[Neurons] 2009 Meta Reflections #30

[L. Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Halk

Meta Reflections #30

July 6, 2009

Unleashing Your Health Potentials- Part IV

 

 

UNLEASHING

YOUR HEALTH POTENTIALS

 

 

 

Having identified the strange and mysterious mechanism in medicine knows as
"the placebo effect," and having described it as a "belief," a mental state
of an "expectation," a frame of mind composed of our meta-states, it is now
time to explore "the placebo effect" and our self-reflexive consciousness.
It is time to ask some curiously fascinating questions about how our
reflexivity plays a role with our health and well-being.




I.                   So, what happens if you know that a placebo is a
placebo?  Will it still work?

II.                Will knowing that something is a placebo undermine and
interfere with its effectiveness?

III.             And can we take control of our self-reflexive awareness so
that we can intentionally activate "the placebo effect" to facilitate our
own health and well-being?

 

The answer to these questions is that- it is relative.  That is, it depends.
Sometimes it does; sometimes it does not.  It depends on the person and on
the layers within any given person's mind.  It depends on how you respond
(or react) to your awareness of your thoughts and to the beliefs that your
belief are embedded within.  And that's another reason for learning the
Meta-States Model and how to effectively manage the higher levels of your
mind. [You know I had to throw in that commercial!]

 

What we have discovered is fantastic.  Namely, the mere fact that you know
that an idea or belief is a placebo does not necessarily prevent it from
working to create "the placebo effect."  Now most placebos work because you
think the placebo is real and has actual medicinal value, and so essentially
you confuse the inert substance or procedure with a real one.  You think
that the placebo works because your beliefs and state of mind communicates a
message, or order, to your nervous systems and body which thereby somehow
activates a healing process.  You believe it and somehow the belief itself
makes it happen.

 

Yet there is now evidence that a placebo will often work in spite of our
knowledge that it is just a placebo.   The evidence?  1965 two researchers
from Johns Hopkins University gave placebos to 15 patients, "We feel that a
so-called sugar pill may help you."  14 agreed to take it and 13 improved
during the week of taking them. [Park, L.C. and Covi (1965).  Nonblind
placebo trial.  Archives of General Psychiatry 12:336-345.].   This is so
incredible, you just have to reflect on that for a moment:

They knew it was a placebo.  They were told that it was harmless, inert, and
useless as a pill.  And they took it anyway, and in spite of that, it still
worked with the majority of them.

 

In other words, merely knowing that something is a placebo does not
necessarily have to invalidate it.  That means that at the first meta-level
you can know and acknowledge that some pill or procedure is empty in itself.
That means that you do not believe in it!  At least you do not believe in it
at the first meta-level.  But what if you believe in it at the next level
up?

 

What if, instead of a first meta-level belief in a particular placebo
intervention, you believe in your belief itself as the efficacious factor?
What then?  Could that next level belief over-ride your awareness that it's
just a placebo?  Suppose that when you know that there is a power in your
belief process itself.  Suppose you believe in the power of your mind to set
a strong expectations.  Suppose that you believe in your ability to send
messages to your body for your healing, energy, vitality, and well-being.
Could that become a higher level placebo, a meta-placebo?  If merely knowing
at the first level that something is a placebo does not necessarily
undermine or counteract the experience, what if you rise above that and set
a meta-placebo belief?

 

It was this understanding that led me to experiment with a new pattern in
Montreal in May.  I chose the title of  "Unleashing Your Placebo Power," and
then designed the process around a positive expectation.  Comparing and
contrasting it then against a weak expectation, a mere wish or hope then
enabled us to find "the difference that makes the difference."  And finding
that suggested how to code (or re-code) a belief so that we present it to
ourselves as a strong expectation.  And from there, setting the next level
up meta-state, namely a belief in the expectation.

 

Our understanding is that placebos work by expectational beliefs-beliefs
about what you expect.  A strong expectation sets up an orientation,
perception, and intention.  What do you expect about health, aging,
sickness, etc.?  How strong do you expect this?

 

Distinction: we will explore the differences between two states: when you
are in a strong expectancy state and when you are not.

 

              -------------- I believe the belief is the efficacious factor
----------------------

            /
\

                  ----------- I'm aware that my belief is the efficacious
factor -----

                 /
\

                         -----------------   It is just a sugar pill
-------------------

                        /
\

                                 --------- this will help!  It is
efficacious ----- 

                                 /
\

 

                                                Person
- >     pills / placebo

 

 

 

Newest book:  Achieving Peak Performance  --- $25

            Now available

 

 

Also available---       Adventures in Time Lines  (Hall and Bodenhamer) $25

                                    Meta-States (2008), $45

 

 

 

 

 

L.  Michael Hall, Ph.D.

International Society of Neuro-Semantics

Meta-Coach Training System

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO.  81520 USA

1 970-523-7877

1 970-523-5790 fax

      <http://www.neurosemantics.com/> www.neurosemantics.com 

       <http://www.neuro-semantics-trainings.com/>
www.neuro-semantics-trainings.com 

       <http://www.self-actualizing.org/> www.self-actualizing.org

       <http://www.meta-coaching.org/> www.meta-coaching.org

       <http://www.ns-video.com/> www.ns-video.com 

 

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