The change of any of our states begins with a change in our thoughts—this is exactly how the placebo effect works. The placebo process works through three elements:
- Belief
- Expectation
- Meaning
1. Belief
An example: I will give you a blue pill. You have a headache, and that pill contains medicine. You will take that pill and notice that the pain goes away. You will think about what you did to make the pain go away and link the disappearance of the pain to that pill. As soon as you notice a change in your internal state, you begin to pay attention to what in your external environment caused that change. When something outside of you changes something within you, it is called associative memory. Tomorrow, I will give you the same blue pill, and the pain will go away. Remember the pill. This is how the process of belief begins. I’ll give you the pill again, and your pain will go away. Now you are creating the associative memory. When I give you the blue pill that contains no medication, you will take it, and the pain will go away. That is belief or faith. You begin to associate that object with a specific outcome. The more you believe, the better the effect will be.
2. Expectation
Since you received that blue pill, you expect now the same outcome. Therefore, you unconsciously begin to create a real pharmacy in your brain and body, expecting the same outcome. Now you have a belief based on the past and an expectation or prediction based on the future. The goal is that instead of doing something outside of yourself (taking the pill), you do something within yourself and achieve the same effect. This skill is taught in the Do Win training. Within ourselves, we choose a different potential future and hope, anticipate, and expect to achieve a different outcome, all on a cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and physiological level.
3. Meaning
The third reason why the placebo is so effective is an example where the doctor enters the room, presents some chart, and says: “This medication allows the happiness hormone—serotonin—to remain in the receptors, blocks enzymes, shows images the patient looks at, etc.” The patient now attributes meaning to what they are taking. Sometimes, this is not true at all, yet it works as a placebo. When we learn and understand something, we bring more of our awareness and purposeful energy into it. Therefore, it is important to know exactly what we are doing and what is happening within us so that we can be even more convinced of it and thereby expect a positive outcome. Once you understand the “what and why,” it becomes much easier to reach the “how.” The more you understand what you are doing and why you are doing it, the more meaning you will assign to a particular outcome, and at that point, you direct your intention toward it.
When you connect belief, expectation, and meaning—that is how the placebo works.