Placebo: an effective guide

I'm not sure where this post actually belongs, so move it if it needs to be moved. Anyways, I've decided I'm going to share my knowledge of placebo. I may turn it into a tutorial later, we'll see. Anyways, this is designed to help anybody (with a high enough willpower) experience the effects of placebo. To many, including me, placebo works as a medicine, an anti depressant, and an over all slight edge over those who don't know how to use it.

Beginning:
Learning how to use placebo is the hardest part. It's not something you can expect to do and have it happen. To an extent, that's how it works, but you absolutely have to believe it works. All cliches set aside, that's the only thing it takes. The hardest part (for me) was getting the first results. There are several opportune times to try it out. The first time for me came in 5th grade, when my dad pulled a tick out of my side. My friend had first told me about placebo then, and I tried it out. Being so easy to convince, it worked, and it gets easier every time. I would try it at a time like that. For instance, the next time you hurt yourself in any way. Just focus on making it numb. See induction techniques for ways to do that. Anyways, a simple test would just to test yourself. Maybe try pinching yourself, making it hurt more every time you manage to numb yourself. The trick is to find one strand of hope to hang on to. For example, for a lot of people it won't work. When it finally does start to get numb, tell yourself that it works and use it as proof to convince yourself. Again, the key is believing.

Induction techniques:
Once you've at least accomplished a small amount of what to do, you need to find a way to make it happen again. There are several different techniques. and not every one of them will work for you. You may be able to use all of them, a combination, or maybe just one specific technique will work. Here's a couple I know of.

imagery: This one works well for me, but only under certain applications. For example, I get really bad headaches. When I get these, I imagine the headache is a fire and I'm pouring a bucket of water on it. As "zen" as it sounds, it works really well. A creative person could come up with a couple uses for this at the least.

"matrix" style: This one, of course, is named for the matrix point of view. That is "don't think it is, know it is.". This has never really worked well for me, but this is how my friend taught me to do it. Basically, you would tell yourself something like "The pain isn't there anymore.", or "The water is hot". No way around it, no having to tell it that it is, it simply is.

Focus: This is the way I use all the time, and it works really well for me. You basically focus on what it is you want done and getting it done. Any time you get a slight bit of success, you focus on that and use it to boost your "morale". It slowly gets more and more successful until you've accomplished what you want.

"God" style: You look at what you want done like you're a god. That is, "The water is hot if I say it is hot" "the pain's gone because I'm telling it to go away". I haven't really tried this before.


USES

Well, eventually you'll have learned to use placebo to your advantage. A lot of people, like me,have fun with it. There are a lot of ways it can be used to your advantage. Here's a couple of my favorites.

Pain: This is, by far, one of the most useful applications of placebo. I'm prone to headaches, canker sores, etc. and this is the easiest way to get rid of the pain.

Make cold water hot: I do this a lot when I get in the shower and I'm completely out of hot water. I make the water feel warmer than it is so I'm not freezing.

Taste: Make celery taste like chocolate, make saltines taste like banana pudding. I do that a lot, and it's one of my favorite uses.

Dreams: I've found placebo to be a great help when having lucid dreams. For instance, I once tried to make a car explode. Nothing happened, so i imagined a flame inside the car (imagery) and told my self it would explode (god style). I snapped my fingers, and it exploded and flames shot out the windows.


Thanks for reading, and any comments would be helpful.

No responses? I would appreciate "hey this worked" or "this failed" or even "hey mofo get off this website". Nothing?

Hello i find this very interesting. So what your saying is you can convince yourself that there is no pain or something? Basically inducing feelings with will power?

That is pretty amazing that you are able to fool yourself like that. I've had some experience with this when it comes to pain.

I don't think placebo is the right word for it.

Quite interesting however true placebo only works if you "know" that it isnt placebo eg treating hypochondriacs (a patient with imaginary symptoms and ailments) and they give them placebo medicine and the patient gets better.

But i do like that you dropped the matrix into this because i believe we do live in a matrix of sort and by knowing what you see isnt real, its your brain that makes it real eg your senses are the only link to the outside world but what interprets them = your brain, so reality is all in your head. So by knowing that 'there is no spoon' there is only the energy present that we perceive as a spoon.

Also the thing making the water appear hotter is just you aclimatising to that temperature, however quite a neat trick that fools your brain and gives you a glimpse of how we are programmed is:

Get 3 containers of water, 1 filled with moderately hot water (not hot enough to burn you) 1 cold water (yet again not too cold to cause harm) and 1 room temperature.

Then put 1 hand in hot water container and the other in the cold keep them there for 2 or 3 minutes, then put both hands in the room temperature water.

and you'll be getting mixed signals, the hand that was in the hot temp water will tell you that the water is cold, and the hand that was in the cold water will tell you the water is hot.

Cant quite remember why something to do with your nerves and by aclimatising them to the temp it reduces or increases the strength of the stimulus that they require for them to send the signal to your brain.

I tried this out a few times today, and it actually seemed to work pretty well.

The first time I was waiting for class to begin, and I started feeling sick to my stomach. I remembered this tutorial, so I decided that it would be a good time to try it out. I pictured that the discomfort was a storm, and I imagined it dissapating and becoming a fair day. In moments I felt much better.

Like RB said, Placebo doesn't really seem to be the right word for it. I'm not really sure what you would call it though.

This thread reminds me of the Buddha Boy in Nepal. What ever happened to him?
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...09055767132866

We have a lot more control over our bodily functions than we normally chose to exert.

Very interesting. So im assuming it is obviously possible to achieve this through much practice. I never really knew much about it before, but since i now know i will be sure to try it out next time an occasion occurs.

It doesnt even take a lot of practice to get it done the first time, but of course practice makes it easier.

This wouldn't work well for me, because I use the focus method where I have to see progress to work well. Anywyas, I have heard that simply believing you'll have a lucid dream will make you have one. Falls in line with what I've been saying. Thanks for the tip, Magical Mike!

Conscious induction of the subconscious effects of a placebo? Sounds useful, I should try it some time :D

This is a great topic! I am glad you posted this, I have actually been using the "Matrix" style (as you call it) to handle serious pain for the past year or two. Now, thanks to you, I can try out some (hopefully) more effective methods and things to use it for! I will try the other methods out and post here if it works better than my usual. :)

It all just comes down to being able to convince your mind of what you want. I have succeeded with making pain go away, regulating body temperature. But i have yet to make cold water hot and induce taste (that seems really hard)

The problem is that you've already convinced yourself that it's going to be really hard. Out of curiosity, what method do you use?

A note for everybody who uses mostly the focus method: It is very hard to get instant result. A good example would be getting hit by something. Say you drop something and you see it's about to land on your foot. It's very hard to steel yourself against feeling it hit, but you can make the pain go away after a few seconds of feeling it (if you're good at the process).

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Originally Posted by Chewnie91

It all just comes down to being able to convince your mind of what you want. I have succeeded with making pain go away, regulating body temperature. But i have yet to make cold water hot and induce taste (that seems really hard)

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By the way, don't be afraid to try new things. Another practical application I recently remember ( I used to practice it ). You can make your visual perception of time slow down. For instance, when riding in a car, you can slow the vision down just enough to take in more detail. Say there's a guy on the side of the road that you think you know. You would focus on him enough to notice that he's wearing his trademark AC/DC shirt and tan boots. Now, this is also a natural ability of the eye. Another thing that augments it is adrenaline. It has been recorded at events such as bungee jumping. In it, they use a clock that goes by hundredths of a second. Almost everybody who tried said that when they actually did the jump, it was much easier to read each individual number that passed by. It's a survival mechanism, so you can react quicker when you have adrenaline pumping. That brings me to another use, which is inducing an adrenaline rush. You can do this by feeling scared, or playing on your natural fears. For instance, if you are claustrophobic and are in a subway filled with people, you could use this to gain an adrenaline rush. I'm not sure why you would want to do this. Maybe you are anticipating getting into a fight. It can also work the other way. You can use your mind to very easily get over your fears and calm the adrenaline. A note on inducing adrenaline though, is that it often takes people over. They stop thinking and start acting purely on emotion. This is an important thing to learn to control, or it could have some serious consequences. It is also very hard to calm down from a fear or anger induced adrenaline rush, though the process can be sped up.

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Originally Posted by Jozeh

Quite interesting however true placebo only works if you "know" that it isnt placebo eg treating hypochondriacs (a patient with imaginary symptoms and ailments) and they give them placebo medicine and the patient gets better.

But i do like that you dropped the matrix into this because i believe we do live in a matrix of sort and by knowing what you see isnt real, its your brain that makes it real eg your senses are the only link to the outside world but what interprets them = your brain, so reality is all in your head. So by knowing that 'there is no spoon' there is only the energy present that we perceive as a spoon.

Also the thing making the water appear hotter is just you aclimatising to that temperature, however quite a neat trick that fools your brain and gives you a glimpse of how we are programmed is:

Get 3 containers of water, 1 filled with moderately hot water (not hot enough to burn you) 1 cold water (yet again not too cold to cause harm) and 1 room temperature.

Then put 1 hand in hot water container and the other in the cold keep them there for 2 or 3 minutes, then put both hands in the room temperature water.

and you'll be getting mixed signals, the hand that was in the hot temp water will tell you that the water is cold, and the hand that was in the cold water will tell you the water is hot.

Cant quite remember why something to do with your nerves and by aclimatising them to the temp it reduces or increases the strength of the stimulus that they require for them to send the signal to your brain.

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Sorry for the triple post, it's just the easiest way to do quotes. Anyways, it's true that it can be your body acclimating. However, you can also use your mind and cut to the nerves, making them deliver the message that the water is warm instead of cold. An easier way to do this, for example with a cold shower, is to make it colder and focus on it being warm, and then turn it up to the absolute highest you can get it to.

I use the focus method. It works pretty well for me

Something else to note; this works both ways. That's why we have so many hypocondriachs (sp?). The easiest way for me to explain this would be uaing dreams. For instance, I tried to summon something once. I turned around and saw it for about half a second before waking up. The next ld I had, I tried to summon it again. The last instance was always in the back of my mind, and I woke up again when I saw it. This would be closer to actual plaebo than what I described earlier, but still not the right word.

me and my buddy use this method to help with our anxiety, we both have medicin bottles which we dont use any more and we fill them up with tic-tacs and try and use a placebo type affect in beliving when we take those pills we will feel calmer.

That's a good use for it. Another good way is (if he's a good buddy of yours), find his pills and replace them with tic tacs or sugar pills. Maybe even dump out the insides and fill them with something tasteless (like fiber substance).

Anxiety cancels this out for me. I can numb myself to pain almost effortlessly, but the second I get a little bit scared (especially of the painful thing) the pain comes back in force. Any help?

Not much else you can do except try to control the anxiety and cancel it out. If the mind can control pain it can control the thought process. It just takes practice

It's the fear. Along with fear comes doubt ( doubt that something will proyect you, etc.) The way to get by this is to put yourself in the situation over and over until you're comfortable with it. If this isn't possible, just try to get used to increasing amounts of pain. Obviously use common sense and don't do something like cutting yourself for purposes such as these.

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Originally Posted by Chewnie91

Not much else you can do except try to control the anxiety and cancel it out. If the mind can control pain it can control the thought process. It just takes practice

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Look who's suddenly become an expert! :cheeky:

All right, after some looking around, it seems that I may have found a better word for this: auto suggestion. It's a word I've heard many times, but I didn't make the connection until now. Also, I've learned of some new uses for placebo. They come from a great (albeit more spiritual than I like) book that my friend loaned me, called "your sixth sense". It has a great section in there on willpower and the power of the mind. There are a couple "placebos" that people do, especially when they have grave illnesses. One of the most common is for cancer. They imagine their white blood cells as knights in bright armor, and the cancer as knights in black armor. They then imagine the white knights attacking the black knights, without any of them dying. It supposedly helps, but there's not a whole lot of evidence to back it up. Oh well. If we needed evidence, we wouldn't be on this forum.

Well, it's been a while since I posted, but I wanted to let everybody know I'm turning this into a tutorial. I'm already working with Ninja9578 to get it published. Hazel, if you don't mind, I'm going to use your testimonial to illustrate a point, along with -InsaneKid-. If anybody has any suggestions, let me know before I get a final draft, and I can work with you to see if it's worth adding. Of course, you'll get full credit for whatever you do to help with it.

Hmmm that is the way how I work anyway.I never knew it was 'placebo' or something. If I am nervous about something I just tell myself that I am not and 'I am not'.
Or if I am in pain , I simply 'tell it' to go away.

Well, then, you're a natural. I've been able to do it since the fifth grade, when my friend told me about it. Back then, we lived on a half acre of land surrounded by woods. I found a tick on my stomach and had my dad remove it. And I told myself that I would feel no pain if I believed. I didn't even notice he had pulled it out, and since then, I've been hooked.

Hm this is very interesting. I will have to try this out. :)

By the way, your post about saltines tasting like chocolate reminded me about something I read in a book for my cognitive science class, Oliver Sack's The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, which talks about people with various disorders and brain injuries. This one man lost his sense of smell due to a head injury. A few months later, he started to smell again, the scent of coffee, his pipe, etc, with the same vividness as he had before the injury. He went to the doctor and had himself tested, using a double blind technique, and it turned out he had simply been imagining the scents rather than his olfactory tracts returning to normal, a sort of 'controlled hallucinosis' as Sacks called it.

Also, one thing I learned in my class that directly relates to this idea of autosuggestion is that expectations of pain alter activity in the anterior cingulate cortex. During an experiment, patients were told to expect high discomfort, and there was high activity in the anterior cingulate cortex, when told to expect low discomfort, there was low activity in the anterior cingulate cortex. Basically a similar thing to your idea of autosuggestion, this is likely the science behind it.


Regarding the adrenaline and bungee jumping, I googled it and came across this article: http://www.livescience.com/health/071211-time-slow.html It's interesting, it basically says that time slowing down due to adrenaline is likely an illusion, caused by your amygdala becoming more active and laying down more memories. More memories causes you feel like time was longer, when looking back at it.

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If the brain sped up when in danger, the researchers theorized numbers on the perceptual chronometers would appear slow enough to read while volunteers fell. Instead, the scientists found that volunteers could not read the numbers at faster-than-normal speeds.

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Originally Posted by oniman7

Hazel, if you don't mind, I'm going to use your testimonial to illustrate a point, along with -InsaneKid-.

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Oh, I don't mind. Glad to be of assistance!

I was actually pondering this myself , I once had a lucid dream and I decided to ask my subconscious what would be the best way for me to easily induce LDs ?

And the answer was the following vision :

I find a man with a cart full of capsules of the same (Red & white) , and he gave me one of them. And that was it .

Since then I've been trying to understand if this is the case !

Wow , I think I actually just got it now!

I think that the idea of the vision was to get empty capsules , put something in them like Sugar or what not , and then label it whatever and then take them every night for LD induction , in the beginning it might seem silly and you already know that it's a placebo , yet with enough time and taking it daily , it might lead to something , I think I might give this a shot myself !

For headaches, I imagine the pain looks white on the part of my head that feels pain. every other, painless, healthy area of the brain is gray. I imagine myself taking an eraser to all of the white areas of the brain/head and visualize them becoming gray. It usually works. Also, you can command your pain or sickness to go away in Jesus Christ's name.

Please don't necro-post in 6 year old threads. The members who posted in here are no longer active on the board. It would be much better to start a fresh thread.

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