Thinking about the power of religion that I'm seeing at work, I remembered this, one of my favorite episodes of Hidden Brain podcast:
"All the World's a Stage—Including the Doctor's Office"
npr.org/2019/04/29/718227789/all-the-worlds-a-stage-including-the-doctor-s-office
It's about medical placebos, and fascinating studies that show placebos work a surprisingly high percentage of times,
. . . even when the patient knows they're sugar pills.
Here's a Guardian article (2010) about the same thing:
"Placebo effect works even if patients know they're getting a sham drug").
And placebos are not all equal--an article in Psychology Today points out that, for instance, capsules are more effective than tablets.
That's how I understand what I'm seeing, how religion works to save people's lives--powerful medicine doesn't have to be "real" to be effective.
Not so surprising, when I stop to think about it. Secular books and movies have changed my life too, after all.
Obviously this can be manipulated for ill as well as for good. Politics!
"All the World's a Stage—Including the Doctor's Office"
npr.org/2019/04/29/718227789/all-the-worlds-a-stage-including-the-doctor-s-office
It's about medical placebos, and fascinating studies that show placebos work a surprisingly high percentage of times,
. . . even when the patient knows they're sugar pills.
Here's a Guardian article (2010) about the same thing:
"Placebo effect works even if patients know they're getting a sham drug").
And placebos are not all equal--an article in Psychology Today points out that, for instance, capsules are more effective than tablets.
That's how I understand what I'm seeing, how religion works to save people's lives--powerful medicine doesn't have to be "real" to be effective.
Not so surprising, when I stop to think about it. Secular books and movies have changed my life too, after all.
Obviously this can be manipulated for ill as well as for good. Politics!
