Do You Know About the Nocebo Effect?

I’m sure you’re familiar with the placebo effect. It’s what happens when patients are in a control group, the group not being given a particular medicine, but because of their belief that they are receiving it and that it will work, their condition improves.

Recently, I’ve learned of the nocebo effect! It’s when patients are given a sugar pill but told that they’re receiving a drug that has negative side effects, and they develop those symptoms.

According to John Kelley, Ph.D., deputy director of Harvard Medical School's Program in Placebo Studies & Therapeutic Encounter, the “power of the imagination” is a force to be reckoned with. In fact, he states that when people are asked to envision a scene in their minds, it can be seen “on an MRI that their occipital lobes—the parts of their brains involved with vision, are activated.” He says, “Just imagining something is happening is enough to activate those portions of the brain associated with that thought, or worry, or pain.”

What does this have to do with you and enchantment?

Well, while imagination itself might not be enough to combat viruses and illnesses alone, it is a powerful tool to aid in your recovery. So, if you become ill, (and I certainly hope you don’t!) remember you have the choice to envision yourself healed, watching your amazing constitution battling it, feeling the love from those who are praying for you, holding you in their thoughts, sending you healing light, etc.

OR, you can envision the opposite.

Placebo uses the Enchanted Key to Altered Perceptions by choosing to focus on the positive aspects inherent in healing. It’s holding the vision of what is possible beyond the illness.

Nocebo is fueled by Dragons that want to pull you into the Pit of Negativity and the Dungeon of Doom.

Keep this handy like the spare tire in your car, just in case you need it.

Choose well. Stay enchanted!