Placebo Effect

There are endless arguments about Homeopathy. That how can it possibly work if the dilution is so great that there is barely a molecule of the active ingredient left? Well, I have an open mind about that but what fascinates me is that even sceptics talk about the placebo effect without actually appreciating that they are supporting what many people describe as “quack remedies”. If that works as part of homeopathic treatment, then it must be a good thing, no?

Who cares how it works… despite the fact we don’t understand how? The human body is a machine, isn’t it? So how can believing that one will get better actually brings about an improvement? Well, of course, the mind and body are not a machine.

This all comes back to a recurring theme on this website. Many people reject anything which does not comply with scientific knowledge as we know it in 2024. It makes me sad, because many alternative therapies work, but people are suspicious, because they don’t know how they work. So they are ridiculed as being a fairy-tale.

Or maybe they are misunderstanding the word “alternative” (sometimes “complementary” is used, which is clearer). Maybe people think that strange remedies or healing by touch, for example, are suggested as replacing conventional medicine. That is not true. Matthew Manning makes that very clear on his website.