The Genie Within: Your Subconscious Mind (14 page)

       
    Sociologists studying the culture in the Torbiand Islands found that premarital sex was considered okay, but premarital pregnancy was not. The natives did not use contraception, yet premarital pregnancy was virtually unknown. The ingrained culture conditioned them so that they absolutely did not expect to get pregnant until they were married.

       
    You have probably known or heard of a couple that could not conceive. They adopted a baby and soon after the wife got pregnant. One could argue that having a child unblocked her belief that she could not have a baby of her own.

To reiterate:
Expectation is a self-fulfilling prophecy
.

Now we will examine the most documented phenomenon based on this law—placebos.
¹

PLACEBOS

The word placebo means, “I shall please.” Drug companies must factor in the “placebo effect” when testing every new drug. Placebos are pills that look the same as the medicine being tested but they contain only the inert filler used with the real medicine. This filler has no medicinal value, yet in all studies, at least thirty percent of the patients report the same beneficial results as those who use the real medicine. The placebo effect cannot be explained other than that the patients’
belief
system causes the same healing effect as the real medicine.

When patients are unaware medication is being given to them, the placebo effect disappears. When the patients are unaware, there is no
expectation
. Tests of this nature were run to prove that the placebo effect is truly due to expectation and not another factor.

Dr. Sternbach in 1964 administered a pill containing no active ingredients to a group of volunteers. The first time the pill was given, the group was told that they were receiving a drug that would stimulate a strong churning sensation in their stomachs. The next time, the volunteers were told the pill would reduce stomach activity and make them feel full and heavy. A third time the volunteers were told the pill was a placebo and would serve as a control. Though Dr. Sternbach administered the same pill in all three occasions,
two thirds
of the subjects’ stomach activity responded according to the instructions they received before taking the pills. The subjects’ stomachs reacted the way the subjects
expected
them to react.

Studies have shown that a patient’s belief can be dramatically affected by the way the medicine is dosed. A big pill is more effective than a small one; a colored pill more effective than a white one; a bitter pill more effective than a bland one; an injection more effective than a pill; medication administered by a doctor is more effective than by a nurse, and; medication administered by a doctor in a white coat is more effective than a doctor in street clothes. A patient’s belief in the medicine is set up by the way the medication is given. Doctor Benson, in
Timeless Medicine
, stated that placebos can be as much as 90% effective as the real medicine depending on
how
they are administered.

When testing a drug for bleeding ulcers, doctors found that the drug was seventy percent successful when introduced as a “potent” new drug, but only thirty percent successful when introduced as an “experimental” drug.

The importance of the doctor/patient relationship has been reported in recent studies. The placebo effect is stronger when the doctor views patients as active participants, as opposed to the passive just-do-as-I-tell-you relationship.

In an experiment reported by Dr. Joan Borysenko, one-third of women cancer patients given a placebo in place of chemotherapeutic medication lost their hair. The only reason they lost their hair was that they expected to lose hair.

The placebo effect is even effective in surgery. Dr. Bruce Moseley, Jr., used arthroscopic surgery (surgery through small incisions) on five patients, while five others went through a sham surgery in which he made the access cuts but no corrective surgery was performed. Two years later, those who had the sham surgery reported the same amount of benefit from pain and swelling reduction as those who had the real surgery. Four of the people in the placebo group even recommended the surgery to friends.
²

Discussion about the placebo effect would be incomplete without the case of Mr. Wright, reported in 1957. Mr. Wright was dying of cancer and his doctor, Bruno Klopfer, M.D., gave him only a few days to live. Mr. Wright found out about a new medicine, Krebiozen, that was being studied at the hospital and he begged Dr. Klopfer to give it to him. Though Dr. Klopfer knew it was too late for any medicine to cure Mr. Wright, he relented and gave Mr. Wright an injection on Friday.

When Dr. Klopfer returned Monday, he wondered if his patient would even be alive. Mr. Wright astounded the doctor by being up and active. Dr. Klopfer reported that Mr. Wright’s tumors were “melting like butter on a hot stove.” Mr. Wright went home and resumed normal activities until he heard that Krebiozen was not as effective as hoped for. Mr. Wright was soon back in the hospital and dying.

Doctor Klopfer realized it was the placebo effect that was curing Mr. Wright so he told him that the Krebiozen used in the recently reported study was an old batch. The doctor gave his patient another injection telling him he had obtained some fresh Krebiozen. Again the tumors melted like butter on a hot stove and Mr. Wright left the hospital. Another report came out stating that Krebiozen was ineffective and research was abandoned. After hearing of this report, Mr. Wright returned to the hospital and died a few days later.

I will end the placebo effect with a quote from Norman Cousins.
³
Cousins wrote books and taught college graduate courses based on his own healing from a fatal disease using laughter to stimulate his immune system, the inherent healing system in his body. “Over the years medical science has identified the primary systems of the body—circulatory system, digestive system, endocrine system, autonomic nervous system, parasympathetic nervous system, and the
immune system. But the two other systems that are central to the proper functioning of a human being need to be emphasized—the healing system and the
belief
system. The two work together. The healing system is the way the body mobilizes all its resources to combat disease.
The belief system is often the activator of the healing”
(my Italics.)

REVERSE EFFORT

You cannot sleep. The more determined you are to sleep, the more you wake up.

You are near winning a golf trophy for the first time. There is just one more hole. You tell yourself to ignore the water in front of you. But the harder you try not to think of it, the more you think of it. You choke and your shot goes in the water.

These are examples of The Law of Reverse Effort. The law is subtle but critical. I will explain it in two slightly different ways.

FIRST

Over a century ago Emile Coué wrote: “When
will
(conscious mind) and imagination (subconscious mind) are in conflict, imagination (subconscious mind) always wins.” Take the example of trying to recall a name of someone coming toward you. You know her name but it escapes you just now. You are with another friend who you will have to introduce to the woman coming toward you. You
fear
you will be highly embarrassed because you should know the woman’s name. Trying to recall her name frustrates you and, the harder you
will
yourself to recall her name, the more frustrated you become. The fear (subconscious mind) of being embarrassed overrides the
will
(conscious mind) to recall the name.

However, the woman passes you and apologizes that she is in a hurry and cannot stop. You are relieved, you relax (you stop imposing your
will
), and her name pops into your head.

Emile Coué described it in mathematical terms to make a point. He said the power of imagination (subconscious mind) is equal to the square of the power of
will
(conscious mind).

Conscious Mind Power
²
= Subconscious Mind Power

1 = 1

2 = 4

3 = 9

Therefore, the more effort you put into your
will
, the more the power of your imagination increases, and at an escalating rate. Thus, the “not remembering” wins. The more you consciously
will
something, the more you increase the opposing power. The trick is to not
will
what you want. The trick is to
let
it happen. Your conscious mind must allow the subconscious mind to do it. Your conscious mind must remain passive and detached.

SECOND

Whenever you
will
yourself to do something, you also harbor a fear of failing. Fear is a powerful emotion. If your fear of failure is stronger than your
will
to succeed, fear wins. The fear of failure is accepted by your subconscious mind and it overpowers your conscious determination to succeed.

Consider the following mental demonstration. Picture a wooden plank four inches wide suspended six inches above
the ground. Go ahead and walk the plank. Easy! Walk it backward and sideways. Easy. Okay, now imagine that same plank is suspended between two skyscrapers 30 stories high. Now walk the plank! It is harder, isn’t it? Yet it is the same plank and the same task. But now there is a huge element of fear. “What if I fall? I will be killed! It is frightening to look down. Anybody could slip walking on this narrow piece of wood.” No matter how much you
will
yourself to walk across the plank, the fear is stronger. To walk the plank now, you need a high degree of confidence in your ability—enough to
expect
to walk the plank successfully.

You are playing golf and are teeing off in front of a crowd. You want to look good, but you
fear
miss-hitting the ball. The more you
will
yourself to relax and hit the ball 250 yards straight down the fairway, the more tense you become and the more likely you are to slice the ball. Tiger Woods has so much confidence that fear is not a factor. He simply relaxes and hits a successful shot.

To counter the law of reverse effort you must have
faith
to dispel fear and you must
expect
success. At the very least, you must have a neutral attitude. You must resist putting conscious effort into it.

In an advanced Silva International class, I witnessed a demonstration on dowsing. I told my wife about it when I came home and she suggested I repeat the demonstration for her. I was still pumped up from the class and I was confident. If the instructor could do it, I could do it.