Thinking yourself Worse! NOCEBO!

[Han]

BBC - Future - The contagious thought that could kill you

I have been aware of this for a long time, I am glad people are starting to pay more attention to the dangers of what and how we think.

 

[Wade]

Great post @Han thank you, I have been trying to find some articles along this line, thought contagion etc. but also in the context of irrational fear and how one may get so panicked they can frighten themselves to death.

I just finished reading a batch of books by Robert Bartholomew that touches some of the aspects of this article. I believe he has another book coming out this summer/fall. Hopefully the guys can get him on the Paracast.

 

[manxman]

Isnt there a film about a guy whose hair turned white, when somehow he thought he was going to the electric chair for real.

 

[Han]

Great post @Han thank you, I have been trying to find some articles along this line, thought contagion etc. but also in the context of irrational fear and how one may get so panicked they can frighten themselves to death.

I just finished reading a batch of books by Robert Bartholomew that touches some of the aspects of this article. I believe he has another book coming out this summer/fall. Hopefully the guys can get him on the Paracast.

BBC Radio 4 - The Placebo Problem
or
BBC World Service - Discovery, Placebo Problem

there is a very interesting study of nocebo by Dr. Michael Witthöft
you can google him and use translate because I think the report is in German.

Here are 2 summaries of the study:

The nocebo effect: media reports may trigger symptoms of a disease

Power of Negative Thinking | Berkeley Wellness

 

[boomerang]

Journalistic history is replete with examples of people confined to tight quarters, such as those sitting at workstations or in factories, becoming ill en mass when one or a handful of employees become convinced that something 'in the air' is making them ill. What feels like very real symptoms are then spread by a kind of visual contagion throughout the building, resulting in what appears to be a genuine biohazard event. When in fact, the root cause is the incredible power of suggestion. Exhaustive tests of air and water are always run and usually turn up negative.

Aha--Wiki to the rescue again:

Mass psychogenic illness - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The next notch up in the placebo/nocebo issue is naturally to what extent the mind is capable of either physiologically healing or injuring the body. We are a long way from understanding this.

 

[Soupie]

The next notch up in the placebo/nocebo issue is naturally to what extent the mind is capable of either physiologically healing or injuring the body. We are a long way from understanding this.

And the next notch up after that is whether—if the mind can effect the body—it can effect non-body, physical objects/processes as well.

 

[Burnt State]

When you think about cults or religions as an environment of thought contagion you can see we have always been this way. Whatever the shaman says goes sometimes. In our modern era of solitary information collection we see many examples of people thinking themselves out of mental health and into other realities for better or for worse. Any excessive stress from this kind of brain patterning will increase stress hormones in the body and in turn will create major ill effects in the body of the thinker. Sugar and insulin level processing, the creation of inflammation in the body, heart rate increases from panic attacks: all these from just thoughts. People spend a lot of time in negative thought and do themselves in all the time i.e. road rage or Slenderman. More mediation, meditation and more Zen please. We need it.

 

[Tyger]

Never underestimate the power and pressure of the social group. We have an elementary survival need for our human connections. Ostracism is a serious penalty to suffer. As a famous pop-psychologist (Dr Phil) has said: "You have to make a decision: Would you rather be right or would you rather be happy? Being right is a real lonely place to be."

 

[Soupie]

Any excessive stress from this kind of brain patterning will increase stress hormones in the body and in turn will create major ill effects in the body of the thinker.

There's little doubt (although there is some, I'm sure) that negative psychological contents (thoughts) seem to correlate with "brain patterning" that leads to negative physiological states. However, as boomerang notes, there is no objective, scientific model for why and how this might be.

 

[manxman]

Not yet Soupie, what is for sure, you can think yourself into a coffin.

 

[Burnt State]

There's little doubt (although there is some, I'm sure) that negative psychological contents (thoughts) seem to correlate with "brain patterning" that leads to negative physiological states. However, as boomerang notes, there is no objective, scientific model for why and how this might be.

If the brain is busy regulating a series of millions of processes or more at any one point in time that if its thought process becomes erratic and stressed that this would certainly be affecting the nature of those constant regulatory signals, like bad electricity.

I'm surprised there isn't more work done on mental health and defining what's taking place physiologically. This article mentors how anxiety can move you into fight or flight response, messing with the adrenal system and leading toward heart disease.
Are your thoughts making you sick?
Meditation has been shown to alter brain chemistry for the better. We think ourselves into reality all the time, in a constant immediate decision making process about the stimulus all around us. If unique stimulus can generate the UFO then it certainly isn't much of a leap to give the signal to the brain to say, "Hey, i think i've got kidney problems..." and the brain will get right on that task, as it does what we believe. It's so amenable that it might even provide the illusion of self-determinism.

So s the question why stress hormones are created in the first place following negative thoughts?
Chronic stress puts your health at risk - Mayo Clinic

 

[Soupie]

So s the question why stress hormones are created in the first place following negative thoughts?

Yes, that's the question.

Problem of mental causation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Tyger]

There is the phenomenon of the mother tending the sick family who never gets ill herself.

There is the very real fact that we live in a sea of germs, bacteria and viruses - but when is the trigger pulled that results in our getting sick? Allowing the virus entry, or allowing it activation?

I was once told that negative emotions create the 'opening' for cold/flu. So I observed myself and found I could find a correlation with anger, deep anger rooted in hate - if I allowed myself to feel such a deep visceral reaction the end result was a cold, congestion, the flu. I've watched this be borne out time and again. In fact, I've gone so far as to look closely at the emotional state of a community (like an office) that is having a lot of cold and flu. Sure enough, there is a correlation between the susceptibility to colds and deep negative emotions.

We are getting perilously close to Homeopathy, an alternative health modality, that places great emphasis on subtle influences.

Then there is Christian Science with it's New Thought basis. Then there is the manifestation view of people like Neville Goddard, back story to The Secret.

In Buddhism the Mind is All. Creates our world, the world we see. It's a hard one for people to accept on first hearing.

 

[Soupie]

So s the question why stress hormones are created in the first place following negative thoughts?

In the process of looking for literature on this topic--negative/positive psychological contents causing negative/positive physiological processes--I found the following which may be of interest re your social-cultural-creative approach to the paranormal.

Constructivism

Constructivism is a theory that suggests people construct their own realities and find meaning based on life experience. In other words, experience constructs reality, affecting our knowledge and understanding of the world and our place in it. In clinical psychology, the theory of constructivism focuses on human meaning making and promotes a person’s proactive participation in his or her life in order to create change. The theory of constructivism gained momentum in the postmodern era, and it has influenced many disciplines from education to medicine.
​

(This philosophical approach has also been discussed recently in the C&P thread.)

Unfortunately, this approach doesn't have an answer to the problem of mental causation either.

 

[boomerang]

Would you rather be right or would you rather be happy? Being right is a real lonely place to be."

So true. And when is sacrificing the rational for the sake of harmony a good thing and when is it harmful ? Wish I could recall the poem and poet who penned a classic line--I paraphrase-- that "Man is an animal that cannot stand very much truth".

 

[Tyger]

There's little doubt (although there is some, I'm sure) that negative psychological contents (thoughts) seem to correlate with "brain patterning" that leads to negative physiological states. However, as boomerang notes, there is no objective, scientific model for why and how this might be.

There are tons of medical studies showing the mind-body connection. This is an accepted modality in medical thinking these days, last I heard - objectively so. Not all doctors may work with it overtly, but I don't think anyone can treat patients for long without being aware of the emotional-psychological gestalt of various diseases. We can actually predict what kind of illnesses someone will be prone to looking at their personality, how they think and the nature of the their general emotional state.

And then there is this -
Why I asked Anne Robinson to watch porn with me - Grace Campbell | Comment is Free

TEXT: "Published on Apr 15, 2015: Young feminist Grace Campbell and her peers grew up online, where hardcore porn is instantly available. Is that why her and her friends are dealing with unrealistic sexual expectations? She asked journalist and TV presenter Anne Robinson, who has never watched any porn, to have a look at what's out there."