15. The message in the bottle: homeopathy

January 17, 2018 Health & Healing, Sticky Thoughts No Comments

Classic ‘pure’ homeopathy: one takes a number of drops of ‘messaged’ water and gets better. That’s what we are told and guess what, it’s true indeed.

◊◊◊

What is also true is that the person not only takes the water, but also ‘takes’ the expectation that this water will help him. Question: which of both makes him better: the water or the expectation? The question is not whether ‘it’ works. The question is what ‘it’ is.

◊◊◊

Therefore, is the human mind a possible explanation for what happens in homeopathy? I don’t answer that question here. You can answer it yourself. If you say yes, then so much for the homeopathic explanation. It’s in the gutter. As simple as that.

◊◊◊

We as a society should take a very good look at this. There is far more at stake than some water, some alternative medicine or some billions of dollars. At stake are we ourselves. If our minds are doing this, we should respect them. To negate this possibility beforehand, is to disrespect our own minds. That’s bad.

◊◊◊

So.

◊◊◊

‘Scientific’ medicine is not able to tackle homeopathy as long as it denies, in practice, the huge placebo effect of many of its own medications. If you want to be really critical of someone else, you have to be really critical of yourself also.

◊◊◊

The true message in the bottle is that we should look at the broader context of what is happening here. Don’t bet your life on the watery explanation. There is a message hidden somewhere all right. But it’s probably not inside the water. It may be inside us.

◊◊◊

Let’s not waste more words on this.

◊◊◊

Leave a Reply

Related Posts

Lisa x Genetics

Recent advances in genetics have proven beyond any doubt that mental conditions of all sorts are highly DNA-influenced. This is very important for >Lisa<. Important in two ways: diagnostically and therapeutically. Our genes Much progress is being made in deciphering how heritability forms people’s mental landscapes. (*) Most interestingly, we increasingly see that ‘polygenic scores’ Read the full article…

Psychology’s Replication Crisis

Since 2010, an effort (Many Labs 2) to replicate 28 of the most renowned and highly cited studies in behavioral psychology (with peer-reviewed protocols) has led to +/- half of them showing drastically different results in comparison to the originals. This should not be denied. It potentially calls into question substantial parts of scientific knowledge, Read the full article…

Placebo Without Deception?

By definition impossible if one takes ‘deception’ as a necessary characteristic of the concept of placebo. Still, it’s worthwhile to take a closer look at the ethical side. Preliminary remarks This text is rather academic. The train of thought is interesting for all. This is not about empathy, but only about ‘the sugar pill that Read the full article…

Translate »