ReadersDigestAustraliaNewZealand-March2018

March• 2018 | 47

READER’S DIGEST

reported feeling higher or lower lev-

elsofpainbasedonwhattheywere

told previous participants had felt.

Testsofthesubjects’skinresponses

showed that they were not just report-

ingwhattheythoughttheresearch-

ers wanted to hear; they were actually

responding less to pain. Koban goes

sofarastosaythatsocialinforma-

tionmightbemorepowerfulinalter-

ing the experience of pain than both

conditioning and subconscious cues.

“Information we take from our so-

cial relationships has really profound

influences, not only on emotional ex-

periences but also on health-related

outcomes such as pain and healing,”

Kobansays.“Andweareonlybegin-

ning to understand these influences

andhowwe can harnessthem.”

N

OWHERE IS THEPOWERof

groupbeliefmoreevident

than in religious pilgrim-

ages–whethertheCatholictrekto

Lourdes,thehajjpilgrimageofMus-

limstoMeccaortheKumbhMela,

which draws tens of millions of Hin-

dustocitiesalongtheGanges.Orthe

pilgrimagetoAltöttingwhereImet

Richard Mödl. The first documented

healinginAltöttingwasin1489,

whenadrownedboywassaidto

have been miraculously brought back

to life. Today the Black Madonna at-

tractsaboutamillionvisitorsayear.

ThepilgrimsIjoinedwerechat-

tinghappilyonacoldBavarian

morning.Ihadbeennervousabout

the trip because of ankle surgery I’d

had three months before. But in that

merrythrongofbelievers,mypain

faded away.

WhenwearrivedintheChapelof

Grace, home of the Black Madonna,

we found it covered with pictures

representing miracles spanning hun-

dredsofyears.Proppedagainstthe

wallswerecrutchesandcanesleft

behind by parishioners and pilgrims

whose suffering was relieved by the

Black Madonna. The expectation of

healing continues unabated.

“Thereisadifferentwayofthink-

inghere,”saidThomasZauner,a

psychotherapist and deacon who

moved to Altötting. “Prayer seems to

actually work.”

DOUBLE TAKE

In 2013, the New Zealand government released a list of the names it

had banned parents from bestowing on their children, and twins

Benson and Hedges were on it.

SABRINA ROGERS-ANDERSON,THE LITTLE BOOK OF BOGAN NAMES

FROMNATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC (DECEMBER 2016). © NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE SERVICES, NATIONALGEOGRAPHIC.COM