> Now we jump into chapter 6, where *IB* explains to us not only how
> these weird things are possible, but are.

> Placebo Spells
> ----------------------
>
> *IB* presents the placebo effect as evidence of the existence of
> magic. He quotes a decent explanation from a 1965 article in _Fantasy
> and Science Fiction_ and then decries the scientific community for
> ignoring the article.

> "Kisai" gmail.com> wrote

>> Now we jump into chapter 6, where *IB* explains to us not only how
>> these weird things are possible, but are.

>
> Honestly, the return on investment of these Boinkerfritz posts
> has not been convincing on alt.religion.druid so far.

>
> "Kisai" gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:d77ec6ad-3b49-4963-872d-bc61950f5379@c58g2000hsc.googlegroups.com...

>> Placebo Spells
>> ----------------------
>>
>> *IB* presents the placebo effect as evidence of the existence of
>> magic. He quotes a decent explanation from a 1965 article in _Fantasy
>> and Science Fiction_ and then decries the scientific community for
>> ignoring the article.

>
> This is the problem with a liberal arts education. The first scientific
> article on the placebo effect was from a 1930 article by Evans and Hoyle
> which distinguished between a drug effect and a psychosomatic effect,
> called a "placebo". The 1955 article "The Powerful Placebo" by
> anesthesiologist Henry Beecher was the first attempt to scientifically
> examine the salutary effect of a psychosomatic treatment. Any reasonably
> competent scholar should have known this. Isaac did not. However in the ...

> Now we jump into chapter 6, where *IB* explains to us not only how
> these weird things are possible, but are.
>
> Placebo Spells
> ----------------------
>
> *IB* presents the placebo effect as evidence of the existence of
> magic.  He quotes a decent explanation from a 1965 article in _Fantasy
> and Science Fiction_ and then decries the scientific community for
> ignoring the article.
>
> [...]
>
> He then presents evidence that people in "primitive" (*IB*'s quotes)
> societies can die from curses placed upon them that they are aware
> of.  He also states cases where he didn't actually perform a spell for
> another person, and then was congratulated by that friend for a
> successful spellworking later.  He says (in his italics)  'such
> placebo spells usually work!' ...

>
> "Tom" comcast.net> wrote in message
> news:o4WdnUmsw730QfjVnZ2dnUVZ_vSdnZ2d@comcast.com...

>>
>> This is the problem with a liberal arts education. The first scientific
>> article on the placebo effect was from a 1930 article by Evans and Hoyle
>> which distinguished between a drug effect and a psychosomatic effect,
>> called a "placebo". The 1955 article "The Powerful Placebo" by
>> anesthesiologist Henry Beecher was the first attempt to scientifically
>> examine the salutary effect of a psychosomatic treatment. Any reasonably
>> competent scholar should have known this. Isaac did not. However in the
>> 1970's, the result of Beecher's work was the development of double-blind
>> studies that compared groups who had been administered a drug with those
>> that had been administered an inert suibtance which they thought might be
>> an active drug. No studies had been done about the power of the placebo
>> in and of itself. So it wasn't unreasonable of him to presume that
>> nothing had ever been done to explain the real effects of placebos. That
>> was all to come later. ...

>
> "Searles O'Dubhain" wrote in message
> news:UJSdnX_RwpoabvjVnZ2dnUVZ_sednZ2d@comcast.com...

>>
>> "Tom" comcast.net> wrote in message
>> news:o4WdnUmsw730QfjVnZ2dnUVZ_vSdnZ2d@comcast.com...

>>>
>>> This is the problem with a liberal arts education. The first scientific
>>> article on the placebo effect was from a 1930 article by Evans and
>>> Hoyle which distinguished between a drug effect and a psychosomatic
>>> effect, called a "placebo". The 1955 article "The Powerful Placebo" by
>>> anesthesiologist Henry Beecher was the first attempt to scientifically
>>> examine the salutary effect of a psychosomatic treatment. Any
>>> reasonably competent scholar should have known this. Isaac did not.
>>> However in the 1970's, the result of Beecher's work was the development
>>> of double-blind studies that compared groups who had been administered a
>>> drug with those that had been administered an inert suibtance which they
>>> thought might be an active drug. No studies had been done about the ...

> The idea of "being here now" describes how a person can click off this
> background effect and see what is actually there rather than what is
> expected to be there. This is evidently a human peculiarity in regard to
> having a conscious control of external awareness. The ability to turn this
> on is not easily achieved without a disruption of one's 'programming' and
> hence the shock value in breaking down normal expectation used by some
> shamans and magicians with their students.

>
> "Searles O'Dubhain" wrote in message
> news:0Yednd5KyuaTFvvVnZ2dnUVZ_j-dnZ2d@comcast.com...

>> The idea of "being here now" describes how a person can click off this
>> background effect and see what is actually there rather than what is
>> expected to be there. This is evidently a human peculiarity in regard to
>> having a conscious control of external awareness. The ability to turn
>> this on is not easily achieved without a disruption of one's
>> 'programming' and hence the shock value in breaking down normal
>> expectation used by some shamans and magicians with their students.

>
> Usually, our untrained attention can focus only on one thing at a time and
> is easily distracted. It's like a butterfly, flitting from this sensation
> to that impulsively. As we begin to gain discipline, we can learn to deal
> with the distraction issues. There are two solutions to the distraction
> problem. One is to tune out undesired stimulus (dharana) and the other is
> to broaden the capacity of one's attention (dhyana). "Being here now" is
> a state in which we deal with distractions not by tuning them out but by ...