doctors around the world. A higher degree of
trust can actually increase the placebo’s effect from a 25 percent to a 75 percent efficacy! For example,
the healing rate for duodenal ulcers among placebo groups in controlled clinical studies ranges from 20
percent to 70 percent. Unless the researchers also study the psychological state of the subjects, it is highly
unpredictable who will respond positively to a placebo. Some patients report relief of pain after they have
been injected with sterile water. An average of 3 to 4 out of 10 surgery patients with serious wounds
(caused by ulcers) experience significant pain reduction after they have been injected with a salt solution.
No reliable methods in modern medicine exist that can determine or guarantee which patients will
respond to a placebo. It is equally impossible to predict how well a patient will respond to a real drug
treatment or surgery. Indeed, the subjective state of the patient plays a major, if not the determinant, role
in curing an illness.
It is well known that wounds may or may not produce pain, depending on whether the wounded
person considers his injury a “good” or “bad” wound. According to doctors' reports, many soldiers who
were wounded on World War II battlefields did not even require painkillers when they felt that their