by Antje Maly-Samiralow//
I will ask this question tomorrow to two scientists who deal with placebo and nocebo phenomena for professional and research reasons and are well versed in this not entirely clear field of science: the psychologist and historian of science Prof. Dr. Dr. Harald Walach and the former head of the Institute of the History of Medicine of the Robert Bosch Foundation Prof. Dr. Robert Jütte.
The question may sound bizarre, possibly esoteric, if not aloof. But it is by no means to be dismissed out of hand. After all, placebo research - even if not explicitly, at least implicitly - investigates this question. But you wouldn't put it like that. It is expectations of a positive, i.e. hopeful, or negative and fearful nature that can influence physiological functions.
Placebo effects on pain have been best researched (although the perception of pain is a highly individual perception and therefore difficult to objectify). However, it should be mentioned in this context that many studies investigating placebo effects on pain do not only rely on the subjective pain assessment of the test subjects, who usually rate them on the basis of pain scales, but that corresponding MRI images of the brain are taken, which show that and which brain areas are activated as part of the pain matrix, that and which endogenous opioids are released after placebo administration and corresponding verbal accompaniment and even at which point of pain stimulus transmission in the central nervous system the pain-inhibiting effect begins in the course of a placebo effect. These are all highly complex processes that underlie placebo effects.
Even with physiologically measurable parameters such as blood pressure or gastric activity, experimental studies have shown that placebos - i.e. dummy drugs or the famous sugar pill - were able to regulate both blood pressure and gastric activity in such a way that it was either reduced when the study participants were told that they were receiving a drug that would reduce their gastric activity or, conversely, increased when the test subjects were told that the drug administered would increase their gastric activity.
Many years ago, in preparation for a book on placebo and nocebo issues, I dealt with this topic in detail and had an excellent advisor at my side: the placebo researcher Prof. Dr. med. Karin Meisner, who works at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. She led the studies described above on the - if you like - mental influence on blood pressure and stomach activity.
In response to my question as to how such rather specific regulatory mechanisms could be explained, Prof. Meissner suggested that the expectations created in the study participants by taking a tablet and the associated suggestions led to the stomach movements being selectively controlled by corresponding programs in the brain. She explained more specifically as follows:
"The stomach is very closely connected to the activity of the brain via autonomic nerve fibers. We notice this because our stomach growls when we think of a good meal. Such programs were possibly activated during the placebo administration (i.e. the administration of the placebo while verbally pretending to have received a real, i.e. effective, drug (author's note)). An interesting side observation in this study was that when the subjects believed that they had received a drug to activate stomach activity, they experienced stomach rumbling and stomach movements more frequently than when they believed that they had received a drug to reduce stomach activity (which was also only a placebo (author's note)). They also reported more frequent feelings of hunger."
The knowledge of the potential inherent in the placebo effect - which goes so far that sham operations on the knee joint, for example, produce precisely the results that would be expected from a real knee operation - is still underutilized. This is one of the reasons why Prof. Dr. Robert Jütte, as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the German Medical Association, published the statement on the subject of placebo in medicine and was largely responsible for this.
The foreword states: "Hardly any other medical term is used as frequently, even in a figurative sense, as "placebo". Internet search engines come up with more than 6 million hits, depending on the spelling. Almost everyone thinks they know what it means, but without being able to explain exactly what it means and - above all - how placebo works."
And this despite the fact that the high value of the placebo effect was already known in ancient Greece. Plato, at any rate, seemed to have been in the know:
"The medicinal herb is a very specific leaf. But the medicine also includes a magic spell. If you say it at the same time as using the leaf, the remedy will make you completely healthy. Without the spell, however, the leaf is useless."
The magic, the ritual, the benevolent and uplifting word, in other words the proverbial Drug doctor are what make a therapeutic intervention successful, whether it is of a manual, pharmacological or invasive nature. Robert Jütte summed this up as follows in an interview with the Deutsches Ärzteblatt:
"The doctor can achieve a great deal with empathy, trust and the therapeutic setting. All of this has to be right for his measures to be successful."
Conversely, Robert Jütte warns of the effects of unnecessary nocebo effects that unfold when doctors frighten their patients and paint them black instead of soberly explaining and empathizing with them. Anyone who has ever had a blood sample taken or a vaccination knows the warning "Careful, it's going to hurt!". This verbal viciousness is just one example of what words, especially those coming from a competent source, can unleash.
When oncologists advise a person suffering from a serious cancer that they should settle their affairs because they won't be given more than three months, such serious words can carry weight.
The fact that verbally formulated death sentences can manifest themselves when uttered by persons of respect, which undoubtedly includes doctors for the vast majority of people, is evidenced by historical documents that can be found if you look into the history and stories surrounding nocebo effects.
A collection of cases in this regard was published in 1942 by the US physician Walter B. Cannon in the journal American Anthropologist under the title Voodoo Death published. In his review, Cannon cites a wide variety of cases in which people were killed by black magic, curses and other cultic acts.
Prof. Jütte will probably not have such extreme cases in mind tomorrow evening when he gives the audience a few practical tips on how they can protect themselves from nocebo-laden assaults by doctors and therapists.
I am curious to see what possibilities it will offer and will report on this at a later date if you are interested. For now, just this much: the question of whether the mind helps to shape matter and therefore our physical constitution has probably already been answered.
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12 Responses
Physical experiences and nutrition shape the mind.
Deprivation, hunger, poisoning through an unbalanced, unhealthy diet and addictive substances shape the mind. Exercise or the lack of it shapes the mind. Etc.
There is always a connection, an exchange, a mutual influence between body, soul and spirit. Even if the western world separates and divides KGS.
Da kommen Sie wieder maschiert, die Schüler Hegels. Das ist das Ende von „dem Wahren, Schönen und Guten“.
Habe soeben das Buch von Felix Kuby: „Gesund ohne Medizin“ gelesen, in dem er u.a. Bezug nimmt auf seine eigene Überwindung einer Querschnittslähmung und beschreibt genau das Phänomen, das der Geist die Materie schafft – und nicht umgekehrt. Sehr beeindruckend, von ihm seit 40 Jahren recherchiertes Phänomen, das hoffentlich das materialistische Denken in der Medizin endlich überwindet.
Danke für den an dieser Stelle mal wieder überraschenden Artikel. Auch mir ist dieser Ansatz wohlvertraut, und natürlich gibt es auch hier eine Art „Spaltung“ der Gesellschaft. Der Weg zur Erkenntnis, selbst mehr Schöpfer als Opfer der Welt zu sein, verbunden mit der selbstgestellten Frage, wer oder was wir selber sind, ist für mich eine Quintessenz der letzten Jahre. Empfehle hier das Spätwerk des Nobelpreisträgers John C Eccles „Wie das Selbst sein Gehirn steuert“, 1997. Ein Brückenkopf für offene Geister.
Ein Artikel, der – Entschuldigung – im Jahr 1950 erstaunlich gewesen wäre, aber 2023 doch sehr angestaubt erscheint, jedenfalls aus dem Blickwinkel von Personen, an denen die „Esoterik“ nicht völlig vorbeigegangen ist. Kaum eine geistige Strömung hat in der westlichen Welt seit etwa 60 Jahren eine derartige Aufwärtsentwicklung erlebt wie das spirituelle Denken, anfangs vor allem in Form von Büchern, deren Erfolg dazu führte, dass in den Buchhandlungen Esoterik-Regale eingerichtet wurden. Nahtoderfahrungen und paranormale Erscheinungen werden seit den 70er Jahren dokumentiert und erforscht, Channeling ist schon fast zur Gewohnheit geworden. YouTube ist voll von Berichten und Filmen. Nur an der Normalwissenschaft prallt das alles ab, obwohl vor allem auch Quantenphysiker sich in diese Richtung bewegen. Man schaue mal die Interviews und Stellungnahmen von H. P. Dürr an und der Mann ist kein Einzelfall.
Der springende Punkt ist, dass das spirituelle Wissen in einer materialistisch oprientierten Welt „kommerzialisiert“ wurde, um dessen wahren Kern dem Vergessen anheim zu geben. Die Esoterik war der Beginn eines Selbstoptimierungswahns, sie wurde verbunden mit Happining. Gefüttert wurde in ihr das Ego als materiellen Ausdruck und nicht das Selbst als geistige Essens unseren Seins. Tiefe Spiritualität meint folglich etwas anderes. Sie ist und bleibt Selbsterfahrung und Selbsterkenntnis und das ist Arbeit. Freilich kann unser Verständnis von Arbeit variieren. In einer Welt, in der die hermetischen Gesetzegelten, dürfen wir das Gesetz der Polarität ernst nehmen. Mal wird Arbeit vergnüglich und mal anstrengend sein. Auch in ihr zeigt sich das harmonische Wechselspiel, wie es das von Symphatikus und Parasymphatikus sein sollte. Denn die Natur bildet das ab, was in der geistigen Welt angelegt ist. Hegel und die Idealisten haben am Ende der Tage recht.
The title attracted me: the question of mind and matter. The topic was a little different, I hadn't necessarily expected it to be so medical. But that made it all the more exciting to read. I want to add another, scientific perspective to the whole thing: The relationship between energy and matter. Einstein's fascinating world formula E = m × c² - the equivalence of mass and energy - often comes to mind when my thoughts turn to the relationship between body, mind and soul. This was also the case earlier when I came across the aforementioned title.
As a child influenced by the natural sciences and the world of numbers in general, being in the world provided a kind of experience and feeling that cannot be easily reconciled with numbers and the natural sciences. A seemingly banal calendar saying pops up in my mind: "The theorist knows how to do it, but it doesn't work! The practitioner doesn't know how to do it, but it works!" Almost exactly half a century ago, I remember reading these sentences on the wall of my childhood bedroom. Funny, one sheet out of fifty-two.
Of the experiences mentioned, two should be mentioned as examples. The more recent one, six years ago, was my most intense encounter with death. My long-term partner's sister was dying and I was the last person in the family to see her alive at around one o'clock in the morning. We were woken up around four by a call from the night nurse to say that she had gone. Around six, the family met in the hotel breakfast room, and by seven we were all together in the room where she died. And we all knew that the deceased was still there ... somehow ... impossible to pinpoint, but palpable for everyone. Palpable! Something was circling in the room or outside the window. Namely her soul. We living people pretty much agreed on that! Difficult to grasp by science. Some kind of energy?
Six days passed before the funeral. By the second day, the energy had already changed, the soul had already disappeared. Perhaps one or the other can understand why the numbers are so important to me when I write: They are my means, my support. Or a crutch in the face of the almost indescribable. Six hours between one and seven o'clock, six days between Monday and Sunday. Not only does it take sensitivity, which not everyone has in the same way, it also takes personal experience to be able to empathize with the image I am describing. Not everyone does it, and I only did it once. That is why it is a gem for me, a great gift: the encounter with a soul in the intermediate realm. -
The second example is a little more banal, happened a long time ago and leads back to the topic of the article. In my life, this experience is also unique and therefore hardly less impressive: homeopathy works. And how! A skin rash has been with me since I was thirty. After a break-up, the scabs kept popping up, funnily enough always on different parts of my body, and started to get so annoying that I was persuaded to visit a naturopath. This was something I had never done before in my life and only knew about from hearsay, but the strong symptom and general curiosity made it easy for me. It was just before Christmas. Two hours of intensive anamnesis were something completely new and a very pleasant experience. Then the globules, then wonder at the apparent absence of the announced initial worsening. However, it then struck so hard around the turn of the year that I almost went to see a doctor - again shortly afterwards the spook was over and the rash was gone. It still came back occasionally later, but only harmlessly, as if it was saying "hello" to draw my attention to something present in my life. Memorable!
I don't care how it worked with the soul or the globules, both worked! Just as the psychology of the masses obviously has a striking effect. And I can anchor these pegs of experience very well in the ground of my life, while I keep playing with numbers and science in its fascinating meadow.
Lieber Winnie, danke für diesen persönlichen Eindruck. Ich möchte hierzu eine kleine kulturelle Anregung geben. Was die Zahlen und die heilige Geometrie betrifft, da bin bei den Anthroposophen fündig geworden: Sie unterteilen unsere „Nachatlantische Kulturepoche (7227 v.Chr. bis 7893 n.Chr.) in sieben Zwischen-Kulturepochen, die jeweils für sich eine kollektive Lernerfahrung beinhalten: Die zweite Kulturepoche ist die Urpersische (5067 – 2907 v. Chr.): In dieser wurde das geheimnisvolle „Schwellenerelbnis der Zahl“ möglich. Ich zitiere: „Zahlen stehen für Ordnung und die Fähigkeit zu ordnen. Zum ersten mal war das Denken so kompetent entwicklelt, dass es als Regulativ anerkannt wurde – im reinen Denken in Zahlen, in ganz klaren Gesetzmäßigkeiten. Dadurch erlebte der Menschen erstmals die Schwelle zwischen Denken und Sinnesanschauung, d.h. zwischen der Kraft, die das sinnlich Wahrgenommene zählt, ordnet und erläutert und den Sinnesanschauungen selbst. Es ging darum, geordnetes Denken und ungeordnete Lebenswirklichkeit unterscheiden zu können. Man begann in der Folge zwischen Licht und Finsternis zu unterscheiden, zwischen der Lichtwelt des Ahura Mazdao, der reinen Gedankenwelt, und der Welt der Finsternis, der Welt des Ahriman.“ Die Astrologie, die ja ein in sich geschlossenes Ordnungssystem hat, findet ihre Wiege im alten Mesopotamien 2500 – 2350 v.Chr., die Himmelsscheibe von Nebra dann ungefähr 1600 v. Chr., vielen gibt Zeugnis darüber an, wie die Zahl Teil unseres kulturellen Denkens wurde….
We are currently in the fifth cultural epoch: the Geman-Anglo-Saxon cultural epoch (1413 - 3573 AD), which is to be followed by the Slavic cultural epoch (3573 - 5733 AD). In our current cultural epoch we learn the secret of evil, or the destructive. For further information, please refer to: https://www.anthroposophie-lebensnah.de/lebensthemen/menschheitsentwicklung/die-sieben-kulturepochen/ - I have quoted from this.
I think it's a shame that you are also trying to distance yourself from "esotericism" on a subject that links the spiritual world with our earthly existence. What is so disreputable about esotericism? Just because the masses can't imagine certain things doesn't mean that they don't exist.
The mind creates our experiences, not the other way around.
Quantum physicists have also had to acknowledge the existence of a force that nevertheless has an effect as "nothing". Make the courageous decision to continue on this path, it is worth it.
... and that raises further questions about our perception of reality. Please keep on reporting! Thank you very much for this wonderfully motivating article in these challenging times.
I am not aware of any case where matter forms the spirit. That spirit forms matter, on the other hand, can be observed everywhere.
A better question for me would be, which spirit child is showing itself to me?
As a student of self-knowledge, the question seems banal.
Reinhard,Ihr Kommentar erscheint mir am gelungensten….weder noch,die Materie bleibt unberührt…die Materie,die den Geist formt ist phsychedelischer Natur…und der Geist der die Materie formt?Wenn man zB Twitter als“Materie“ansieht…oder“unsere“wiss.Deutungen der Materie als Materie…die Materie bleibt unberührt.