--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, ruthsimplicity <no_re...@...> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <no_reply@> wrote: > > > > Just as a question, how exactly *does* one "control > > for placebo?" I'm honestly curious. > > Not easy in this kind of research, but you need to at least > give the control group some kind of "technique" that could > lead to similar expectations as to benefits and where > sufficient attention is made to the control group.
Many thanks for your explanation. Especially the last sentence, which I suspect would rarely be true in any TM-generated study. I am curious because of the recent research synopsized in Wired that shows that the effect of the placebo effect is *increasing*. To the point that drug companies are finding it diffi- cult to prove the effectiveness of their drugs because the placebo groups do just as well as the on-the-real-drug groups. Have you seen this research? If so, what do you think of it? http://www.wired.com/medtech/drugs/magazine/17-09/ff_placebo_effect?currentPage=all > For example, sitting quietly thinking pleasant thoughts for > 20 minutes after a few lectures about how good it is for > you to do that for 20 minutes twice a day. Or listening to > pleasant music. Etc. I would suspect that the former would show more statistical variance than the latter. People have generally not been told *how* to listen to music, but they have been told that there is a possibility of thinking primarily pleasant thoughts. If you think about it, that is an instruction that many people on this planet have never heard. Who, if you are brought up within the social con- structs of our world (family, schools, etc.) tells you that you have a *choice* with regard to the things you think about or the predominant emotions those thoughts cause to arise in you? I sure didn't learn it in my family or my schools or my etc. Learning that I had a *choice* in what to focus on was a fairly profound experience for me, up there with learning (via TM) that I had a choice in whether to have thoughts running through my head at all times or not. > Note that arguably mediation is all placebo and the only > reason people benefit is because they believe they will > benefit. It is hard to get past this issue and pin down > any cause and effect. You're not going to get any argument on this stance from me. I am equally comfortable with the idea that the benefits of meditation come primarily from the placebo effect as I am any other explanation. The important thing for me is that it -- whether you consider "it" the placebo effect or the Woo Woo of meditation -- seems to have some effect. Since many people consider that effect a "positive" rather than a negative, I welcome more studies on the effect and how it could be made available to more people. I'd just like to see more of those studies not be conducted by people who are selling a product.
