The NOCEBO Effect

[Flick_SnotGrass]

The NOCEBO Effect
You’ve heard of The Placebo Effect ~ our unbelievably amazing innate healing power that we all have and can learn to use more usefully.
What's the flip-side of PLACEBO!?
Is there one?
Oh, yes...and it is really, really horrible.
It's called The NOCEBO Effect.
It can kill ya.
I am not kidding.
NOCEBO is Mind Poison.
NOCEBO is voodoo.
NOCEBO can kill you with a mere suggestion.
A really effective African Witch Doctor, can kill you with no more than a glance and him pointing a magic bone at you if you annoy him.
No kidding.
I know.
I have witnessed the power of an angry GULE WAMKULU Man. It ain’t pretty.
"Ridiculous."
"What nonsense!"
"How is that possible?"
Easy, NOCEBO feeds on your FEAR.
NOCEBO tricks you into feeling helpless and hopeless.
And if you are not careful, NOCEBO can ruin you.
You see we need 'FEAR'.
If you cannot feel your feelings of FEAR, you cannot judge danger and you will tend to do stupid and life ending things.
No.

What we need to do is alter our RESPONSE to our sensations of FEAR, not try and get rid of them.

Ponder this ~ if you stay feeling helpless and hopeless, for too long, unattended NOCEBIC energy will tend trick you into doubting your sense of self, it will trick you into doubting yourSelves, as if you had forsaken your Self.
You quickly end up in a double locked loop…BINGO, you’re STUCK!
Do I have your attention?
Yes.
Good
Now what can you do to get out of the NOCEBO Trap?

Step 1 is ALWAYS Awareness.

It’s when you become Aware, that's when you start to break the Spell. And diSpell the spell….
For when you are brave enough to express your secret, unexpressed fears to yourself, they can no longer work their NOCEBIC poison invisibly within you.
So, BECOME CURIOUS about what is going on inside you.

Acknowledge you are feeling scared or overwhelmed or doomed.
Step 2 BREATHE

Long slow steady breaths will ALWAYS start to break up those compulsive NOCEBIC thought patterns.
Yes it will take practice, persevere.

Start.

I will offer more tips and tools on breaking up the NOCEBO Effect in later posts but for now remember that The NOCEBO Effect does not like being mocked. NOCEBO hates being laughed at.

Seriously!

HaHaHaHa!

Nocebo needs to be taken seriously for its poison to work on you.

Laugh, it’s cheap and effective.

[BballJ]

Hi Flick SnotGrass,

This is very interesting, so does it work under the guise of a spell? Does someone have to cast it onto you for this to happen or is it simply a state of mind bought on mental health concerns? Never ever heard of it so trying to make sense of it that is all.

My best for you,

Jay

[Flick_SnotGrass]

Hi Jay,

Thanks for your note.

In 'ancient' societies nocebo was/is cast as a Spell...witch doctors, voodoo etc.

But it happens today a lot as a scary, helpless, ruminating, self reinforcing belief, a black self spell of doom if you like.

Google Nocebo and you'll see it is a powerful phenomenon and gaining in scientific interest especially since a recent study in the US showed the Placebo Effect seems to be gaining in strength!! [Happy to send you the reference]

Actually I I'll be honest I don't like the term "The Placebo Effect", it is deliberately misleading in my view.

Jay, what goes through your mind when you hear someone talk about the Placebo Effect?
Sham?
Yes
Gullible?
Yup
Weak Mind?
Yes
Easily fooled?
Yes. Yes. Yes.
In practice PLACEBO means 'you have been tricked and you are an Idiot!' you IDIOT.
Not very nice is it?
Especially if whatever the placebo phenomenon is, it may have just cured you of cancer, say. Or eczema Or anything else really horrible.
Think about it.
Literally the term 'placebo' means 'to please someone else', it has a demeaning tone in its actual meaning, it's a brilliant con job, almost as if a self interest group had decided the phenomenon was a menace. [Hmmm. Nah.]
When I work with clients I call PLACEBO the KAZABOOM! effect, together with exclamation mark!
KAZABOOM!?
Yes I think it's high time we rebranded, repositioned, remarketed and Uberised the innate power our brain/mind/body/thingy has to heal itself, and call it something like KAZABOOM!

After all any Self healing phenomenon that is so powerful that scientists have to blind themselves twice over AND some times quadruple blind themselves because of the brightness and strength of the Placebo Effect deserves a proper name, so I have gone for KAZABOOM!

Hope this helps Jay,

Cheers from the rainy Goldcoast,

Flick SnotGrass

[BballJ]

Hi Flick SnotGrass,

Wow, very interesting read. I honestly had never thought to much about a placebo effect. I didn't entirely know what is was until you explained it a little more. I understand the placebo effect is gaining traction within science but is the nocebo effect on the same scale as the placebo effect or just starting out?

My best,

Jay

[Flick_SnotGrass]

Hi Jay,

Great question, thanks.

The research on NOCEBO is way behind that on PLACEBO.

PLACEBO research has only fairly recently been considered 'Legitimate Science'

[please don't get me started on that one]

That said, my experience with my clients is that both PLACEBO and NOCEBO are amazingly powerful properties of our minds and bodies, it's just that one can help kill you and the other help heal you.

It's that old Mind~Body Connection phenomenon.

My old yoga teacher used to say to me "...it's like electricity Flick, it can heat your house or kill you..electricity doesn't care"

"ONWARDS!"

'why?'

"BECAUSE!"

'oh'

Flick SnotGrass