... So if you just PRETEND to smoke Pot, will you still get high...?

Really interesting stuff, what the mind can do, what cant it do? Good post Thanks : )

buyhisbook, buyhisbook, buyhisbook

Ho yeah, and, er, nice post and all.

No seriously, buy Bad Science, it's like 3 quids on amazon.co.uk, and apart from happily thrashing "alternative" medicine (and regular big-pharma businesses, for that matter) it actually has a chapter on the placebo effect. Its only (minor) flaws are its Brit-centrism, and the fact that it should be actually titled Bad Medicine. I bought a box of these which I distributed to my homoeopathy-loving family. I hope I don't get disowned.

I've always believed a factor of Mind over Matter exists. I'm not saying regeneration of a limb is possible but with a percentage of ailments, we can think them away just the same as we can imagine them being real.

On that same note, I've heard of girls who wanted a baby so bad that they actually changed some of the chemicals and hormone production in their body enough to fool a pregnancy test and the doctor examining them - that in itself is quite strange indeed.

There really isn't a placebo "effect" as much as there is a placebo process. Otherwise, my sugarpill supplements called "Placebos" would have taken off.

The idea was, any clinical trial has about a 30% responsiveness to placebo. If the placebo process occurred 3 out of 10 times when studying a headache medication, anytime you have a headache, just take 12 placebos!

Simple.

They actually don't use sugar in placebos any more, because sugar has an effect on the body in different ways for different people, even in small amounts. They use inert substances now.