A recent study put two groups of people on calorie-reduced diets and exercise programmes but only gave half the participants open-label placebos.
The participants knew they were taking an inert substance and fully understood the concept of placebo.
The subject taking the pills lost more body fat, felt better, ate less, and found it easier to exercise more.
This could suggest that believing in the placebo’s potential—despite knowing it contains no active ingredients—stimulated a deeper, unconscious response within the body. It implies that our thoughts, beliefs, and actions communicate with a part of ourselves that transcends conscious awareness, unlocking physiological changes. This aligns with the idea that our subconscious beliefs can influence physical outcomes, even when our rational mind is sceptical.
This study also mig
ht demonstrate how the power of suggestion and belief can engage unconscious processes that affect our bodies. By acknowledging that what we say or believe on the surface is only part of the story, it reveals a deeper layer of the mind at work.
The conscious act o
f taking a placebo, despite knowing it’s inert, might trigger biological responses through pathways in the subconscious, where the mind’s belief in action overrides the logical mind’s understanding. This highlights the deep connection between mind, body, and the power of embodied intention.
Practitioners of Franz Bardon’s system of Inner Evolution will find all this no surprise and may even have some other thoughts about why the cellulose pills taken with intent were so powerful!