On 3/26/2010 9:53 AM, Darren New wrote:
> Patrick Elliott wrote:
>> Sometimes this is called "over use". People are exposed, directly or
>
>
> That's not what I'm talking about.
>
> I'm saying if you test 100 people with placebos today, maybe 35 will
> feel better. If you tested 100 people with placebos 25 years ago, maybe
> only 25 will feel better. It hasn't anything to do with the medicine
> getting weaker. It's only getting weaker *relative* to the placebo.
>
Hmm. Ok, then the other argument is that in the last 10 years, or so, 
the amount of pure bullshit being sold has doubled, at least, even to 
the extent of them being sold in markets. The overall perception may 
have begun to be distorted, such that people are already taking products 
they do no realize *are* placebos, such as AirBorne, and having 
convinced themselves that those work, they have started "training" 
themselves to expect *any* fake product to work too.

In effect, its become like a meditative practice. Do it enough times and 
your brain starts to *expect* something to work, even when it doesn't. I 
wouldn't be surprised if this was highly common back when herbal 
remedies where the only ones available, and 99% of the contents of books 
on the subject where, as they still are, made up of guesses, false 
positives, and/or even contradictions between the real effect of some 
herbs (if you took enough), and what they have been recommended for.

If what you need a "cure" for is something controllable, like pain (and 
you can control that on a huge level, depending on skill, and possibly 
other factors), using a false source of cure, to help trick yourself 
into not feeling it, may actually be, for many people **as** effective 
as real medication. Then again, if you where my grandmother, just 
deciding not to feel the pain would be sufficient (she literally let 
them sew up her leg, without meds, at 80, after slashing it open almost 
all the way down the side, due to a condition that produces really thin 
skin). And that.. Is kind of a huge problem. Because people don't 
measure, and can't measure, their condition based on *if* they still 
have the condition, the measure it based on pain, or symptoms, and most 
of those things *can be* controlled mentally, without actually fixing 
the problem causing them. And, that makes it even *more* dangerous.

-- 
void main () {
   If Schrödingers_cat is alive or version > 98 {
     if version = "Vista" {
       call slow_by_half();
       call DRM_everything();
     }
     call functional_code();
   }
   else
     call crash_windows();
}

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