Mind over Matter – The Placebo Effect and the Power of Belief

The mind exists as an invisible energy field as the intelligence of the body that literally produces it, inhabits it, and operates it as the vehicle, instrument, and means of expressing through it in order to create an “experience of itself†within the material world. The mind, as the consciousness of the body has a self-organizing mechanism inherent in it that structures the biological system of the body through a growth and development process of the embryo according to, or as a direct correspondence to the consciousness not only creating it (provides the etheric template for construction), but also inhabiting and operating it. The mind as an electromagnetic field of intelligence is what “in-forms†the material body and gives it life as an active biological system and conscious, self-aware being as the personality of the body.

The mind is structured as a mental model or paradigm comprised of accumulated memory, and is equivalent to or analogous to the soul, and the terms can be used interchangeably. The mind, which has different aspects that perform different functions of a “whole systemâ€, not only has the ability to fully “operate†the body, but is doing so from the moment of conception to the moment of death, which is when the soul enters the body and exits it, first creating and giving it life, then subsiding and ending its life. The subconscious mind is what we call the “bodyâ€, and is what completely organizes its molecular structure while “holding it together†through energetic tension, and systematically conducts all automated functions of the body from birth to death, never rests or stops operating through the entire lifetime of the body, and produces, regulates, and manages all biological processes, without the need of a conscious thought or any form of awareness from the conscious mind.

Consciousness operates at both the aware and unaware levels, as well as between multiple dimensions. While we call the subconscious mind the “unconscious†mind, meaning it operates in our life without our awareness, it’s actually the only fully conscious (always operating) aspect of the mind, and is always “present†within the body, alert to actual situations and systematically functioning to regulate the body through a form of energetic metabolism that’s always absorbing, digesting and assimilating all the energy around it as various forms of consciousness that’s of the same nature (vibratory frequency) as it is, incorporating it and modifying itself to become the same as it. This process of absorption (resonance), integration (sympathetic induction) and equalization (coherence) is the most basic form of evolution that always keeps the body in balance with the environment that it’s a part of and depends on for its survival. The subconscious mind is passive and receptive in nature, and always interacting with other minds and forms of consciousness, readily taking in “suggestions†or impressionistic ideas, and producing (becoming) the physical equivalent.

The conscious, self-aware mind (the one most people think of as the “brain conscious†aspect of the mind) acts as the “gatekeeper†or evaluator of incoming information by analyzing, scrutinizing, and evaluating the information to decide what to let in and what to keep out. And while the conscious mind performs this function naturally, most don’t actively use this ability as a means of self-regulating and becoming self-determined. Otherwise, through a lack of knowledge, self-doubt, or the persuasive abilities of others, we readily take in the consciousness of others as a form of information that we accept as right and real, forming a belief in it, that shapes us by modifying not only our mind through the integration of it which modifies our paradigm, but also by producing the physical expression of it as a state of health. Whatever we believe to be true, we systematically produce the physical equivalent or reality of that belief as an inward experience. This natural law of the mind’s ability to shape and determine material reality is fully demonstrated in what we call the “Placebo Effectâ€.

The placebo effect is where a person is given some form of medication while being told what the medicine will do, and even though the medicine is what we call a “sugar pillâ€, not medicinal at all, they will produce the physical effect they “believe†it will produce. This is because the placebo as a symbolic image or idea, given with the instructions of “what it will doâ€, is readily taken into the subconscious mind as a “suggestionâ€, with no resistance from the conscious mind (doubt), and it produces the effect in the body it was told to produce. The subconscious “is†the mind as the operator of the body and manifests whatever it’s told to manifest as a physical condition that it accepts as true and therefore real. Truth as a perception is made into a reality by the mind.

When the person administering the placebo knows it’s a placebo, and therefore doesn’t actually believe in it, it’s called a “single-blind†test, where the only “blind person†is the one receiving the placebo. So there’s only one belief involved. This level produces results of roughly 30 to 40% accuracy. This is because the intention and conscience of the person falsely administering it and giving the instructions as to what it will do, conveys the deception through subtle means of body language, voice quality, and “how†they’re saying it and acting, which are picked up on subliminally by the mind, and introduces a form of doubt. When a “double-blind†test is performed instead, involving three people, where only the one giving it to and educating the person administering it knows it’s a placebo, and the administering person also believes its real medicine, so two beliefs are involved and the delivery is a lot more natural, the percentage of effectiveness increases substantially to 50 to 70%.

These type of experiments clearly demonstrate the obvious ability of the mind to produce the physical equivalent of whatever it believes to be a fact. We can actually regulate any biological process in our body through purely mental means. In a like manner, the placebo idea was taken a step further and placebo surgeries were performed (in non-life threatening situations), with the person believing a surgery was actually being performed, while being told exactly what it would do and what it would fix, or what problem it would solve and how, while only an incision was made to create the illusion of an actual surgery, and the surgical process mimicked to convince the subconscious mind, which stays aware when the conscious mind is “put to sleepâ€, and the person again created the effect they believed the surgery would do. They literally corrected the problem and “healed themselvesâ€. Naturally this brought up many ethical issues, as apparently working with the belief system of a person and utilizing their own mind to heal themselves is questionable as obvious deceit, while bypassing their own power to heal completely and actually doing an unnecessary surgery, is considered above board and honest, even though the actual surgery can cause many other “side effects†or snowballing type of problems, as well as cost an insane amount of money. Again, we’d have to look at what we’re calling “ethical practice†and define the actual meaning of the word “deceitâ€. Of course, if the person knows their ability to heal is a power they possess based on belief, they won’t believe it, and the process won’t work. At this point in our evolution, we have to “fool people†into using the natural powers of their mind.

This same principle is operating in our life all the time and at every level of our being. It comes routinely through various forms of propaganda, seemingly informative and factual articles, the news media, formal education, what a seemingly authoritative person tells us, and so on, where we are programmed with a false knowledge base that serves to form our belief system, where we engage, co-create, and cooperatively participate in the reality as the “experience†of that belief, and it serves to “literally†shape and determine us, because it forms our mind as a model, which is a reality producing machine. While many believe reality is not something we willfully create or determine, and that it exists a part from us in an objective and neutral manner, and while this may be true in terms of a mass or shared reality, the fact is we can never really know that for sure, because reality as we know it is always “subjective†as a correspondence to the mind observing it, that reorganizes the outer elements to match the belief of the mind perceiving it. In the most basic sense of the idea, perception “is†reality, where the objects being viewed and the person viewing them are a part of the same event and work together to co-create a new version of reality by the perspective it viewed through and the mental paradigm that’s used to interpret it. In the ultimate sense, the mind determines how matter that’s of its “same vibrationâ€, organizes into a cohesive and coherent pattern with natural behaviors and tendencies, and how it functions as a result. Whatever the intention, perspective, and desire of the person, determines the nature of their reality as a personal creation.

Dr. Linda Gadbois