Placebo
The placebo effect is what can happen as a result of the power of positive belief. People can heal by taking a sugar pill or having a saline injection. People could also heal after a pseudo-surgery, which occurs when a doctor cuts open the skin and then stitches it up without actually performing an operation. Human bodies can produce the same chemicals as if they had taken the painkillers. In fact, 30 percent of the effects of all medications are placebo, and there are various examples of these experiences in Dr. Joe Dispenza’s book You Are the Placebo.
We can heal ourselves, without the help of anyone or anything from the outside because we are unlimited beings and must trust our power of healing that is within us. We create our lives with our thoughts. Our only limitation is our fears.
Nocebo
The nocebo effect occurs with negative thoughts. In the same way that positive belief has the power to heal, negative belief can kill. I heard the story of a patient who was diagnosed with cancer. The doctor told him that he had three months to live. The patient died within six weeks. He believed his doctor. His family was not convinced by the diagnosis and wanted an autopsy to be performed. The result showed that there was, in fact, no cancer. The diagnosis was wrong.
The man had died for no reason except he believed his doctor.
When we are fearful, our conscious mind and our immune system shut down, and every word spoken is engraved into our subconscious mind. Every diagnosis, as well as every prognosis, becomes our belief. If our doctor tells us that there is no cure for our illness, the probability of getting rid of that illness decreases to zero. For this reason, we must pay attention to the people we trust. As Anita Moorjani says, doctors or healers, whoever we choose for our treatment, must be the person who makes us feel encouraged and cheerful.
In You Are the Placebo, there is the story of a patient with severe cancer who was given sugar pills and told they were a newly discovered drug, and she would recover from her cancer. She healed. Such examples are numerous. I think doctors have a responsibility to speak in a way that does not create a nocebo effect but rather a placebo effect.